[Guide] Ship PvP
 

Overview:

• Choosing A Side
• Choosing A Ship
• Setting Sail
• Repairing at Sea
• Inflicting Damage
• Sinking
• Sinking another Ship
• Ranks
• SvS Points
• Ship PvP Chat
• Docking
• Quests
• Ship PvP Do's and Dont's
• Carver's Corner: Tips, Tall Tales & Tavern Gossiping

Choosing A Side:

• Currently there are no bonuses for choosing either side so it doesn't matter which side you choose. Remember some quests ask for you to fight for a specific side.
• The two sides are the French and the Spanish. French ships have red white and blue sails and the ships name is blue. Spanish ships have red and yellow sails and their ship names are Yellow.
• To be a French you must set sail from Ile D'Etable De Porc setting sail from this island will make your sails Red, White and Blue and you ships name blue. Only NPC and Spanish Ships can attack you.
• To be a Spaniard you must set sail from Isla De La Avarcia, setting sail from this island will make you sails Red and Yellow. Only NPC and French ships can attack you.

Choosing A Ship:

• Added Aug 4, 2008 - The Class and Style of the ship you take should reflect your crew. Meaning if you are the only person on your crew taking a galleon wouldnt be wise maybe something more of a sloop Style is better. If you have a massive crew then frigates are for you they hold lots of people with plenty of cannons to choose. If you have a small crew (2-5 pirates) but they are all really good cannoneers and have a good sailor then sloops are great! Remember the amount of pirates and the skill level of those pirates should choose the ship.
• Sloop - Very good for PvP either alone of with a small crew. Very fast and can out maneuver the larger ships. Another plus is that it is so small making it harder for other ships to hit a sloop. Downside it is fairly weak ships and will do poorly against another sloop.
• Galleon - In my opinion the worst class of ship to use for PvP. Galleons are very large and very bulky meaning they don't go fast and they maneuver terribly. Another negative is that they are Massive their front and rear hull are giant making a very easy target for other ships. Galleons only plus side is that they have a large cargo space however that doesn't matter in PvP since currently you get no cargo for sinking other PvP ships.
• Frigate - A great ship for a larger crew. It is pretty low to the ocean meaning its harder to hit as well as it has the strongest hull points of all the ships. Also frigates ave forward and even Semi-backward cannons meaning they can attack or protect from almost all around. Frigates are perfect for large crews.
• Class - Now obviously the higher the class (Light, Regular, War) the better so a War Galleon War Sloop and War Frigate would be best but some players may not be high leveled enough or may not have enough money to purchase the higher level ships. However Light sloops do amazingly well if it has a good crew.

Setting Sail:

• Once you have your crew assembled your side chosen and your ship ready its time to set sail. Its very easy and you set sail like any other way just go to the Dinghy and press SHIFT and choose a ship.
• If you are in the crew then go to the Dinghy press SHIFT and choose the ship that you are going on.
• However be warned that there is a block POTCO uses it is believed that depending on the status of the server is the amount of ships allowed. Quiet servers 3-5 ships per side Ideal 5-10 so if you get a message saying this side is full you will need to wait until a ship docks that is on your team.
• If you try to set sail and there are too many ships you will get this message. (coming soon)
• Once you set sail you get a 30 second invincible time in which you either get to the guns or the helm and get ready to sail.

Repairing at Sea:

• You can only repair when NO ONE is at the helm anyone can repair as long as no one is sailing.
• Repair Spots - on every ship there will be 3-4 repair spots. One in the back, One toward the left, and the last toward the right. On the ship HUD you will see a picture of a triangle to the left with 3 green bars each bar corresponds to a repair spot on the ship. The bar behind the triangle (also the smallest bar) is the Back repair spot, the bar on the right is the right repair spot, and the one on the left is the left repair spot.
• Now to choose which to repair you want to repair the one with the least health so if you right side is gone completely you want to repair the right side repairing the left or back would be pointless.
• To repair just go to the piles of wood, like i explained earlier there is one on the left one on the right and one in the back, and press SHIFT you guy will pull out a hammer and start banging on the wood depending on how much damage depends on how long it will take to make a full repair.
• If you are repairing and someone takes the wheel then you will stop repairing.

