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     Contents (click to jump) Starting off, useful commands, name colours, and being nice to your fellow pirates. Inventory, menus, hearties, subscription. Boarding, The Docks, The Map, Shares, Crew Info, Booty, Jobbing, Ferries. Pieces of Eight, (gold) The economy, Waiting for items. If you have any trouble knowing what I mean when I refer to a particular mouse action to make or key to use, here's the key for the icons I use. Starting off, useful commands, name colours, and being nice to your fellow pirates. This is a page to help new players find their feet, in the relatively complex enviroment that is Yohoho! Firstly, you should not skip the "tutorial" with the introduction pirate, assuming you haven't already. There's lots of useful information in there, like how to use /tell, using /who, and how to tell who oceanmasters and greeters are. In fact, I'd recommend that you make the documentation available offline and read through it between play sessions. There is a lot of helpful information in there, and captains like people who know stuff before they come on board. (/tell (pirate's name) (message) will send a message to somebody, so you can talk when you're not in the same place. /who (without any extra text) will list all developers and oceanmasters online, and also list everyone on the same island as you. Oceanmasters/developers have blue names, and greeters will appear pink-named to you at first) Other useful / commands are /who (name), which gives you information about a pirate and their location (click their name to see their ratings, rank, and flag. /cwho (crew name) will do a search for crews starting with (crew name), and show you online members and give access to the crew info page. /fwho (flag name) works the same way for flags, and /vwho (vessel name), which gives you information about which crew a vessel belongs to, where it last put to port, and anybody who is onboard. (/vwho does not work for navy vessels or brigand vessels) There is also /crew (message) and /jcrew (message, which sends a message to everyone in your crew. (or jobbing crew) /emote (or /me, or /e, or /em) lets you write out that you're performing an action for humourous or roleplay purposes, and /think lets people see your thoughts. /shout is usable by subscribers, and it lets everyone on the island or vessel hear what you are saying- so don't use it too often. The captain of your rescue vessel will set you to do the bilging puzzle. This is just one of the many puzzles needed to run a ship, (bilging removes excess water that slows down the ship, known as bilge) and you should practice the three other most important puzzles as soon as you can: Sailing, (increases the speed of the ships and allows the captain to steer in battle) Carpentry, (repairs damage to the ship, and stops the ship from taking damage in the rough seas) and Swordfighting. (needed to defend the ship when hostile pirates board) The other two shipboard puzzles are Gunnery (loads the guns so that they can be fired during battle) and Navigation. (multiplies the speed gained by your sailors, presumably by staying directly on course) These require the ranks of Pirate and Officer in the same order as the puzzles themselves. Far more valuable than exceedingly great puzzle skills can often be the ability to pay attention, and listen to the commanding officer. You can hear chat while in puzzles too, so every once and a while you should check the chat window that's to the right of your puzzle. This can be very important in the swordfight bit of the battle- if you hear a whistling sound at any point you're not swordfighting, check to see where you've been ordered to, or if someone wants to trade with you. If you are swordfighting, it means to pay attention to who you are targetting, or look at the chat window. You will have noticed that people have many different coloured names. Unless you have paid, (subscribed, that is, become a subscriber) your name should be some shade of green, possibly a quite yellowy one. Most players have yellow names, although ones with pink/purple names are there to ask your questions. (they know at LEAST as much as I have written here, and they don't mind being bugged with things that are confusing you) People with blue names are Oceanmasters, who are the support staff for the game. They can help you like greeters, (although if you can see a greeter, ask the greeter first) and they can resolve anything if you get unnaturally stuck somewhere, or if you are badly effected by an unresolved bug. Some of the people who have blue names are also developers. Oceanmasters all have names of gods, so the developers will be the other people- eg. Nemo, Red, Bluebeard, Peghead, Cleaver, and lots of others. They often come online to be social, play puzzles, share news, or make broadcasts to the whole ocean, announcing patches or reboots. (in fact, you can often convince them to delay a reboot a few minutes if you're in a really really tight spot) Before we move on I should mention that everyone with a coloured name (and even a few people with white names- they get them for having "special" themed characters, and have no extra properties than yellow names) is a human, and that in this game we treat each other politely and often talk in pretty polite language, even for pirates. Most of us don't mind if you use some short words, (like u or whatever) but we generally draw the line at constant txt msgn tlk, or 1337 5P34|<. We also don't like people to call each other gh3y, and we can hear anything that you /think. The other thing that it's quite important to understand is ranks. In most crews, a lower rank does not mean a lower level of respect, (only bad captains encourage that sort of thinking) only that the captain may not trust them to same, very high level they might trust their best senior officers. Anyone officer or above can sail a vessel, and they may sometimes be called "captain," because they are in charge of the vessel. Really they are the helmsman, that is, they are at the helm. Senior officers are in most respects exactly like a captain. Depending on the crew, Senior officers may even have an equal vote in all issues that the captain would usually decide on their own. Senior officers may also promote people, although the captain can do this even when the promotee is offline. Ranking is also no guarentee of maturity or playing ability, just how much people are valued in a crew. Captains of a small crew might only be able to achieve pirate in some of the larger crews, due to their lack of responsibility. We can't always guarentee that