Contents 1 Join or Start a Society 2 Gain Influence 3 Pledge Influence 4 Start Bidding 4.1 Takeover Bid 4.2 Open Bidding 4.3 Closed Bidding 5 Related Pages

Port Governors can have significant influence over the prosperity of a port, and so like any political system, obtaining a position of power can be a bit daunting. Hopefully, dedicated Governors will govern with concern for their port.

In order to run for Governor, players must accumulate Influence. Players may accumulate Influence only when they are part of a Society and level 10 or above.

Becoming Governor (Port Governance) is part of the guide: Port Governance. This guide contains the following topics:

• Becoming Governor
• How to Govern
• Port Governance FAQ

Join or Start a Society

Nation	Capital	Starting Port
Spain	San Juan	Vera Cruz
Pirate	Tortuga	Marsh Harbour
France	Pointe-a-Pitre	Charlesfort
Britain	Port Royal	Jenny Bay

Joining a Society is simple—although, finding a Society that fits can be tough. The Joining a Society page has a few tips to make finding the right Society easier.

You may also create your own Society. Before you can create a Society, you must fulfill the following criteria: (1) you must NOT be a member of any other Society and (2) you must have 1000 doubloons.

To create a Society, follow these steps:

1. To begin, sail to your nation's capital or starting port.
2. Head to the Shop. In the Shop, you should see the Society Registrar.
3. Talk to the Society Registrar and click I would like to create a Society... The Registrar will charge you 1000 doubloons, and the Create Society window will appear.
4. Enter your Society name and click Create to create a Society.

After you have created your Society, you can review your Society details at any time by looking at the Society tab on the Social window.

To open the Social window, on the Toolbar, click on the Social button(or press O).

Once you have created your Society, you may start inviting players to join. Not every other player will be able to join your Society.

Invitees must be of the same nation as the inviting Society and not be a member of any other Society. Otherwise, inviting someone to your Society is simple.

1. To begin, meet the player in a port. The dock is often a good meeting spot.
2. Right click on the player to bring up a menu of possible actions.
3. To invite the player, on that menu, click on Society Invite. If the player accepts the invite, then the player will become a member of your Society.

Being a member of a Society has a number of benefits. Although, we will only discuss Port Governance related benefits here. One benefit is that now you may begin to accrue Influence.

Gain Influence

Influence is the currency of Port Governance. Influence is what you will need in order to run for Governor. While you belong to a Society, whenever you gain Experience (at level 10 or above), your Society will gain Influence.

Completing missions is one of the most common ways to gain Experience (and thus Influence for your Society). Of course, you may also gain Experience through other means—such as defeating NPC ships.

Once you have begun accumulating Experience (and therefore Influence) you can track how much Influence your Society has on the Influence tab of the Social window.

To open the Influence pledge window, on the Toolbar, click on the Social button (or press O). The Social window will appear. On the Social window, you can pledge influence by a simple right click.

Pledge Influence

After you have accrued Influence, you should choose someone to support for Governor. This nominee will use Influence in a bidding war to become Governor.

As we mentioned, all Influence your Society accrues ends up in the Society pool. From the pool, Society Leaders and role that own the right to do, can pledge an amount of Influence to individual players. This Influence is what players use when running for Governor.

In order to receive Influence players must have the following attributes:

• Level 20 or higher—players under level 20 cannot receive Influence.
• Of the same nation—you cannot pledge Influence to players of other nations.
• Online—you can pledge Influence only to players who are online.

Once you have selected a player to receive Influence, go to the Influence tab on the Social window (press O). Here you will type in that player's name and the amount of Influence you will be Pledging.

Also, keep in mind that your Society may only pledge Influence once a day (every 24hrs), so it might be wise to discuss pledges with other Society members.

Once you have your own Influence, you may start bidding.

Start Bidding

Running for Port Governor is essentially a silent auction. Players make bids using Influence as currency. To become Governor, you must get through three rounds of bidding:

1. Takeover Bid
2. Open Bidding
3. Closed Bidding

Takeover Bid

To begin bidding, decide on which port that you want to Govern. Before you begin sailing, keep in mind a few restrictions:

• Players may govern ports of their nation only—for example, British players cannot govern Pirate owned ports, and French players cannot govern Spanish ports. Also, no player may Govern a Dutch port.
• The port must NOT be in Contention—if a port is in a state of Contention, the Governor's Clerk will not let you place a Takeover bid.
• You can be a Governor of only one port at a time—if you are the Governor of Nassau, you CANNOT issue a Takeover bid at West End.
• You can run in only one election at a time—if you issue a Takeover bid at Nassau, you CANNOT issue another bid at West End; only one race at a time.
• Ongoing elections will be CANCELED if the port contention goes over 10,000. (The port is flipped.)

Once you have sailed to your chosen port, you should find the Governor's Clerk. You can find the Governor's clerk by looking on your Local Map (press L) for this icon: .

To begin bidding for Governor, talk to the Governor's Clerk and click on Port Governor Elections. Now you can enter a Takeover bid. A Takeover bid is the first bid, and it starts the bidding.

Open Bidding

Once a player places the Takeover bid, the Open Bidding countdown begins. The length of this countdown may vary, but it will be at least 24 hours. Specifically, the timer starts at 24 hours and then it advances to begin during the first Port Battle time slot. This means that the starting countdown may last longer than 24 hours.

Once the countdown ends, Open Bidding begins. Open Bidding lasts for 24 hours. During this time, anyone may place a bid with the Governor's Clerk as long as long as they meet the following criteria.

To bid, players must...

• Have at least the minimum amount of Influence—the minimum amount of Influence is one point more than the previous bid.
• Be of the same nation as the port—players may govern only ports owned by their nation.
• NOT be Governor of another Port—players may govern only one port at a time.
• NOT be a participant in another election—players may participate in only one election at a time.

Players must bid 1 – 100 Influence more than the previous bid. So if the previous bid was 10 Influence, then players could bid at most 110 Influence or at least 11 Influence.

Closed Bidding

Twenty-four hours after Open Bidding begins, Closed Bidding begins. At this point only players who placed a bid during Open Bidding may continue to bid for Governor.

During Closed Bidding, players must bid 10 – 1000 Influence more than the previous bid. So if the previous bid was 50, then players could bid at most 1050 Influence and at minimum 60 Influence.

Closed Bidding lasts for at least five minutes. Every time a player bids, the countdown timer extends to five minutes. The player with the highest bid at the end of that time becomes Governor.

At this point, the new Governor may click on the horse next to the Governor's Clerk to head to the Governor's Office.

Related Pages

Related Pages
Port Governance	Becoming Governor | How to Govern | Port Governance FAQ
Conquest Guide	Generating Unrest | Port Battle | PvP Zones (Red Circles) | PvP Flags | Server Victories
Understanding Sailing	Novice Sailing | Ship Types and Specifications | Expert Sailing
Getting a New Ship	The Basics | Treasure Aisle (Getting a New Ship) | The Shop | Capturing Ships (Cutthroats) | Fallback Ship | Societies | What to Look For in a New Ship
Avatar Combat	Avatar Stats | Mechanics of Avatar Combat | Swashbuckling Starting Skills | Swashbuckling Fighting Schools | NPC Enemies | Basic Strategy of Avatar Combat
Others	Patrol and Blockade Missions | Skirmish