Conquest 
The Conquest system is a core part of Pirates of the Burning Sea, touching every part of the game. Because of this, it’s also a massive system, with many moving parts and special cases. In this article we aim to explain the mechanics behind the Conquest system and how they all work together. Towards that end, we have five major topics to cover: unrest generation, contesting ports, PvP zones (aka red circles), the PvP flag, and server victories.
Unrest Generation
The cornerstone of the conquest system is unrest. Conceptually, unrest represents a break down in the rule of law at the port. This breakdown leads to discontent among the citizens, which gives another nation the opportunity to step in and take control of the port. We abstract this greatly, turning unrest into a general currency of conquest. The more unrest you generate, the more quickly you can put ports into contention.
The basic unit of unrest is a whole point. While we do calculate unrest in decimal values in some circumstances, we always round those values to nearest whole point when the unrest is actually applied. Whenever you generate a point of unrest, you also generate a personal contention point. Those are discussed in the Port Battles section, below.
Unrest is port specific. Each time a point of unrest is generated it is assigned to the nearest port, within 100 miles, that is able to have unrest generated at it. Ports that cannot be conquered, as well as ports that are under martial law, are ignored for purposes of determining the closest port. If there is no port within 100 miles that can have unrest generated at it, then the unrest is discarded. There are very few areas where this is the case.
There are four ways that you can generate unrest for your nation: sinking NPC ships, sinking the ships of other players, unrest supply, and missions. We will discuss each of these in turn.
Sinking NPC Ships
A key way to precipitate the breakdown of law and order that leads to a port being contested is to attack the shipping of the nation that owns that port. Each time that you sink an NPC ship we attempt to generate unrest at the nearest port. If that port cannot generate unrest (because it is not a contestable port, or is in the Raided or Martial Law state) we skip that port and look for the next closest port. If there is no port where unrest can be generated within 100 miles, we do not generate unrest.
Having found the port where the unrest will be applied, we must then determine how that unrest is applied, based on your nationality, the nationality of the port, and the nationality of the ship you sank. If the ship you sank is the same nation as the port, then you generate unrest for your nation at that port. If the ship is of a different nation than the port, but you are of the same nation as the port, then we reduce the unrest of the NPC ship’s nation at your port. If the ship is of a different nation than the port, and you are also of a nation other than the nation of the port, then we discard the unrest.
If you generate unrest for your nation, or remove unrest from a hostile nation at a friendly port, the amount of unrest removed is determined by the level of the NPC ship you sunk. The exact amount varies by level, and is rounded to the nearest point, so there isn’t a simple formula to determine how much unrest is generated. However, a level 2 NPC generates 5 unrest (level 1 NPCs generate 0), and a level 50 NPC generates 49 unrest.
Sinking Player Ships
In addition to generating unrest by sinking NPC ships, you can also generate unrest by sinking other players. The unrest generation from sinking other players follows the same rules as sinking NPC ships to determine at which port the unrest is generated. Sinking a player ships generates approximately three times as much unrest as sinking an NPC ship of the same level.
Missions
Each port also has several missions that allow you to contribute to, or reduce, the unrest at the port. Currently, to prevent an exploit, these missions generate a trivial amount of unrest. However, they do award Marks of War, which can be traded in to the unrest supply NPCs to generate unrest at the port.
Unrest Supply
If you would prefer to avoid actual combat, you can also generate unrest through economic actions. We represent this with the unrest supply system. This system allows you to turn in a variety of items to a Rebel Agent in each conquerable port. Additionally, if you’re on the defensive, you can turn in the same type of items in slightly different quantities to the Garrison Commander at each port to reduce unrest at the port.
These unrest supply NPCs accept several different types of unrest bundle, each of which is crafted in the economy from a different selection of goods. They also accepts Marks of Victory and Marks of Trade (awarded for sinking other players in PvP combat), as well as Marks of War, which are awarded for completing the unrest missions described above.
Both the Rebel Agent and Garrison commander collect a fixed, but different, number of each item every 6 hours. However, you can turn in up to four times the quantity of goods. The extra goods are queued, and will be picked up every 6 hours. When this pickup occurs, an amount of unrest is generated based on how many goods were turned in for that period. The exact value of unrest generated per good can be seen in the Unrest Supply interface (it’s the same in every port).
Contesting Ports
The ultimate goal of unrest generation is to push enemy ports into Contention, so that you have an opportunity to claim the port for your nation. As a port accumulates unrest it moves through up to 6 separate states: Normal, Increased Tension, Civil Unrest, Contention, Raided, and Martial Law. We’ll discuss each of these phases in detail below, as well as the battle for control of the port, but first we’ll discuss how and why a port transitions from one state to another.