Inflicting Damage:

• You may notice that using a strong cannon will only deal a small amount of damage this is because of Ship PvP's Inner/Outer hull.
• The Outer hull is strong hitting it with cannons will do little damage however this hull is a protective layer or "Shield" and once down is when you hit the hardest
• The Inner hull is the weak point once you brake the outer hull sinking the ship is easy just aim for the broken areas. If you hit the inner hull your cannons will do Maximum Damage to the ship.
• Do not worry if your strongest cannons do little damage to the opposing ship this is most likely because you are hitting the outer hull as soon as you break through though you cannons will do maximum damage

Thank you IronHawk for this information.


Sinking:

• If at anytime the HP bar on you ship goes all the way down your ship will sink.
• However while in PvP mode if an opposing player sinks you you will see the sinking cut-scene then you will simply re-spawn at you home island. No grogginess, No need to pay for repairs of ships, basically there is no downside to sinking except that you got beat.
• When you sink after re-spawning you will be given about 30 seconds to get to the helm and back to the cannons until other ships can attack you.

Sinking another Ship:

• If you manage to sink another ship you will get a money very little if the ship just sunk or if it just set sail the more ships the other ship has sunk the higher the bounty you will receive and that's all you will receive NO reputation and NO cargo.
• Do not let this discourage you remember you also get pride you sunk another ship (unless you are a war frigate and you sunk a light sloop then that's just mean :P) you will also get a green message saying The <insert ship name here> (Insert side) sank the <insert ship name here> (insert side)

Ship PvP Chat:

• When you set sail from one of the two Ship PvP islands you will get a a new chat selection called Privateer.
• If you are Spanish it will say <Insert Pirate Name here>(Spanish):<insert text> The color s a light brown-ish Yellow
• If you are French it will say <Insert Pirate Name here>(French):<insert text>
• Chatting in this chat means only your side will hear it so if you are on the Spanish side all Spanish PvP ships in the area will hear you however the french wont. This is very useful when trying to plan an attack using multiple ships.

Docking:

• You may dock at any island as long as you are not under attack if another ship is attacking you you cannot dock until either they sink or you are not attacked for about 30 seconds.

Quests:

• Both sides offer quests you may get these by seeing the sides Captain.
• For the Spanish quests you must see Garcia De Avaricia currently he offers 1 quest and that is "Getting Your Feet Wet"
• For the French quests you must see Pierre La Porc currently he offers 1 quest and odd enough it is also "Getting your feet Wet"

Ship PvP's Do's and Dont's:

• DO remember it is a game and have fun.
• DO plan guild events it is great fun for either the guild to be on one side attacking the other or for you to split up and vs. each other.
• DONT baby sit or in other words sit near the enemy island and wait for ships to either re spawn or set sail and sink them.
• DONT be worried if you sink nothing happens you just re spawn.

Carver's Corner: Tips, Tall Tales & Tavern Gossip
Greetings mates. Carver here. If you haven't heard, Privateering has come to the Caribbean and Pirates from all walks of life have taken up the flag as Privateers. From my perch here in the Faithful Bride on Tortuga, I've managed to gather some information from good sources that may help you on the high seas:

Privateer Battle Strategies

- Looking for a dominating defensive position? Work with other Privateers flying the same flag to form a Line of Battle. This is a formation in which ships form a line from end to end and shower the opposing side with volleys of broadsides. It's an excellent way to defend your home port - and ensure you are not raining iron down on your own men.

- Before setting sail, purchase varying ammunition, such as: Firebrand, Thunderbolt, Fury, and Explosive. These munitions are especially destructive.

- The sea provides little cover but due to the unique location of the Privateer Islands, this sea has rock outcroppings that divide the two sides. Use them wisely. They provide ample cover to ambush the enemy or obstacles to make a quick getaway.

A Good Crew is the Backbone of a Successful Ship

- Crew up and join a Privateering Crew before setting sail. (Use the Crew feature to search for a crew, press "F" to toggle the Friends Panel, select the "Crew" tab, and click on "Search for Privateer Crew.")

