Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates

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Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Three Rings Design. The player takes the role of a pirate, having adventures on the high seas and pillaging money from roaming enemy ships (human- or computer-controlled). The mechanics of Puzzle Pirates are driven by puzzles. For example, to effectively sail a ship, crewmates must play puzzles representing work at the sails for speed, pumping bilge water to remove it from the ship, and carpentry to fix any damage the ship may take.

Puzzle Pirates is open-ended and community-driven. Over time, pirates can join a crew, progress in rank within that crew, buy and run sailing vessels and shoppes, and perhaps even become captain of a crew, royalty within a flag (an alliance of crews), or governor of an island. Islands are governed and shoppes are managed exclusively by players.

Contents

1 Oceans and Payment Methods

1.1 Subscription Oceans
1.2 Doubloon Oceans

2 Puzzle descriptions

2.1 Multiplayer puzzles
2.2 Parlour Games
2.3 Crafting puzzles
2.4 Duty puzzles

3 Economy
4 Game Gardens
5 External links

Oceans and Payment Methods

Players are able to play Puzzle Pirates for free indefinitely. However, players may opt to pay in order to unlock special items and privilieges. Players may pay for Puzzle Pirates in one of two ways: Subscription or Doubloon oceans - an "Ocean" being the Puzzle Pirate equivalent of a server.

Subscription Oceans

The first subscription ocean opened on December 8, 2003, the official launch date of the game. All subscriber oceans are named after different shades of blue - the two oceans that follow the subscription method of payment are known as Midnight and Cobalt.

There are several different subscription options, as is standard with MMORPGs;

Monthly Plan: $9.95 per month
Quarterly Plan: $24.95 per quarter
Yearly Plan: $74.95 per year

There is also a Long-Term Customer Discount of $49.95 per year, which is available to players of two years and above.

An alternative method is to convert for 42 doubloons into a month's subscription, known as a doubscription, which must be manually renewed each month. In May 2005, the game became available in retail stores, which includes a single month of play as part of the purchase price and a single-player mode where four puzzles may be practiced. Doubloons are not used at all on these oceans.

There is a test ocean known as Ice which is available to all players who are either subscribers or have bought doubloons. Though it is a test ocean, it closely resembles a subscription ocean because only subscribers have unrestricted access to all parts of the game on this ocean.

Doubloon Oceans

In February 2005, the first doubloon ocean was opened. All these oceans are named after shades of green; the three doubloon oceans are known as Viridian, Sage, and Hunter.

On a Doubloon Ocean, items are purchased both with normal in-game currency (pieces of eight, abbreviated PoE) and a micropayment currency called doubloons. One must spend doubloons to gain pirate/officer/captain rank, gain the privilege to play most games without restriction, purchase most in-game items, create a new crew, and perform other important tasks. As of December 2005, doubloons can be purchased for US$0.20 to US$0.25 each (depending on quantity) or from other players for in-game PoE. '' The Dubloon/Dollar Exchange rates go as follows:''

12 Dubloons ----------------------------------------------- $2.95

42 Dubloons ----------------------------------------------- $9.95

90 Dubloons ----------------------------------------------- $19.95

500 Dubloons ---------------------------------------------- $99.95

Those willing to pay extra real world cash for extra in-game power can buy many Doubloons and sell them to other players for PoE. Those who wish to play for free can purchase the Doubloons they want from those players who buy Doubloons with cash. Such exchanges are usually done through banks, which work like auctions. This effectively creates a pay-as-you-go model, where one can pay with either real world cash or both time and puzzle skills.

Doubloons can also be purchased in varying amounts with foreign currency by cell phone messages. Converting 42 doubloons into a month of subscription permits people who do not have access to U.S. dollars to play as subscribers.

In April 2006, the 5 millionth doubloon was sold [link].

Puzzle descriptions

Many of the puzzles featured in Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates bear resemblances to established puzzle games, with some changes in mechanics. The following list describes each puzzle game, as well as the game(s), if applicable, each was derived from.

Multiplayer puzzles

Interpersonal puzzles can be played between two or more players, and may be wagered on. Swordfighting and Rumbling are also played during a Sea Battle (against computer-controlled Brigands and Barbarians, respectively). Tournaments, funded by players and seeded by the software, are available and commonly played; only Drinking, Swordfighting, and Treasure Drop are playable in tournaments as of July 2005. Rumbling was later added in April 2006.

