Player muting should only be for periods up to 20 minutes. Temp banning will only be used in extreme cases where a player has been kicked for their crimes and just rejoins to be kicked again repeatedly. This will allow the player to cool off for a period of up to one hour. Should a major dispute arise and cannot be taken care of with a temporary ban, a longer ban may be administered as requested by two administrators in agreement. See the “Repetition Policy for General Punishment” section listed after the general rule set.
Player Actions. Players will be expected to cooperate and try to get along. After all, this is a game and games are meant to be a form of recreation, not court room battles. Players will need to follow the guidelines in this document as well as all administrators and peacekeepers.
Players will not bicker constantly in the global channel. An argument that lasts more than one minute should be carried out in a private manor via #tell or #say in a local environment. Spam punishments will apply to this offense.
Shoving. Players will not shove/push/etc people off of potentially lethal heights. These areas are that like The Travellor’s Den, Yolanda, etc. If there is any doubt about the lethal potential of a height, then you should not perform the action of making another player fall. If it kills the player upon impact, this is indeed a lethal height. Also, be aware that shoving people in order to kill them falls under the PK guidelines. Punishments for this are as follows:
1st Offense: Warning issued.
2nd Offense: Warning issued and offender will be required to repay for loses.
3rd Offense: Player will be jailed for up to eight minutes.
4th Offense: Player may be kicked or temp banned.
As stated in the spam rule, administrators can ask for a longer banning period instead of the normal maximum punishment of one hour. Offense repetition periods will be reset 24 hours after the first offense is carried out. See the “Repetition Policy for General Punishment” section listed after the general rule set.
Zone Hoarding and Zone Blocking. Players will not hoard a zone. The use of tents, other spawnable objects, players, items, or any object that is possibly created, displayed, or rendered whether it is visible or not within the Tribes engine by players will not be tolerated. Administrators can do so and have permission should they need to block an area off for maintenance, etc.
Also, a player should not take an entire zone or zone subset for themselves. Nobody owns the zone except for the NPCs that occupy it. The use of a particular race to train skills such as using goblins or orcs for the sole purpose of training endurance and dodging when other players need to use them for real purposes such as killing to gain experience is not acceptable. Players are allowed to train particular skills from using bots, but not when people need to use the bots to level themselves up. To kill the zones is not considered “particular skill training” even though it does raise skills because the bots are up for grabs by all players.
Punishments for Zone Blocking:
1st Offense: Warning and block must be removed.
2nd Offense: Block must be removed, warning issued, and up to 10 minutes of jail.
3rd Offense: Kicking or temp banning.
Zone Blocking is a serious offense that keeps other players from being able to level where they want. Take notice that Zone Blocking (of course) only applies to zones or areas in a zone that may be desirable for players to go. Also, areas that players go to that are not marked with zones but players regularly need to go through (no alternate route besides teleporting, etc are included in the Zone Blocking policy.
Punishments for Zone Hoarding:
1st Offense: Warning issued and player must cease hoarding within 30 seconds.
2nd Offense: Player must stop hoarding and a fine of up to 50,000 gold can be taken.
3rd Offense: Player may be fined up to 75,000 gold and jailed for up to 10 minutes.
4th Offense: Player can be either kicked or temp banned should the need arise.
Zone Hoarding is also a serious crime that “ruins other people’s games” and cannot be allowed. When these two offenses are combined, they will be dealt with as follows:
1st Offense: Player will be warned, blocks must be removed, and hoarding stopped.
2nd Offense: Player can be jailed for up to 20 minutes and fined up to 75,000 gold.
3rd Offense: Player can be kicked or temp banned for up to two hours.
As you can tell, I regard Zone Hoarding in addition to Zone Blocking a serious crime. This detracts from the player experience and makes players become hostile or bored. Often times, there is only one zone that they can use effectively. See the “Repetition Policy for Special Punishment” section listed after the general rule set.
Pack Gaurding. After somebody kills another, the fight should either be over or continue. No more guarding somebody else’s pack will be tolerated. It is a sign of disrespect and is flat-out wrong. In general, the act of preventing somebody from getting their pack or using other means to prevent them such as (but not limited to) a friend, spawnable object, etc… if you are related to the reason that they died such as (but not limited to) blocking an escape from an NPC, PKing them, getting somebody else to PK them, etc… is against the rules. Doing so as deemed by an administrator or peacekeeper will result in the following punishments:
1st Offense: Warning and pack must be returned or unguarded.
2nd Offense: Warning and up to four minutes of jail time.
3rd Offense: Warning, up to a 15,000 gold fine, and up to 10 minutes of jail.
