Ship
For a long time, ships were absent from BatMUD, however they have now returned in a far more useful form than before. They have introduced naval battles and allow sailing from continent to continent while offering recovery, almost unlimited space for loots and very expensive "summon chest/teleport without error" feature.
Contents
Overview and Features
Captaining any ship provides you with the ability to build sailor reputation for stat bonuses; this also grants access to a few special areas. Captaining a good ship will tremendously speed up your ability to travel from region to region. Some guilds and backgrounds will also have a much easier time getting around without needing to hike everywhere.
Ships are currently available in six size classes. Melemkor<analytics uacct="UA-3466433-3" ></analytics> dismisses ideas of ships offering place where to store sailor chests thus allowing you to live in ship like real marines did, but it is anticipated that he come around sooner or later. Boats and Sloops are the smallest and relatively useless, but are a good place to learn about how ships work without investing millions of gold. Class three and higher are the expensive luxury vessels, each having certain advantages and disadvantages when compared to the others.
Boat
Boats are the smallest of ships, and can sail on swamps, rivers, and shallow seas, but cannot venture into the deeper oceans. Boats are incredibly slow and can not generally get to anywhere useful. The few real advantages in owning a boat are that you may join the sailors guild, buy incremental improvements rather than forking over the cash for a good ship all at once, enjoy the privileges that only captains have, and perhaps slowly build a little reputation.
Class 1 ships come with one set of sailors' quarters, a helm, and a gangway and supports the following features:
- Helm
- Maximum of one (1) set of sailors' quarters
Sloop
Expanding ships to class two grants them access to the high seas, but they are no longer able to sail swampland. Sloops are not very useful due to their slow speeds, however they are relatively safe from pirates because of the penalties for sinking such a helpless vessel.
Class two ships support the following features:
- Helm
- Crow's nest
- Galley
- Gargo hold
- Captain's cabin
- Maximum of one (1) bookcase
- Two sets of crew quarters
- maximum of two (2) sets of sailors' quarters
- maximum of one (1) set of cannonneers' quarters
Schooner
Schooners are the first of the luxury ships. Their primary advantage is that they have a far faster water speed than any other ship. They can be enhanced with a lounge and some flight capability as well. They can't fly well enough to be useful for overland transport, but dominate in oceanic travel. With a good system of way points, Schooners are the best means for traveling between continents, and to any area which lies near water. Even so, some won't like them because they can't fly well and can't hold a navigation chamber.
Class three ships support the following features:
- Helm
- Crow's nest
- Galley
- Lounge
- Two (2) gargo holds
- Captain's cabin
- Maximum of two (2) bookcases
- Eight (8) sets of crew quarters
- Maximum of three (3) sets of sailors' quarters
- Maximum of three (3) sets of speed magi's quarters
- Maximum of two (2) sets of lift magi's quarters
- Maximum of one (1) set of cannonneers' quarters
- Maximum of one (1) set of defense magi's quarters
Frigate
Though a bit slower than schooners, a well rounded frigate can gain enough lift to sail over all but mountains. Able to support many cargo holds, forges, and a teleportation chamber, Frigates are luxury ships which strongly benefit merchant activities, but are also well enough rounded to be a good generalist ship.
Class four ships support the following features:
- Helm
- Crow's nest
- Galley
- Lounge
- Teleportation chamber
- Five (5) gargo holds
- Maximum of five (5) forges
- Captain's cabin
- Maximum of four (4) bookcases
- Fifteen (15) sets of crew quarters
- Maximum of four (4) sets of sailors' quarters
- Maximum of four (4) sets of speed magi's quarters
- Maximum of four (4) sets of lift magi's quarters
- Maximum of two (2) set of cannonneers' quarters
- Maximum of two (2) set of defense magi's quarters
- Maximum of two (2) set of assault magi's quarters
Warship
Class 5 ships feature significantly larger crew capacity, and focus on reasonably strong combat capabilities while still retaining most luxury features excepting the special forges that Frigates can carry. These are the first ships to be able to fly over mountains, but are slower than class 3 or 4 ships. It is up to personal preference whether a straight shot overland or fast travel via oceanic waypoints is preferable.