Drinking borrows its mechanics heavily from PopCap's Alchemy game. 2 to 6 players must, in turn, select one of three pieces and place it on a board such that all pieces adjacent to the placed piece must match the new piece in either color or shape. A player may symbolically drink a piece instead, increasing the drunkenness of the player, and must do so if the player cannot place any piece. The player loses turns if he or she becomes too drunk (and becomes "passed out"). Placing pieces scores some points for the player; completing a row or column scores more points for the player(s) with the most pieces in that line. The player with the highest score when a round is over (either when all spots on the board have been used, or when a set score is reached) wins that round. Drinking was overhauled at the end of June 2005 to include features such as kegs (bonus points for people who can maintain board control), mugs (which allow players to select one of 8 different rule variations), and the original rules simulated in the "Classic Drinking" ruleset.
Swordfighting is similar to Super Puzzle Fighter. Puzzle pieces consisting of two blocks, each of one of four colors, fall into a well. "Breaker" pieces, of the same color and depicting the same sword as the normal pieces, destroy all groups of similar pieces which they touch. Arranging pieces and destroying them sends pieces to the opponent, in the form of silver swords and blocks that eventually turn into normal blocks. The last player (or team of players) whose well entrance has not been blocked up wins. Brawling simply refers to teamed swordfighting duels, where two groups of 2 or more pirates puzzle against one another in a scenario similar to the swordfighting that occurs at the end of a sea battle.
Rumbling is similar to Puzzle Bobble; players launch multicolored balls in order to make groups of three or more. However, players may also "charge" balls up to make combos, adding to the opposing players' field.

Parlour Games

The introduction of Spades in November 2004 heralded the beginning of a new sub-category of competitive multiplayer puzzles classed as parlour games. Played primarily at inns, these games traditionally include various card games, yet player verses player brawling and drinking is accessible via inns located on most islands.

Spades, Hearts, and Texas hold 'em poker are played nearly identical to the original card games of the same name. In Spades and Hearts, the only rule which players may decide is at what point value the game ends. In Poker, the table size, buy-in, and limit may be set at table creation. The Hearts played here is not Omnibus Hearts.
Treasure Drop is a two-player betting game resembling a variant of pachinko. Players take turns dropping coins onto a series of levers. When the coin hits a lever, the lever flips, causing a new trail for another coin. Points are scored when coins reach the bottom of the lever system. The number of points scored depends on the number of coins reaching the bottom and where they land - typically the edges are worth much more than the center. A new game option is for holes to appear on the board, and if a coin goes into one, it randomly appears out another one on the board.

Crafting puzzles

Three games exist that simulate production of goods. Shop owners and employees play these games to create the goods other pirates have ordered from the associated shops and stalls. Unlike most MMORPGs, the few shop and stall owners and managers are the ones who primarily determine what will be made at what price, with several employees that are hired and help with the crafting. In other games, any individual player may gather the materials and craft any item, without needing to own a shop or hire help. So far, only three types of shops have puzzles associated with them as of February 2005: distilleries, apothecaries and shipwrights. Performance on nonexistent craft puzzles is simulated.

Distilling bears little resemblance to existing puzzle games. Four types of marble-like "bubble" pieces rest in a distilling vat: dark (bad), amber (neutral), light (good), and spicy (good). The relative location and type of two pieces determines if they may be switched; spice pieces may not be moved. Every ten seconds, the rightmost column of bubbles is evaluated. If the bubbles on average are more light than dark, that column is sent to the tank to form part of the brew. If more of the bubbles are dark on average, the column is burnt. Light-colored bubbles that are burnt come back into the puzzle as burnt light pieces; they move the same as light pieces but count against the value of that portion of brew. The puzzle is complete when twelve columns have been sent upwards.

The rum distillers create fuels a ship's crew; without rum, a ship's crew performs poorly regardless of how well its players puzzle. Distilleries also create mugs, which affect the drinking game.

