The Covian Navy

[Octiovus]

The Covian Navy

Introduction
"The original Covian Navy was founded over a decade ago by his Lordship, Baron Octiovus, and had initial success in mapping the islands around Cove and engaging and destroying many Orcish vessels.
However, during the Orcish occupation of Cove, the Navy was surrounded. And despite the valiant efforts of the Naval defenders, the entire fleet was sunk.
It is said the ghosts of those sailors killed by the Orcs now haunt the Covian docks.

Since then, there has been no official Covian Navy, but rather a loose collection of ships working to keep Orcish and pirate vessels out of Cove’s water ways, and launching occasional mapping missions with limited success. However, the Baron has decided the time is nigh for Cove to rule the waves once more.

Cove expects every man will do his Duty.
Will you do yours?"

Concept
In essence the Covian Navy would act as a heavily naval themed regular infantry. First and foremost, it would be charged with all naval related issues, that is to say, naval transport, dealing with naval threats, and the general safety of vessels in Covian water.  While on land they would act much like the regular Covian Army, except of course they would be heavily naval themed. Where most guardsman would eat warm Covian pie and discuss their latest victory over the Yewlanders while swigging stout Covian ale, the Covian Navy (or Marines, as their title will be) would be rubbing their beards and consuming large quantities of fish while boisterously yelling their tales of high sea adventure to just about anyone who will stop long enough to listen.

Ranks
Much like the Light Company adopt the title ‘Scout’ members of the Covian Navy would adopt the title ‘Marine’.  The naval equivelent of the Sergeant rank will be Commodore, and the naval equivelent of the Corporal rank will be Naval Lieutenant.

Uniform

The Uniform is as follows:



The Covian kilt, sash, boots, and a skullcap dyed in the fine covian colours.
Shadow chainmail (Juniors) or platemail (regulars onward) tunic, legs and helm, in traditional guardsman style.

Platemail arms, gloves and gorget in a fine Valorite blue.

Skullcaps are to be worn at all times when at sea, even in combat. Armoured helms are only to be used in land based combat. At sea, we need our full field of vision!


Navy Traits
Not all characters within the Covian Navy have to adhere to these traits, but the majority of them would. These traits are intended to be a set of guidelines to show players how standard members of the Covian Navy are envisaged;

*Members of the Covian Navy are loud, boisterous and spontaneous. They enjoy brawling and drinking.
*Discipline is a key element of the Covian navy.  Off-duty the marines may be swilling rum and thowing punches, but on duty the officers will enforce discipline.  The Covian navy is not ragged pirate fleet!
*Members of the Covian Navy are often bearded, and take great pride from this fact.
*Members of the Covian Navy enjoy the traditional sailor’s sustenance of rum (displayed in game as liquor) and fish. Members of the Covian Navy may enjoy more exotic dishes however, owing to their long travels to regions far and strange.
*Members of the Covian Navy love to tell tales! These tales mostly relate to their adventures on the high seas, and in a lot of cases are partly or completely fabricated.
*Members of the Covian Navy often look down on those who do not regularly use ships or water going vessels as a means of transport. They will refer to these people as "landrats" and other unflattering terms. They especially dislike the use of horses.
*Members of the Covian Navy are eager to explore land and sea alike! Their sense of adventure and seeking out new lands is not confined to the ocean.

Suggested Skills:

There are no skill requirements for joining the Navy. However, there are a few suggestions to bear in mind.

- Cartography, Lockpicking, Fishing
These skills are for RP flavour, such as treasure hunting on land or at sea, creating maps, etc. They are not particularly essential, as fishers and treasure hunting civilians can always be invited along to events and adventures. Whilst seaborne explorers, Marines are primarily fighting units.

- Archery / Magery
Ranged combat is a great advantage at sea. Firing across the bow at approaching enemies, both in the sea itself or onboard enemy vessels, is far more efficient than having to board, be boarded, or come into close range. A ranged skill of some kind is a consideration, even if not particularly well skilled.


Covian Navy Events
There is really no end to the amount of unique events that could be generated from the Covian Navy, but here are a few examples:

1. Ship Construction
Contrary to popular belief, naval vessels do not appear from thin air. The Covian Navy will need to gather wood, cloth, tools and other resources to create new and deadly ships to patrol Cove’s waterways.  The Covian citizens will be responsible for the construction of the fleet, by using the collected resources to craft items to both construct the ship, and to be contained within its hold.

