This post is a merged copy of rules and explanations.
1. Community Rules (Server and Forum)
1.1 This is a Freelancer-based role-play community. Character names and behavior must be realistic in the Discovery Freelancer universe (no player nationality tags, memes, pop-culture references, or direct imports from other universes like Star Wars). Realistic role-play also means that characters can’t use information they didn’t receive in the game universe.
Name regulations:
- no swear words
- no indicating of player origin
- no faction tags if you're not a member
- no excessive use of random symbols, capital letters, numbers, symbols, leet speak, emoticons
- no references to real-life atrocities
- no memes
Examples:
No Little Ponies, Furries, Care Bears, Ewoks, Luke Skywalkers, Jean Luc Piccards, supergamer72, |\/\/\$N00P-DAWG/\/\/|.
No using Outcast characters to tell the identities of cardamine smugglers to law enforcement.
No using information from a communication channel that a character has no access to.
No using of cloaked nomad ship to acquire information for enemies of Nomads.
1.2 Don’t insult, harass, or threaten players outside of role-play. Don’t use racist, graphic, pornographic, obscene, or law-violating materials in or out of role-play. Don’t repeatedly target specific players or groups with the intention of ruining their game experience. Don’t mislead players about rules or pose as an admin or “admin friend” to gain an advantage.
No insulting or degrading real people. For example "you stupid lolwhut", "go kill yourself", "people of X nationality/ethnicity/religion are sub-human")
No using Discovery to promote political views or historic/scientific revisionism. Not even in role play, or disguised as role play.
No pornographic role play or links to sites that feature pornography or propaganda. Keep in mind that there are people of all ages playing here.
No systematic attacking or public smearing of certain player(s) with the intention of removing them as players from the community or from what you consider "your turf".
You may remind players of rules and point it out if they are violating them. However, be careful not to misrepresent them, because misrepresenting them to threaten with sanctions will get you sanctioned.
1.3 Everything must be in understandable English. Some non-English words can enhance role-play, but the meanings should be kept understandable to English-only speakers.
You may travel and engage in role play only if you have one, and only one, ID on your ship. You may buy an ID for another player to help set up up a character, but it should be done quickly, should not involve traveling, and not be done while role-playing is taking place within radar range.
2.3 Players using Recruit ID and players below level 30 may not be attacked unless they: attack first, fire cruise-disruptors, refuse to stop stalking, carry a codename weapon, or take active part in role-play.
This rule is there so people don't target new players who have no way of defending themselves and little understanding of the rules and game mechanics. It shouldn't be abused by using low level or recruit ID in order to bother others.
2.4 All attacks must be a result of roleplay. Players must say more than one line and give reasonable time for the opponent to react before initiating an attack. Non-Nomads may always attack Nomads, but role-play is still required.
This rule exists so people don't just go around shooting everyone out of the blue. Leave your opponent enough time to at least notice you, and give him a chance to react to you before you open fire. You don't have to give up the element of surprise completely, as you don't have to state your intention of attacking someone before attacking. You can, for example, have a friendly conversation out of radar range (system chat or pm), use an IFF that doesn't arouse suspicion, and then surprise-attack him after you won't be suspected of wanting to do any harm.
2.5 If you die in any way during PvP, you must leave the system the fight took place in and not re-enter it on any characters for two hours. You may not carry cargo, engage in player interactions, or be attacked while leaving. You also can’t attack the player(s) you died to on any of your characters for two hours.
Without this rule, battles would be endless and pointless, so please obey it. Instead of taking revenge by re-engaging with the same or another character before two hours are up, you have much better options available: Put up an IRP bounty on who ever killed you. Play on another character in another corner of Sirius. Go to Connecticut and train your combat skills. What ever you do, don't break the rules while you're angry. You'll only end up harming yourself and giving your opponent more ways to harm you. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
2.6 The same as 2.5 applies if you dock within 15K of your enemy while in PvP, with the exceptions that you may re-enter the system to trade, keep your cargo, and players may attack you while you're leaving the system.
If you dock while in PvP and you are flying any ship (fighter, miner, or transport), you are permitted to leave the system keeping your cargo. However, players are permitted to attack you again, for example for piracy, while you leave. You will also not be allowed to engage players in the system you died even for the purpose of defending an allied ship. You may only re-enter the system in a transport or freighter, and the only thing you'll be allowed to do is trade (no following people around and no initiating role play with anyone). These restrictions last for two hours after the moment you docked during PvP.