Class five ships support the following features:
- Helm
- Crow's nest
- Galley
- Lounge
- Teleportation chamber
- Four (4) gargo holds
- Captain's cabin
- Maximum of three (3) bookcases
- Twentyfour (24) sets of crew quarters
- Maximum of eight (8) sets of lift magi's quarters
- Maximum of five (5) sets of sailors' quarters
- Maximum of five (5) sets of speed magi's quarters
- Maximum of four (4) set of cannonneers' quarters
- Maximum of four (4) set of defense magi's quarters
- Maximum of four (4) set of assault magi's quarters
Dreadnought
Class 6 ships are largely devoted to ship-to-ship combat. They are the slowest ships in the game, and their main advantage is very high capacity for ogre pistols. Even the most skilled merchants are unable to construct this form of ship without special equipment and a great deal of hard work.
Class six ships support the following features:
- Helm
- Crow's nest
- Galley
- Lounge
- Teleportation chamber
- Brig
- Three (3) gargo holds
- Captain's cabin
- Maximum of three (3) bookcases
- Thirty (30) sets of crew quarters
- Maximum of eight (8) sets of lift magi's quarters
- Maximum of six (6) set of cannonneers' quarters
- Maximum of six (6) set of defense magi's quarters
- Maximum of six (6) set of assault magi's quarters
- Maximum of five (5) sets of sailors' quarters
- Maximum of five (5) sets of speed magi's quarters
Modules & upgrades
There are a large number of upgrades for ships; after all, a ship without any crew or abilities is little more than a big bucket floating in the water. It is from all of the many items that can be added to the basic hulls that ship is truly born.
There are a few places to go when looking to upgrade your ship, but the two primary places to look into when wanting to improve a vessel are Silverlake and to have some work done in a shipyard.
Silverlake has a hodgepodge of shops which offer a wide variety of special ship related upgrades. Located in the realm of Lucentium, Silver Lake is unreachable except by ships. Swimmers are barred entrance due to the forcefield which surrounds it. Be careful to sail fully into the dock, otherwise you might jump into the forcefield when disembarking and be painfully banished, rendering you unable to reach your ship.
The shops in Silverlake vary both in how often they are open and in their prices. All of them have a base price for their goods, but what they are willing to sell for on a particular day depends on a number of factors. The shop you should probably watch out for is the forge shop, since prices there can vary from the base of 50k to over 100k. You must dock your ship for the shopkeepers to be able to add in most of the features they sell.
The Merchant added features, which tend to be the bigger hull upgrades, require both someone skilled in shipbuilding and who has completed the required merchant quests, most of which require detailed knowledge of the game. Factor in the price of materials, and some of these upgrades can wind up costing a fair deal, especially if they are relatively rare. Most of the merchant added features don't carry many benefits on their own, but provide space for further upgrades.
Captain's cabin
Every captain deserves a cabin, and the ones a merchant can build for you will provide a place for a dimensional vault, bookcases, and elixir cabinets.
Bookcase
Bookcases are located in a Captain's Cabin and they store the maps that are used for the autocruise feature. They used to be limited to 32 maps apiece, but this number was raised with the expansion of the realms to 60. To get new blank maps, you need to insert (spell) scrolls into the bookcase. Available for 57,440-66,920 gold each. You can also have one removed for 1,510-1,673 gold.
Dimensional vault
Bob Stance will install one of these special vaults in any ship that is at least Class 3 and has a Captain's cabin. They function as normal chests, except only the captain can ever open them. At a cost of (100k * number of current slots + 100k), this is a secure but very expensive way to permanently store items onboard a vessel.
Elixir Cabinet
These cabinets store special elixirs which help heal or boost your crew. These elixers are going to be fairly important for anyone who gets involved in combat. Each cabinet has space for ten elixers, and up to four of these cabinets can be stacked in a Captains Cabin. 77,850-84,3000 gold.
