DECKHAND

Deckhands are WORKERS that a ship captain hires to help run a ship. They
repair, pump, douse, control sails, and shoot guns. Deckhands will only
fire guns at SERPENTS never at other ships. They will not fight. When
they run into an enemy, they run and hide until they feel it is safe. The
only way a deckhand can die is if hit by incoming shots or if the ship
sinks.

There is a limit to how many deckhands you may hire. The maximum is the
larger of: ship tonnage / 10, or the number of guns the ship has.

Deckhand is a WORKER skill, just like mining and farming. Workers get better
at skills as they do them. When you hire deckhands, you have no choice about
their skill. You automatically hire the best-skilled workers. Deckhands cost
gold per real minute, depending on their skill rating. When you dock they
automatically get paid out of the ship's clan account.

HIRING: The captain of the ship must be on the ship with the ship docked.
"job hire 5 deckhand" will hire 5.

FIRING: Dock the ship and use the job command to fire all of your workers.
"job fire x deckhand" where x is how many. Do not leave workers on your
ship, you WILL be charged per minute, even if docked.

NOTE on ManOWar and Zarmonger class ships you cannot fire your deckhands,
you must dismiss them via SHIP DISMISS DECKHANDS and then again to recall
them. On these ships deckhands are hired permanently.

MANAGING: The ship captain simply gives %'s for each task. For instance
the captain may want 75% repairing, 20% dousing, and 5%pumping. The
captain sets these %'s via the job manage command:

The deckhand tasks are:
Repairing Dousing Guns Pumping Sails

Examples:
If you want 100 % repairing:
job m d r 100
If you want 80% repairing and 20% pumping
job m d r 80 p 20

You can state one task, two, three, or all of them. You basically state as
many task %'s as you want and what is not stated is set to zero.

Everytime a captain changes the %'s, all deckhands reevaluate themselves
and their fellow deckhands as they decide who will do what. All of this
happens automatically. Basically the captain adjusts the deckhand %'s
during the adventure as needed.

Any player on the ship can see what each deckhand is doing via:
"job manage deckhand"
This command lists all deckhands, what skill they are assign, where
they are or where they are heading.

SKILL EFFECT:
The workers skill rating at deckhand effects everything it does. Basically
a 100 rated deckhand is as good as a player and a 1 rated deckhand is 1/2
as good. The speed at which a deckhand moves is determined by deckhand
skill and this affects most tasks. The length of time a deckhand remains
too scared to work is also determined by the skill.

One of the most important aspects of the skill is when they reach level
77 they they move from one task to another, from one room to another much
faster. They do not move room to room any faster but since they know the
ship better they always know the fastest route from one place to another
on the ship. Below 77 skill level means that they tend to take the longest
possible route from one part of the ship to another.

More detail is listed below.

TASK DETAILS:

REPAIRING:
The deckhands assigned to repairing will repair rooms as they see fit.
They are very smart and a master deckhand repairs as fast as a player.
The time it takes to repair is directly affected by the deckhand skill. A
100 rated is as fast as a player and a 1 rated is twice as slow.

DOUSING:
All deckhands will stop what they are doing if the room is on fire and
douse. The deckhands assigned to the dousing party wait for a fires to
start and try to manage all fires as best as they can. The deckhand skill
determines the speed at which a deckhand knows where a fire is. Players
and all deckhand skills have the same chance of putting out a fire.

GUNS
Gun deckhands automatically decide which gun to control. They load and
fire the gun just like a player. If a player walks into a deckhand gun
room and stays for a while, the deckhand will walk off and look for his
own gun. The captain uses shout to order the deckhands to fire. This is a
very rigid format:

"shout fire lb"   Larboard deckgand gunners will fire at the serpent
"shout fire lb t" Top deck larboard gunners will fire at a serpent
"shout fire sb"   Starboard deckhand gunners will fire at a serpent
"shout fire sb b" Bottom starboard gunners will fire at a serpent
"shout fire st"   Stern deckhand gunners will fire at a serpent
"shout fire b"    Bow deckhand gunner will fire at a serpent

To have a deckhand report what ship is closest and in range in any
direction you must shout:
"shout ship lb"
"shout ship sb"
"shout ship st"
"shout ship b"

Firing at a ship is the same as with a serpent but you must give the ship
name. Example: "shout fire lb reaper" to fire at a ship with the word
reaper in it that is on the larboard side.

The skill of the deckhand effects how precise their vollies are as well as
how accurate they are.

PUMPING:
Deckhands assigned to pumping will pump as needed. A 100 rated deckhand
pumps as well as a player and a 1 rated twice as slow.

SAILS
At least one player must work the sails. Basically, deckhands assigned to
sails assist the players. The captain does not order the deckhands to
raise or lower sails. The deckhands help the player(s) with what they are
doing, lowering or raising the sails the same was as the player(s). A 100
rated deckhand pulls the ropes as fast as a player and a 1 rated deckhand
pulls them twice as slow.

IDLE
Many of the deckhands will hang out at the ship's capstan when they do not
have anything to do. They will get right back to work as needed depending
on their assigned task.

CHATTER:
The worker AI chatter module is not yet finished. The workers will not
greet players yet or talk to eachother. That will be coming soon.

Note that deckhands skill goes up slowly and only when you are actively
fighting serpents or ships.

See Also: WORKERS SHIPS