Starting out
------------
Players begin the game with a small ship and 8 crew. Eventually, they may
conquer/colonize land and may command as many ships and crew as their
command points allow.

The initial ship has a capacity of 10 tons of cargo/passengers and travels
at a speed of 25 miles per day at normal efficiency. It supports a crew of
up to 15 and will not function with less than 5.

The player will begin with no legal record and will have citizenship in the
nation of their choice. They start with 100r in their pocket and 250 days
worth of generic rations in the hold. The crew is armed with 4 pistols and
8 knives. The ship has no large guns.

Game interface
--------------
The game may be played from any graphical web browser with frames support.

A menu will occupy a small frame to the left. All information and player
input will occur in the main frame.

Players will be shown numerous simple maps. These will looks something
like what I have thrown together at: <a
href='http://simud.org/~ammon/map.php'>http://simud.org/~ammon/map.php</a>. Of
course, the actual maps we use in the game should hopefully be much nicer
to look at - with maps of ship surroundings being cropped to circles.

<img src='http://simud.org/~ammon/map.php'>

In addition to being able to view the maps of each of their ships' visible
surroundings, players will also be able to view a composite map displaying
the entire world as they have explored and purchased charts.

In addition to map screens, players will have access to the complete log of
every one of their ships' activities as well as a financial record of where
all of their loot is distributed (some money on ships, some in port). Ship
logs survive conquest and sale of the vessel and will never lose entries.

Maps will hopefully be made clickable as imagemaps - selecting a ship gives
details on the ship, selecting an island gives details on the island.

When checking details on individual port towns (on either large world chart
or local map), players will be shown a listing of services and good prices
as they stood when the player last visited.

The game world's clock ticks at a rate of one game day for every real world
hour. Players may issue commands whenever they feel like it and check back
later on to see the results. Day and night cycle normally within these 60
minute days, but the only real impact of night is that it reduces
visibility.

Normal visibile range for the average ship is 7 miles. At night, this might
be reduced to as few as three miles. Purchasing spyglasses for ships and
outfitting them with crows nests will increase visibility by as much as 20
miles during the day and 15 at night (depending on glass quality).

Normal gun range is 1/2 mile. Some guns may fire further, up to 2 miles.
Hand arms may only be used from within boarding range (1/50 mile or roughly
100 feet). Map coordinates are stored as floating points accurate to 0.01
miles (or 50 ft).

Ship positions update every game hour - or every 2.5 rl minutes. Since cron
jobs can't be made with accuracy greater than one minute, the game clock
will run as a very simple daemon process. The web interface will be able to
check if the daemon is running, if not, it will warn players that the game
is paused.

When assigning ship heading, the player will be presented with a 16-pointed
compass. If more accurate headings are desired than this, they may specify
a heading in degrees.

Ship crews
----------
Crews have shared health, morale, and experience values. When hiring new
crew, they are typically healthy with average moralle and no experience.
This will dillute the crew's effectiveness. Likewise, transferring crew
between ships and controlled properties will affect these values
accordingly.

Health is a composite of three categories: wounds, disease, and hunger. Each
of these values counts against 30% of the health number. Thus, a crew that
is starving but otherwise unafflicted will operate at 70% health and a crew
that is hungry and afflicted with scurvy will operate at only 40% health.

Each ship's efficiency is measured in three categories: sailing, gunnery,
and boarding (melee combat). Different equipment affects these values as
do the crew numbers. Efficiency may fluxuate between 50% and 200%. If it
ever drops below 50%, that particular ship function becomes impossible. If
it ever exceeds 200%, it is capped.

Health must be maintained for maximum efficiency - if it drops below 100%,
efficiency suffers a penalty. Normal morale is 50% - below that there is a
penalty, and above that there is a bonus to efficiency. Normal experience
is zero - anything above there is a bonus.

Sailing may be improved by purchasing better ships and by upgrading and
repairing those one has. At normal efficiency, the ship is able to travel at
full speed. At 200% efficiency, the ship will travel at half again normal
speed. At half efficiency, the ship will travel at half normal speed.

Gunnery may be improved by purchasing better guns (both for the ship and for
the crew). Ships that have been ordered to board other vessels will fire a
single volley before boarding. It is also possible to instruct ships with
good guns to rely on gunnery and completely disable a ship before boarding.
It is possible to accidentally destroy a ship when shooting it. High
efficiency makes for more precision damage inflicted on the enemy vessel
and less danger of sinking it when you meant to eventually board.

Boarding skill is improved by purchasing better melee weapons for the crew.
It is also the skill most impacted by experience - and is the only way in
which crew actually earn experience. The boarding number is used both in
offense and in defense of the ship. High efficiency means lower fatalities
on your side and faster disabling of enemy crews.

