Player guide

Supplies

Buying and selling

At the shop you can buy and sell everything your crew needs to be strong and healthy. For the most part you just want to buy food and water, and perhaps sell of some barter goods. You can also buy medicine that you can give to your crew members to increase their health.

The market is a bit different - here you will get an offers, that is often cheaper than the shop. But you cannot control how much of it you want, and if you cannot afford it; too bad. It's a good idea to visit sometimes, buy some barter goods and sell it of at the shop.

Food and water

You and your crew will need both food and water for traveling at sea. A half carton of food and a whole barrel of water for every crew member per week. You and your crew won't die however, but they will refuse to travel any longer. You'll be stranded until you can buy more food and water.

Barter goods

This includes tobacco, rum, porcelain, spices and silk. You don't have any use of these goods, but you will loot a lot of these at sea. You can them sell them at the shop and make some gold.

Ships

If you lose in battle, one of your ships might be sunk. If you only have one ship you are safe. Another reason for having many ships is to be able to have more crew members. And more crew members means harder enemies - and that means more gold!

The third reason is that you will only lose part of your goods when loosing a battle, if you have more than one ship. If you have three ships, you will lose one third of your goods. They will still take all your gold though...

When you start out as a pirate, you will only be able to own three ships. But as your rank get higher, you will be able to own 15 ships.

Different ship types

Cannons

Cannons are needed for battles at sea. It's the amount of manned cannons that controls if you win or lose, and also how powerful ships you will meet. You will need two crew members to control one cannon, which means that if you have 20 cannons, and 30 crew members, you will still only be able to use 15 of them.

Crew members

Purpose of crew members

The only real reason to have crew members is so that they can fight battles with you. To fire a cannon, you'll need two crew members.

They demands things in return for their services. They become less happy when they do boring stuff, like losing battles and traveling the great Caribbean Sea. When they are angry they will refuse to leave port with you.

In order to fix this you have to please them, with food and drinks. You can visit the tavern and buy them some wine perhaps, or give them some of your gold.

You are also responsible for their health. If the health goes to 0 they will not die, but they cannot follow you on your next journey. You can give them medicine after battles.

Getting more crew members

When you win battles at sea some of their crew will offer to join you. The other method is to visit the tavern and speak to the sailors there, they often want to offer their services for free.

Social status

Nations

This game takes place at the Spanish Main, in the Caribbean Sea at the 1600th. There are four nations, battling over the towns. English, French, Spanish and Dutch.

Levels

The level system in this game is pretty simple. You belong to a nation, and for every ship you win over from that nations enemy will raise your level by 1. And if you fight your own nations ships it will be lowered by the same amount. Winning over neutral ships doesn't change your level, but it still meaningful to loot some gold from them.

Titles

Levels doesn't do anything by itself, but you will be judged by the nations governor (At the City Hall) by it. You will get promoted if you are doing a good job. You will then get a reward, and higher titles will let you own more ships, which in turn give access to more crew members, cannons and being able to load more goods. Some would say that the main goal of this game (if you need any) is to reach the highest title.

The different titles

Changing nation

If you are not pleased by your nation you can actually change it. You do this by attacking the enemy of the nation you want to be a citizen of. So if you want to be English, attack a lot of French ships! When you have won over more French ships than over English ships you can get yourself a citizenship. The title you receive depends on your level (which depends on how many more French ships than English ships you have destroyed).

Just to make things clear: If you are a Spanish citizen and have attacked 50 French ships even though this isn't your enemy, and you have not attacked any English ships, you will be an english Admiral at once when you get yourself an english citizenship.

Economy

Getting some gold

The currency in this game is gold, for which you can buy and sell almost anything. You will mostly get money from looting ships at sea, but you can also sell your goods, gamble for it, or fight at the bar.

Oh, there is also treasures to be found! Sometimes when you are winning a battle you will find these. The value can be really high, but they need to be return to the correct Governor.

Saving money

There is a banking system in this game. When you lose a battle at sea, you will lose all your gold, no matter how many ships you've got. It would be impossible to achieve anything if you couldn't save it in a safe place.

You have a bank account that you can put your money into and out of no matter which nation you are in. If you put in 100 dbl in Panama, you can take it out in Port Royale without any trouble.

It's recommended to only have cash when you are in a town, for buying and selling. Before you leave, you should put the rest in your account. There is however a small tax of 5 %. If you put in 100 dbl, you can only get 95 dbl back.

Loans

You can also take a loan if the game are tough on you. You cannot loan more than 10 000 gold. The loans are free of charge, but you cannot add gold to your account until you have payed off your loan.

Traveling

Towns and nations

All existing towns actually existed in the 1600th. The towns nationality varied from year to year though.

English towns: Charles Towne, Barbados, Port Royale, Belize.

French towns: Tortuga, Leogane, Martinique, Biloxi.

Spanish towns: Panama, Havana, Villa Hermosa, San Juan.

Dutch towns: Bonaire, Curacao, St. Martin, St. Eustatius.

You can visit which of these you want, no matter which nationality you belongs to.

Time

Time is measured in weeks in Lost Seas. The time won't go by itself, but depends on your activity in the game. A week will pass when you travel from a town to the Caribbean Sea.

Weather

The weather will change by each passing day at sea, however it won't affect anything at the moment.

Battles at sea

You will find ships from England, France, Spain and Holland. You will also find some pirates. If you want to attack a ship from a particular nation it is suggested that you travel to a town of that nation.

Be careful when attacking ships that have more manned cannons than you have. The is a random factor here, so you can win if the gap isn't too big. But it's really risky! It's the amount of functional cannons that decides if you will lose or not.

You will get a report on how much you won or lost during the battle.