- It's in your best interest to hunt for the enemy ship with the biggest Bounty. Sinking a ship with high Bounty will reap you and your Crew larger rewards! Keep a watchful eye on your own Bounty, as well. The longer you're out at sea sinking ships, the more your Bounty goes up. When you port, not only does your Bounty go down, you lose the score you and your Crew has accumulated.

Privateering Etiquette

- Hit the deck - and don't be afraid to get your elbows dirty, sailor! The larger the Crew, the more Privateers you have for making repairs at sea. The faster you can repair your ship, the sooner you can get back into the fight.

- I've seen many a Privateer that likes to drop anchor in the enemy's port ... Aye, this be a fool's gold hunt for it will yield you little result. When your ship spawns, it has an extended protective field which means you can shoot other ships but they can't shoot you!

Until next time, good luck and good travels

I am debating as to wheather to add pictures bc in doing so it will mess up the text.


Please post below if you have any questions, more information i could add, or any issues regarding some of the information i posted.

Last Updated: August 4th, 2008

Awsome guide Chris.....

You are definatly....


BAD TO THE BONEZ

:laughks2:

lol thx :) :buds: i really CANT wait until we do guild SvS :0 that will be sooo much fun :p!

remember to report any info that isnt right or give more info!

:skull:Thanks for the fast update Chris! I am LOVIN these battles!!
Go Spanish!!

lol thx me too :) i love PvP its so fun and strategic

I have to disagree with you on the war galleons being at a disadvantage, I was on abassa this morning and no one could sink me, I was sinking war frigates, war sloops, and every other ship out there, the armor more than makes up for the speed, imo.

sorry, the coin also depends on the bounty of the opposing ship you sink, not the type, I was at a bounty over 1000 earlier, I was sinking ships and receiving 200 sometimes which is what hte bounty was worth on ~ screen.

also to add - by hitting ~ u can see a list of ships out on each side and their bounty and score.

true but i was just rating them based on the 3 classes :) good point but out of the three using personal experience galleons preformed the worse out of the 3

ok ill change that i didnt notice that

Thanks Chris, nice guide..

darn thats what spell check told me :P ill fix that!

Also - kodos should be given to Irorhawk for information on I/O (what I call Inner / Outer Hull Damage) as he has an entire posting with Pics in the News Section. My information is experience, but he actually took the time to do before/ after / after-again (LOL) screenshots for everyone here...

Thanks Ironhawk :D

Here is the thread showing Full Pics of Before / After Damage

oh ok i didnt know what his guide was about bc i dont use a test account ah but now that ive seen it i understand ok

Chris, here are some points not covered or need to be corrected :

We CAN dock at any island including enemy's base island.

There is also a third quest "The Caribbean Struggle" available from any shipwright on main islands.

Also in Privateering mode we don't get rep or plunder from NPC ships.

Pressing ~ button will display the Privateer Scoreboard

we can? i couldnt when i tried to dock at the french island i ended up sinking i just got the you cannot sail to close to this island

to clear up the docking issue, you cannot dock while under attack at any island, you must not be under attack for about thirty seconds, then you can dock

You can't dock when enemy still firing at your ship.
You need to wait 30 second after last hit before you can dock.

In test once i saw 18 Spanish ship versus 9 French ships so it's not limited to 5 ship.
http://i352.photobucket.com/albums/r...coreboard1.jpg

Also you might want to add tips on how to kill other pirate using broadside.
When we got killed during battle we don't go to jail but respawn on the ship
and invincible to any attack for 10 seconds.
We are also invincible for 10 seconds after sinking (30 second invincibility for ship)

Captain of the ship can't teleport anywhere but crewmates on board can.

Ty i added that to the guide :) tyvm for that information. as for the ship limit i have no clue.

Is Ship PVP in Public already??

Yup PvP ship is in the open servers

Nice guide chris and right with this big update!
I can't wait for the pictures.

they are coming i promise i just need all this lag to pack up and go to another game

Also, grape shot can and will affect the other shipmates... I use it a lot

Thanks for the really good info!