Crews must be paid. There is an initial cost of acquisition plus a very
minimal cost per month to maintain loyal troops. The more you choose to pay
your troops, the higher their morale will be, but money can only buy so
much loyalty. It is impossible to buy more than 25% morale with high
wages.

Sailing
-------
Giving orders to a ship is typically a matter of selecting the ship from
the menu and directing it to sail to a given set of coordinates. Optionally,
you may also instruct a ship to follow another vessel (which must be near
by for this to work) or you may give a vessel a heading and a speed at which
to travel.

Initially, all travel will occur at the ship's optimal speed. Later on, I
will likely add wind and currents to make things more interesting. Likewise,
all ships will initially be able to change course immediately but I will
eventually add code that makes it take time to turn a ship around.

In the event that a ship you are following gets far enough away, you will
stop following and will simply continue sailing in the same direction until
other orders are given. We might allow this behavior to be set on a
ship-by-ship basis, either continue sailing or stop. Ideally, we will keep
the ship's previous orders and simply revert to them.

A group of ships under your command may be instructed to sail together by
telling the lead vessel to travel at a speed slow enough for the others to
follow. By following an allied ship, a ship assumes that they are part of
some sort of mutually assistive group and will behave accordingly.

Docking at port is simply a matter of telling the ship to dock. The island
at which to stop must be visible to the ship in question. There is no danger
of crashing or damaging a ship while docking. In fact, there's no danger of
crashing a ship at all. Two ships will never collide, and there are no
islands large enough that they may not simply be sailed around.

Legal standing
--------------
Attacking members of the local authority will result in reduced legal
standing (ie, criminal record) and attacking enemies of the locals will
improve legal standing (ie, good citizenship, military likes you).

Attacking neutral parties will decrease local standing if there are any
witnesses (ie, any other ships or ports within a reasonable distance).
Attacking known criminals will increase local standing if there are any
witnesses.

In areas where you are classified as a criminal, you will be refused
docking rights and are elligible be attacked by the local navy. If you are
sufficiently notorious, the local navy will attack you on sight and will
call for reinforcements from all surrounding areas.

If you are classified as a good friend of the local government, you will
be allowed to dock at military bases (in addition to civilian harbors) and
might be assisted by the local navy when attacked. If you are sufficiently
regarded as a hero, the local navy will grant you escorts if so requested
and will come to your aid immediately if attacked.

Legal standing slowly bleeds into neighboring areas of similar government,
and if left alone for long enough, will gravitate toward neutrality from
infamy and toward general citizenship from hero standing.

Command and fame
----------------
Command points are earned by conquest, exploration and missions. Each ship
has a command requirement and every 100 sailors (after the first 100)
requires 1 command point to control. Command points may be equated with
experience levels and fame points with experience points.

Every conquest earns a number of fame points based on the difficulty of the
fight and the command level of the adversary. Capturing a vessel, letting it
go, and sinking it all result in the same amount of fame - which is 10
points for a vessel of the same size as your own commanded by a player at
your same level of command. Any conquest will always result in at least 1
fame point and (in theory) there is no cap to the amount of fame possible
from a single conquest (rowboat vs battlecruiser, aw yeah).

Every new port one of your ships stops at earns you fame based on the
distance from your home port (1 point per 100 miles). A neighboring island
would earn a minimum of 1 point of fame. There is no cap on the fame earned
this way either, each ship may earn fame points exactly once for stopping at
each port - thus captured ships will earn you less fame as they have already
likely visited many of the local ports.

The typical mission will pay 1 point of fame regardless of the financial
reward involved. Some missions might pay heavily in fame to compensate for
a low monetary reward, but these will likely be implemented later.

A player begins the game with one command point. The cost for a second point
is 25 fame. The cost for each additional point increases by 25 each time,
thus:
       Command     Fame
       -------     ----
       1           0
       2           25  (+25)
       3           75  (+50)
       4           150 (+75)
       5           250 (+100)
       etc...

There is no cap to command levels, and there is no real benefit other than
the ability to control more ships and crew. Eventually certain missions
might only be made available to people of certain command levels.

In addition to combat and exploration, missions will also reward fame
points. Thus it is perfectly possible to build oneself a fleet without
engaging in piracy at all.

Money and goods
---------------
Money comes in pieces of eight (and royals - 8 pieces). Prices will be given
in royals and parts: 4r 1p. Money will not be considered to have any mass,
and thus will be subject to magical rounding - get 37 pieces and you will
discover that your purse actually contains 4r 5p.

Money must be present to be used - it's hard to pay your crew with cash that
they can't see and feel. Of course, keeping all of your money on ships is
also problematic as it is the first thing to disappear when you are boarded.