any given captain or officer will give you a good jobbing (or crewing) experience. If they don't, however, you can take it up with a senior crew member or their royalty, and try and warn them of the sort of behavior that is going on. Of course, if you are being demanding of said crew, trying to order them around on their own boat, or insulting them, or risking that their boat sinks, they may be perfectly within their rights to eject you from their boat or be annoyed with you. This can include such things as leaving the vessel without asking first, (if you're about to be attacked, this makes it much easier to lose. People HATE to lose fighters during battle) not doing a puzzle while at sea when the ship still needs more speed/cannons loaded/less damage/less bilge, or bugging the officer in charge unnessecarily or about subjects they may "always" hear- eg. "can I nav?" "can I gun?" "can I steer?" "give me your ship!". The first three people may do if you ask them nicely and nobody else needs to do the duty. (steering isn't actually a duty though. You should ask to nav. If you mean steering during battle, that's usually called battle nav) Likewise, people are infinately more likely to swordfight you on the docks if you treat them like a person, and ask them first. We don't all play the puzzles the whole time we're online in the game, and we like people who are considerate enough to ask us things first. Inventory, menus, hearties, subscription. The introduction tutorial introduces the menu on your right at the end of the screen. The bit at the top of this menu, (under the map) that looks like the sun rising contains a number of buttons. These control which tab you have your menu set to. When people say "click on the booty tab," they mean the button on that sunrise-like graphic that says "booty." This example happens to be your inventory. (or list of items) While we're here, I'll introduce you to a helpful button the tutorial doesn't show you. Click the question mark button by your gold (pieces of eight) count. This will show you every island, shoppe, and bank that you've left money on. It's very useful if you often job in faraway places, or if your crew is saving for something. Note that until you subscribe, you can only wear the same type of items of clothing that you start with, and you may only wield sticks or foils. You can also not be promoted above cabin person. From my point of view, it is very much worth subscribing- and not just for having the restrictions lifted, but also for the company of everyone else in the game. (we're a very friendly bunch, even if we make war on each other now and again) Also stored in your inventory are any charts you may be holding, [under "charts"] (charts are naval maps, and you won't need them unless you're an officer) any clothing for the other gender you may have, [under "misc"] any ship deeds you hold, [under "misc"] (you can't sail a ship unless you're an officer, but any officer in your crew can. Cabin people should only purchase ships if they want to benefit their crew) and any shoppe or house deeds you hold. [also "misc"] Note that you must always hold some sort of sword, (or stick) be wearing some sort of shirt, (or armour) and be wearing some sort of (ragged) pants. (or skirt) This means you cannot trade your last sword, shirt, or pair of pants unless someone is willing to trade you an item first. Other useful tabs include the "Vessel/Shoppe/Island" tab. (it changes name depending on where you are) The island tab will let you set your home island- you can return to your home island whenever you need, with the click of a button. The Shoppe tab will tell you who manages the shoppe, (and you can often go to them to ask for advice, or negotiate a better deal using commodities you have, if their management is open to those sorts of things) and also give you access to any news they might have left. Keep in mind that there are long wait times for all items in Yohoho, as they have to be made by players themselves. The Vessel tab tells you who is doing which duty on a ship, and if you become an officer, it will give you access to those controls. The Ye tab is very useful. It will allow you access to information on your own ratings, your own crew page, and your own flag page. It can also tell you whether you're yet to subscribe, (there will be a subscribe! button if you have not) it has the button to whisk you (but NOT your money) to your home island, and it also allows you to set your options or log off. The crew list is another item of note. There are up to three different lists in here. The first is your "Hearties" list, which is for friends in other crews. This lets you see if they are online just as you can for your own crewmembers. The next is your crew list. This shows you the name and rank of everyone in your crew, and they will be at the top of the list and no longer faded out if they are online. People with no "hat" are jobbers for your crew. Above the crew list is the jobbing crew list, in purple. You can see the crew chat of your jobbing crew, and board any of their vessels either on your current island, or if they have people aboard. This list shows you exactly the same information as the crew list. Crew chat for your jobbing crew can be accessed using /jcrew, and crew chat for your own crew is simply /crew . You can press the up arrow to repeat and / command, which is very useful for being able to mix normal chat with crew chat. Boarding, The Docks, The Map, Shares, Crew Info, Booty, Jobbing, Ferries. Now that we've covered being nice to your fellow pirates, and how to access the various menu commands, there's the matter of how to get around. Walking you should have already heard about from the introduction. There're a few other things. Clicking on any puzzle station (any place which lets you start a puzzle) will walk you there, as will most things you can click on. Arrows will move you through doors or archways, or into the Dock. When you're on an island, you can (right) click on the map, (doing this on a ship will leave the ship if it's docked) which will bring up an overview of all the island, including every (used) building on it. You can click on the names (or the buildings themselves, but the names are easier to use) to move you inside a building. Clicking on the noticeboard using the map will keep you in your current position. The notice board will let you access training ships, (where you use puzzles endlessly, and there's absolutely no pressure to perform) or navy ships, (which currently pay you depending on how well you do in the puzzles, and some will allow you to get off in another