Sailing guide/DeckHand
In this sailing guide we will go over the finer details of being a deck hand on the SS Unsinkable.
Contents
General
As a deck hand, your job is to keep the ship from sinking; primarily by keeping the hull in tip-top shape.
To see the hull's state, you can look overboard during the day. At night, you will need to go overboard to take a look at the hull. On a night with a full moon, you can look overboard like normal without having to go overboard.
Anything related to the hull will require you to go overboard. You need to be tied to the railings of the ship with a rope, so the ship doesn't leave you behind when you are overboard. You can either tie yourself if your adventuring.movement.sailing is high enough, or have someone else tie you. Once you have gone overboard, you will need to board again to climb back into the ship. It is important to always have a look at your rope whenever you board the ship again. Once the rope starts fraying, you will need to untie rope, get rid of it, and tie yourself again with a new rope.
When you are overboard, you can repair the hull, and remove seaweed or ice from the hull. More details in the Dangers section.
Items
A deck hand will need the following items:
- coils of rope
- wooden boards
- iron nails
- carpenter's hammer (or a shipwright's hammer)
- fire bucket (or a battered tin footbath)
Ropes
Anyone planning on going overboard should be tied to the railing of the ship. You need a rope to tie yourself or someone else to the railing. with a rope in hand you can tie <person/me> to railing with rope.
The higher your adventuring.movement.sailing bonus, the longer it will take for your rope to become (more) frayed. A rope has 4 stages of damage:
| stage | description |
|---|---|
| 1 | in excellent condition |
| 2 | a little frayed |
| 3 | somewhat frayed |
| 4 | very frayed |
I would advise to change ropes once it reaches stage 3 damage as to not waste too many ropes. Remember, you also need them to tie down crates.
Shipwright's Hammer
A shipwright's hammer is a very useful tool that can be used to do the following:
- repair the hull, crates, walls, doors
- remove ice from the hull
- remove seaweed from the hull
- break ice on the floor
It cannot be used to do any of the following:
- break doors, tables, driftwood, or the mast to make wooden boards
- cut the kraken's tentacles
- knock out dragons
- put out fire (you will need to use your feet or water)
Emergency Boards
You can use a fire axe to smash certain wooden things to create wooden boards:
- the table in the bridge of the SS Unsinkable
- the doors of the storerooms (do not do this during the search phase)
- the mast (only do this if absolutely necessary)
- driftwood gathered while overboard
Dangers
Hull Damage
The hull has 5 stages of damage:
| stage | description | warning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | is in perfect condition | - |
| 2 | looks a little scuffed up | The hull groans alarmingly. It seems to be creaking a little more than before. |
| 3 | looks rather dented | The hull groans alarmingly. It seems to be creaking a little more than before. |
| 4 | bears the marks of multiple impacts | The hull groans alarmingly. It's taking quite a beating. |
| 5 | looks like it's on the verge of giving up the ghost | The hull groans alarmingly! From the splintering sounds, you think it's on its last legs. |
When the ship hits something that breaks the ship: The hull groans alarmingly! Something, probably an important something, breaks with an distant snap.
Everyone will be informed of the vague state of the hull via a global warning as noted in the table above.
To repair the hull, you need to hold a a shipwright's or carpenter's hammer. Each stage above the first will require a cumulative 1 board and 2 nails to repair; so when it bears the marks of multiple impacts, it will take 3 boards and 6 nails to bring the hull back to perfect condition. A single repair damaged hull with boards and nails command will use up as many boards and nails as possible that you are holding to bring it back to perfect condition. If you are not carrying enough boards and nails to bring it back to perfect condition, it will bring it back up as high as possible.
I advise you not to fix the hull when it only looks a little scuffed up. Every time you go overboard, your rope may become frayed. It is often better to wait until it at least looks rather dented to spare your rope.
If the hull is covered in seaweed or ice, it is better to remove those before you fix the hull. However, if the hull is at least damaged to stage 4, it is better to fix the hull first and then remove the seaweed and/or ice.
I advise deck hands to carry 4 wooden boards and 8 nails at all times. Whenever I return from repairing the hull, I drop every board & every nail and get 4 boards & 8 nails again. That way I know I have enough materials on hand to repair the hull even in its worst state.
Seaweed
Seaweed will do damaged over time. The more seaweed covers the hull, the faster the hull will be damaged. There are 3 stages of seaweed on the hull of the ship:
| stage | description | Warning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | thin covering of glowing dire seaweed | Barely audible but worrying sucking noises, sounding like (a milkshake drinking contest|someone drowning in the Ankh|a crowd of diners at a noodle shop), come from outside the hull. |
| 2 | few strands of glowing dire seaweed | Barely audible but worrying sucking noises, sounding like (a milkshake drinking contest|someone drowning in the Ankh|a crowd of diners at a noodle shop), come from outside the hull. |
| 3 | thick mass of glowing dire seaweed | Faint but worrying sucking noises, sounding like (a milkshake drinking contest|someone drowning in the Ankh|a crowd of diners at a noodle shop), come from outside the hull. |
When the ship hits seaweed the notification is: A wet flumph sounds from the bow as the ship runs into something soft (for once).
