Post by Huntress on Jul 4, 2009 11:04:17 GMT -5
This thread here is for all the info on our ship, from appearance to the technicals to the history and anything else that pertains the ship. It'll take a while to be finished, but feel free to comment, reply, add your own info and suchlike, because I'll link to all the future paragraphs in this first post.
The White Weewoo
Apperance-wise, she looks rather like this:
...but it's actually very much outdated, because I drew it without knowing what goes inside and how and where, so it only really works for reference to the rigging which I'll address later. Well, now I sorted out what goes inside and how and where, so we now have a spiffy little reference for everything pertaining the Weewoo in future guild events. Provided you'll manage to gnaw through the infodump I'm about to drop on you xD
So, let's have a look. This first section is titled Inside the Weewoo.
Here we have the crosscut of the ship's hull. The foremast (1) and mainmast (2) are both built straight on the ship's keel, rising through the entire ship and basically having the decks hold them in place. The same goes to the bowsprit (3). The front end is called the prow, the back end is called the stern or aft, the right-hand side is the starboard side and the left-hand side is the port side which is currently facing us.
If anything remained confusing, feel free to ask. The crosscut might be easier to understand if it was colored, but I really can't be bothered right now >>
The White Weewoo
- Type: brigantine, meaning that she has two masts, one - the foremast - being square rigged and the other - the main mast - fore and aft rigged.
- Length: 85'/26 meters (thus a lot longer than the average brigantine)
- Height: 22'/6.7 meters (from keel to railing, not counting the bridge)
- Mast height: 68'/20 meters
- Draught: 17'/5.1 meters (as in, the part below the water line)
- Tonnage: roughly 190 Gross Tons
- Top speed: 11 knots/20 kmph/12.6 mph, 15/27.7/17.26 respectively with Ikkin adding to the speed with wind magic.
Apperance-wise, she looks rather like this:
...but it's actually very much outdated, because I drew it without knowing what goes inside and how and where, so it only really works for reference to the rigging which I'll address later. Well, now I sorted out what goes inside and how and where, so we now have a spiffy little reference for everything pertaining the Weewoo in future guild events. Provided you'll manage to gnaw through the infodump I'm about to drop on you xD
So, let's have a look. This first section is titled Inside the Weewoo.
Here we have the crosscut of the ship's hull. The foremast (1) and mainmast (2) are both built straight on the ship's keel, rising through the entire ship and basically having the decks hold them in place. The same goes to the bowsprit (3). The front end is called the prow, the back end is called the stern or aft, the right-hand side is the starboard side and the left-hand side is the port side which is currently facing us.
Out in the open air is the main deck, with the galley (4, basic'ly the kitchen) standing between the two masts. In a bout of engineering ingenuity I made its front wall curved to decrease wind resistance and make it easier to lead out the stove chimney. The galley hosts your good olde kitchen equipment: a stove, a table and benches, cupboards, crates, et cetera. It's fairly big (300ish square feet by my calculations) so we have plenty of room to take our meals there. On top of the galley roof are two lifeboats with oars. The waving stick guy is there for size reference, and note that the line he's standing on denotes the deck whereas the line that crosses his waist marks the railing.
Big Important Naval Notice #1: the galley also has the ship's water store. Those barrels are sacred and untouchable, no exceptions, not even for the captain. Only the boatswain is to open them. The boatswain fills buckets and barrels for the ship's daily water ratio every morning and measures everything out. Drinking water is not a simple matter on a ship.
Back towards the aft we have the stern cabin (5) which technically never exists on a brigantine but I put it there because it gives me a nice elevated overview from the bridge :3 The cabin is divided in two, into the captain's quarters and the first mate's quarters. They're the only ones who get their own lil private place. (There was talk of everyone getting cabins back when the guild was founded, but quite frankly, even with the Weewoo being well bigger than an average brigantine, that'd only work if you all slept standing up.)
On both sides of the cabin a staircase leads up to the roof, known as the poop deck. (French la poupe, derived from Latin, means 'stern'.) This is the captain's bridge, the location of the steering wheel and the stationary compass and basically the place where the ship is, quite simply, ran.