archipelago) or you can see if anyone is offering a job. Before you take a job, I recommend you practice at all of the essential puzzles in the navy a bit, so you know what you're doing. Also, you should look at the crew shares, which you can do by clicking on the "info" button. These let you know how much of the total booty you will get paid. Firstly, the percentage that it says is "crew cut" gets stored away from the total. Then, each pirate gets a proportion of the money relative to how many shares they get. So if you, as a jobber, get half a share, and the captain is aboard, who gets twenty shares, the captain will get forty times as much as you would, for each battle. Every battle you participate in puts a star next to your name, and these effect the default split of the money. If the captain/senior officer/officer is getting more than about two or three times more than you, you are definately being treated unfairly, as many crews give all members equal shares. (remember, in the information screen, the important part is that the jobber number is the same, or close to the same size as the other numbers. If you're getting five shares, but everyone else is getting twenty, you're getting less than if everyone got one share.) The next important thing to know about is the dock screen. If you join a crew, or if your jobbing crew wishes you to board a different ship, then you'll need to know how to use this screen. At the very top, it will list any vessels owned by your crew, or by the crew you're jobbing for, as long as you're allowed to board them. After that (or first of all, if you have no crew and aren't jobbing) will be ferries. These whisk you (but NOT your money) to any island with at least a fort or market, that is in the same archipelago. Under that are any ships belonging to another crew that have been boarded recently. Pieces of Eight, (gold) The economy, Waiting for items. Pieces of Eight are the piratical currency of these parts, although Dubloons will also play a part in the game at some point. To buy clothes, swords, ships, or anything at all really, you need Pieces of Eight. There are a lot of things they can't buy, (commodities that are on small or far-away islands, items that stores can't get the stock for, and lots of items that are so rare that it's hard to get them even if you do have the poe (pieces of eight) to pay for them) and that includes ranking. Pieces of Eight can't speed up your order, either. Shoppes need a decent amount of time to complete things, (for some things, an hour might be reasonable, for others, six or seven hours would be incredibly quick, even if you were at the top of the que) and when people aren't buying from other shoppes, when there are too few shoppes in the area, or when you want to buy at an exceedingly cheap shoppe, there may be a queue lasting over a week. Also note that your average player does not have to provide a shoppe with anything to get an item, (although if you're an officer, providing them with things they're willing to buy through the hold trading screen can be profitable) even if it says "Avast, we are out of (item needed to make your order)." The shopkeepers will usually talk to some people, or organise their own crew(s) to find the item themselves. Also important is the "we're not making products with (type of ingredient or labour)." This can mean they're quite low and have turned this option off to re-stock. It might also mean that you need to talk to a manager to get this item, due to very rare ingredients. It could also mean that they generally don't take orders for that item, because they want to specialise their shoppe for other products. The last important note about the economy is that different coloured items have ingredients of different rarities. Anything needing something black in it will be much more expensive than something using other coloured ingredients. (black clothes and swords are generally bought by people wishing to flaunt their wealth) White and purple swords are more expensive than most other swords, and yellow swords very cheap. Brown clothes may often by the cheapest along with white and yellow, while black, purple, green, navy, orange, and pink clothes may be harder to get or noticably more expensive. Anything needing a red or grey mineral somewhere in its production will probably be quite expensive, too. Why can't I...? If you want to ask for a game feature, you may want to check with an experienced player first if it's one of the things that's commonly asked for. (or do a search on the forums, if you're feeling adventurous) The Developers have a List™ a mile long full of things they'd love to add to the game, and they've got a clear idea about what order these features ought to be added in. If you're asking why you're not allowed to do a particular thing as a non-subscriber, it's because this game costs money to run, and a lot of people have loaned the developers quite a lot of money to get it started, too- the more people who subscribe, the better they can make the game, and the more often they can feed themselves! ;) If you're asking why you can't do something without being a certain rank, the answer is usually: because this is a social game, and your friends/crewmates need to trust you to do stuff that risks their ingame property before they're going to let you. The best example of this may be "why can't I sail a ship if I own it?" The answer is, of course, because you're effectively "not qualified" if you've never been an officer before, and officers can let jobbers aboard, and giving those jobbers a bad impression of you gives them a bad impression of your crew, and possibly even the game, as well. If you're frustrated with your crew not valuing your contribution after months of playing, then maybe you should look for a crew more ready to trust you, and let you prove yourself. This being a social game in many respects, it would not be fun for most of us if we just sailed alone, all captains of our little ships. There should be no special desire to be "queen/king" or "captain," as even an officer is pretty close to being a captain, and a Senior officer is almost exactly the same. A prince(ss) is also basically the same as a Monarch. The compulsion to always be on top of the heirarchy can ruin the game for everyone, so it might be an idea to consider if you already have enough responsibility being a pirate/officer/nobody, as many experienced players like to be able to just play, without worrying about the bigger problems in the game. Plus it brings us all together if we're all in crews of, say, ten people and up, instead of crews of three people.  |