Puzzle Pirates is a MMORPG that isbuilt around puzzles rather than normal grinding. This gamechallenges your mind instead of simply seeing monsters and thenkilling the monsters to get experience and loot. The puzzles are funbecause of the pirate theme and the fact that they fit well with thedynamics of the game. Best of all, the puzzles allow the game toplayed by gamers of any age. The swordfights are very similar toTetris.
Puzzle Pirates Gunning Bot
Author: ZarrRating: 8Comment: If you like puzzles and a complex community, this game isperfect for you. The graphics seem overly cute at first glance, butits easy to fall in love with. You never have to worry aboutlag (unless your cpu is a relic of ten years) and most challengesare easy to learn.As you progress, you can join a band of fellow pirates and sailacross the globe. When traveling you will often be attacked by otherpirates, whether NPC or players. When your captain and cannonworkers are fighting, do what you can to help by bilging (preventingflood) sailing and, most crucial, repairing the haul. When the shipsalign your enemies board and you must fend them of in, my favoritegame, swordfight. Needless to say, teamwork is necessary to survive.
Unlike some other games (such asWorld of Pirates, or Pirates), you do not play a group of pirates.You do not play a crew. You do not play a ship. You play one singleperson. To sail a large ship, you need to work with other players.This is a very social game.
Now, all those things -- the shipsbeing sailed, the cannonballs being shot, the rum used to fuel theships, even the clothing and swords the pirates use -- all are madeby players. The only thing supplied by NPC's are raw commoditiesfrom either merchant ships or harvested at colonized islands. Theentire basic economy is both player driven and non-inflationary.
YPP is "Puzzle Pirates". All shipoperations are done by playing puzzle games. Bilge, for example, issimilar to Bejeweled; carpentry is pentaminoes. SF is similar tosuper puzzle fighter. Etc. To give a complete review of the game,each of these puzzle subgames must also be reviewed.
Bilging is played on a 6 by 13board, with between 5 and 7 different types of objects on thescreen. By swapping adjacent pairs of objects, you try to line upthree in a row of the same type. Clearing a line results in an emptyspace, which is filled in by moving the objects up and out of thewater, and bringing fresh objects on the bottom. A combo -- makingmore than one line with a single swap -- scores more points, as doesa longer line. Equally, a chain -- when one line is cleared, anotherthree in a row is formed as the empty space is collapsed -- alsoscores bonus points. A good bilger will concentrate on spending twoor three moves to clear two lines, or 4 or 5 moves to clear threelines. Additional special pieces -- a crab that is only cleared bybringing it above the water line, a puffer fish that destroys alladjacent pieces, and a jellyfish that destroys all the objects of agiven type -- complete the puzzle. The better you score, the fasteryou empty the bilgewater out of the hold. If the ship is badlydamaged, you might not be able to keep the water out. The higherlevels have more objects, and score more points for combos. Chainsscore less than direct swaps -- the emphasis is on clearing largegroups (2 or 3 lines) in as few swaps as possible.
None of these puzzles is twitchbased. As long as you make a move (place a piece, or swap pieces) atleast once every ten seconds, you have no penalty for time; going 10seconds without making a move counts as making a move that scoreszero points. All of these puzzles are ultimately scored on "averageefficiency" -- how well you have scored overall, as an average ofyour last several moves. The score is also based on a serverspecific percentile lookup. The testing ocean, for example, isgenerally only played by the best players, so it is very, very hardto score well on that ocean; at the other end, the Viridian oceancan be played for free (see below), so a large number of peopleoften give it a try, lowering the difficulty for skilled players.
Unlike the other puzzles, gunningis very much a reaction speed and twitch puzzle. The better you do,the faster the pieces move. This both lets you load faster (as thepiece you want will come by quicker), and also makes the timing andreflexes needed much tighter. You are scored based on the speed atwhich you can get a fully loaded cannon ready for firing. If thespeed of the pieces is too fast for you, you can "toss themoverboard", to slow down the pieces. Controlling the speed -- makingsure that you keep them fast enough that you can load quickly, butnot so fast that you cannot keep up with them -- is critical.
Putting it all together: Hittingthe enemy shipThe "Put it all together" puzzle is the battle navigation. Here, youare navigating your ship on a board that represents the battlefield. There are winds that will blow your ship, whirlpools thatwill rotate it, rocks that will block you and inflict damage, and ofcourse, your enemy that you are fighting. Smaller ships can move 4spaces per turn, and fire one shot in each direction (left or right)on each of the 4 impulses. Larger ships are slowed, and can onlymove on 3 of the 4 impulses. They can choose which one to standstill on. Additionally, they have larger cannons. The larger warships (as opposed to merchant ships), with their larger supply ofcannons, can fire two shots per impulse in each direction. Thismakes larger ships, especially larger war ships, much, muchdeadlier. Note that although larger warships have more shotpower,larger merchant ships can carry significantly more cargo for traderuns.