Stash
Every ship has a hidden safe in the captain's cabin which contains a portion of all the fees spent summoning it. Ships without cabins still have stashes, they just can't be accessed. This means if you don't care about dimensional vaults, bookcases, or elixir cabinets, you can make your ship invulnerable to stash robbery. Stash money is stored in highcoins, and if there are large amounts of it, the morale of a Merchant Navy ship is raised. Merchant Navy captains can visit their guild room to have additional money deposited directly into their stashes, minus a percentage fee. Pirates who disable a ship are able to plunder the stash, which is the only way money can be removed from it. The percentage fee removed from stash deposits is transparent for the most part, it exists so that merchants can't use the stash in a level 2 ship as a cheap and 100% effective way to transform all their gold into highcoins with the help of a pirate friend.
Cargo hold
Most other rooms on a ship can't safely hold items. You can't drop items in some, and in others they will tend to fall overboard. Each cargo hold is to carry 1000 kg worth of materials.
Forges
Class 4 ships can have mobile forges and workbenches placed in their cargo holds, to the limit of one forge per hold. They take up 250kg of hold space, but can contain 500kg worth of materials. All of the forges can be bought from Silverlake for 47,850-123,500 gold. If you would like to rearrange their placement in your cargo holds, it will cost one tenth of the current forges cost.
Crew quarters
Adding in quarters for crew to live in is required before you can actually hire them. Each of the types of crew gets its own style of living area, and each separate quarters allows up to five of that crew type to be hired.
Sailors
Cannonneers
Speed magis
Lift magis
Defence magis
Assault magis
Crows Nest
The crows nest grants an enhanced radius to the 'map' command to those who stand in it. This bonus radius starts out at only one, but can go up significantly if the ship is flying high in the air.
Telescope
Telescopes can somewhat improve the range of your crow's nest. 8,950 gold at Silver Lake.
Galley
A galley is where you can store provisions in drink cabinets, food lockers, and water barrels. The food and booze stored in those items saves.
Drink cabinet
A Drink Cabinet can be added to a galley, and allows you to store saveable booze over boot. 10,000-11,130 gold.
Food locker
The term "Chill Chest" is fairly accurate here, Food Lockers can be added to a galley and allow you to store saveable foodstuffs over boots on board your ship. 10,000-11,130 gold.
Water barrel
Sold at the bakery for 10,000-10,620 gold, these barrels can be placed in any galley and provide a nearly inexhaustible supply of water for your voyages.
Deck
Regaldes of the size or type, each ship has a deck.
Gangplank
The gangway which all ships come with can be upgraded so that it is sturdy enough to be extended when the ship is not anchored. This permits any golems on board to force undesirables to walk the plank. 47,500 gold.
Helm
On bigger ships the stern part is usually levelled. This area is called the bridge and it is the command base of the ship. From there the ship is controlled and commands are given. On bridge is located helm that is used to steer the ship.
Informative console
A basic helm can be upgraded with a special console. This feature will allow you to get some information on the welfare of the ship and crew.
Console levers
The console can be further upgraded with controls from Silverlake, which allow a ships air/water speed and height to be reduced, if for some reason someone would want to do that. Air and water speed controls can be purchased for 24,930-25,000 gold, the altitude control costs 37,935-37,500 gold.
Scanner
Sometimes monsters will drop unusual emerald discs. These discs can be attached to a ship's helm, enhancing it with the ability to scan for other nearby ships. Emerald discs come in ten sizes and must be attached in order from smallest to largest. Your maximum scanning radius is equal to the number of discs installed in your helm. Scanning repeatedly will give either a reduced radius or fail entirely, depending on how quickly you try again. Characters with low wisdom may have trouble attaching higher level discs.
Emerald disc sizes:
- This tiny disc is little more than a...
- This disc is really a tiny ring...
- This disc is really a very small ring...
- This disc is really a small ring...
- This disc is really a fair-sized ring...
- This disc is really a fairly large ring...
- This disc is really a large ring...
- This disc is really a very large ring...
- This disc is really a huge ring...
- This disc is really a massive ring...
Landing gear
Once your ship has lift magi and is able to fly, you might find it useful for it to be able to land. Landing gear gives your ship the ability to set down nearly anywhere it can get to. The Silver Lake smithy can fix up any class 3 or better ship with some gear for the price of 105,000 gold.