Resource Table
This is the list of resources and items needed to 'create' a new Ship;

Flagship – Large Ship (Only one can be built at any time)
2000 Logs
1000 Cloth
500 Iron

- 5 Chairs
- 20 Wooden Benches
- 2 Clocks
- 10 Axle With Gears
- 20 Hinges
- 20 Barrels
- 5 Lanterns
- 3 Sextants
- 5 Kegs

Medium Ship
1500 Logs
750 Cloth
400 Iron

- 3 Chairs
- 10 Wooden Benches
- 1 Clock
- 8 Axle With Gears
- 10 Hinges
- 10 Barrels
- 5 Lanterns
- 2 Sextants
- 3 Kegs

Small Ship
1000 Logs
500 Cloth
400 Iron

- 2 Chairs
- 5 Wooden Benches
- 1 Clock
- 5 Axle With Gears
- 5 Hinges
- 5 Barrels
- 5 Lanterns
- 1 Sextant
- 2 Kegs

2. Exploration
The Covian Navy will often be explorers both at sea and off it. They shall map out dungeons, and travel to distant lands to make reports on those too. They will often work in conjunction with the Light Company to transport them to islands and towns that are in need of scouting.

3. Internal Job System
There are many tasks that need to done aboard a vessel of the Covian fleet, and if the members of the Covian Navy do not complete these tasks, no-one else will!

Each member of the Covian navy will have a task assigned to him or her that he or she shall be responsible for aboard the boat. These tasks include:
* Hoisting sails
* Swabbing decks
* Taking sextant co-ordinates
* Making maps
* Looking out for sea monsters.
These tasks shall mostly be purely for RP purposes to add to the rich fabric of naval lore.

4. Naming Ships
Each Ship should be named with an appropriate title approved by command and assume the prefix of “H.B.S (His Baron’s ship)”. For inspiration on Ship naming, look to real life sources. Ships can be named after many things, a virtue, a past or present Cove member of suitable rank and status, or animals. Ship named after famous real life ships, names taken from popular fiction, or clearly unfitting names such as “H.B.S Rust bucket” will be rejected.

[Arma Renox]

Sailing Britannia
An OOC Guide to the Sailing Mechanic in an RP Environment

Ultima Online has a rather underrated and underused sailing system. To get to grips with adapting this system to an RP situation, it is best to address the OOC mechanics of the game.


Commands

Sadly the commands for sailing leave no room for ad-lib. "Take her forward, Mr Tillerman!" might sound lovely, but it won't get you anywhere on the high seas.

It is possible to whisper these commands, and say something RPish out loud, but I would recommend setting up macros if you're going to do it this way, as typing it out twice is likely to be a bit time consuming.

So, the following commands are vital to all Marines:

Slow Forward: This command is for manoeuvring in enclosed inlets. Full steam ahead isn't advisable when there's a lot of land about.

Forward: For out on the open seas! Adding "one" to the end of the "forward" command ("forward one") will take the ship forward one tile.

Turn Right / Turn Left: These, as you might guess, will turn the nose of the ship 90 degrees either right or left. This can be done whilst stopped or even moving.

Stop: Stop!

Raise Anchor / Drop Anchor: The anchor must be raised to move the ship, and lowered to dry dock the ship.

Slow Back: This command is only to be used if there is NO possibility of turning around. Ships don't tend to just reverse all of a sudden. Adding "one" to the end of the "back" command ("back one") will take the ship back one tile.

Commands to Avoid

Left / Right: Personally I've never seen a ship that suddenly moved left or right. If you're ever in the position where you need to use them, you've sailed rather badly. Shame on you!

Turn Around: Simply use "turn left" or "turn right" twice! It looks far better from an RP perspective.

These are terrible RP commands, and should be avoided at all costs.




Conversation on Board a Ship

I mentioned underused. This is a flaw with the sailing system, which can be a tad annoying. Depending on your position on board, text from other people may disappear as soon as the boat moves. This also applies to continual movement; when going "forward" for example, each tile moved will reset the speech on screen.

Sometimes you can find a spot where this doesn't happen, but that's not always an option. There are 2 solutions I advise:

1. Use Tactical!

This would certainly make sense from an RP point of view, that all those aboard a vessel form a tactical group. Conversing only through the party would avoid the speech problem. However this could cause some RP / OOC conversation issues; does the party then become RP speech only? Or is RP abandoned once the ship starts moving?

2. Use a Journal! (My Preferred Option)

I know some people may simply not have enough space on screen for the journal to be open all the time. But I would seriously suggest it, even if it is only open for sailing. Keeping an eye on what's said means that even when text disappears, it's still right there in the journal, and conversation can carry on as normal.




Maps and Location

In-game maps are great to look at, and to use for RP. However they're not terribly reliable. If you feel it adds to the RP to use that map and only that map, then by all means do so!

The alternative is the free tool, UO Auto Map (UOAM).
http://www.uoam.net/

Notice: The Developer of UOAM has now STOPPED updating the program. I would suggest grabbing it now, while it's still available.

There is something to bear in mind if you use UOAM. We might be using it to sail a bit better in game, but you should still RP appropriately. Cove has not charted all the seas yet, and UOAM is just handy to give your RL mind some bearing.

The KR client also promises a far better in-game client map. The same applies as above, if for some unknown reason you actually want to use KR!






These are just a few points I feel are important and helpful. Please, if you would like more suggestions and tips for Sailing in the RP world, let me know!

[Arma Renox]

*Updated 05/08/2007*