Memming and Duty Nav

Carrol · Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:48 pm Post subject: Memming and Duty Nav

I don't recall who, but somebody asked me a few days ago to put up a post with some memming help. I've been memming my butt off lately, and my duty nav is pretty decent (Leg/Ult), so I'll describe the process and offer some tips. For those of you that are good at memming and have different advice, please feel free to offer it.

What is "memming?"

Memming stands for memorizing. When you chart a ship, you have two options...you either have a chart for the route you want to take, or you have it memorized. Charts will dust over time, while memmed points will last forever. So, if you've got a chart, memming it will mean you'll never need that chart again.

What exactly gets memmed?

Each individual league point (the little dots along the route that you stop at) get's memmed along a route. There are some guidelines to go by. First, when you hit a league point you must be on the duty nav puzzle (more help on that shortly). Second, your duty report on duty nav has to be at least Fine. The number of stops needed at each league point to mem it is random. YPPedia says it's believed to be between 2-8 stops. The are rumors that your duty report effects the number, but I'm unsure if this is true. Finally, leaving a league point and then turning about does not give you an extra stop (I'll explain that more later).

How do I know if I've memmed a point or not?

We'll go with a little visual aid on this one:

There are four different things to be aware of with memming league points.
#1 - If you don't have a chart and don't have a point memmed, it won't show up on your map. In this case, I've done the navy route several times, but that one point hasn't been completed yet.
#2 - If you have a map, but don't have the point memmed, it will show up as this sort of blueish color. This will be the same for maps that you are carrying, as well as maps that are on a ship you are on.
#3 - Once you've memmed a point, it will show up as this brownish color.
#4 - Islands are a bit different. There's actually two things to mem here...the island itself, as well as the league point at it. The island is done simply by setting foot on the island. The point there can be done two ways. Either normally, or according to YPPedia each time you step on an island counts as one stop on the point. So if you step on and off of a ship at that island, you can mem that point after just a handful of times.

Where do I start?

The best place to start is with Navy navigation missions. This will teach you the duty navigation puzzle, as well as let you nav and mem without having to worry about being attacked. Be sure you're on a navigation mission and not a defeat briggands mission. Some extra routes are only available on briggand missions, but those are often rare to come across.

Don't see the Navy navigation missions? Make sure you've got at least broad experience in bilge, carp, sails, and guns, and make sure you've got at least a Pirate Badge.

Navy missions can get you a large part of some archipeligos. Each island that has a navy will have some pre-set routes that you can go on. Just take the mission and stay on the boat. It will usually go between a set of islands on different routes. As far as I'm aware right now, there are navy routes to mem in Gull, Pelican, Stork, and Ibis Archipelago's. Navy routes will never connect two uninhabited islands.

Duty Nav

Duty navigation was one of the most confusing puzzles for me to learn. It took me a while to understand how to move the pieces well, and what to do to get the best score. Here's the bottom line:

Doing 3-piece clears get's you almost nothing.
Doing doubles and tripples of 3-piece clears barely get's you anything.
Clearing the pattern spins your stars.

Since you have no way of knowing what pattern comes next, it's really not possible to set yourself up for a pattern double. If you end up getting one, that's awesome...but it's just luck. Especially at the higher levels, it's damn near impossible.

The key to duty nav is efficiency. Clear those patterns as fast as you can. When you first start out, the puzzle will usually give you the pieces needed fairly quick, so learning how to place them efficiently is important.

This guide isn't really about duty nav, so I'll do another thread with tips on that sometime. Just aim for Fine or better, and you'll be ok.

I understand duty nav, and I'm done with the Navy. Now what?

It's possible to mem while on a pilliage, but that can get messy. If you're in charge of a pilliage, your focus should really be on finding ships to fight, not your duty nav. And if you're not in charge, doing duty nav takes the helm away from the officer in charge, which makes things a bit more complicated once you hit battle. This isn't the best way to do it, but it's a possability.

What you're really ready for is to start power memming. That's taking a ship out by yourself (or with one other person) with the sole intent of memming.

Things to keep in mind

If you're going to use a crew ship, you'll need to be an Officer or above, or at least have an officer along with you.
If you bring along someone to help, it's generally kind to pay them for their work, or at least offer to help them mem the points you just did.
Be sure to stock your ship with at least some rum. I once got the tip that memming with an empty hold is a good idea because you don't lose anything if you get engaged and lose. I don't do this anymore. You have less speed, running in fights is much harder with no rum (less move tokens), and once you get hit once or twice, carp and bilge will rise out of control, and your swabies can't bring them down with no rum. Now I tend to over stock my rum for memming, just so I'm pretty sure I won't run out.
I also bring along some cannon balls. Usually I'll just leave whatever is on the ship, and refill it later. Why? I'll explain later.

Charting

There are two options for charting.
#1 - Have a chart. If you've got the chart, you can...um...chart it. Yeah.
#2 - Get someone that's memmed it to chart for you. If it's an officer in our crew, they can chart for you and leave the ship, and the route stay charted. If the person that has it memmed is not an officer in our crew (either lower ranked, or not in our crew at all) you'll need to give them the deed to allow them to chart. Obviously, if you don't own the ship you can't give them the deed. Whichever way you do it, once you finish the route, you'll need to get that person (or someone else) back on board to chart your way back. This can end up being kinda frustrating to have to keep asking someone to chart for you. But for some routes, it's all you can do.

