The forum posts and cargo items presenting DiscoveryGC's Rules, which every new player is required to read and understand, and which give players an important first impression of the mod and community, contain multiple problems that make Discovery look amateurishly run and raise unpleasant questions on the nature of the community. Some examples:
- rambling about fair play, "common sense", and loop holes in the beginning, laced with boasts and threats
- ordering that starts with aspects that are irrelevant for beginners / first readers, forcing them to read things that aren't actually useful for them first
- numbering and naming of subsections inconsistent with their content
- clumsy and useless repetitions of words and sentences
- long explanations about "permabans" that don't affect most players, which could go into clarifications instead of rules post
- rule clarifications are hard to find in a a convoluted thread and scattered all over the forum as "green text", poorly presented, and obsolete
- content and numbering of rules in cargo item and forum differ
- rules that make something sound like it's forbidden on first read, and then another rule 4 further down that say its allowed (related topics in separate places)
For those who aren't able to identify the problems with the cargo items and forum posts by themselves, here's a more detailed list in the spoilers below.
- It should simply be called “Server Rules”, because the long name isn’t required anymore without the existence of other servers.
- Excessive use of underlining, red text, and exclamation marks reduces their usefulness for emphasis (and also looks angry and amateurish). “If you break the rules, you will be punished” is the only thing that needs red text to catch the attention of people who are originally too lazy to read the whole thing.
- An additional way to focus and keep the reader’s attention is to remove every word that isn’t really conveying useful new information and just wastes time and patience. For example in the first paragraph: “Admin Note:, brief, Discovery Freelancer RP24/7 official, (November 2016 revision), on Discovery Freelancer 24/7”
- The numbering does not match the one on forum, making it more confusing than useful.
- Is from 2016 and obsolete with for example rule 13 in the infocard (4.3 on the forum). If the forum and ingame rules used the same text, it would be easier to keep them in sync when a rule update happens.
- “should be viewed as out of roleplay information” self–evident and useless clutter sentence
- “wastness” should be spelled with v
- “This item takes only 1 unit of cargo and you may buy it from any base ingame. Feel free to carry it with you at all time” useless (and inaccurate) sentence. Things explained here are now in the Help System anyway, which can always be read without keeping it in cargo.
- the advertised “/restart BEGINNER” template does not exist.
- “Any ship has the capability to mine simple resources you can sell for profit” is misleading about the true nature of the mining system
- “once you launch to space, the helium field being planet Erie…” sends people to an isolated and boring grind. If you tell new people to mine, it’s better to send them to a busy place like the now existing premium scrap field in New York, where they can interact with experienced players instead of mostly other noobs.
- Important features like credit transfers and mining are now explained in the Help System. The cargo item should probably be removed and the green welcoming logon message should mention the Help System and where to find it
It mixes story lines of all houses, including points that aren’t important in the grand scheme of things, and thereby provides little context for why the items are relevant and for who/what.
All the information in the starter items is made permanently avilable in the Help System, without getting lost from cargo upon player death.
- Players are made to read through 18 lines (259 words) before learning the first bit of information that actually reveals what they can or can’t do on the server (rule 1.1).
- They are first told that they should play fair (which is subjective and as much an encouragement to complain about other people’s unfairness as it is to play fair oneself, there being differing views on what “fair” means even for long term players), told that rules shouldn’t be weaponized (again just as much an encouragement to accuse others of doing it as it is to not do it oneself), told about the rule clarification thread (which is dreadful for reasons given below), told how Game Masters are to behave (rather self-evident and something directed more at game masters and less at new players), and then another paragraph, for a second time told how people should be fair, which also wishes those who look for loop holes “good luck” (which again gives a bad impression of staff and members).
- All of hte above is unloaded on first time readers before telling them what the rules even are, or them really being concerned by these topics yet at all, or knowing what is supposed to be considered fair or unfair, or what the rambling about loop holes and weaponization could be about. If it is really necessary to write about these things in the rules, it makes more sense to put it in a place where it is actually relevant, for example where rule violation reports are submitted, or at the end or in the spoiler to a rule where people already have some context to it, and not before they even know what the actual rules are (which is what they’re really starting to read the post for).