Just a question about the bounties. If I am with the spanish and I start attacking an enemy ship with mine and then another spanish fellow comes along a helps me sink it, is the bounty divided in two or do we both get the full payment.

also the limit of ships out depends on server activity. i have tried ideal servers that are able to have ten per team while quite servers can only have three per. i don't know why they have this but i think its because of the player count in the current server

Ok didnt know that thx ill be sure to add this to the first post.

Yw :) im hoping by tonight to have those pics uploaded.

Hmm i honestly dont know ill try to test that theroy but i THINK is that whom ever gets the last shot gets the bounty although it should be just like flag whom ever deals the most damage gets the money and the credit but im definatly gonna test this.

Interesting yea it does make no sense but i think your right.

Anyway sorry everyone been on vacation for the past 3 days havent been able to update or even get on :)

P.S ty to anyone who has given rep :) :12_1_138:

Chris, great guide! Props!

Under the heading "Choosing a ship", you have written the following:

I would disagree slightly. I do more damage with my Light Sloop than my War Frigate or War Galleon. I think a lot depends on sailing preference. It is very easy to sail in between the big ships with little damage while still inflicting damage. Especially if you have one or two cannoneers with high level cannons. For over two hours the other day I was the highest bounty with the smallest ship. Just something to think about.

Couldnt this also be tough to really determine, the # of crew and thier capabilities would make a major difference. You have to get close before you can use that advantage. Some people cant hit light sloops at distance regularly.. I can, matter of fact, I dont understand why others cant.

Hmm yes this brings up a contriversial point the "best ships" are made of what i believe is several parts

1. Sailing Skill - person whom is sailing the ship and their skills to out manuver and use the skill points in a smart way
2. Crew - the larger the crew the more firepower ect.
3. Cannoneers Skill Lvl - this is the lvl of each cannoneer obviously the higher the skill lvl the better but also the accuracy and aim of their cannons
4. Lag - Some of the best sailors out there or the best cannoneers out there may have the worst lag therefore making their movements slow in larger battles

thinking this over i have in a way decided the ships have little impact on how well a team does bc like u say 2 AMAZING cannoneers and 1 Awesome sailor on a light sloop could take down a War frigate with 12 crew mates.

Set up:
Me: lv35 Noto; lv16 sail; lv20 cannon
Crew:
lv40 Noto; lv25 sail; lv25 cannon
lv10 Noto; lv3 sail; lv6 cannon

We put the lv10 on the wheel and went to work. Scored 25 kills in a Light Sloop before we decided to port and rest our fingers. Took out three War Frigates with minimal damage while all of them were trying to take us out. They all had at least three crew members.

Our advantage:
My oldest son was the lv10 and with him sitting next to me on his computer I could give him sailing instruction/direction while in battle. A Guildmate was on the other cannon so we knew each other's tendencies. It was fun watching them get mad and start sending their fleet after us.

I can hit light sloops usually 9 out of 10 times, and I wonder why more people can't seem to. But, then again, I actually practice on the Vipers and Ferrets. It helps when you fight larger ships because it teaches you to hit a small target, which when you are fighting a larger ship you want to hit the same spot over and over. The reason is to cause more damage and reduce the outer hull armor.

Thats actually a REALLY good tip

I used a light sloop last night with just myself and sunk an incredible amount of ships. I loved it. My friend Brac gets made fun of for using a sloop so I made him proud. They are so hard to hit and if you get in just the right spot and follow their movements it's nigh high impossible haha...

I pick the size of my ship to match the number ive got wanting to use cannons?
I have noticed that the computer screen settings and size can make a big diff in how easy or hard it is to hit a lite sloop? When im playing alone(and for me that is playing two pirates at the same time with maxed sailing and cannons) that i take a lite sloop most of the time. Ive got 6 war frigates and 2 war sloops, so ive got diff choices.(that counts test and live ships on two accts). I think the pvp ships has turned boring very quickly, at least on test you could build your "Infamy" a.k.a bragging rights. To wrap this up if you see a lite sloop "Storm Hunter" go ahead and jump on it and maybe it will help you decide if its easy or hard to sink a lite sloop........ ;-) .......later......:erti078: ........... ice

What about the Privateer Rank ????

ok i am going to update the first post alot today with new information however there are some areas which i need help they are

Points - how do you get these every ship you sink? the size of ships you sink? ect.