Rescue equipment
Carried at the Silverlake helm shop for 37500 gold, rescue equipment can be added to any class 2 or better ship, enabling the officer at the helm to have people outside the vessel pulled onboard after a brief wait.
Ship's bell
For 25,000 gold you can have the smithy at Silver Lake add a nice bell to your ship. The practical use of this is unknown, but it may call crew to combat or something similar in the future.
Lounge
Lounges provide a place to rest, and at Silverlake you can buy healing crystals, fireplaces, and firewood racks assist in your recovery from exertion. A fully stocked lounge isn't quite as good as a player city crystal combined with a ranger's campfire, but they are still pretty effective.
Crystal sphere
Enchanted spheres can be added to lounges to help with your spellpoint and to a lesser extent, endurance point regain. They need no fuel, and give better spell points than a player city crystal, but lesser endurance points. Crystals work best when accompanied by a lit fireplace. 37,000-40,000 gold.
Fireplace
Lounges can be equipped with fireplaces to speed the recovery of hit points and to a lesser extent endurance points for all those in the room. Many wooden items can be dumped in to instantly catch fire. The strength and duration of the fire depends on how much wood has been added to it, but even just a handful of torches will last a decent while. Fireplaces work best when accompanied by a regenerative crystal. 37-40k.
Firewood Rack
Firewood racks offer a long term storage solution for firewood. Place wooden items heavier than 1kg in this to have them converted into saveable fuelwood for a fireplace. Just stoke to add more wood to a fire. 14,805-15,000 gold.
Ogre Pistol
Ogre pistols are cannons, which when combined with cannoneer crew and shot form the primary offensive force of most ships. Beware that they are prone do misfiring, which can have unpleasant consequences for your ship and crew. They cost in the range of 25-50k gold on any given day at Silverlake.
Teleportation chamber
This provides a couple advantages for class four and higher ships. First, it offers a room onboard your ship where it is possible to raise the dead and use transportation magic (excepting dimension door). Second, it permits you to use the goto ship spell to reach your vessel, and allows you to reach other vessels with teleportation chambers much more easily.
Note that these chambers are the vulnerable points of your ship, anyone with the spell goto ship can get onboard, so long as both the player and the ship are in the outerworld or in the same room. You better have a quicksilver golem with a defined friends list if you have this module.
Church
You may peer through the church exit. From Silverlake for 33k-71k.
Ferry
You may peer through the ferry exit. From silverlake for ~45k.
Home
You cannot peer through your home exit. From Silverlake for 33k-71k.
Brig
A jail on ship.
Unrestricted upgrades
There are couple upgrades that that can be placed on any module.
Golems
Ship golems act as guards, their purpose is to toss people overboard via a Gangplank. Their ability at blocking an enemy from moving, speed of tossing, and ability to detect intruders are based on their material. Golems will never toss unless a friends list is defined for them and the character in question is not on the friends list, it is even safe to have aura of hate on while in the same room as one. Stone golems are inept and weak, whereas quicksilver golems are durable, toss people nearly instantly and can see invisible. Golems, like normal crew, do essentially no damage in combat, nearly any character can destroy your entire crew given enough time to wear down their hit points. Golems must follow a path of upgrades, beginning at stone, and moving to iron, then steel, then quicksilver. Golems require that you have deposited 100kg of whatever material they will be made of before they can be made. Golems can only be placed in one type of room, either deck, transport chamber, or cargo holds, and which room the golem shop supports varies whenever it's open, which isn't all that often. Stone golems cost from 53k-100k and each upgrade costs another 53k-100k, not counting the cost of material.
Furniture
Aside from the descriptive items you can add into ship rooms for free, Silverlake has a shop that sells furniture that can be added to various ship rooms. The buyer selects the type of item, it's quality, and the materials involved and then can bolt the furniture in rooms that support it once it has been made. To the best of knowledge they are only useful for show. Prices range roughly from 8k for the shoddiest work to 30k for extremely fancy items.