Tutorial

Your first steps on historic ground

Having fun in the 15th century: We are taking you for a ride will show you in detail how to start in Bounty Bay Online.

Dreaded pirate, rich merchant, simple farmer or famous explorer: All that and much more is possible in Bounty Bay Online and on the following pages we'll help you to make a perfect start into the world of online roleplaying.

The first steps in the 15th century are the hardest and this is also true for Bounty Bay Online! What do I want to play? Pirate, merchant, crafter, explorer or a mixture of them all? And how do the numerous features work? Sea voyages, land and sea battles, exploring,guilds, the economic and crafting system, missions and quests and much more. The following tutorial will help you starting your seafaring life in Bounty Bay Online successfully
even with little or no experience in online games. Just follow the step-by-step instructions and before you know, you'll command your own ship in a naval battle against the dreaded pirates!

Creating your character

After starting the game the future adventurer is standing on the deck of his proud frigate here you'll create your ingame character. If you click on the"Create" button, you'll get to the character creation screen, where you can choose the looks and profession of your character. For this tutorial we suggest that you click on one of the two characters on the left, so that you'll start in Athens. (The two characters on the right will start in Alexandria). After
confirming your choice by clicking on"next", please choose a name for your character, you can change the appearance of your character here too if you want to, and after clicking on the "next" button again choose Athens as your starting port. Now you have created your character and can enter the actual game.

Your character will start in the ingame tutorial in front of three helpful NPCs. Those NPCs will give you a few tips and explanations about the game, particularly how fighting works. Regardless whether you want to play the tutorial or skip it by clicking on the "skip" button, next you'll find yourself in the port of Athens.

Starting in Athens

Finally we have reached land and set our virtual foot on historic ground for the first time. You'll instantly notice lots of people around you most of them are real players, selling items in their vendor booths. You can rotate your camera view by moving your mouse to the edges of the screen. You can move your character by simply right clicking on the spot where you want to go to. Pressing the"Alt" key shows you the names of everybody around you.

Now we want to talk to someone named"Langer". He should be standing close to you with a big blue exclamation mark above his head. If you have found him, start talking to him by left clicking him. Start the conversation with him and after choosing"A rich merchant" followed by"Yes, I'd like to join" you'll join the Merchants Guild. In the following screen, please click on"OK, I understand. I'll go to reconstruct the ship right now".

Next you'll have to find the"Shipyard Boss". He's a few steps north-west from you in front of the next building. In the following conversation, click on"Ship rebuild", choose the ship you want to rebuild by clicking on it's small icon (at the start of the game you only have one ship, so there is only one icon) and click on merchant ship at the top of the window. You'll finish the process by clicking on the"rebuild" and after a few seconds you'll get a confirmation window telling you that you have rebuilt your ship into a merchant vessel.

Finding the Master of Skills

If you follow the road after a few more steps you'll notice a big shiny blue pillar marking the entrance to the city of Athens. Left click the pillar and you'll enter the city. Close to the gate you will see the"Master of Skills", where you can learn new skills or upgrade existing skills. Start a conversation by left clicking him, choose falchion skill (under battle skills) and click on"learn" at the bottom of the window. Now you have learned the basics in fighting with this weapon type and got yourself a practice weapon as well. If you would rather learn axe or sword fighting, just do so. You'll always get the correct practice weapon automatically.

The first quest bananas of all things!

A few steps into the town in a corner next to the warehouse manager you'll find the "Merchant Guild Master". Join his guild and after you have done so, you can start doing missions for the merchant guild. Click on"Barter Goods" and accept the mission to bring back 12 baskets of bananas. Behind the building in a corner you can find the "Trader" NPC. Start a conversation with him and buy 12 baskets of bananas which you then have to bring back to the "Merchant Master". After submitting the finished task, you will gain lots of eloquence experience and 10 baskets of dates as reward for successfully completing the
mission. With more eloquence it's easier to get better prices selling and buying to NPCs.

The next quest fighting evil crabs

Now we are starting a new and this time more dangerous mission. In the north east corner of town you can find the "Master of the Warrior Alliance". Join his guild as well you can join as many NPC guilds as you like and start the"Collect Crab Pincers" task. Now you have to leave town through the blue pillar and go down to the beach, where you'll find lots of crabs and turtles.

Double click on a crab to start attacking it and after a few blows with your weapon the crab will eventually die. In the following window you can see the loot of the crab and by clicking on the items, you can store the loot in your inventory. By clicking on the character icon in the lower right corner of the screen or by using CTRL- C you can open your character screen where you can see your character's inventory. Kill more crabs until you have looted 8 crab pincers and go back to the"Master of the Warrior Alliance". If you submit your completed task, he is so glad that you have completed the mission, that you not only get some exp and silver, but a new uniform as well. To wear your new"European Men's Battle Uniform", open your character screen and click on equipment to open the equipment window of your character. If you left click on the uniform, you can just drag and drop it into the corresponding green slot of your character's paperdoll and store the old "European Male Casual Dress" in your inventory.

Anchors aweigh! Your first sea voyage!