Ranks - how do you move up ranks?

are ranks available? where would one go to check this?

No I just want to check if anyone has new informations about Privateering Ranks..
Sorry :s

if anyone wants a mastered cannoneer let me know. i finally got a crew member last night (i'm way to impatient to crew i guess...gotta get out there!) and let him drive my war frigate. I had an absolute blast working the cannons again. (mastered them a loooong time ago).

we were on an ocean where no one was glitching (SO REFRESHING!) and were out numbered but quickly cleared the ocean. My new favorite thing is to play cannon assasin as well as grape shotting other pirates.

antoher fun strategy...probably letting the cat out of the bag here...but preload all the cannons on one side with explosive charges then have the captain ram the ship you are attacking, turn sideways then one by one unload your explosives! ohhhhhh, look at all the pretty colors.LOL

Great guide Chris!

BBBBBBBaaaaad! BBBBBaaaaad to tha BBBBBones!

thx :) i was thinking bout adding pictures but it might mess up the text.

Great idea - I've started pre-loading cannons with alternate lightening and fury. Can't wait to try this out.

Be happy to sail with you if our paths happen to cross.

If you are sailing solo the light sloop is a great choice. I have used both the light and the war class and I do like the light a little better. I have noticed however, that the aim of most people in pvp has improved since it has gone public, making the sloop a littles less deadly, but you can still rack up major kills with them. I think that with any class or crew size the real premium is shot placement. It is hard to stay afloat in any ship if you are taking max damage with every bolt or cannon ball hitting you.

yea me and Silverbeard were on a light sloop and we were sinkin everything and we barely took a hit :)

I really think this guide should have the section on repairs rewritten. It is clear they want the "repair-while-sailing" to stay. That is, the boat OWNER lets someone else steer for a moment (someone said it has to be three seconds - NOT TRUE) then takes steering back over. From that point on, anyone can repair at any time. This behavior lasts until the captain releases the steering wheel.

Likewise, the "press F1 while repairing" thing, to have one person repair all four spots and fire a single cannon, all at the same time.

Ok for the first one i still have a feeling thats a glitch if POTCO would let you repair while sailing you could easily do it by just going to a repair spot and hitting SHIFT not having to do all that.

The F1 thing is definatly a bug trust me disney would not allow pirates to repair all the spots and cannon all at the same time

Chris I have a few things to say.
Nice guide and...

It may be privateering but some people are working on the quest. Say the 50k without sinking. They'll probably run away so they can finish it so you might get bored fast dealing with people who run away.

If you can't finish the privateering quest what so ever having a buddy and going to a quiet ocean would be good to finish it. You know let each other win? The may sound dumb but some people really want to finish the quest fast and don't want to risk things. It should be for fun but sometimes teh quest is first.


Nice guide!
i'm sure i'll be looking at it a lot when i'm on POTCO.

Yea i prefer the get a buddy and help each other but it still a glitch to repair all spots at once and to repair while under attack :D

But they do. Don't know what the new glitch is, but saw a Spanish ship with one person auto-repairing their light frigate faster than my war frigate could damage him, Friday. (That is, after their update to make is more complicated, but still possible.)

The "repair-while-sailing" thing isn't complicated, and obviously isn't going away. So, for fairness, it should be described for all to use - especially for those who go to the trouble of searching for a guild for some help. *shrug*

All these issues and now POTCO is throwing a privateering contest.

Good luck you guys! (and gals!!!)

Lol zep yea only a few bugs and they want a widespread contest :D well i think this guide will become most helpful this weekend ps im gonna TRY to update it but im REALLY busy with school :( My bus never picked me up this morning i have 3 pages of math homework for accelerated math :D fun fun fun fun fun! see pirates dont have homework.

unless you are on the quests that say for you not to be sunk, then you have to start that quest over.. cuz you got sunk.. LOL..

true :D but ill leave the quest tips to the wiki team lol

Nice Guide!
 

Nice Guide :bookishfj7:

Zac

The limit is 10 ships per side. If your side has three more boats than the opposition, you will be prompted to launch your boat from the opposition side (but prevented from launching on the side you tried.) When there are less than 5 boats out on each side, the delta-limit is 1 instead of 3.