2.7 Demands should be reasonable and only one monetary or cargo demand can be issued during each piracy interaction.
An unreasonable demand is a demand that only serves as an excuse to destroy the other player because no player (or character) would realistically obey it. An example would be asking for credits that exceed the total value of a transport's cargo. Another example for an unreasonable IRP demand is for the transport to reply "Just kill me so I can re-spawn where I bought my cargo and resume trading." A better alternative to the later is to die in a fight.
2.8 Don’t disconnect in space to escape interaction. If you get disconnected, log back on immediately and apologize to the players you were interacting with. If you can’t apologize ingame, do so in the forum thread titled "DISCONNECTED". Don’t rejoin a fight without permission from your adversary after getting disconnected.
When a ship loses connection, people within its radar range will see a green message that says it's trying to disconnect. It will drop its shield and stay in space for a certain amount of time, often long enough for it to be destroyed by an enemy. No matter the circumstances, the safest way to avoid a sanction for disconnecting during interaction is to apologize for disconnection ingame or on the forum.
2.9 Connecticut is a system where players aren’t required to role-play and may only attack with the adversary’s consent. Bastille is a system that imprisons rule breakers until they agree to obey server rules.
3.1 All contracts and bounties must be within roleplay and conform to IDs. A character may be hired ingame or on the forum by non-generic IDed players, for a minimum of 1 million credits per target. Targets must be informed of the contract/bounty originator before the attack. The reputations of employer and employee must be neutral or friendly to each other, and they must both be hostile to the target.
Bounties must be placed before, not after, they're fulfilled.
You may claim bounties that your character placed using another one of your characters, as long as the Bounty can also be claimed by other characters than your own and is publicly placed and claimed on the forum.
Spying/scouting bounties must conform to rule 1.1 and reputation rules of 3.1, but it's not required to inform the target on the server if no attack occurs.
3.2 Bounties and contracts valid while the employer is logged off must be posted in the "Bounty Offices" sub-forum. Employers must specify their name and affiliation, and also specify and verify the affiliation of those who may claim the bounty. Payments must be made within two weeks of a legitimate claim. Employers may specify beforehand the number of available payouts or limit them to pre-registered bounty board members.
If someone is hired to attack someone ingame, the attack may only be initiated if the employer is still online and not PvP-dead. If the employer is PvP-dead or offline while hiring, the contract must be documented with a forum bounty post. An already started engagement may continue if the employer dies during the engagement.
3.3 Forum-Bounties on factions and groups instead of named individuals may only be issued or sponsored publicly by official factions, who may only sponsor one unofficial faction bounty. Players and player factions may enter into contracts with official factions or governments for flat rate fee payments of at least 30 million per month.
The flat rate contract contract and all acts under it must be posted.
3.4 Attacking someone for non-claimable bounties or non-existent ingame contracts, as well as not visibly claiming payment within 3 days of an alleged forum-bounty kill, will result in sanction.
If several employers placed bounties on the same target, it's permitted but not required to claim payment with more than one of them.
4. Factions
4.1 Players may create a faction for any publicly available ID they want, if the faction uses a single ID, IFF, and tag. Every faction must have one leader and at least one second-in-command who speak for it. It’s recommended but optional for unofficial factions to post descriptions in the Unofficial Factions and Groups sub-forum, explaining choice of ID, IFF, tag, background, diplomacy, goals, and to ask for community feedback. It’s also recommended to create roleplay message logs on the forum.
All ships in a faction must follow common diplomacy.
Having faction ships that don’t use an IFF or tag is acceptable.
4.2 Official status is awarded following the "Achieving Official Faction Status" post on the forum. Official factions must have a public feedback thread they answer to on the forum. They have the following Official Faction Rights (OFRs):
OFR 1. Official faction leaders ranked first or second in command have in-roleplay authority over characters of the same NPC affiliation, regarding diplomacy and strategic/tactical direction. They may not require anyone to follow non-canon or unreasonable roleplay. Disobeying legitimate orders may result in roleplay consequences such as ingame arrest, court-martial, and in extreme cases ingame force.
OFR 2. Official factions who planned an event with at least 24 hours notice on the forum can restrict the participation of others in that event. This should not severely limit another faction’s activities in their own ZoI or provide unfair protection from logical roleplay consequences.