- The rule clarification thread is 9 pages long (90 posts), and still contains now obsolete posts about former rules, which make it utterly confusing and annoying to look through to see if something hasn’t already been clarified. A much easier-to-find and upkeep way of clarifying rules is to use spoilers underneath the corresponding rule.
- With 1.1 the rules start by listing the usual things that are forbidden on most public gaming servers. They probably need to be said near the beginning, but the most important information is that which explains how the game is to played: That it’s a role play game and in what kind of universe it’s set in.
- Rule 1.6 is the one for character naming, but the character name rules reference it as rule 2.3 which doesn't exist
- There is no mention of what is considered "appropriate" role play (in 3 and 1.6), metagaming, or powergaming (1.5) (there is just some information on what is not under 1. and 3.1)
- Placing the forum rules (2.) between community rules (1.) and server rules (3.) keeps them from having consistent numbering if they were to be identical and optimal on both server and forum. Most people will play on the server before using the forum, therefore ordering them as community rules (valid for server and forum) first, then server, and then later forum rules (after other things that are relevant for server gameplay like hired guns and bounties) will make it optimized for more people.
- Since pornographic anime is pornographic, and ponies and furries are imports, there is no real need to list them explicitly (it also gives a bad impression of the community if you do). It can be added in rule clarifications in spoilers for those who choose not to “get it”.
- Things like trial by forum and off topic are enforced but not written down as forum rules. If the server rules are listed after/separate from the other rules, it’s not a problem to make them a bit longer and more explicit
- Rule 3.1 under “server rules” is related to community rule 1.1 (the 2 are therefore best combined for better context in community rules) and is also enforced on the forum, but not mentioned in forum rules. It’s likely that the swearing and insulting is seen as less severe in role play stories about one’s own characters than in communications directed at other players’ characters. See above point about making forum rules more explicit.
- In Rule 3 writing out ROLEPLAYING and ROLEPLAY twice in all caps leaves the impression of an angry nerd yelling at someone who he considers an inferior being because they aren’t as deep into ROLEPLAY as he is. It also does nothing to explain what role play or "acceptable roleplay" is or how it can be turned into acceptable all caps ROLEPLAY.
- 3.4 doesn’t differentiate between sieging, intentional shield-fuel draining, and acceptable shooting to keep someone from docking, and should be turned into a real sentence mentioning the forums
- 3.7 recruit ID isn't used anymore because of restarts and should therefore be removed as "clutter"
- 3.9 belongs into faction rules
- 4. Use of the abbreviation "PvP" without explaining what it means. Also useless repetition of "discover freelancer server"
- Rules 3.4, 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8 also concern pvp, but are not under "PvP rules"
- 3. and 4. repeat the lengthy name "Discovery Freelancer 24/7 RP" without real need for it, making headers harder to read and identify
- 4.2 is open to interpretation on whether this also applies to situations where one is not required to make a demand at all before initiating an attack, but makes a demand anyway for rp purposes. Furthermore the new IDs dont mention "demands" but "piracy" and "enforce laws".
- 4.4 is under "PvP rules" but is really about IDs and their restrictions, some of which have nothing to do with PvP.
- rules 4.4 + 4.5 can be made shorter by wording and by joining them.
- 4.5 bounty line should mention the existence of the bounty hunting rules section
- 4.6 The reworked IDs mention "piracy" and "combat ships" instead transports, so that specific distinction/nomenclature should probably me mentioned here
- The second to last paragraph is related to game master rules and sanctions (like some of what is said at the beginning), and is therefore easiest to understand when in context with that in a joined “rule violations and sanctions” subsection.
- The last bit of the rules 1st post is irrelevant to 99.9% of players who don’t get permabanned and don't use shared ships and can therefore be hidden in a spoiler, because apart from being a waste of time for most players to read, mentioning permabans in the rules OP such detail also leaves a very bad impression of the community.