When there are twenty ships at sea, you are prompted to join a privateering crew. Clicking YES activates the normal "Lookout" mechanism to "Find a privateering crew." I don't know what happens if there are none (that has never happened to me - when ten boats are out, there just is always a crew to join...someone somewhere remembered to turn it on...as everyone should.)

There was a question about ranking earlier. So far, only the contest rankings are available. The contest said it was "score" which is composed of a combination of kills & bounty.


There was an earlier question about bounty, when two opponents sink a ship. The bounty is divided proportionally to the amount of damage dealt by each person (and sub-totaled for each ship.) I haven't figured out who gets the credit for damage from "OPEN FIRE" but it seems to be the person at the helm (for each cannon shot by crewmates that has double damage.)

When you sink an enemy ship, you get some amount of gold, proportional to how much damage you personally dealt (from how much the total bounty on that ship was.)

I am still not sure what happens when an enemy ship with a high bounty is damaged severely, lands and relaunches, then is sunk by a new allied ship. I THINK that the bounty is still split, instead of going entirely to the new ally ship. Still have some more testing to do to confirm or deny this.

Note that attacks to ships count - attacks to crew do NOT count towards the bounty. So, when I shoot twenty rounds of grape shot to immobilize a crew for a full minute, I get no gold at all - my crewmates get it.

I still believe that the guild should fully describe repair-while-sailing (with as many holier-than-thou admonitions you feel are appropriate.)

A pirate hammering on a repair spot repairs 30 hull points per second. If four pirates are repairing, it is 120 hull points per second. Occasionally, when hull is completely repaired, the pirate will continue repairing for a long time...I believe this is "fleet repair" magically doing 30 points per second hull repair to damaged allied ships.

Moderators: Sorry about the consecutive posts. Should this just be a separate thread?

Contest weekend tactics:

Small guild formation - all with mastered sailing, but very different skill point allocations. One pirate with rank 5 "Full Sail" another with rank 5 "Ramming Speed" and another with rank 5 "Wind-catcher" all trade off on the ship's helm to chase down opponents, in a faster-than-possible manner.

"Not one of us" small guild tactic - eliminate all friends list entries. No new guild members for at least one week prior to event. During event, launch only once at the very beginning. Guild operates in shifts to keep boat (and bounty) alive during off-peak hours.

"Bounty ping-pong." Guild launches one ship from French, one from Spanish. All people on both boats are in a single crew. Boat A sinks boat B. All crew gunners teleport to boat B and from there sink boat A. Gunners TP to boat A and sink boat B. This inflates bounty rapidly. As other boats appear, let them engage in battle, giving them as much encouragement as possible to deflect suspicion and dilute the inflated bounty. Alternately, use crew chat to avoid "allied" ships entirely.

"Dinghy forest." Launch as many boats as possible on "enemy" shore. Leave a mule parked on each boat's helm - do not allow that boat to engage in battle. War galleons are ideal for this, as the are easiest to hit from far away (to further inflate bounty.)

Lunch time. Launch light galleons from enemy shore. Bring them into battle, so that your war sloop and war frigate can sink the light galleon 15 seconds into a major battle - giving your real ships 12 points bounty plus +200 SHIP SAVING SALVAGE right in the middle of the battle. Snack on as many light galleons as you want. If not on a diet, use galleons or war galleons for the same purpose.

Cannon variety (mainly war sloops.) All gunners camp on their guns, never EVAR pressing ESC. Additional crew can be on board for repair spots. Ideally, captain will have one side's broadsides at rank 5, the other side at rank 1. All gunners camp on the rank 5 side. Front-most gun uses lightning. Second gun uses grape shot. Third gun uses fury, fourth gun preloads explosive. (Round shot and firebrand are good too, but the VARIETY is the most important factor.)

Loner tactic: Use crew matching. Join a crew or recruit one, but don't ever sail alone.

Chasing tactics:

"Driver switching" so that the person with the highest rank full sail presses 3, then when it has run out, switch drivers to person with highest rank ramming speed. Repairs-while-saiing may confound this tactic somewhat.

