Carpentry

The carpentry puzzle is a duty puzzle, played at a ship's duty station. Players' performance at the puzzle can repair a ship's normal wear and tear, as well as damage obtained in sea battles. Carpentry also prevents bilge from rushing more rapidly into the ship.

Basic gameplay
The goal of carpentry is to fill holes quickly and efficiently with five-block pieces, much in the same way pentominoes is played. Pirates start with a hole, and three pieces to choose from. As a pirate's standing improves, the game adds up to 4 different, randomly shaped holes to work on simultaneously. Working too slowly will reduce the current score. If any given hole is neglected for too long, a piece will begin to shake rapidly, chunks will fall out and a reduction will be made to the final score. A finished hole is scored based on how many extra pieces were used. There are also bonuses for grain alignment and using only one type of piece in a hole. A pirate's standing may increase or decrease after a puzzle session depending on the score.

Controls
With a mouse:
 * Left-click: Select/release a piece. The piece can move while it is selected.
 * Mousewheel (scroll or click): Rotate the piece currently selected: scrolling down rotates clockwise, scrolling up rotates counterclockwise, clicking rotates the piece 90 degrees clockwise for each click
 * Right-click: Horizontally flip the selected piece
 * For the putty bucket, clicking on the hole (or pushing space above that hole) will fill the hole, up to 5 squares.

On the keyboard:
 * X and C: rotate the piece counter-clockwise and clockwise respectively
 * Z: Horizontally flip the selected piece


 * 1 - 3: Select the corresponding piece from the toolbox
 * Space: Selects/releases piece
 * Q, W, A and S: Center the selected piece over the top-left, top-right, bottom-left and bottom-right holes (respectively)
 * Arrow Keys: Move the selected piece
 * For the putty bucket, clicking on the hole (or pushing space above that hole) will fill the hole, up to 5 squares.

Scoring

 * A Masterpiece! - No extra pieces used.
 * Craftsmanship! - One extra piece used.
 * A Fair Job. - Two extra pieces used.
 * Sloppy Work. - Three extra pieces used.
 * A Pig's Breakfast! - Four or more extra pieces used.

Scoring also incorporates a few additional bonuses which help to increase scores.

Sequential masterpieces
Masterpieces can be completed consecutively (Masterpiece2! Masterpiece3!...) for a bigger bonus. Anything less than a masterpiece will reset the counter. The masterpiece counter always resets when the star meter is filled and a new round begins.

This is the biggest bonus. The key to incredible carpenting is long strings of masterpieces, even without any of the other bonuses.

Grain bonus
Filling a hole with pieces, which all have their grain aligned horizontally, will grant a grain bonus to that pirate. Holes filled with the grain of all pieces aligned vertically will not score a grain bonus. Piece efficiency (I.E. filling the holes with as little overlap as possible) appears more important to the score, so it is not worth breaking a masterpiece in order to get a grain bonus. However, if the grain bonus can be made without affecting piece efficiency, the grain bonus will boost the score. When pieces first appear in the toolbox, their grain always runs horizontally.

All of the pieces that are four or more squares long (Y,L,N,I) only come with the grain running in one direction: along the length of the piece. Thus, in order to maintain a grain bonus, pirates should avoid creating holes that need a long piece to be placed vertically.

Though the putty bucket shows no grain, it will always preserve a grain bonus, even when filling a hole that, if filled with a "wood" piece of the same shape would lose its grain bonus. (e.g. Filling a vertical I-shaped hole with a putty bucket can maintain a grain bonus.)

Three pieces (V, W, and X) can always be placed with a horizontal grain. Through a combination of rotation and flipping, it is possible to keep the grain horizontal when a simple rotation would lose the grain bonus. Instead of rotating a W or V 90 degrees clockwise, and thus losing a grain bonus, just flip the piece. Instead of a 90 degree counterclockwise rotation, rotate 180 degrees then flip the piece over. These manipulations will put the piece in the same orientation as a 90 degree rotation, but with a horizontal grain. These manipulations are illustrated below.