Stages of Port Conquest
When a port is not under attack, we consider it to be in the Normal state. This is the default case. When 3,000 unrest has been generated at a port, it moves into the state of Increased Tension. When 3,000 more unrest has been accumulated at the port, for an unrest total of 6,000, the port moves into Civil Unrest. If 4,000 more unrest is gathered, for a total of 10,000, then the port moves into Contention. At this point the attacking nation is trying to seize control of the port from the defenders, and we schedule a battle for control of the port. When that battle is concluded, the winning nation deploys additional forces to the port, temporarily moving it into the Martial Law state. Four days after the port enters Martial Law, the additional forces depart, and the port returns to a Normal state.
There are a couple of special cases to this progression. First, Pirate ports cannot be permanently conquered, and as such when they are taken by another nation they enter the Raided state for two days. Likewise, Pirates cannot permanently capture national ports, so when they seize control of a port, it also enters the Raided state for two days.
Second, if a port is held in a state of unrest (Increased Tension, or Civil Unrest) for more than 4 days, the government of the port calls for help, and reinforcements arrive and institute a state of Martial Law. We do this in order to prevent players from holding a port in unrest indefinitely without starting a port battle.
Additionally, your nation has limited resources, and can only attack three ports at once. This means that you can only have three ports that your nation has put into the Increased Tension state or higher with its unrest totals.
Normal
The Normal state has no special rules or restrictions. Unrest may be generated normally, and there is no PvP zone around the port. Ports are in this state most of the time. A port is in a Normal state if it has between 0 and 2,999 unrest.
Increased Tension
The Increased Tension state indicates that trouble is brewing at this port. This trouble has attracted Pirates, and there is a Pirate PvP zone around the port. A port is in a state of Increased Tension if it has between 3,000 and 5,999 unrest. Four days after this state is entered, if a port battle has not been scheduled for this port, the port will enter Martial Law.
Civil Unrest
The Civil Unrest state indicates that law and order have broken down at the port. Open PvP erupts around the port, with the Pirate PvP zone covering an even wider area. A port is in a state of Civil Unrest if it has between 6,000 and 9,999 unrest. When the port reaches 10,000 unrest, and the state transitions to Contention, a port battle is scheduled.
Contention
The Contention state indicates that another nation is attempting to wrest control of the port from the owning nation. A port battle is scheduled, and there is a large PvP zone, with an even larger Pirate PvP zone, around the port. Contention lasts until the port battle takes place. While in this state, players can still generate unrest, but instead of advancing the state of the port, it is applied to the port battle. The more contention you generate for your nation, the more advantages you will have in the port battle. The contention advantages cap out at 10,000, but you can keep earning contention beyond that. This will increase your personal contention for the port, and your chance of getting into the port battle. The Contention port state starts at 10,000 unrest, changes the unrest counter from ‘Unrest’ to ‘Contention’ and lasts until the port battle takes place.
Raided
The Raided state indicates that a national port has just been raided by Pirates, or a Pirate port has just been raided by a national navy. During the Raided state there is a small Pirate PvP zone around the port, similar to the Increased Tension state. The Raided state lasts for two days after the port battle is completed.
Martial Law
The Martial Law state indicates that a large military force has shown up at the port, and is keeping a tight lid on things. While Martial Law is in effect, no unrest can be generated at the port. Martial Law has no PvP zone associated with it and it lasts for four days after the port battle. This includes time spent in the Raided state.
Port Battles
Once a port is pushed into Contention, its control is determined by a port battle. A port battle is a large, 25 on 25 battle between the attacking and defending nations. Port battles are generally scheduled to take place approximately two days after the port enters the Contention state. More precisely, we schedule the port battle for 46 hours after the port is pushed into Contention. So if this happens at 6:47pm on Monday, the battle for the port will be scheduled at 5pm on Wednesday. We do this to put the port battle in the best time frame we can for the people who put the port into contention.
There are some exceptions to these rules. First, only one port battle can be scheduled against a nation per hour. This is to prevent a more populous nation from scheduling three simultaneous port battles that a less populous nation has no chance of defending. Second, if the server is down when a port battle is scheduled, we move the battle forward by 24 hours.
Once the port battle is scheduled, the Contention phase begins. During this phase both sides can accumulate contention points. These contention points trigger special benefits inside the port battle itself. The maximum level of port battle bonus is acquired at 10,000 contention, for both defenders and attackers.
Getting Into Port Battles
In many cases there are more players who want to participate than there are slots in the actual port battle. To account for this, we use a lottery system to choose port battle participants. Fifteen minutes before a port battle starts, each player is given one lottery ticket for each 10 (rounded up) points of unrest (including unrest converted to contention during the contention phase) that he generated at the port. Then, we draw lottery tickets until we fill 25 slots for each side, or we run out of players with lottery tickets.