Now it's time for our first mission on the open sea! On the other side of town next to the Municipal Minister you'll find the"Adventurer Alliance Master". Join his guild as well and accept the"Seduction of Flower Fragrance" task. Now you have to leave the city and go back to port where you have to find the"Docker" NPC. Before we talk to him, now it's a good time to check your ship. Click on the small ship icon in the steering wheel in the lower right corner of your screen:

First take a look at the small icon with the two sailors in it. The small number shows you how many sailors you have in your crew. The different ship types need different amounts of sailors you now should have between 10 and 30 and the more sailors you have the faster your ship will sail. Of course for all the hard work they'll have to do, your sailors need food. You can find your provisions in the equipment window of your ship and you now should have around 250 units on board. If you don't have any provisions on board, you can easily buy them at the"Docker" NPC. After you have checked the details of your ship, talk to
the"Docker" NPC and by clicking on"Sail Off" and"High Seas" you'll start your first sea journey.

Sail ho!

For the first time you are sailing on the high seas and you can see our ship from above. The display has been adjusted automatically from land to sea voyage for example the icons on the shortcut bar have been changed to commands you can only use on a ship, like firing cannons or repair ship and in the upper right corner of your screen you can now find information about your ship instead of information about your character. The compass in the upper left corner now shows a small map of the immediate surroundings of our ship other ships are shown as small dots. The blue arrow shows the direction from which the wind is blowing and directly under the compass map, you can find the buttons to adjust your sailing speed.

Very important for us to complete our task are the coordinates of our position the negative numbers above the compass map. Our mission is to find a violet in the region of"-107,3" and"-267,2" if you are unsure what your mission goal was, you can always review it in your logbook (CTRL F) under current missions so now you have to sail west until you have reached the first coordinate. The yellow number appearing above your ship, are showing you that you are gaining navigation experience while sailing. It is a good idea to avoid sailing through storms, represented by big black clouds. You will get more navigation
skill by sailing through storms, but your ship might sustain heavy damages or it might even sink.

The Finding

If you have sailed to the correct coordinates, you should be at the tip of the Italian peninsula. A sparkling animation on the sea notifies you that you can make a finding in the immediate area and by pressing the F7 key you can assign some of your sailors to the exploration party. It can take a few minutes until your men have successfully made the finding, but if you have started your exploration where the sparkling animation was, they should eventually be successful.
If the violet has been found, a small icon will blink in the lower right of your screen and by left clicking it you can open the exploration window. After having found the violet, you can safely return to Athens if you don't remember, the coordinates of Athens are"-230" and "-
260".

Back in Athens

Having sailed back to Athens, click on the blue pillar to enter the Athens Shore waters you can attack and besiege cities from here too, but that's something only the bad boys or guilds at war do and once in shore waters, you can sail to the port and enter the dock by clicking on it when your mouse cursor changes to"To the docks". A few moments later you are safely back on land.

Appraise your Finding

Now we go back to the city, where we have to officially register our finding at the resident scholar. A thing every explorer should do, because publishing your finding with the help of this NPC will bring you more fame and even some extra money as reward. The scholar in Athens is named Pascal and you can find him during daytime in the north west corner of the city.

After he has authenticated your finding and you got some reputation and silver, visit the"Adventurer Alliance Master" again and submit your completed task for even more reputation, xp and silver.

Congratulations! You have completed the first three missions in Bounty Bay Online! A world full of adventures and dangers awaits you!

The Trading and Economic System

One of the features of Bounty Bay Online is it's dynamic economic system, that similar to the real world is based on supply and demand. For example, if there is no wood in a city, you can't build any ships there. Only the most essential goods like provisions for sea voyages are supplied by the game in small quantities and for relatively high prices. All other goods and items have to be manufactured and provided by the players themselves and resourceful merchants can become rich and powerful very quickly buying and selling the right things.

To be successful as a merchant, you should as soon as possible construct a ship with as large a cargo hold as possible. Raising your eloquence skill not only gives you better prices when buying and selling to NPCs, but is also responsible for the size of your vendor booth and how many wares you can sell in it. And of course you need to find the right goods to buy and sell to maximize your profit. Always keep an eye on your fellow merchants, to see what they are selling.

Findings

Findings can be made on land and on sea. From small plants and animals to the largest monuments you can imagine, like the pyramids of Egypt or the Great Chinese Wall more than 1600 findings await the players in Bounty Bay Online.

All findings are saved in the players logbook, complete with additional educational information about each finding, so you can always review what you have accomplished in your Bounty Bay Online life. Some findings can be made without any requirements and other findings can only be made as part of a quest.

General playing Tips

A good captain always keeps his ship in good condition and repairs any damage as soon as possible. If you always have enough provisions on board, the sailors will thank you for it by sailing at higher speeds.

Players should regularly talk to NPCs they encounter. Some of them have vital information or tips for you and some might even have a task for you, that can earn you fame, experience and money upon successful completion. You should always join the four NPC guilds (Merchant, Adventurer, Warrior and Explorer), because the masters of those guilds have lots of exckusive missions for their members, promising even more fame, wealth and experience.

Use the bank and don't always carry all your silver around with you. You can't lose what you don't carry around.

Visit the Master of Skills regularly to upgrade your existing skills or train new ones.

Guilds

Sooner or later every player should join a guild. Guilds are associations of players helping each other, fighting together and working for a common goal. Guilds can concentrate on the pirate business, trading or fighting on land or sea.