4th Offense: Kick or temp ban.
Pack guarding is a clear sign of disrespect and dishonor. If you kill somebody or they are killed in some other way and you decide to have their pack blocked from them or attempt to, even if it is physically possible for them to get their pack by running past you, etc then you will be punished in accordance to the guideline above. See the “Repetition Policy for General Punishment” section listed after the general rule set.
Stealing. You are of course allowed to steal from players. After all, there is a skill and a class for it. When you decide to take stealing, mugging, pick pocketing, and other similar resulting skills too far, you start to ruin the game. You are allowed to take two items from another player within a period of 30 minutes. In taking these items, you are allowed to take any value of item granted it is not from an administrator. Peacekeepers are fair game, but they may have to take vengeance should you violate this guideline. Be aware that you are fair game to the people you steal from for either stealing it back or killing one time. After one kill, the PK guideline will take effect. The thief is not allowed a free vengeance kill due to the fact that they already did their crime by stealing.
Punishments for Thievery:
1st Offense: Warning will be issued and you may be required give the items back.
2nd Offense: Warning, up to a 20,000 gold fine, and items must be given back.
3rd Offense: Up to six minutes in jail and up to a 40,000 gold fine.
4th Offense: Kick or temp ban.
Stealing is not a major issue on the server or even within the TRPG community. However, abuse of this privilege (as any other) can ruin the game for others and within seconds, make them lose hours of mining or scavenging. See the “Repetition Policy for General Punishment” section listed after the general rule set.
Player Killing. Killing other people is a major part of the game. After all, there was a PK system set up by JI and it comes in handy for certain things. Abuse of player killing can not only be annoying, but it can be down right cruel. For a high-level player to knock a level 1 player into oblivion could push the new player into a position to where they might leave the server forever because of somebody’s cruel actions. In general, you will need to follow the guidelines (listed below) before you decide to PK another:
The target player must not be more than 20% from your own level. This is more fair, because it is easier to win a battle when out-classed at high levels than at lower levels. A level 20 character can dominate a level 1, but a level 100 may actually lose to a level 80 player if they play the fight out well.
Killing other players is forbidden if they are under level five and you are above level five. Killing people just starting out is ridiculous. If somebody from under level five takes advantage of this by attacking another above or at level five, then they are fair game. It would make no sense to make a victim just stand there and take it. Be aware that this does count toward your PK quota for that player.
Killing the same person more than three times within any 24-hour period is not acceptable. If you need to fight about something, do it. Just make sure not to become ridiculous with it. If you have killed somebody three times and they then proceed to try and kill you because you have met your limit, they are mistaken. A fight between two people counts toward both of their quotas, no matter who wins the fight. Therefore, once two people have fought three times, they are done. The obvious exception is if both agree to the fight and are doing it willingly. In this case (such as skill training and play fighting) there is no kill count established. If any party disagrees to a fight though, then the kill is counted toward quotas. Do NOT complain to an admin or peacekeeper should you agree to fight and then lose (or even win in some cases). Remember, it was your decision from the beginning.
Killing sprees will also not be accepted. There is a maximum kill count of nine kills per day, no matter who you attack. This will allow for three matches to be fully conducted in one day. For example, the same person could fight three different challengers in a day. If one has passed their kill quota for the day and one attacks him, he is allowed to defend himself. The person that takes advantage of this purposely may be punished as well if the admin or peacekeeper decides to do something about it (if it is necessary). Use your kills wisely.
All level-based systems listed above are based on the participants’ levels at the time of the fight’s start.
Punishments for Out of Range Killing:
1st Offense: Warning
2nd Offense: Warning with possible demand to replace LCK points.
3rd Offense: LCK must be replaced and jail time of up to 10 minutes.
4th Offense: Kick or temp ban.
Punishments for Newbie Killing:
1st Offense: Warning
2nd Offense: Warning with demand to replace all lost items (and LCK).
3rd Offense: LCK and items must be replaced, jail of up to 10 minutes.
4th Offense: Kick or temp ban.
Punishments for Over-Killing a Player:
1st Offense: Warning
2nd Offense: Warning with possible demand to replace all lost items.
3rd Offense: All items must be replaced and jail time of up to 12 minutes.
4th Offense: Kick or temp ban.
Punishments for Killing Sprees:
1st Offense: Warning
2nd Offense: Up to 20 minutes of jail time.
3rd Offense: Up to 30 minutes of jail time and all items must be replaced.
4th Offense: Kick or temp ban.
