Scoring
The scoring system in shipwrightery isn't always obvious to everyone and it really dictates the way one should play, so I'll talk about it briefly.
Every time you "match" a pattern, you get a score for that match. The score is determined by two things: the size of the pattern you matched and the position in the chain in which you made that match. The larger the pattern, the better you score (i.e. a 5-piece pattern will score better than a 3-piece pattern). Also, the later in a chain you make a match, the more it's worth.
Given that, there are a couple rules of thumb that you'll want to take forward:
- Build the longest chains possible
- Use your biggest matches last
While this may not be exactly accurate, I like to think of it this way (for the more mathematically inclined) - each match is worth a given score - each sequential position in a chain has a higher multiplier. By placing your best scoring matches (those with the most pieces) later in your chain, you're multiplying your biggest scores by the biggest multipliers, which results in a largest product possible.
Another thing to note about shipwrightery scoring is that your final score is the average of all your match scores. So, if you had three matches that scored Fair, Great, and Admirable, your average score would be "Great". (See the wiki for a complete list of scores.) On Midnight, it seems that you need to average approximately "Excellent" in order to score Incredible.
If you're really interested in digging into even more details about shipwrightery scoring, have a look at this forum thread.
Strategy
In terms of strategy, I find shipwrightery to be more like carpentry than any other puzzle - it really takes good "spatial organization" to do well with this puzzle. When I play this puzzle, I generally do the same few steps over and over again:
- Plan Layout
- Look for Shortages
- Move Pieces
- Execute Combo
I'll go into each step to give you a good idea of the things I look for.
Plan Layout
This is the part of the puzzle that I really find to be a lot like carpentry. When puzzling at the highest levels, you'll have two 5-piece patterns, two 4-piece patterns, and two 3-piece patterns. That's 24 pieces worth of patterns. The board is only 25 pieces large. That means it's going to take a whole lot of planning and quite a bit of luck to get them all on the board.
There's really nothing you can do about getting patterns that all fit well together or getting the correct pieces on the board to match the patterns you have. What you can impact is how you arrange these patterns on the board to maximize space. The largest patterns are the most important, so make sure you get those placed first - I'd suggest building around the outside edge to save you as much room as possible. Then move on to the next largest patterns, and so on, until you've run out of room.
Here's a picture of a typical starting board:
The first step is to look at my patterns and try to determine where they'd best fit on my board. Given the pieces I have, this is how I think I'd like to arrange them:
So the next logical question is, how the heck did I come up with that?
My approach is pretty simple. Start with the biggest patterns you have, whether those be 5-piece patterns or 4-piece patterns. These are the most important pieces to place (because they score the best) and they're also going to be the most constraining. Once you have those placed, your options for the smaller pieces will be more limited and it'll take you less time to decide where to put them.
When determining where to put your largest patterns, try to find ways to put them together that won't "waste" any spaces. Notice how I put together the berth and the gangway in the example above. The two pieces fit together in such a way that no spaces are trapped where they can't be used.
Some patterns fit together better than others. The berth and gangway work quite well together. In other cases, like the helm and capstan shown below, there aren't always good ways to put them together. Notice the green block that's been trapped in the upper-left corner - that block can't be used in any other patterns and thereby limits your options for additional pattern matches.
Other pairs, such as the mooring with the nest can be downright awful. Which two patterns you get isn't under your control. How you try to arrange them to save the most space is up to you. With ten 5-piece patterns available, I won't go into the best way to match them all, but here are a few examples of useful ways I've found to match patterns. Note that the same pattern may get moved around the board based on the pattern it's paired with. For example, the shot works best in the lower-right when paired with the nest, but it works best in the lower-left when paired with the mooring. Here are a few arrangements to help you get the idea - remember, the goal here is to fit your largest patterns on the board and leave as much space as possible for other patterns.
Once you have your biggest patterns in place, move on to the next largest patterns (the 4's, generally), and so on until you've placed everything you can. By placing the largest patterns, which have the least options available to you, you make it easier on yourself when placing the smaller patterns.
Look for Shortages
I kept this as a separate step, but I really do this while performing steps 1 and 3. Once I have my plan set from step 1, I usually start moving pieces around. While I'm doing this, I'm looking at the pieces I have on the board - will I have enough to complete my patterns? Am I going to be short a specific color?
If I go back to my original example, I wanted to do this:
If you look close enough, you can see that I can't possibly do this. The berth requires 2 wood, the gangway requires 2 (it would normally require 3, but I'm using the gold for that), and the halyard would normally require a wood, but I'm using a gold there, as well. So that means I need 4 wood for these three pieces. Take a look at that picture. There are only 4 pieces of wood on the entire board. That means I have no way to create the pattern for a yard, which would require two additional pieces of wood that I simply do not have.
So what happens? I revise my plan.
While moving pieces about to fit my plan as best I can, I have to determine what I can do with that upper-right corner where I had been planning on putting the yard. Fortunately, because my plan already accounts for all the other patterns, I only have one option to evaluation - can I get a cleat in there? Every other pattern is done and the yard won't work due to lack of wood so the cleat is my only option. Does it fit? Certainly. This is what I ended up with:
Not far from the original plan, but it does show that it's important to be flexible while implementing your plan.
Move Pieces
Once your plan is in place, begin moving your pieces to implement that plan. I won't get much into the actual moving of pieces around. The basics are simple - getting good and efficient at it simply takes practice. Practice makes perfect and, once you get used to moving the pieces, you won't even really think about it any longer - then you can dedicate yourself to thinking about your plan and how to get those most out of the patterns and the board in front of you.
When you're moving pieces, you're constantly looking at your plan. Will it work? Do you have all the pieces you need? Do you need to modify it? While I have these first three steps separated, they really all happen together. Often, I plan for a couple seconds and then immediately begin moving pieces. While moving, I'm revising that plan and looking for shortages and adjusting accordingly.
Execute Combo
Finally, after all that work, it's time to sit back, relax, and build your combo. While you might feel stressed and pressed for time during the previous segment, this is a part of the puzzle you simply should not rush. Every time you clear a pattern, your timer starts over. Your board is already set up for the next pattern, so take a moment and slow down.
Rather than simply firing off your entire combo in one fell swoop - you should be looking for new, "intermediate", clears that crop up after clearing existing patterns. These intermediate clears help you push those ever-important big patterns further and further back in the combo. The longer you can hold those big patterns, the better off you'll be.
Here's an example:
In this case, when I clear the nest shown in the left image, it leaves a piece of cloth in just the right place so that I can now clear a boom. When these happen, you don't want to miss them. Try to make your chains as long as possible and keep the biggest patterns as far back in the chain as possible.
So, when it comes time to execute your chain, take time after each clear to see if something new has cropped up. If it has, lucky for you! Take advantage of it and get yourself a better score!
When you simply can't match any more patterns, your chain is over and you have to start over at step 1. Rinse and repeat until complete!