Thus, in every port town, it is possible to stash money. This stuff is 100%
safe from being plundered, but is also completely inaccessible unless you
sail back into town and pick it up.

Additionally, treasure maps might be brought into play that show the
location of abandoned stashes of loot. These will point to random islands
and will allow the owner of the map access to the stash.

In addition to money, there are 4 categories of portable goods. These are
food, equipment and tools, trade goods, and material resources. Different
ports produce different goods and will purchase different goods. Prices
fluxuate across the ocean as is to be expected.

Different sorts of food have different benefits. Some help fight off
disease, some help heal wounds, some improve moralle. All food helps fight
off hunger (:P). Food must be placed in the ship's kitchen if the crew is
to eat it - otherwise, it is kept safe in the hold for future trading.

In the event that food in the kitchen runs out, the crew will not hesitate
to raid the hold, and they always start with the good stuff.

There are numerous sorts of weapons and tools available to outfit one's
crew. These range from guns and bows and swords of different sizes and
quality to hammers, axes, and saws for repairing damaged ships. Each item
that is usable by the crew will be automatically used by them when the time
is right and they have appropriate orders.

Trade goods are items that exist only to be bought low and sold high.
Different towns will produce and purchase these goods. The transport and
sale of this sort of stuff is the basis for the entire game economy.

Material resources are also produced by towns but will not be bought by
npc's. They tend to be expensive to purchase and inexpensive to produce.
They are used to build and repair cities and ships.

Coffee, Sugar, Chocolate, Corn, Oranges, Salt, Oil, Wheat, Rice, Vinegar,
Wine, Beer, Vegetables, Beef, Poultry, Pork, Fish, Molasses, Rum.

Copper, Silver, Gold, Iron, Lead, Gunpowder, Wood, Stone, Cotton, Wool, Silk.

Cities
------
In addition to being able to purchase portable goods in cities, one may also
hire crew, check gossip, and buy services. Towns produce goods on a regular
cycle. Most goods are produced either daily or weekly. Some goods might be
more rare or difficult to produce and thus will take longer.

Each city produces a number of able-bodied idiots every week. These
strapping young lads are available for hiring as ship crew. The cost to hire
crew depends on the size of the town. Larger towns offer more lads for less
money. The average price to hire one sailor is 10r, with it dropping to 5r
in big cities and rising as high as 20r in small villages.

Goods prices fluxuate within towns. If a large number of a particular item
are allowed to sit stagnant in the warehouse, the price is going to drop.
Likewise, goods that are not produced locally will be purchased for very
high prices.

Certain cities will have shipyards where new vessels may be purchased and
damaged ships may be repaired. Some shipyards might also offer upgrades.

Players will eventually be able to conquer cities and direct their growth
and development, but I am not planning on implementing this in the first
iteration of the game - thus, I am not wasting time designing city growth
just yet.

Missions
--------
At dock, you may ask around to see if any missions are available. These are
generally of the UPS variety, someone wants something delivered to another
port and will pay upon delivery. Some missions might involve combat, someone
wants you to sink/capture/plunder something. Once the game is underway,
other mission types might be implemented.

Goods being transported for missions count against ship cargo space and may
not be gotten rid of except by completing or abandoning the mission (which
decreases fame). Abandoning missions involving transport of passengers will
result in an exceptionally stiff penalty.

If you are boarded and mission goods are stolen you suffer the normal fame
penalty for abandoning the mission in addition to the penalty for having
been successfully boarded.

Stolen mission goods will either be converted into normal saleable goods or
will be classified as generic plunder that must be taken to a fence. In the
event that the stolen goods are human passengers, they will offer you the
normal fare just to be released at the nearest dock - or will offer double
the original fare to be taken to their intended destination.

Combat
------
When two ships encounter each other, nothing happens. You must specifically
instruct your ship to follow and then attack another vessel.

There are two different modes of attack which I have alluded to earlier. You
may either call for a bombardment or a boarding of the enemy vessel. In a
bombardment, your ship will attempt to shoot the other boat until it is
disabled. At which point, your sailors will board and finish the job. In a
regular boarding attack, you will fire a single volley of shots at the other
ship to soften it up and will then perform the majority of the violence in
person.

Bombardments may accidentally sink ships you meant to plunder, and in the
event that the enemy ship has better guns than you... can be messy. In a
boarding attack, you can avoid the majority of the potential damage from an
enemy's guns and hope that your sailors are better fighters than his.

In either event, it is possible to lose your ship when attacking.

Upon capturing a ship, you have three options. If you have sufficient crew
and command points, it is possible to commandier the vessel and add it to
your fleet. If you do not take the ship, you can either leave it dead in
the water (captured ships tend to be either disabled or incredibly short on
able crew) or kill the remaining crew and sink it.