There is one more ship puzzle, notyet mentioned. Duty navigation is used to increase the output ofyour sailors while outside of battle; it acts to increase youracceleration, getting you to top speed faster. While not necessaryin general for pillages, it is very necessary for merchant runs.Duty nav is very different than the other puzzles. Your board isthree concentric rings; each ring can be rotated clockwise orcounter clockwise. Each ring is 8 spaces. Each turn, a piece (adifferent colored star) will drop from the outside onto one of the 8spaces; by rotating the rings around, you can control (to someextent) where the pieces go. Pieces always fall towards the centerif possible. There is a target pattern. You clear pieces either byfilling in the target, or by making three in a row. Unlike the otherpuzzles, three in a rows score almost nothing in comparison totargets. The goal is to get the targets; three in a rows are onlyuseful for clearing room to allow you to make your target. There isno emphasis on combos or chains; although chains exist, and do scorea bonus, they are not common. A combo (such as a "T") istheoretically possible, but in over a year of play, I've never heardof anyone actually succeeding in making one. The better you are ataligning the stars, the better your navigation and your sailingspeed improvement.
Three of the types of shops -- ironmongers, who make cannon balls and swords; weavers, who make cloth(for clothing and ship sails); and tailors who make clothing -- haveno puzzle. If you have signed up for these jobs, you automaticallyproduce work for them as they need it.
The other three -- distilling, toproduce rum (ship fuel) and hemp oil (used for paint); apothecary(produces all colorants: paint, dye, and enamel); and shipwrighting(builds ships, and will eventually repair/maintain them) -- all havepuzzles associated with them. The quality of the work you performdepends on your ability to play the puzzles. These puzzles will bedescribed below.
Finally, the distilling puzzle.Also on a hex board, you have pieces that can be clear, dark, orneutral. These pieces swap with each other in certain ways; a clearpiece, for example, can swap with a dark piece that is above it (toeither side), or a neutral piece that is below it (and to eitherside). Nothing swaps directly left/right, nor directly up/down.Columns will shift to the right, to the brewing point; at thatpoint, they will go up (into the brew), or down (into the waste),depending on the number of whites and darks. Columns that have more(or equal) white than black will be sent up into the brew; columnswith more blacks than white will burn and go away. However, burntwhites will recycle back into the puzzle. They still move likewhites, and want to go up like whites, but they are major scorepenalties. When they come back, you need to put them into a columnsof blacks and neutrals to get rid of them. Your goal is to arrangecolumns of pure white, with as little (preferably none) black orneutral pieces. The best score comes from multiple columns of purewhite in a row; the best players can consistently get 9 to 12crystal clears in a row. The game ends when 12 rows have been sentup. The specials in distilling are non-movable spices. They scorebonus points, but act as obstacles that can really make things hardat times.
Notice the distribution of puzzles.The duty puzzles range from calm, consistent play (carpentry), tostrategic planning and building (sails), with an in-between (bilge).And, you have arcade-like (gunning), tactical board game (battle nav),and the hard to classify duty nav. The crafting puzzles also havecalm, non-hurried play (alchemy), arcade-like (distilling), and anin-between (shipwrightery). The wide range of puzzles means thatthere is something for everyone.
YPP manages to keep the economy noninflationary, despite the traditional "mudflation" factor ofincreasing money. The primary way of doing this is the dynamicsupply factor for raw commodities. For example, sugar cane has anormal price range of (approximately) 4 to 6 poe per unit. When theprice of cane at an island goes above 6, then that island increasesits production rate; the amount of increase depends on the currentprice. Eventually, the higher demand is satisfied, and the pricegoes back down to 6. This effectively limits what the price for rawgoods will be; combined with "Anyone can open a stall", and you canalways open a competing business if the prices are too high. Theresult: Availability of finished goods increases directly with thenumber of pirates (as the active players are the only source oflabor to finish the products), with commodity availabilityincreasing directly with demand for those raw commodities. Shopsthat are pricing their product too high risk being undercut by newshops (so finished goods don't cost too much even as the moneysupply increases), yet they have to be able to attract workers (bypaying for their labor), so the prices don't fall too low. Finally,all items are either consumables (rum, shot) or else wear out(swords and clothing typically last 1 to 3 months). Ship decay, inthe form of "drydock repairs", has been planned since day one, buthas not yet been implemented. 2ff7e9595c
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