- The line "All IDs are allowed to escort transports of the same affiliation outside of their ZOI, except while flying cruisers and battleships." in the systems classifications is well hidden and contradicts/changes what is said before about defense of (all) ships of same affiliation
- siege and construction rules repeated for every core makes it needlessly long
- repeating blueprint non transferability for every core makes it needlessly long
- repeating upgrade request link for every core makes it needlessly long
- Rule 1 and 5 contradict each other unless they are joined into one rule citing exceptions
- contains exceptions for sponsored blanket bounties that are never used anymore, which make rules needlessly long and complex
- "yellow zones" sentence can be avoided by not using yellow
- uselessly long repetioins of "House Military, Police, and Intelligence factions" when it can be abreviated
- last paragraph is redundant with what is said before and in IDs
In the following post(s) rules have been re-ordered, merged, and reworded to make them shorter and easier grasp, and thereby more convenient to read, taking into account the problems listed in the spoilers above. They're now re-organized and compact enough to put identical versions on the forum and into 7 ingame infocards grouped by topic in the already existing ingame Help System either so
or so
Overview of changes:
Format Changes
- Changed order of rules from most important for new people to know to least important, starting with 3 sections that must be known to everyone playing on the server, 3 more that need only be known for people who engage in that activity (hiring people, creating factions, building/sieging pobs), and 4 more that provide additional details and definitions
- Removed separation of "pvp rules" and "role play rules" in server rules because they are mixed and interdependent anyway
- Put all rules needed to play on the server using common sense into 10 numbered sets which fit into Help System infocards.
- Formatted the text so it can be easily copy-pasted into infocards without further editing
- Put things necessary to restrain someone who isn't using common sense (intentionally or unintentionally) into spoilers which are under each rule on the forum.
- Put rules needed to know only by people who perform forum actions into separate Forum Rules.
- Changed wording of most things so the smallest number or words necessary is used.
This condenses the current
- Community, Server, and forum rules (currently 1425 words)
- Player Owned Base rules (559)
- Bounty hunting and Freelancer Hire (266)
- Official Faction Rights and Responsibilities (617)
- Ships and Systems Classifications (703)
- Faction Creation Rules (752)
- POB attack declaration rules (285)
- Definitions (233)
posts from a total of 4840 words to a total of 3285 words, separating them into those that are needed to know to play on the server without problems or forum-surprises (2329), and those needed to know to perform forum actions (856).
Everyone is invited to suggest improvements or express concerns. Staff members are especially invited as individuals, it doesn't have to be a team statement.
Content Changes that have NO rule change consequences
- Removed rule about guard systems because they don't exist anymore (Official Faction Rights) was silently adopted by admins/gms
- Removed rule about training ships because everyone now trains in Connecticut (Official Faction Rights) was silently adopted by admins/gms
- Removed things that give a bad impression of the community (threats, boasting, loophole exploitation, permabanning), and put some of them in the spoilers
- Removed rule about anonymous bounties because no one ever uses it, and it seems useless now that everyone has alt accounts anyway was done in subsequent admin/gm bounty hunting rule revamp
- Added explanation of what Connecticut and Bastille are
- Added forum rules concerning "trial by forum", off topic, and closed communications in the forum rules, based on the way these things have been dealt with in the past.
- Wrote down rule about piracy/law enforcement demands to transports which was removed from IDs without being added to rules
- Removed remaining mentions of removed systems like Drake
- Removed redundant and contradictory lines in rules OP and system classifications
Content Changes that HAVE rule change consequences (suggested)
- Pirate and Miner IDs can be hired in 3.1, because forbidding it has no RP justification and was introduced to spread players out among IDs, which has lost its usefulness now. (Also Freelancer should get the mining bonus of Miner ID, and Miner ID should be removed.)Miner-Freelancer merge was done in subsequent ID revamp
- 4. Characters registered on a bounty board must be, at a minimum, neutral to their employer and hostile to the faction that is bountied. This requirement does not apply to individual bounties. Board owners are required to verify that hired characters have suitable reputations. seems to suggest that individual bounties could have an Outcast have an LPI killed by a Bounty Hunter because it's an "individual bounty", which doesnt seem to be the way its really meant to be played. So that "indivial bounty" exemption was removed.
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Discovery RP 247 Server Rules![[Image: dXGrbZY.png]](https://i.imgur.com/dXGrbZY.png)
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