Otherwhen

Petty Officer Lesson 4: Officer Responsibility

The final Petty Officer lesson be a discussion of the responsibilities of being an officer. Read this lesson carefully and be prepared to answer questions about it.

Ye be encouraged to read Master and Commander (aka Officer 101). Please note that Master and Commander is just a whirlwind overview of being an officer. Ye are not expected to understand most of what it says at this point in yer training.

Reread Pirate Etiquette, paying particular attention to the Officers section.

OFFICER BULLETIN BOARD
When ye first get on a ship that ye want to command, always go to the Officer Bulletin Board (sometimes called the officer's notes). Ye will find it on the helm (steering wheel); it be the last icon when ye clicks the helm. The notes should tell ye who owns the boat, what the restock levels be, and whether the owner gives ye permission to borrow the boat. Sometimes it will say things like "Please dock at Turtle when ye be finished." This is so the owner can easily find his boat again. If ye have a message fer the owner of the boat, just edit the notes, putting yer message at the end of them.

CHECKING THE HOLD
The second thing ye do is check the hold. Be there enough rum and shot (small cannonballs) fer yer voyage? Fer a sloop on a short run, 15 fine rum and 15 shot be enough most of the time. 20 and 20 be better. Fer a long voyage, or where ye be porting at islands that don't sell rum or shot, get a lot more. If ye plan to do serious pillaging then 100 or more shot would be wise, but fer yer first few trips ye won't be firing the cannons. To check the hold, click it and then Inspect the Hold.

If ye see a lot of expensive cargo aboard, then do not borrow the boat even if the officer's notes gives ye permission.

If the hold be badly understocked, then report it to both the owner and to Lord Kalvan. An officer can tell who used the boat last and didn't stock it by checking the hold's log (View Vessel Records). The person responsible fer the last divvy is also responsible fer restocking. A Junior Officer who repeatedly fails to restock a ship he doesn't own himself will be demoted to Petty Officer fer at least a week.

RESTOCKING
Officers on borrowed ships get the restocking share into their pocket, and then the interface that lets them buy rum and shot takes the poe directly from their pocket.

Officers on their own ships, and Fleet Officers on any ships, get the restocking share left in the ship's coffers. After a divvy, normally all the coffer poe will be spent on rum and shot. If there isn't enough poe to restock to the correct levels, then it be the responsibility of the officer in command of the ship to pay out of his own pockets. To put more poe in the coffers, click Inspect the Hold and then Deposit on the right.

MAPS
The rule in Otherwhen crew be that if ye need a map and find a ship that has two copies of that map, then ye be allowed to take the older of the two copies. If ye win a map from a brigand, then ye may put it in yer pocket, but normally it be left on the ship ye were using or moved to our crew map library, the Greedy Piranha on Beta. The owner of a boat that has duplicate maps be allowed to sell one of those maps, providing the crew has other copies.

The Greedy Piranha on Beta is our map library. If ye need a map look there first. If ye find the one ye need, then go ahead and take it. We have so many ships that our maps are always dusting on us. If ye have duplicates, tis nice to put them on the Greedy Piranha.

A shipyard stall or shop will sell maps from the island where it is to a directly connected island, usually for about 100 poe.

ATTACKING
Until ye pass the Junior Officer lesson about attacking, do not attack any ships. Tis best to not attack human ships at all until ye be very good at battle nav, and then ye have to be careful not to annoy our allies. Arranging a duel with another Otherwhen officer be encouraged though.

DIVVY THE BOOTY
When ye reach port, the booty needs to be divvied first thing. Find the booty chest, and click on it. Ye can inspect the chest if ye be not sure that there be any booty in it. If there be booty, then ye click the last icon on the booty chest. Normally ye just click the default divvy (Submit to Vote). Bots get no share of the booty. The restocking share should be spent restocking. Don't down anybody's share unless he either left in the midst of a battle or had a straight vertical line in the melee. It will only allow ye to down a jobber's share one battle, but ye can zero yerself out completely if the run was bad and ye want to give yer jobbers a bit more poe.

COFFERS
The money in the coffers is there fer restocking the ship. Don't take it out fer yerself, unless ye be the owner of the boat. If there be poe left over after restocking, and either rum or shot be cheap at the port where ye be docked, then buy extra. Otherwise just leave it in the boat fer the owner.

ABANDONING A SHIP AT SEA
If ye can possibly help it, don't abandon a ship at sea. If ye notice one of the Otherwhen ships as being abandoned at sea, ye can either try to rescue it or just let it wander to port on its own.

A ship abandoned at sea will autoport to the island it left after about 30 minutes. If abandoned between league points, it will likely be attacked at least three times. Each time it is attacked (and it will lose of course) it loses at least 25% of the what be in the booty chest, and 10% of what be in the hold. Adding this to the fact that the ship was obviously not restocked after the voyage, the owner will be understandably upset.

A ship abandoned at a league point does not appear to get attacked. If ye really have to abandon the ship, head fer the nearest league point first, and make a note on the officer's bulletin board promising to restock as soon as possible. When I tried this, the poe in the booty chest disappeared, but the contents of the hold were not touched.

Abandoning a ship at sea without an excellent reason (power outage??? family member needed to be taken to hospital emergency room?) be grounds fer demotion as well as ye having to pay to restock the ship (up to 2000 poe fer a sloop).

Note: If somebody is stalking yer ship (trying to repeatedly PvP ye) and ye can make it to a league point, then it's a good idea to either yell fer help from the flag or else just abandon the ship.

After satisfactorily discussing these topics, ye will be given rank of Officer, title of Midshipman, and we will call ye a Junior Officer. At this point ye do not have permission to take a ship out by yerself even if ye own yer own ship.

Now ye be ready fer the Junior Officer Training Lessons.

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