Swabies

You should always have your swabbies around when memming by yourself or with a friend. Just turn on the jobber button, and then turn it off once the swabies show up. You'll only get 3 (2 if you've got a friend on board). I usually put 1 on each station. I've also heard it suggested you can start with all 3 on sails to get some quick speed. My big problem is I usually forget to move them off until I'm 2 or 3 points in, and my damage and bilge is up to a quarter.

If you have someone come on to chart for you, they'll kick one of your swabies off. Once they chart for you and leave, be sure to get your swabie back. You'll need it.

Avoiding Attack

You're out in the ocean on your own now, and you'll be spawning briggands that want to attack you. Keep an eye on your little mini-ocean view in the top right, and watch for ships ahead of you. If you see a green or yellow, it's best to turn around sail the other way for a few seconds, and then turn back. If you happen to turn about and go all the way back to the previous point, it does NOT count as another stop on that point. Sometimes I forget to turn back around and end up doing this anyways.

Low Staff Bnav

Sometimes, you'll be unable to avoid an attack, and you'll end up in bnav. You've got two options, fight or run. In my experience, it's best to run, especially if it's early in your memming trip.

I'll usually put in my first moves in the full bnav screen, and then move to sails. For me, this works fine...I can do Good/Excellent sails along with the bnav, which gives me plenty of moves (and is better than the Fine another swabbie would give me). If you're better at another station, you can do that and have the swabie that was on that station double up on sails.

Stick to 2-3 moves per turn. After about 4-5 turns, you'll find the briggands will start running low on tokens and will only end up making 1 move per turn or so. If you can, try and find a grouping of rocks that you can get behind. Large bunches of rocks tend to confuse and slow down the brigands, and give you something to put between you. Remember low rocks can be shot over.

If you choose to fight, you can. The important thing to remember is that you'll start the difficulty ramp, which can be a problem. I've won a couple battles before, and suddenly find myself getting attacked by reds. This ends up being a problem, as they're much harder to avoid in bnav.

I often times will always run during memming, although on my return trip, I'll sometimes fight once or twice when nearing port. Sometimes those battles will end up giving me a map that I don't have memmed yet, which is always nice. Be careful though. Once recently I had a 5-0 bnav, and my swabbies lost the SF. That's not pleasant.

Once you return to port, don't forget to restock the ship. If you fought anything and won, div the booty (I reduce the restock cut to 0). If you don't own the ship and aren't an FO or above, you won't be able to sell anything in the hold. So even if you forage, you might not get the money for it. Restocking money will be pulled directly from your poe, so there's no need to deposit any on the ship.

Alright, I think that's it for now. If anybody has any questions or additional suggestions, post away.
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ara · Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:23 pm Post subject:

some things i'd like to add:

if you have to turn around to avoid brigands, it affects the next league point and to actually have it count as 1 stop, you HAVE to go back to your previous league point.

second - when you get attacked, keep an eye on the brigand. his move bar will tell you how much he is moving. if he only puts 1 move up, unless you are in his line of fire, there is no need to move more then 1 move yourself. match him in moves and he will never get anywhere near you.

if you are close to him, think to yourself, "if i was him, and i was moving (whatever is showing up in his move bar), how could i move so that i could shoot me?" and then move so that you stay out of that line of fire.

pvp's are different - stay a minimum of 3-4 spaces away from your oponent and move when you can, but remember you only have 1 or 2 sailors so, move accordingly.

third: if you can get a friend to help you, you can get 5 people on board - the friend must be a green named player as they do not affect you might ring and therefore, do not kick off a bot.
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ScurvySuz · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:58 am Post subject:

how do the new "configure voyage" options affect memming strategy? what do people prefer?

ara · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:18 am Post subject:

i just do swabbie transport to mem. no rum required and most importantly now is that if you are at war, you don't get attacked and your ship won't get sunk. (at least that is my understanding.)
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Carrol · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:29 am Post subject:

Aye, you can do Swabbie Transport to mem, but that also means you're paying the swabbies. Of course, doing it any other way means you're buying rum as well, although I think rum is cheaper than swabbies...I think...

Prior to the Swabbie Transport option, I prefered to do my memming (and transporting) with the Merchant Voyage option (I think that's what it's called). If you dnav well (Excellent-Incred), it should cause fewer spawns, which means less turn arounds and faster trips. But if you go Swabbie Transport, it means no spawns and no worry about turn arounds.

Bottom line:
If you've got the money, Swabbie Transport is a great way to go, especially if your dnav isn't leg/ult quality.
If your dnav is leg/ult quality, and you want a potentially cheaper method, Merchant Voyage is your best bet.
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Rapax · Novice Forum Tart Joined: 16 Jul 2007 Posts: 4

I have heard that some people use the greeter pillaging option...lets you go out with an empty hold, but the lack of rum/cbs don't affect you. However, this might be construed as abuse of the greeter function...

Just my two poe Smile

Ascorbate · Novice Forum Tart Joined: 23 Jun 2007 Posts: 9

Sweetman2 · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:39 pm Post subject:

Pauling · Paragon Forum Tart Joined: 03 Sep 2005 Posts: 325

Abuse of the greeter function is a major, major no-no. Some people used it a while back to go into flotillas as well, and that was quickly fixed once it became known. I'm not sure, but I think I read that there were unpleasant consequences, and if there aren't, I'd still consider exploiting the game to be demotion worthy.

But, maybe that's just me. I suppose I'd have to log on first to do that. Wink

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