Alchemistry (not to be confused with PopCap's Alchemy game) is a pipe-based game, most closely resembling PopCap's [Rocket Mania] both with roots in the early puzzle game Pipe Dream. Tanks of dye, in either two or all three of the traditional primary colors (red, yellow and blue), appear at the top of the screen, and a large network of pipes separates the tanks from flasks, which much be filled with specific dye colors in a certain order. The player must rotate the pipes to form a path from the correct tanks to the correct flasks, and a path connected to two tanks of different colors takes on the associated secondary color. For instance, orange is formed from red and yellow (again, based on the traditional primary color set). Pipes are bent or split at 60-degree angles, not right angles like in the aforementioned games.

Alchemistry is used to create dyes for cloth and paint for ships, as well as varnish and lacquer for furnishers. "Whisking potions" allow a player to move from island to island without a ship. Other potions allow restoration of missing body parts and various other cosmetic changes.

Shipwrightery is an original puzzle, and as of February 2005 it is the newest craft puzzle in Y!PP. The screen consists of a 5x5 matrix of squares and a set of six patterns. Each square in the matrix is one of five distinct pieces: iron ore, wood, rope, sail cloth, and gold. The patterns below the matrix are trominoes, tetrominoes and pentominoes comprised of certain pieces in a certain location; each distinct pattern used in this puzzle is named after a specific part of a ship. The relative location and type of two pieces determines if they may be switched; gold pieces are immobile. Ship pieces are symbolically made by dragging a pattern onto the matrix, superimposing it upon a set of squares that match the pattern; gold pieces are wild in this instance. The puzzle is over when one of two conditions are met. If the player takes too long to match a pattern (the timer is represented by a rising tide, which falls when a pattern is matched), one of the six patterns is removed. When all patterns have been removed, the puzzle is over and the player penalized. If a certain number of patterns are completed and matched (tallied by a rising flag on screen), all pieces become immobile and the tide automatically rises; if the player has the opportunity to match any more patterns, he or she may do so for extra points.

Shipwrights make the ships which sail the seas, as well as bludgeons (such as ropes and belaying pins) for rumbling.

There are a number of crafting jobs which do not yet have puzzles. They are:

Tailoring is used in the creation of clothes.
Weaving creates the cloth which tailors and shipwrights use.
Smithing creates swords and cannonballs.
Furnishing is used to create items for a pirate's home.
Construction is used to build new buildings on an island.

Duty puzzles

A number of puzzles are available only on a ship, and help to maintain that ship and increase its performance while sailing. Many crews insist on their members being well-experienced in these, if not the other, puzzles before promoting them to higher positions.