Each player who has a winning lottery ticket receives an invitation to the port battle. Players who receive an invitation have two minutes to either join the port battle, or decline the invitation, in which case we continue drawing lottery tickets until that slot is filled. If the player does neither in that two minute window, the invitation is automatically declined. If a player is offline and receives an invitation, it is automatically declined.
Players who do not get into the port battle, regardless of whether they declined an invitation, or simply did not have one of their tickets picked, have an increased chance of getting into the next port battle they acquire unrest for. In that situation, we turn half of the contention points the player earned for that battle into ‘general contention points.’ The next time the player earns contention for a port battle, we add his general contention points to the unrest he accumulated at the battle before determining how many lottery tickets he receives. If the player is picked for that port battle, then his general contention point total is reduced to zero. If the player is not picked, then he keeps his general contention points, and we add half of the unrest he earned at that port to his general contention point total.
This system ensures that every player will eventually have an opportunity to participate in a port battle. Players who earn more unrest points will generally participate in more, but if you keep at it you will eventually end up with enough contention points to virtually assure entrance to a port battle.
Inside the Port Battle
When a player accepts his invitation to a port battle, he is taken to the Ready Room for that port battle. This room allows him to talk strategy with the other players from his nation that are participating in the battle. Players are restricted to the Ready Room until the port battle actually starts, at which point they can exit the Ready Room doors and enter the port battle proper.
There are two ways for an attacker to capture a port. First, they can defeat all the defending ships. When there are no defenders left, the port is lost. Second, they can assault the port itself, landing and attacking in hand-to-hand combat.
There are several different maps for the port battle, but at the heart of each one is the port itself. Adjacent to the port is a gun emplacement that will fire on any attackers that come near. If the emplacement is active, the port is locked to both attackers and defenders. As soon as the emplacement is destroyed, a timer begins; 30 minutes after its destruction, both sides can enter the port and fight for control of it.
The port is also guarded by a fortress. This fortress is nearly invincible to ship cannon fire, and can deal out a serious beating to any attacker that comes into its range. Fortresses can be defeated in only one way: by landing and attacking their garrison in hand-to-hand combat. Like the towns, fortresses are also guarded by a gun emplacement that must be destroyed to allow access to the fortress. Unlike the towns, there is no timer; once the emplacement is destroyed, the attackers can begin their assault.
In every battle, there are many different advantages that both the defender and the attacker can unlock through contention points. Contention points are the unrest points that are accumulated during the contention phase. The more contention accumulated before the battle, the more benefits that side receives, up to a maximum of 10,000 contention. Beyond that point contention can still be acquired, to increase the number of lottery tickets you will receive for the port battle, but these contention points have no direct impact on the battle itself.
One of the most basic benefits from contention points is the positional benefit. Normally, all attackers and defenders enter the battle at a single point. However, this is not always the most advantageous position. By accumulating contention points, both sides can unlock the other two starting positions and divide their forces between them however they like.
Wind is always a factor in any ship combat, and by default, the wind is set in each final battle room to not particularly favor either side (though, just due to the size and complexity of the maps, there will always be certain areas where the wind favors one side; overall, the wind favors neither). Another contention advantage, available only to the attackers, is the ability to shift the wind to a more favorable position.
Some of the other benefits available include additional crew morale, additional personal initiative, increases and decreases to the effectiveness of the gun emplacements and fortress, and allies for the attackers in the swashbuckling portion of the port battle. No single advantage will win the battle for an outmatched nation, but taken together they provide a powerful extra punch for a side willing to spend the time to unlock them all.
Player versus Player Zones (AKA Red Circles)
In addition to fighting other players in port battles, players can also attack each other on the Open Sea, in what we refer to as Ad-hoc PvP. Players can only attack each other when they are in certain areas of the Open Sea, where law and order has broken down. These areas are referred to as PvP zones, or Red Circles, so called because they appear as a Red Circle on the map.
There are two different kinds of PvP zones: Pirate PvP zones and Full PvP zones. Each one has some special rules that we will discuss. Then we’ll cover the general rules for Ad-hoc PvP battles.
Pirate PvP
Pirate PvP zones represent a minor breakdown in law and order. Law abiding citizens are still respecting each other, but Pirates and Privateers are no longer avoiding conflict for fear of naval reprisal. Pirate PvP zones are created around ports that have entered the Increased Tensions state, between 3,000 and 5,999 unrest, as well as ports that have recently been raided by Pirates.