"Cornered." Chase enemy to "The end of the world" where they have to turn. If they aim straight East, they will hit the wall soonest, so follow directly and wait for them to make their turn (bwahaha.) If they aim North, aim between them and Cangrejos. When they are caught, be very aggressive...do not shy away or your grape shooters won't hit. They are turning so they will get the first shot, but you get to use ramming speed as an attack. If they turn and run, your gunners will mop them up easily. But if they turn and fight, you have to get in there fast and make your turn, so your gunners can get to work.

Know thy enemy: If you know which "side" is the enemy driver's strong side, you know which way they will turn. Cut their triangle.

Angling. During a long chase, you go faster when you don't make slight direction adjustments. This will naturally skim the angle of attack as you proceed - HOLD YOUR COURSE. Your gunners will usually fire single test volleys to measure angle and range. Your normal chase will improve that angle for them - DON'T MAKE MINOR CORRECTIONS. If the enemy is dealing more damage to you, than you are to them, turn off and try something else. (If both boats are using repair-while-sailing, then you catch up and fire at each other, but you fall below 50% before enemy does, turn off QUICKLY. Their glitches are better than yours!)

Chasing ammo: do not use thunderbolt. Range is not the problem, aim is. Three shots of round shot cover more area than a single thunderbolt (that takes much longer to recharge.) Fury and firebrand are ok, but I've found that round shot (infinite ammo) seems to recharge the fastest - meaning I get to take more shots in the dark. Minor hits to the enemy ship, fluster the enemy crew enormously and can breach the outer hull early. Remember that initial shots hitting a quiescent boat (that hasn't been hit in 10 seconds?) "shake" the boat so crew members can't walk straight nor aim right.

Getting ammo: When starting a chase, it is tempting to send crew to go get ammo. DON'T DO IT. Wait until after the battle (you'll have plenty of time on the long drive back.) Keep as many extra pairs of eyes on board as you can during a chase - every person counts (even if they don't realize it, or think it seems boring at first.)

Get close baby. You have to be closer than you realize, for grape shot to work. Since grape shot automatically stuns all enemy pirates in range, you get three seconds of them unable to attack. When your crew has the enemy crew "graped," GET CLOSER AND STAY CLOSE. Do not let the enemy boat drift away out of range (or they will come back with blood in their eyes.) DO NOT TURN. Don't change the angle on your one helpful crewmate that has the enemy paralyzed with grape shot...just patiently wait for your broadsides to recharge and slowly but surely defeat them. Every third time this works, remind your gunner to get more grape.

General tactics:

"Battle line." By lining your ships up, they can sequentially attack a big nasty, one after the other. As long as damaged ships run clear before sinking, this works quite well. But if an allied ship sinks, the enemy ship gets salvage, eliminating any advantage you had.

Goose. Form a V, like geese flying south for the winter. This wedge is the fiercest attack formation. Strongest boat at the head of the V. Try to keep up.

Home turf. When you sink, your ship respawns at your island in an invulnerability bubble. If you sail out immediately, your bubble pops. If you stay there and shoot, your bubble lasts for a minute (or two?) while you use thunderbolt to eliminate all enemies within two compass diameters.

Cowardly lion. (AKA "Chicken ****") Cluster all allied ships together around ship with highest bounty. Use thunderbolt to harass enemies two compass widths away. Wait for the people on the high bounty ship to get back from lunch (or work or school or wherever.)

Flanking. The notion of a wall of allies sweeping in the from a side works for armies, but not so well with such small numbers of ships. A light sloop parked off on the side can add a surprise element, but that's about it. Not very useful in this arena.

Spy games. Join enemy crews. Send every crew you get near, a PvP challenge. Invite them to a treasure map quest. Spam blithering nonsense in the privateer channel. Steal the wheel and drive into the middle of an enemy forest. Scream "CHARGE" - especially when everyone is repairing.

Counter spy: always click NO when in SvS to any PvP or treasure map...you won't get the helm of the black pearl and they will just send you to jail to make you groggy. Whenever ANYONE says "CHARGE!" say "Oh, I thought I had him on IGNORE already." Ignore all trash talk...do not even think about baiting them.