Sailing is similar to Dr. Mario. Blocks of 2 marbles, each of one of three colors (etched gold, marble gray, and blue, representing "rope, wind and wave" respectively), fall into the well one at a time; placing 4 units of the same color (including any stationary rectangular blocks of the same color) in a vertical or horizontal line destroys them. There are also "target platforms" that are destroyed when the target spots are filled with the correct marbles, and are the primary objective of the puzzle. While a beginner can do reasonably well by just trying to clear targets, experts can create long cascades that destroy two, three or even more target platforms in one huge chain reaction. Performing well on the Sailing puzzle causes the ship to move faster.
Bilge pumping is similar to Bejeweled, and nearly identical to Panel de Pon, also known as Tetris Attack, although the screen is always filled instead of slowly rising. A well, six blocks wide, is filled with assorted blocks colored with five, six, or seven distinct patterns. Blocks can be switched only with their horizontal neighbors, and lining three blocks of the same color in a row or column causes them to disappear. Destroying two, three or even four rows at the same time is particularly effective. Bilging removes bilge water from the ship, where the amount of bilge water decreases the efficiency of the sailing puzzle, both without and within a Sea Battle.
Navigation, strictly a duty puzzle, is an original game. A radial playing field of 24 points (three concentric circles, with a point at the eight cardinal and ordinal compass points: North, NE, East, SE, etc.) is marked in at least one point with a certain star. Stars appear from the outer ring and fall toward the center. The player must rotate the rings, completing lines of at least three similar stars if necessary, in order to place the indicated stars in the correct positions. Performing well in Navigation multiplies the productivity of the players working at Sailing, and also allows the navigator to eventually memorize league points on the map of the game world, so that in the future he or she can plot a course along them without the aid of a chart. Navigation can only be played by members of a crew at or above the rank of Officer, unless given special permission by an officer. On subscription oceans, the player can only navigate if they are a subscriber; on doubloon oceans the player needs a pirate's badge or higher to be ordered.
Carpentry is based on the arrangement of pentominoes. Four holes in the ship's body are presented, along with three random pentomino blocks. Every time a block is placed, another takes its place. Blocks can be placed such that they overlap, or lie partly outside of the required hole; the more cleanly the holes are fixed, the more effective the player's efforts become. When a carpenter fills a hole so that no pieces overlap, or lay beyond the boundary of the hole, a "Masterpiece" is obtained. If a hole is ignored for too long, it will either grow in size or violently remove one piece from that hole. The player can flip the piece over or rotate it in 90 degree steps. An extra "grain" bonus can be obtained by only placing pieces whose grain runs horizontally or only placing pieces whose grain runs vertically. A "Nice Set" can be obtained, when a carpenter fills a hole with only one kind of piece. Sometimes, instead of a pentomino block, a bucket of putty will appear; putty can be used to fill any contiguous hole up to five squares in size. Performing well on Carpentry repairs damage to the ship, which in turn prevents bilge from seeping into the ship, which in turn moves the ship faster.
Gunnery is similar to direction puzzles such as ChuChu Rocket!. The puzzle board is a ship's deck with four cannons. Blocks representing gunpowder, wadding, cannonballs and buckets of water move around the main deck. The player must place these blocks in the cannon in the correct order: gunpowder first, wadding second, cannonball last. This is done by placing arrows that further force pieces to go in certain directions. Water buckets clear out a cannon, and are necessary to clear a cannon that has been mis-loaded, or clean a cannon that has just been fired. When a cannon is fully loaded, the captain may fire it during battle. This puzzle can only be played by members of a crew at or above the rank of Pirate, unless given special permission by an officer.
The first half of a Sea Battle, also known as Battle Navigation, bears some small resemblance to chess, as it is based on movement strategy, and has also been compared to the board game RoboRally. When the navigating officer chooses to engage another ship, a second map screen appears on his or her screen. The two ships are placed on the board, along with obstacles such as whirlwinds, wind gusts and rocks, which affect the movement potential of both ships. Both captains are allowed thirty seconds to choose what action (forward movement, turning, cannon firing, grappling, or no action) to take for each of the next four moves; once time is up, the moves are enacted simultaneously. The "tokens" available to move the ship are proportional to the effectiveness of the sailors. Larger ships may only move three squares in a move, though they can fire on all four.

When one ship has grappled the other, a Swordfight or a Rumbling takes place between the members of both ships, with all players starting the game with unusable garbage blocks determined by the amount of damage their ship took during the movement phase. The side that defeats all opposing fighters receives a portion of the goods on the losing ship.

Economy

Puzzle Pirates features a market economy. Basic resources, such as wood and iron, as well as various herbs and minerals are produced by the game on most islands. Most colonized islands and some uncolonized islands have markets, which sell the local production to the highest bidder; others are harvested by computer-controlled "Merchants" which in turn sail the goods to the highest dockside buy offer (taking cost of delivery and distance into account). Commodities are processed by player-run shops, using player-supplied labour, into refined goods such as swords, ships and rum, or into intermediate items such as cloth or enamel.

Also, to keep a players economy going, most items age. When a certain amount of time passes, the item becomes old, and it disappears completely (except for tops and pants which turn into rags, and swords that turn into sticks) The conditions, in order from newest to oldest is: New, good, old.

With the exception of ships (which may be sunk in only certain circumstances), all items manufactured by players in Puzzle Pirates either decay or are consumed in everyday use. Cannon-balls are shot during battle, rum is drunk during voyages, and swords, mugs and clothes decay through wear-and-tear. This decay results in a steady demand for new items and has a restraining effect on inflation.

Game Gardens

Three Rings Design has also created a site called Game Gardens, which hosts free tools for creating and playing Java games. Using the toolset requires knowledge of Java, but the toolset automates many basic game-related functions. Some Puzzle Pirates players use it to create demonstrations of new puzzle ideas for the game; because the tools are the same as those the designers use, importing a Game Gardens puzzle into Puzzle Pirates would not be difficult.

External links

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