Stranded ships may be rescued if they survive long enough.

Because it might take time to catch up to the enemy ship and attack it, or
because the enemy might lose when attacking you... ships need to have some
standing orders.

Options for standing combat orders are pretty simple. Ships may be
instructed what to do with captured vessels (commandier, release, burn)
and what to do in the event of an attack.

Possible responses to an attack are ignoring the attacker and continuing to
sail to your destination, fighting back with guns, or turning and attempting
to board them back. If you attempt to run away but are disabled, your crew
will still attempt to fight back in the event that you are boarded.

If a ship in your convoy is attacked, you will automatically perform your
response action as if your vessel was the one under attack. Thus, a group
of three gunboats set to bombard upon being attacked will all fire if one
is attacked.

Likewise, if a ship in your convoy attacks, you will assist using your
attack response settings. Thus, in the event that one of the three gunboats
attempts a boarding attack, it will only be able to do so once the other two
stop their bombardment.

In the event that one ship in a group is set to avoid combat, they attempt
to do so if at all possible. Thus, if two gunboats are escorting a merchant
vessel (set to run) and one of the gunboats is attacked, both will turn to
fight while the cargo ship will break formation and run away. If the cargo
ship were attacked, it would try to run while the other boats defended it.

If a friendly ship (not a member of the convoy, but an allied 3rd party) is
present for a fight, they will join in halfway through the battle. Assisting
friendly ships will generally not ever board the attacker but will just
bombard it into oblivion. Thus, in the event that a naval ship helps defend
you from an attacker and disables them, you still have the option of
boarding it yourself.

Fights end when either the victim has outrun the attacker or when the
attacker has disabled the victim's ship and crew. Not everyone need be dead,
they fight to exhaustion.

Of course, all of this math is calculated in one big batch and is reported
to those involved. There is no delay in combat except for the possibility
that you might have to wait for the two ships to approach each other.

Nations and navies
------------------
There will be 8 different nations that control all of the game's 256
islands. Initially, all nations will be equally powerful with 32 islands
each, 8 of which will be military bases. The world will likely grow as the
game expands, these numbers are just for the first round or two of play.

Each base will start out situated at the center point of 4 adjacent islands.
The three civilian ports will be dependant upon the naval base for defense.

Every week, naval bases will produce one new ship. These computer-controlled
ships will distribute themselves evenly among the islands under local
protection, with a double share being taken by the base itself. Every 6th
ship will be set up to patrol duty between the islands.

When the game begins, we will start out with exactly 6 ships per base, thus
there will be one patrolling the waters near every civilian port, two at
every naval base, and one running a circuit of the four islands.

The distribution of new ships will fill in any gaps. So, supposing a base
has grown to control 24 ships (which means 4 per civilian port) and one of
the protected islands is attacked, destroying two of its ships. The next two
ships to be produced by the base will be assigned to the weak island.

In the event of conflicting interest, the base itself has first priority on
new production, followed by islands, followed by patrol duty.

If a base is attacked, all patrol ships will be recalled to assist in the
defense. In the event that all patrol and base ships are destroyed, all
ships defending civilian outposts will be recalled. In the event that all
of those ships are destroyed as well, the neighboring nation most closely
aligned with the players involved in the capture will take over and will
send a small fleet (6-12) ships to protect their new interests.

The final decision as to which nation receives the spoils may be made by
the players - a special form will be sent to them on which they may vote.
In the event that no consensus is reached by the form within one week of
game time, the base will resume production of its own vessels and will
attempt to fight off the conquerors - under its original flag.

Bases will typically not keep more than 4 or 5 ships around. When a base
hits 6 ships, they will gather a number of their supported ships (dropping
the base down to 4, islands and patrols down to 2 each). This new cluster of
ships will be sent to conquer the nearest enemy island.

If the invading fleet successfully captures the new island, it will shift
ownership and the remains of the fleet will be distributed back among the
base's territory.

NPC Merchants
-------------
Every civilian port with a shipyard also has the potential to produce ships
of their own, for merchant purposes. These ships are produced much more
slowly - at a rate of one ship every two to four weeks (depending on town
size and wealth).

Merchant vessels will load up with the goods that are least expensive and
in greatest surplus in their home port and will set sail for the nearest
allied port that is currently purchasing the goods at a higher price.

The ships will then repeat the procedure by stocking up on whatever they
can afford at the new port and will sail to wherever they can make a small
profit. We will allow these ships to cheat and look at the underlying db
entries on the subject.

After one year at sea (15 days rl time), merchant ships will turn for home
and will unload their goods into the local economy before setting sail
again.