You need a sharp weapon (such as a [Marzipan dinner knife]) or the shipwright's hammer to remove seaweed.
Removing seaweed should be your top priority. If left unchecked for even a little while, it can wreak havoc on the hull and become a massive strain on your board and nail supplies.
Seaweed will slowly leave over time if there is ice on the hull of the ship. The more ice, the faster it will leave. However, it is better to remove seaweed quickly yourself instead of letting ice take care of it slowly.
Ice
Unlike seaweed, ice does not damage the ship directly. It will slow down the ship, so it is still advisable to get rid of it whenever possible. Ice can also be a hassle for players (especially wranglers) with lower sailing bonuses.
There are 3 stages of ice on the hull of the ship:
| stage | description |
|---|---|
| 1 | thin layer of sea ice |
| 2 | few patches of sea ice |
| 3 | thick mass of sea ice |
You need to hold a weapon to break the ice. The carpenter's and shipwright's hammer are also weapons, so you can use that instead of holding a different weapon.
Ice can be beneficial: if the hull is covered in seaweed and ice, the ice will remove the seaweed over time.
Hail
Hail is a minor inconvenience that will damage anyone on the upper deck at regular intervals. It is unclear to me if wearing a hat reduces the chance of getting hit by hail, but it wouldn't hurt to wear one in any case.
The best way to overcome this is to bandage yourself, or to drink some healing tea.
Lightning
When the sky shows Peals of thunder and streaks of lightning rend the sky., you are sailing in a thunderstorm. Lightning can strike at any moment in any room on the upper deck (except the bridge), causing fires that can get out of hand if left unchecked.
When lightning strikes, you will get a vague indication of which direction of the boat the lightning struck. It is advisable to move all over the upper deck in search for fires, and put them out as soon as possible. Don't forget to look overboard from time to time. If the hull is too damaged, or if there is seaweed attached to the hull, be sure to fix those first.
A single fire bucket will extinguish smaller fires; larger ones will require multiple bucketfuls of water.
Alternatively, you can carry around a single [battered tin footbath] that you can fill at will and pour over the fire. A footbath hold less water than a water bucket, so it might take more time to extinguish a fire with a footbath than with fire buckets.
I prefer to use a footbath over filled fire buckets. As stated before, I like to carry around 4 boards & 8 nails, which take up 8 of the max 10 carried items. The single footbath leaves me more room to pick up items than multiple fire buckets do. Also, the weight of filled buckets sometimes prevents me from holding other heavy items.
Triggers
| Group | Match | Colour codes | Regular Expression |
|---|---|---|---|
| carpentry_items | (wooden )?boards? | #FF006E | yes |
| carpentry_items | carpenter's hammers? | #FF006E | yes |
| carpentry_items | (iron )?nails? | #FF006E | yes |
| carpentry_items | (coils? of )?rope | #FF006E | yes |
| seaweed | thin covering of glowing dire seaweed | #66FF66 | no |
| seaweed | few strands of glowing dire seaweed | #3BCB4C | no |
| seaweed | thick mass of glowing dire seaweed | #009933 | no |
| ice | thin layer of sea ice | #00FFFF | no |
| ice | few patches of sea ice | #00D1FF | no |
| ice | thick mass of sea ice | #3399FF | no |
| rope | a little frayed | #FF7D7D | no |
| rope | somewhat frayed | #FF514A | no |
| rope | very frayed | #FF0000 | no |
Aliases
| alias | content | example | notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| tcrate | tie $ifarg: crate $*$ $else$ crates $endif$ down with rope; | tcrate or tcrate 1 | to be used in any room with crates |
| trail | tie $*$ to railing with rope; | trail me | to be used on the upper deck railing |
| rhull | overboard; repair damaged hull with boards and nails; board; look rope; | rhull | to be used in any outer room on the upper deck |
| rweed | overboard; cut seaweed with every weapon; cut seaweed with every weapon; cut seaweed with every weapon; cut seaweh with every weapon; cut seaweed with every weapon; board; look rope; | rweed | to be used in any outer room on the upper deck |
| rice | overboard; break ice with every weapon; break ice with every weapon; break ice with every weapon; break ice with every weapon; break ice with every weapon; board; look rope; | rice | to be used in any outer room on the upper deck |
| rcrate | repair damaged crate with boards and nails; | rcrate | to be used in any room that contains a crate |
| rwall | repair damaged wall with boards and nails; | rwall | to be used in outer room below deck |
| rdoor | repair damaged door with boards and nails; | rdoor | to be used in any room with a door |