When someone says "there is a Spanish mole listening" ignore that person - it likely is them. But there is no benefit from remaining silent - give your allies the information they need. Any possibly benefit the enemy could get from knowing your plans, will be delayed to the point of uselessness. The skirmish will be over before the enemy gets the message relayed to them. The only person that would say that, is someone trying to confound communication by making you afraid to talk. Nonsense! Continue to give encouragement and warnings as you have been.

Communication/definitions:

"Bogey on your six!" Picture the face of a clock. The front of the ship is the bow. Whichever way the ship is pointing, is 12 o'clock. Directly behind the ship is 6 o'clock; port side is 9 o'clock, starboard is 3 o'clock. "Left10" means there is an enemy on the port side, slightly ahead. A "bogey" is an enemy.

"Wheel?" This is a request to the captain to press ESC so that someone can momentarily take the helm, to ahve it taken back again immediately. Doing so, enables the repair-while-sailing glitch.

"Cowards!" Enemy landed their ship at a random island - they were too scared to even play the game, or didn't even realize they lose their score when they do that. (If they just get sunk, they can come back with full health and get the bounty back...instead they panicked and lost out.)

"Damage?" The captain can't see the enemy health meter; tell him approximately what percent the enemy has been damaged or has remaining. E.g. "5% down" or "30% left."

"Incoming!" An enemy ship is in sight, approaching.

"Repair!" The captain does not know what he's doing. He is asking you to repair when he doesn't even understand that he did the glitch wrong. Just remain silent and continue pressing SHIFT...he will wake up eventually. It takes a couple tries to figure it out, at first - harsh words will not help.

"Right!" We are approaching an enemy that will appear in range of this ships starboard cannons - please charge your ammo up now.

"Run!" Captain, you don't seem to be watching this ship's health meter - if you don't disengage from this battle now, we are dead.

"Mayday!" The person saying this is an enemy spy, trying to throw people off. Anyone that is close enough, already is helping...calling for help from distant ships prevents those allied ships from finishing the attacks they SHOULD be finishing.

"HALP!" I am sinking in the next moment or two. Laugh with me. It was good.

Umm ok when i finish my treatourus homework ill read through that and add some parts to the guide and will credit your :)

Great guide! + rep for you!

Thanks ;o this reminds me i should update it :D

Yeah I just randomly decided to click "My SvS Guide"
so yeah LOL

Actually instead of referring to it as an inner or outer hull I have been calling it an Armor belt. This belt can be avoided by aiming extremely low on the hull so that you can do max damage to the enemies Hull without having to pierce the armor belt.

another method is if you use strong concentrated attacks in one spot with pinpoint accuracy you can pirce the armor belt quickly in one shot so as to do max damage without have to completely remove the opposing ships armor first.

aim for the burning holes. These holes only appear in certain locations on each different ship type so if you know where to aim you can sink each ship type faster as you can make there armor useless.

As for the SVS events they are all a crock. Because any and all guilds use the above methods to artificially inflate their score.

Plain and simple they should reduce the SCORE to zero upon sinking and or add another factor into the mix.

If a ship is sunk the score remains however a tally is also kept on the amount of times sunk and this number is used for the final tally of the event and that each sinking is such a negative impact that no guild would intentionally sink in order to inflate the value of the bounty.

By simply adding this extra feature it will undermine 90% of the cheating in SVS

Simply put in the events the large guilds rig the playing field so much by launching apposing ships on other side to use as salvage or to prevent others from launching.

Also as a side note during an SVS event it would be a good idea to boot any ship from SVS in the event it has been more then 30 minutes since it has last sunk a ship. In doing so it would end the long chase scenes and get rid of salvage only ships and mules.

Really like it!Nice guide :) use it everytime im in SvS

Great guide. I can't wait to go Privateering now. I need to find a crew first :P. Many of my gunners don't have Firebrand yet, so it's quite an uphill battle. Oh well. Thanks for the great information! :skull:

The PvP thing needs to be updated.

I personally think this is the only thing keeping me on POTCO and the new update, other than that I would be gone Lol, but yea this SvS is AMAZING!!

Viva La France!!

It's great, but now you CAN repair when someone is at the helm (the fairly-new repair update.
I personally like FRANCE!