How to Play Hunt

I know this subject comes up all the time. How do I play on a Hunt server? Most gamers who play ship are familiar with first person shooters like Doom, Quake, Unreal, Unreal Tournament and Half Life 2. Ship is no different, however Hunt adds a twist on the classic Death Match. Sure you are out to Kill and avoid being killed, but that is where the similarities end. The idea of Hunt is that you are on a ship with up to 32 players and a variety of weapons to choose from. In the upper left hand corner of the screen is your persona and your current location. In the lower right hand corner will appear the person you are assigned to kill with their location, updated every 30 seconds. The catch is you need to find your weapons, choose your weapons and find your quarry.

Weapons are simple enough. They can be located in a variety of places like bedrooms, closets, boxes, and everyone favorite the secret room. We can not reveal the location of secrets as that would compromise the crux of the game. The available weapons are:

• Shotgun
• Handgun
• Tommy Gun
• Flare gun
• Blunderbuss
  
• Machete
  
• Kitchen Knife
• Butcher Knife
  
• Hunting Knife
• Claymore
• Katana
• Short Sword
• Mannequin Arm
• Knitting Needles
• Driver
• Lead Pipe
• Screw Driver
• Hammer
• Spanner
• Monkey Wrench
• Paddle
• Cane
• Letter Knife
• Frying Pan
• Sauce Pan
• Rolling Pin
• Pool Cue
• Syringe Poison
• Syringe Sleeping Potion
• Scalpel
• Shovel
• Wallet Bomb
• Umbrella
• Traps
• Croquet Mallet
• Have I missed a weapon?

Points for kills are awarded according to the value of the weapons. Weapons that have been used often will have a low score, while weapons that are hardly ever used gain in value with each passing round. Pressing the N key while in play will display the most valuable weapons. The most a weapon will ever be worth is 20,ooo dollars. More money can be gained by picking up the wallets of the recently deceased and adding the money to your bank account via a teller or night deposit box. This can help a troubled player stay balanced in a hectic game.

Just because you have a good weapon does not guarantee success. Items like the sauce pan, letter opener or claymore cannot be used in areas under surveillance. Weapons that can be used in areas under surveillance are guns, used in doorways that are safe, and wallet bombs, the only weapon you can use directly in front of guards, cameras and witnesses without getting arrested.

Surveillance is a touchy subject, because there are parts of the ship that are under semi surveillance. Cameras that rotate back and forth can present difficult kills when following that pesky bot down the hall. Guards are always alert and will not hesitate to throw you in jail. It is possible to pay off a guard to get in a kill, but beware just because you hand him 500 in cold hard cash does not guarantee he will look the other way. Be prepared to doll out some serious dough. Other forms of surveillance includes witnesses. They can be troublesome especially if you are after a kill in a densely populated area. You can generally tell if you are under surveillance by whether or not the ever watchful eye in the right corner of the screen is red or green. The game is flawed so be careful where you draw your sword. I have been caught a few times with a green eye.

Trespassing is another way to end up in jail. When entering a surveillance area, an exclamation mark will appear above the eye. Areas with cameras, the eye will start to count down and fine you. Staying in the area till the clock reaches zero results in jail time. Areas without cameras, count down is triggered by witnesses.

Needs. We all need something whether it is sleep, food a shower or sleep, ship has it. Needs adds another layer of complexity to the game. While it is not necessary to see to every need, not attending to them will result in missed kills and loss of weapons upon death. Running will make you tired as well as not showering. Eating and Drinking will require a visit to the loo. Visits to the loo require you to wash up and thus the whole cycle continues. Want to ignore needs and succeed? Find your hunter, he can solve all of your problems

Buttons and there are several. I have remapped a few buttons to make items easier to access. Here is a list of the buttons and their options.

• I for inventory
• Left Shift for Run
• N for Needs
• P for maps
• Left mouse button for main fire
• Right mouse button for discarding items
• Middle button pressed for drawing weapons and putting weapons away
• Middle button scroll is used for scrolling through weapons in inventory
• Tab for checking to see the leader board
  
• M for top weapons list

Weapon values are displayed in the inventory screen. Select a weapon and at the bottom will be the weapons stats. Check frequently as weapon values are always in flux.

Kicks and Bans. I do not like Bans. There are already too few players. Players make the online experience more fun. Kicking is less severe and players can resume play again anywhere from a minute to a half hour. Reasons for being kicked are, insufficient funds, too many Cold Blooded kills, IE innocent kills, and generally being abusive like spamming the server with "nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger" or over use of the word fag. Unless you are using the Germain vernacular for a pile of sticks or the English vernacular for cigarette then please refrain from using them. Use of any other words is acceptable and often times I may be using them myself.

I have been asked before, do I like bots. No I do not. However an empty server is a boring server.

One last thing. Online play means everyone plays. I do not consider "The Ship" to be an age appropriate game for persons 13 or younger. In other words, I do not not care if there are minors playing on the server. It is not my choice or my responsibility to police the content they are allowed to view. Nor am I responsible for the comments made by other players. If you have a problem with foul or explicit language then please play a more age appropriate game. That does not mean I will tolerate harassment or racial epitaphs.

Let us all have fun and remember, it is just a game.