Big Important Naval Notice #2: the bridge is No-Go Zone. Nobody's to go to the bridge without a good reason, and even so it's restricted to officers and whoever's currently at the wheel (which in our case is the cap'n herself anyway). Two reasons for this: one, navigating a ship is srs bsns where a mistake can bring the whole thing crashing down, so possible distractions have to be minimized. And two, have a look at the mainsail boom above the bridge. Fore-and-aft rigging is low like that, when the ship is sailing, that thing is under huge pressure and swings across the bridge whenever the wind turns, with tons of force behind it, right at head level. Remember that scene in PotC1 where Jack spins the wheel on the Interceptor (which was a brig, same principle) and sends Will hanging over the edge? That was Disney at work right there. In real life that sort of thing lops a head clean off or squishes the ribs.
To be fair, I don't particularly enforce the no-go rule, I'm just letting you know how those things work in general so that I wouldn't get people prancing in and out of the bridge without batting an eyelid >>
The wheel (6) on the bridge is connected to the rudder (7) that basically acts like an underwater sail. Sailing isn't 'wind pushes, wheel steers' like an oversized version of a car despite very popular belief. It's the combination of working the sails above and the sail below the water, and that's a trivia for another time (largely because I have to work the basics out myself first xD)
At the very back of the bridge are hatches that lead down to a small space with two long nine cannons. They can also be accessed from the captain's cabin and are there to make the lives of any chasing ships more difficult. Long nines aren't particularly strong, but they have a big range (nine-pound cannonballs, hence the name). There's also a small storage of cannonballs, for convenience's sake, and there's a secret compartment under the room to store anything that needs to be hidden well. Generally this overhang is called the fantail.
Big Important Naval Notice #1: the galley also has the ship's water store. Those barrels are sacred and untouchable, no exceptions, not even for the captain. Only the boatswain is to open them. The boatswain fills buckets and barrels for the ship's daily water ratio every morning and measures everything out. Drinking water is not a simple matter on a ship.
Back towards the aft we have the stern cabin (5) which technically never exists on a brigantine but I put it there because it gives me a nice elevated overview from the bridge :3 The cabin is divided in two, into the captain's quarters and the first mate's quarters. They're the only ones who get their own lil private place. (There was talk of everyone getting cabins back when the guild was founded, but quite frankly, even with the Weewoo being well bigger than an average brigantine, that'd only work if you all slept standing up.)
On both sides of the cabin a staircase leads up to the roof, known as the poop deck. (French la poupe, derived from Latin, means 'stern'.) This is the captain's bridge, the location of the steering wheel and the stationary compass and basically the place where the ship is, quite simply, ran.
Big Important Naval Notice #2: the bridge is No-Go Zone. Nobody's to go to the bridge without a good reason, and even so it's restricted to officers and whoever's currently at the wheel (which in our case is the cap'n herself anyway). Two reasons for this: one, navigating a ship is srs bsns where a mistake can bring the whole thing crashing down, so possible distractions have to be minimized. And two, have a look at the mainsail boom above the bridge. Fore-and-aft rigging is low like that, when the ship is sailing, that thing is under huge pressure and swings across the bridge whenever the wind turns, with tons of force behind it, right at head level. Remember that scene in PotC1 where Jack spins the wheel on the Interceptor (which was a brig, same principle) and sends Will hanging over the edge? That was Disney at work right there. In real life that sort of thing lops a head clean off or squishes the ribs.
To be fair, I don't particularly enforce the no-go rule, I'm just letting you know how those things work in general so that I wouldn't get people prancing in and out of the bridge without batting an eyelid >>
The wheel (6) on the bridge is connected to the rudder (7) that basically acts like an underwater sail. Sailing isn't 'wind pushes, wheel steers' like an oversized version of a car despite very popular belief. It's the combination of working the sails above and the sail below the water, and that's a trivia for another time (largely because I have to work the basics out myself first xD)
At the very back of the bridge are hatches that lead down to a small space with two long nine cannons. They can also be accessed from the captain's cabin and are there to make the lives of any chasing ships more difficult. Long nines aren't particularly strong, but they have a big range (nine-pound cannonballs, hence the name). There's also a small storage of cannonballs, for convenience's sake, and there's a secret compartment under the room to store anything that needs to be hidden well. Generally this overhang is called the fantail.
Back towards the prow, there's a trapdoor (8) that leads down to the lower deck. There's another pair of long nine cannons there, to make the lives of any ship we chase more difficult. There's also a store of cannonballs, mostly the kind that come in handy with chasing a ship (chain and pole shots and the like... more on all that later.)
A few yards from the cannon hatches are the anchor hatches (9, they don't show very well because they overlap with everything underneath, but that's where they are). Further on is the anchor winch (10) that's used to operate the two anchors. The dark pile behind it is the excess anchor cable.
