No instruments aboard — fit a Storm Glass to read exact odds.
Send her out and let the catch build. Every second aboard is worth more — and easier to lose.
Harbor office
Harbor office
How Harborlight works
Provision and sail. A voyage costs one provision from the chandler. Pick a ground, send her out, and the catch starts building the moment she reaches it.
Time is the payout. The longer the boat works, the more the catch is worth. It compounds, so the last ten seconds aboard are always worth more than the first ten.
Time is also the risk. Every second carries a chance she goes down, and that chance climbs the longer she stays out. What is in the hold is what you stand to lose.
Mind the load line. Watch the weight climb beside the catch. Danger scales with what she is carrying as well as with the clock, and crossing her load line raises the stakes on the spot: the danger jumps, then climbs away from you, seas start coming over the rail and washing catch off the deck, and the salvage locker stops working — a boat riding that low cannot float anything free, so the deeper she sits the less of the catch is secured, and at double her line none of it is. A larger hold raises the line; nothing else does.
Call the crew. Three buttons stand off in the top corner of the water while she is working, and they are the only things you steer once she is on the grounds. A pip beside them for every call you have left.
Work her hard(key 1) — a full sail. Nets down and every hand on deck: the catch grows ×1.7 for eight seconds, and the danger ×1.9 with it.
Heave to(key 2) — an anchor. Come about and ride it out: the danger drops to ×0.4 for ten seconds and the catch all but stops. This is the answer to a squall.
Trim the hold(key 3) — a crate going over the rail. Puts a quarter of the catch over the side at once, buying back the load line and everything that hangs off it.
Working her hard and heaving to are standing orders — a new one replaces the one before it rather than piling on top, so pressing the same button twice never doubles anything. Trimming is a one-off and leaves the standing order alone.
You start with three calls a voyage and five seconds between them. A ship's bosun from the shipyard raises both, and gets a better result out of every order besides. Spending calls beats hoarding them, and spending them at the right moment beats spending them early.
Call it home. Recalling stops the catch growing and banks what she has. The sail home is safe — the decision is the whole game.
Spend on the shipyard. Hulls and storm glasses cut risk, sonar fills the hold faster, a larger hold raises the load line, a ship's bosun gets you more out of the crew, and a salvage locker keeps part of the catch afloat when the worst happens — as long as she is under her marks when she goes.
A stipend a day. The harbor pays out $100 once every twenty-four hours, waiting in the header whenever it is due. Run out of both provisions and funds and it is your way back.
Charter new grounds. Fishing is only the start. Trawling, salvage diving, and night cargo runs each rewrite the risk-and-reward curve — and a full hold is worth far more out there.
Listen to her. A sonar ping marks the time she is working, and it quickens and rises as the odds turn against you — you can judge the danger with your eyes shut. The speaker button in the header silences everything.