Fairness
the rulebook is public, and it is never walked back
Nothing sold for real money may flow into the economy. That's a design pillar, and everything else on this page exists to protect it. This page is the rulebook. It's meant to be printed once and never quietly revised once players are trusting it.
The rulebook
Clean — sell this freely
- Longer idle cap
- Extra inventory & market listings
- Action queueing
- Higher API rate limits
- Cosmetics, vanity
Borderline — capped, printed, and the cap is never increased
- ≤10% XP bonus
- Slightly faster sailing
Never — not for sale, not ever
- Gold, items, or gear for money
- Payer-exclusive equipment
- Per-action timer skips
- Lootboxes
- Paid officer berths
- Premium-currency ↔ gold trading (unless deliberately designed OSRS-bond-style, much later, and never quietly)
The free idle cap
Every account gets an 8-hour free idle cap from day one (current design value) — the amount of queued action time your captain can bank while you're away. Supporter perks in the "clean" list above can extend this, but only ever additively. It is never reduced or gated behind a subscription to restore what free players already had, and it never goes back down. A committed voyage plan is exempt from the cap entirely — its rations are paid honestly up front, so a long plan never sells content the free tier is supposed to have.
One account per player
One captain per account. The rule for automation is "no second account," not "no bots." Playing IdlePiracy via the API is a fully supported feature (see API), and the one-account rule is what keeps that fair: your bot can work as hard as you like, but it's still just you. See the API page for how this is enforced in practice (ToS statement plus logged heuristics, not blanket automated bans).
Monetization phases
Monetization is deliberately slow. Each phase is gated behind proof the game is worth supporting:
| Phase | Trigger | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | Launch through ~100 active players | Everything is free. A Patreon covers server costs only. Patron perks are identity only: a Founder badge, a cosmetic, tavern credits. |
| Phase 2 | Retention proven, ~1,000 active players | A membership tier (current design value: roughly €5–7/mo) unlocks the "clean" perks above. Existing patrons are grandfathered gracefully. |
Cosmetic surfaces
If cosmetics are going to fund the game, they need somewhere to show. These surfaces ship on day one:
- Profile / ship portrait frame
- Chat badge
- Market seller flair
- Leaderboard banner
- Officer outfits
The `supporter` entitlement flag is built from day one. It can only ever turn on cosmetics and quality-of-life.