Along the side of the ship and on either side are our carronades (11 and all similar-looking little blobs, five on either side and ten in total). A carronade is a rather common type of naval cannon that combines decent firepower and decent range. They're neither incredibly powerful nor shoot incredibly far but they're okay at both and don't weigh as much as most alternatives would. This particular part of the ship doesn't look like it has much in it, but considering the cannons on either side, the recoil space they all need, the overall small width of the ship and the cannonball storages (12, one on either side), there isn't much else that'd fit in there.
At the very back of the deck we have the forecastle (13, bit of a contradiction but while forecastles originally were where I put the galley, I didn't want the galley to be too close to the cannons and gunpowder, plus it's safer for the crew to stay tucked away in the back like that.) This is where the crew sleeps. It may not look like much space, but this is also the widest part of the ship and by my calculations should be around 300ish square feet in size, so more than enough if you're not too picky. It's divided from the rest of the deck with a wall, but there are two cannons inside the forecastle because quite frankly they wouldn't have fit outside it. There's also a barrel of drinking water so that you won't have to be at the boatswain's mercy with this. A staircase leads straight to the upper deck and a trapdoor leads down to the hold, mostly as a backup exit from the hold because it doesn't pay to have only one way out from a ship deck, much less on a pirate ship deck.
A few yards from the cannon hatches are the anchor hatches (9, they don't show very well because they overlap with everything underneath, but that's where they are). Further on is the anchor winch (10) that's used to operate the two anchors. The dark pile behind it is the excess anchor cable.
Along the side of the ship and on either side are our carronades (11 and all similar-looking little blobs, five on either side and ten in total). A carronade is a rather common type of naval cannon that combines decent firepower and decent range. They're neither incredibly powerful nor shoot incredibly far but they're okay at both and don't weigh as much as most alternatives would. This particular part of the ship doesn't look like it has much in it, but considering the cannons on either side, the recoil space they all need, the overall small width of the ship and the cannonball storages (12, one on either side), there isn't much else that'd fit in there.
At the very back of the deck we have the forecastle (13, bit of a contradiction but while forecastles originally were where I put the galley, I didn't want the galley to be too close to the cannons and gunpowder, plus it's safer for the crew to stay tucked away in the back like that.) This is where the crew sleeps. It may not look like much space, but this is also the widest part of the ship and by my calculations should be around 300ish square feet in size, so more than enough if you're not too picky. It's divided from the rest of the deck with a wall, but there are two cannons inside the forecastle because quite frankly they wouldn't have fit outside it. There's also a barrel of drinking water so that you won't have to be at the boatswain's mercy with this. A staircase leads straight to the upper deck and a trapdoor leads down to the hold, mostly as a backup exit from the hold because it doesn't pay to have only one way out from a ship deck, much less on a pirate ship deck.
And down in the hold, the first thing anyone runs into if they try to chase us down the ladder from the forecastle is Shiva :3 If he's on board at that given moment, that is. The horse stalls aren't particularly big although there would be room for two if push comes to shove. Don't ask me how they actually get down there, I reckon Shiva has no choice but to learn to climb stairs >>
The rest of the hold is mostly a long, semi-dark fishtank-like place due to the windows being so close to the waterline that they're under the water in rough weather or whenever the cargo is heavier than usual. This is where we store stuff. Spare sails and ropes, provisions, loot, food and gunpowder, et cetera.
Now, this doesn't show particularly well, but try to use your imagination. On the portside of the hold are two small cabins (14 and 15) where we keep stuff that needs to be locked up. Sometimes gold when we get really lucky, but more often than not it's prisoners. That's where Cat Assassin was locked up in GW2 and Cyborg before his trial. There's not much room but there's a small bed and a lavatory in both cabins, so at least you get the basics covered when we lock you up :3
In front of the foremast, in the very prow of the hold, there's the bathroom. The most important feature of it is the small water heater box that hosts a water teleport spell together with a heating spell (16). What it basically does is draw water from the outside through the hull, activating a kind of one-way wormhole whenever the box runs empty. As the outer half of the spell is constantly under the water line (slightly lower than the box) it doesn't take much energy. From that box, the water fills the pipes to the shower booth, toilet seat and the sink. As a slight downside, it's always heated to the same decently-warm temperature, so we won't get cold or hot showers, but it does the trick. It's also not suitable for drinking, because it's just heated seawater. And no, you can't sink the ship if you leave the box running. The spell stops when the box is full and doesn't work if the box is opened, and if you're a really good mage and able to tamper with the spell (not sure why you would, a good mage could just asplode the ship instead of messing with the waterworks) we've this nice protection system that's addressed in the Bilge chapter.