In a Pirate PvP zone Pirates and Privateers level 15 and above can attack players from other nations. Privateers below level 15, as well as Freetraders and Naval Officers, cannot attack each other. However they can engage any outlaws (Privateers above level 15 and Pirates) they see skulking around.
While law abiding citizens cannot start trouble in a Pirate PvP zone, they can most certainly help members of their nation they see engaged in combat, regardless of who started it. Because of this, it is common to see several Naval Officers or Freetraders accompanying a Privateer into a Pirate PvP zone, and attacking hostile targets as a group. While the Crown frowns on such scofflaw behavior, they are technically within their rights, and so the government turns a blind eye to these actions.
Full PvP
A Full PvP zones represents a complete breakdown in the rule of law. Citizens will respect members of their own nation, but all bets are off when it comes to foreign vessels. Full PvP zones are created around ports that are in the Civil Unrest state, 6,000 to 9,999 unrest, and the Contention state in the lead up to a port battle.
In a Full PvP zone, any player may attack any other player of another nation. Players may not attack other players from their own nation.
Ad-hoc PvP Rules
When an Ad-Hoc Battle on the Open Sea begins, you’ll be placed at an initial spawn location and your opponents will be placed nearby. Reinforcements spawn farther from the starting locations. Even farther out, there are 8 exit points. The start of every Ad-Hoc Battle begins with a timer that prevents everyone from moving. This gives players time to zone in and evaluate their opponents. Once the timer expires, combat begins. After that new players may still join the battle, but they will do so as reinforcements, farther away from the initial players in the battle. The exit points at the edges of the area allow for a safe exit, if you can make it there.
Generally, battles are limited to a maximum of 6 players per side. When the Battle Start Timer ends, if only one attacker and one defender are present, the battle becomes locked and no other players may join. If the attacking side outnumbers by the defenders by 3 or more when the Battle Start Timer ends, then the defending side can bring up to 9 players to the battle.
Wind direction inside the Ad-Hoc Battle is determined by the position of the wind relative to the attacker when on the Open Sea. Keep your eye on the wind and the reinforcement spawn points as you formulate your strategies.
PvP Flags
In addition to the PvP zones on the Open Sea, players may also attack other players who have flagged themselves for PvP. There are two different ways to acquire this PvP flag. First, players may turn it on voluntarily at the Port Captain in any port. We call this the voluntary PvP flag. Second, attacking a PvP flagged player on the Open Sea will temporarily flag you for PvP. We call this the viral PvP flag.
Voluntary PvP Flag
A player may talk to the Port Captain in any port to voluntarily turn his PvP flag on. He can then talk to any Port Captain to turn his PvP flag off. While voluntarily flagged for PvP, the player can be attacked by any player of another nation, anywhere on the Open Sea. As compensation for this, the player has increased movement speed on the Open Sea.
Viral PvP Flag
Attacking a PvP flagged character on the Open Sea is not without consequences. When a player leaves an Ad-hoc battle in which he attacked a player with a PvP flag, he has a temporary PvP flag. This flag lasts for 5 minutes. Attacking a player who has this temporary PvP flag will cause the attacking player to be flagged for PvP upon exiting the Ad-hoc battle. Due to this spreading of the temporary flag from one player to another, we refer to it as the Viral PvP flag.
Server Victory
The ultimate goal of all this PvP conflict is to conquer the Caribbean for you nation. The war for control of the Caribbean is not fought to the bloody end, but rather until there is a clear victor. At that point all parties involve sit down, negotiate a peace, and things mostly return to the status quo ante bellum. The winner gets some compensation, and the battle slowly (or perhaps not so slowly) reignites.
We track this victory status through an abstract point system. This point system represents your nation’s overall influence and prominence in the Caribbean. Once a week, at a time that varies on a per server basis, we check to see if any nation has accumulated 300 points. If a nation has, we declare that nation victorious.
Every member of the victorious nation above level 20 receives three Citations of Conquest (which can be turned in for various rewards), while members of the losing nations above level 20 receive a single Citation of Conquest. Additionally, every character receives a handful of European commendations.
Victory Points
There are three sources for victory points currently: port control, base points, and port capture.
Each conquerable port that a nation controls contributes ten victory points to that nations total. This means that most nations start with 150 points. The Spanish and Pirate nations start with one less port, due to geographical layout, and as such they only have 140 points at the map start. To compensate for this they receive base points. Base points exist purely to level the playing field for the Spanish and Pirates. Both nations receive 10 base points to compensate for only having 14 conquerable ports.
In addition to receiving points for port control, the first time a nation takes a port they receive victory points. These port capture points persist until someone wins the server victory. Pirates, who can only hold enemy ports for three days, receive this three point port capture award each and every time they successfully capture a port.