OFR 3. Official factions may request that the reputation of a player's ship be set hostile towards their NPC faction, by posting in the appropriate Violation Reports sub-forum. They must provide evidence of forum roleplay and interaction between them and the character. Ships subjected to OFR3 may treat ships of the issuing faction (except transports) as hostile targets.
OFR 4. Official factions have the right to bounty or attack a player who uses their technology without the faction ID nor official permission, regardless of their diplomacy with the user's faction. Official permissions may only be given by official factions affiliated with the manufacturer of the technology, and must be documented in roleplay on the forum.
All instances of OFR use must be documented by forum roleplay. In cases where affiliated official faction leaders disagree on exercising an OFR, server administrators will decide the course of action.
5. Player Owned Bases
5.1 Dealing more damage to a Player Owned Base (POB) than needed to prevent a ship from docking must be preceded by forum roleplay and a post in the Attack Declaration Thread at least 8 hours (core 1 bases) or 24 hours (core 2 and higher) prior to the attack. Attack declarations are valid for 2 weeks.
5.2 No roleplay is required prior to building a Core 1 base, but it must make sense in roleplay. Name, location and IFF of bases are permanent and can’t be changed after construction. Core upgrades have requirements listed in the "Player Owned Base Upgrades" forum thread. Bases within 15k distance of mining fields may not advance beyond Core 2.
5.3 POBs are destructible and not safe when unprotected. It's recommended you inform yourself about House laws and fees and local diplomacy before construction. POBs in systems bordering House space may not be engaged by House forces for lack of payment of fees, but can still fall prey to other factions.
6. The following cheats and exploits are forbidden:
6.1 Modifying your Discovery Freelancer installation or using third-party tools in order to gain advantages over other players. The server will auto-ban you if you do. 6.2 Running the game with framerates above 155fps. Computers running uncapped framerate must use a third party program to limit the FPS to below 155. 6.3 Using cruise disruptors or missiles in order to track a ship that has successfully cloaked. 6.4 Intentionally ramming a capital ship in order to ''flip'' it or ''catapult'' your ship away from it. 6.5 Intentionally self-killing or team-killing during Combat-Event-Plugin enabled battles in order to prevent the opposing team from scoring points. 6.6 Connecting to the server with more than one character at a time (Multiboxing). Players who share a network connection and play together must not engage in trading/mining while doing so. 6.7 Suicide trading. 6.8 Abusing known glitches and bugs to gain an advantage over other players.
7. Sanctions
7.1 Administrators will impose sanctions on players who violate rules or harm server gameplay. Admins are obliged to:
-Safeguard the community, server, and forums.
-Be fair and treat all players equally.
-Not mix server roleplaying with server administration in any way.
-Not ignore reported rule violations.
- No teleporting players to give them an IRP advantage
7.2 Depending on severity and amount of rule violations, sanctions can range from a warning, credit fine, loss of equipment, probation periods with removal of certain privileges, and bans of varying duration. Sanctions will appear in forum threads detailing the offenses and punishments.
A "permaban'' is a sanction where the punished player and all his assets are removed from the community for an indefinite amount of time. Permanent bans will only be lifted if a ban appeal is submitted and positively voted on by the administration team. If the vote fails, the player may not submit another appeal for another six months.
When players are "permabanned", their ingame assets are frozen. Shared characters are included in the freeze to avoid situations where shared banks and expensive ships are saved/bumped by a third party Member. The only ships not hit by the freeze are shared Faction ships that have a been shiplocked. Requests to unban them will be viewed on case-by-case basis.
Please only share access to your accounts with people you trust, as losing these accounts is within your own responsibility.
7.3 If someone shows disregard for the rules even after being informed of rules and violations, players can file a rule violation report in the appropriate sub-forum. Playing Discovery Freelancer as a community is less anonymous than other games, and therefore things are often taken more personal. Don’t attempt to use violation reports for personal revenge. If you’re angry, take time to gather and present the evidence properly and make sure you’re not mistaken when you’re calm.
Fair play, a level head, and consideration for others are paramount. The rules are not a sword or shield to be used for or against someone, but are there to ensure that the server environment has structure and allows everyone to have fun. If you make a mistake apologize. Attempts to intentionally bait someone into violating rules or attempts to exploit loop holes will not be tolerated.
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