When the hole is still fairly large, it is usually pretty easy to place the pieces with the grain in the same direction. Eventually you are going to get to the point where you have to make a choice: you can either complete the hole with the grain bonus and a Craftsmanship, or you can complete it without the grain bonus, but with a Masterpiece. If you are sure that you can get it, a Masterpiece without the grain bonus is better than a Craftsmanship with it. However, if the Masterpiece is unlikely, it may be better to take a relatively certain Craftsmanship with the grain bonus. For example:

Keeping the grain bonus places more constraints on where you can place pieces, so you will probably have to choose to forgo a grain bonus before you have gotten the hole down to a 2 piece space. It is generally best for your score to choose to lose the grain bonus before choosing to lose the Masterpiece.

Nice set
If you fill a hole with pieces which are all the same type, you get a Nice Set bonus. It appears to be about as good as a Grain bonus. This is generally easiest in holes which are 4x5, filled with Ps or Ls, and is rarely possible on much larger holes. Piece frequency (see below) makes reliable, regular use of the Nice Set bonus impractical, and the value of the bonus is not worth the effort of keeping a particular hole reserved for one specific shape.

Blockade carpentry
Blockade carpentry is a variation of carpentry, played by puzzlers during a blockade, flotilla or a journey in Atlantis. Some carpentry pieces will have one to three already connected bonus shape quarters added to the piece. The bonus pieces move with the carpentry piece, and are obscured by other carpentry pieces, with or without bonus pieces placed overlapping them. If, when a carpentry hole is completed, bonus pieces in that hole form a complete a circle, diamond, plus, or ex together, the puzzler contributes to filling the meter for the corresponding maneuver. If there are multiple complete bonus shapes in a single hole one of them is chosen at random to contribute towards the ship's tokens. When blockade carpenting on a sloop it requires two bonus pieces to fill the meter.

The quality of the fill also affects the bonus. If the hole does not earn at least a Fair Job rating, no bonus piece is awarded; a shape completed in a Masterpiece counts double.

Tips and tricks
Fill holes from the outside in.

Avoid splitting a hole into two holes. Exceptions: If you have a putty bucket, a hole requiring multiple specific pieces, and no other holes close to completion, you may wish to cut off a one-piece section, knowing you can use the bucket to extend the lifetime of that hole.

If you have a hole requiring two specific pieces to fill, and one of them comes, wait to play it until the other piece you need appears. If you only have one piece to complete a masterpiece, fill it to open up your possibilities for other holes. If you are waiting to patch a craftsmanship, try to use a rare, difficult to place piece if you have one so you don't mess up future holes with it.

Try to work multiple holes at once, rather than one. Try to complete holes that are adjacent, not two that are diagonally apart, so new holes scroll in after each pair you complete. This way you will have plenty of space in two new holes in which you can play while waiting for pieces to complete two nearly finished holes. The board will then scroll across and you can begin the process anew.

You can adjust a piece once you've set it down. As long as you haven't picked up another piece, you can click again on your last piece and rotate or flip it, or move it up to one square in any direction. Once you hit a league point, you will no longer be able to adjust a placed piece.

Use difficult pieces (X, I, Z) as soon as possible to avoid having a box full of tough pieces. Usually you will want to place these in a big empty hole will give you more time and space to fill in a masterpiece around these troublesome pieces.

Try to fit all the pieces so that (ideally) the top 3 most common pieces, or whatever you already have in your bucket, will finish the masterpiece. Leaving your empty hole as square as possible makes this easier.

Remember that all holes can theoretically be completed with a masterpiece, so don't let holes expand by a square. (This happens when you neglect a new hole for too long -- when you ignore the warning for three turns). If the hole expands, you cannot get a masterpiece for that hole.

Example: Two-piece holes
When you have a hole down to the point where it will take 2 pieces to complete, wait until both of those pieces are available before you complete it. A bucket of putty makes it much easier, since then you only have to wait for one piece. Be aware that some shapes can be filled with many different combinations of pieces - do your best to finish on shapes like that. Here are some good shapes to finish on:

External/other links

 * Carpentry videos and video tutorials
 * Hawkings' Carpentry Tutorial
 * Dachimpy's video guides
 * Commonly discussed ideas from Game Design
 * Official game documents
 * The Carpentry Tips Thread
 * Grain Bonus Thread
 * ScaryMuffin's Carpentry Video
 * Mira's Carpentry Tutorial
 * Carp maneuvers
 * Inframan's Carpentry Video