The rest of the hold is mostly a long, semi-dark fishtank-like place due to the windows being so close to the waterline that they're under the water in rough weather or whenever the cargo is heavier than usual. This is where we store stuff. Spare sails and ropes, provisions, loot, food and gunpowder, et cetera.
Now, this doesn't show particularly well, but try to use your imagination. On the portside of the hold are two small cabins (14 and 15) where we keep stuff that needs to be locked up. Sometimes gold when we get really lucky, but more often than not it's prisoners. That's where Cat Assassin was locked up in GW2 and Cyborg before his trial. There's not much room but there's a small bed and a lavatory in both cabins, so at least you get the basics covered when we lock you up :3
In front of the foremast, in the very prow of the hold, there's the bathroom. The most important feature of it is the small water heater box that hosts a water teleport spell together with a heating spell (16). What it basically does is draw water from the outside through the hull, activating a kind of one-way wormhole whenever the box runs empty. As the outer half of the spell is constantly under the water line (slightly lower than the box) it doesn't take much energy. From that box, the water fills the pipes to the shower booth, toilet seat and the sink. As a slight downside, it's always heated to the same decently-warm temperature, so we won't get cold or hot showers, but it does the trick. It's also not suitable for drinking, because it's just heated seawater. And no, you can't sink the ship if you leave the box running. The spell stops when the box is full and doesn't work if the box is opened, and if you're a really good mage and able to tamper with the spell (not sure why you would, a good mage could just asplode the ship instead of messing with the waterworks) we've this nice protection system that's addressed in the Bilge chapter.
From the drain pipes of the shower, sink, and the three toilet seats (two in the hold cabins in you remember) all the waste water goes down to the bilge.
The bilge is where the two sides of the ship meet. It's mostly filled with ballast (the ship's bottom has to be heavier than the top, otherwise we'd tip over) and it collects all the excess water from the entire ship that drains down from the decks and the plumbing system. On all other ships, there are pumps to get the bilgewater out, and on a sailship it'd be a manual pump and very nasty work overall, but we have this settled with yet another one-way wormhole spell (17) at the bottom of the ship on the keel. This one isn't coupled with a heater, but a low-power vortex. It activates whenever the water reaches certain level and draws all the excess water out through the wormhole. And before you ask, it's strictly one-way so you can't pull the plug on us and sink the ship.
But if you really are a good mage able to reverse the wormhole, tamper with the spells or otherwise feel like destroying the ship in more subtle and sneaky ways than flashy explosions, have a look at the section between the bilge and the rudder. (18) In other ships it's simply empty space (there isn't much room there anyway) but in our case it's filled with the black mist the ship got in Guild Wars 2. It lingers there in a kind of passive state of existence, but it's a semi-conscious part of the ship and as such, activates as soon as the ship itself is in danger in any way. More details on it are in upcoming sections.
The bilge is where the two sides of the ship meet. It's mostly filled with ballast (the ship's bottom has to be heavier than the top, otherwise we'd tip over) and it collects all the excess water from the entire ship that drains down from the decks and the plumbing system. On all other ships, there are pumps to get the bilgewater out, and on a sailship it'd be a manual pump and very nasty work overall, but we have this settled with yet another one-way wormhole spell (17) at the bottom of the ship on the keel. This one isn't coupled with a heater, but a low-power vortex. It activates whenever the water reaches certain level and draws all the excess water out through the wormhole. And before you ask, it's strictly one-way so you can't pull the plug on us and sink the ship.
But if you really are a good mage able to reverse the wormhole, tamper with the spells or otherwise feel like destroying the ship in more subtle and sneaky ways than flashy explosions, have a look at the section between the bilge and the rudder. (18) In other ships it's simply empty space (there isn't much room there anyway) but in our case it's filled with the black mist the ship got in Guild Wars 2. It lingers there in a kind of passive state of existence, but it's a semi-conscious part of the ship and as such, activates as soon as the ship itself is in danger in any way. More details on it are in upcoming sections.
If anything remained confusing, feel free to ask. The crosscut might be easier to understand if it was colored, but I really can't be bothered right now >>
