Taking Oceans

Every island sits in an ocean, a grid cell of the map, the first two numbers of a coordinate like 12:8:3. An alliance can put an ocean to a vote of the Governors who live there, name one of those seas, and fly its flag over it for all to see. A claim is paid for: 30,000 coins from the alliance depot, held while the ocean decides.

Alliances

The depot that pays for a claim, and the ranks that may call one.

Alliance XP

Your rank sets how many oceans you may hold.

Rankings

The Oceans Held leaderboard.

Oceans

What an ocean is, and the rock flags that can veto a claim.

Paying for a claim

Calling an ocean vote costs 30,000 coins, taken from the alliance depot the moment the vote opens. Ship coins to the depot at the Admiral's capital first, the same way the alliance stocks gold, lumber and stone. Coins go into the depot one way: they can be spent on claims, but no member can draw them back out.

While the vote runs the coins are held against it. If the ocean says yes, the claim is paid and the coins are spent. If the vote fails or is cancelled, 75% comes back to the depot (22,500 coins) and the ocean keeps 7,500 as its fee. Coins held for one claim cannot pay for another, so an alliance can only chase as many oceans as its depot can cover.

Who decides: the ocean and its neighbours

A claim is settled by a single vote of every Governor who owns an island in the ocean or in the four oceans bordering it, north, south, east and west, whatever alliance they fly, or none. An ocean on the edge of the map has fewer neighbours. One Governor, one vote, no matter how many islands they hold or in how many of those oceans. Your own prestige buys you the right to ask the ocean; it buys you no extra weight at the ballot.

The vote runs for 48 hours. Every resident may vote for or against, and may change their mind while it is open. When the window closes, the claim carries if at least two Governors voted yes and the yes votes beat the no votes. The Governor who calls the vote casts the first yes; the second has to be won from someone in the ocean or next door. Silence is not a no; it is a shrug. If the neighbours object, they turn out and vote it down.

Captain Thorne: Your allies are not your voters

The vote counts the people who live in and around the ocean, not the people who fly your flag. An ally halfway across the map has no say here; an enemy anchored beside you does. An enemy's yes counts for your claim, and one of your own crew can vote against it. Court whoever lives there, and remember that a lost vote costs the depot its fee.

The gates to propose

Anyone can be voted on; not anyone can call the vote. Before your alliance may open a claim, all of these must be true.

1. The coins. The depot must hold the full 30,000 coins. If it does not, the ocean's page tells you how many it holds and what to do about it.
2. Rank cap. Your alliance's XP rank sets how many oceans it may hold or be claiming at one time, from one for a young Crew up to six for a Grand Armada. Votes in flight count against the cap.
3. Ocean Influence. This is your alliance's share of all the island prestige in the ocean. To propose, your alliance must hold at least half of it. Opening an unclaimed ocean shows every alliance's influence on one shared scale, with the line marked. Once the vote opens, influence no longer matters: every resident votes with equal weight.
4. You live there. You must own an island in the ocean itself to open the vote, even if it is the only island there. A Governor alone in an ocean can claim it, with a yes from one of the oceans next door.
5. No rival flag on a rock. A rival alliance's flag on any bare rock in the ocean, guarded or not, blocks the claim, and a rival flag raised on a rock while the vote is running cancels it. Clear the rocks first; how a rock is held and taken is on Oceans.

Because a claim spends the alliance's coins, calling one is an officer's act: the Admiral and officers hold the right, and the Admiral can grant "Put an ocean to council" to any other rank in the rank editor.

The vote in the open

A claim is public the instant the vote opens. A flagless amber buoy drops in the ocean, the region banner reads "Ocean Vote" with a countdown, World News carries it under Politics, and every Governor who owns an island there or in the oceans around it is sent word. Nobody finds out after the fact: rivals watch it happen and can act while the vote is live. To oppose a claim you simply vote against it from the ocean's page on the map; there is no separate move to make. If a claim is voted down, its buoy vanishes and the waters stay open.

What a held ocean does

Its empty shores are guarded. Anyone outside the holding alliance who raids an empty island in a held ocean is set upon on the way in: 30% of the fleet is lost before it reaches the beach, and the crews carry off only 25% of what the shore held. The raid screen warns before you send, and the report names the alliance that did it. Members of the holding alliance raid their own ocean's shores as normal.

Its start places stay kept. The shores kept for new Governors to arrive on remain start places in a held ocean: no charter can claim them, whoever holds the waters.

Holding, naming, and letting go

When a claim carries, the buoy gains your flag and the ocean carries your chosen name for everyone to see, and it counts on the Oceans Held leaderboard. (Claims never grant alliance XP: XP is the rank cap that limits claims, so rewarding claims with XP would feed itself in a loop.) The holding alliance may rename an ocean on a cooldown, or surrender it, which frees the waters for anyone at once. Surrendering returns no coins. An alliance whose claim is voted down must wait a few days before proposing that same ocean again; another alliance may try at once. If an alliance dissolves, its open votes are cancelled and its held oceans fall unclaimed.

Reference

Common questions