Of course, temp bans will be up to one hour on Out of Range Killing, Newbie Killing, and Over-Killing a Player. For a killing spree, the ban may be as long as six hours (only to be over two hours in cases deemed extreme by the peacekeeper or administrator). See the “Repetition Policy for General Punishment” section listed after the general rule set.
Account Stealing/Hacking. If you steal another user’s account and are caught without permission from the character’s rightful owner, then you are subject to punishment should you be caught. Stealing another character is a VERY serious crime and will be dealt with sharply.
1st Offense: Hacker’s character will be temp banned for up to two days.
2nd Offense: Hacker’s character will have their bank account and storage cleared. Also, they will be temp banned for up to a week.
3rd Offense: All of the Hacker’s characters will be cleared and his or her ISP will be banned from playing on Particle’s Custom RPG permanently.
Hacking accumulations are never reset, meaning if you hack a character once, that stays on the record forever. For more information, refer to the “Repetition Policy for Extreme Cases” section listed after the general rule set.
AFK Training. You are allowed to AFK train to an extent, but be aware that you are fair game (without penalty) to anybody that wants to do anything to you. Everything goes if you are AFK training.
Power Leveling. You are not allowed to power level. Power leveling is the use of another character for the sole purpose of training skills on it. If you wish to train your skills on somebody that agrees, then it is alright to an extent. The player must be a human controlled character (not AFK) and you are not allowed to train for more than 10 minutes within a 24-hour period. Any use that is not clearly defined within this rule subset is considered a violation (for the sake of closing a possible loophole) and will be punished.
1st Offense: Warning
2nd Offense: Skills that are trained will be set back 10%
3rd Offense: Skills that are trained will be set back 50%
4th Offense: Kick or temp ban.
Power leveling is yet another way to make the game unfair. See the “Repetition Policy for General Punishment” section listed after the general rule set.
Peacekeeper Specifics
Peacekeepers will be elected via an election-type poll by the players on the server. Should a peacekeeper abuse the powers that they will be entrusted with, they will be removed and will not be allowed to run again without two administrators recommending that “good behavior and reform” should allow them to run once again.
Peacekeepers will be elected every two weeks (or as needed, should one be removed). If one is elected in between terms due to another being removed, then they will serve the remainder of the two-week term in order to keep elections orderly and regular.
Peacekeepers will be entrusted with peace-keeping powers that will not benefit their character. They will NOT have commands like #myitem or #kill.
Repetition Policy for General Punishment
All totals for the crimes using this policy will be in 24-hour sections. Your quota for offenses will be totaled for the 24 hours following the first incident. If you decide to do the same offense within the 24 hours following your first attack, the time until your quota is dropped is reset. Therefore, not only do you have to wait 24 hours until your quota is cleared, but if you wait until the end of the quota and offend again in order to obtain more than the allowed number of offenses, then when you offend the 24 hour period is reset. Basically, you must wait 24 hours after your first offense for quotas to be reset. If you offend again within this 24 hour period, then it counts toward your quota and will further offenses will count toward your quota for the following 24 hours.
Repetition Policy for Special Punishment
All totals for the crimes using this policy will be in 48-hour sections. Your quota for offenses will be totaled for the 48 hours following the first incident. If you decide to do the same offense within the 48 hours following your first attack, the time until your quota is dropped is reset. Therefore, not only do you have to wait 48 hours until your quota is cleared, but if you wait until the end of the quota and offend again in order to obtain more than the allowed number of offenses, then when you offend the 48 hour period is reset. Basically, you must wait 48 hours after your first offense for quotas to be reset. If you offend again within this 48 hour period, then it counts toward your quota and will further offenses will count toward your quota for the following 48 hours.
Repetition Policy for Extreme Cases
All totals shall not be cleared for the entire duration of your stay on the server. If you violate the rules one day and then again a month later, it will count as an additional offense. Peacekeepers or administrators may recommend that your quota be reset for the particular crime should good behavior result from initial punishment. Two admins or peacekeepers will need to make the recommendation in order for this scenario to occur. Normally, this policy is only used in the most extreme and unacceptable crimes.
Conclusions
Most people will never need to worry about these rules as they play to have fun. Should one of these rules be violated and it is taken care of by an administrator or peacekeeper, they should send a log to
violations@xfury.net including who broke what rule, what day and time it was discovered, what level of punishment was used, and what the actual punishment for the situation was. Any additional information such as why it happened is welcome.
Personally, I am sorry to see the server have to come to a point where detailed rules are lined out. We were doing so well without rules having to be made to govern every detail of abuse. It is like the airports’ new security systems. There has to be a price to the general people in order to protect them from the people that try to ruin everything. Since this is what must be, we will try it. Until next time…
-Particle
