Discovery Community Forum and Server Rules

[Igiss]

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Community Rules

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1. General Conduct:
   
   1.0 - Don't be a dick. It's a game, try to keep it fun for everyone playing it. Behavior that falls within the technical letter of the rules but not the spirit won't be tolerated.
   
   1.1 - Discovery is an English-language roleplaying server. Communication in-game and in the roleplaying areas of the forums must be in-character and appropriate for Discovery Freelancer's setting. Metagaming and powergaming are strictly forbidden.
   
   
   1.1.1 - An in-depth explanation of what Metagaming and Powergaming is can be read in this thread.
   
   
   1.1.2 - A detailed explanation of what ganking is can be read in this thread.
   
   
   1.1.3 - Generating roleplay or posts through a prompt to AI writing tools is not allowed. These tools can be used to proof-read or edit a post you have written, but not to create roleplay wholesale. AI generated images must not be distracting or low quality, i.e. containing warped text, obviously incorrect human biology, or prominent generation artifacts. A detailed explanation can be found in this thread.
   
   
   1.1.4 - Threatening players with sanctions/reports and impersonating staff is not permitted.
   
   1.2 - Cheating or exploiting game mechanics is not allowed. This can include 'multiboxing' (logging in with multiple characters at the same time), disconnecting during player encounters (post here if you disconnect by accident), abusing bugs, etc.
   
   1.3 - All Official Faction Discords, or servers directly linked from either the DiscoveryGC server Player Factions channel, or the forums, are required to moderate all public facing channels. Keep in mind the spirit of the rules. Provide a harbor of knowledge and experience to new members of the community.
   
   

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2. ID and Combat Rules:
   
   2.0 - Every ship must have one ID equipped, and play in a way that represents the role of that ID. Your ID explains what you can do and where. Some IDs have a 'Zone of Influence' (ZOI) where extra actions are permitted. All IDs have a ZOI in systems containing an NPC station of the same affiliation. A player that flies ships outside of ZOI to invite attack from ships that could otherwise not be attacked by the player in question can be considered PVP baiting as explained by this link.
   
   
   2.0.1 - Ships without an official faction ID may extend their ZOI to match that of an official faction with a larger ZOI, so long as the independent ship and the official faction ship are of the same NPC affiliation and in group together.
   
   2.1 - You must provide sufficient roleplay before attacking another player, and give them enough time to react. This means at least two messages and 10 seconds delay before attacking.
   
   Note: Every form of RP is acceptable.
   
   2.2 - If you are killed or dock during a hostile player encounter, you must not re-enter the system or attack anyone involved in the encounter for 1 hour. Trade Ships docking during a hostile player encounter are not considered to have been "killed".
   
   2.3 - Dead men tell no tales - when you are destroyed during a hostile player encounter, your character loses all memory of that encounter, other than that their ship was destroyed.
   
   2.4 - All IDs can:
   • Attack Alien IDs, except while flying Cruisers, Battlecruiser, or Battleships.
     
   • Attack any ship to defend Allies, except while flying Cruisers, Battlecruisers, or Battleships.
     
     Within their ZOI:
     
   • Attack any ship to defend Allies.
     
     Within Uncharted Systems:
     
   • Act as if the system were in their Zone of Influence.
     
   • Demand Cerulite Crystals, Chirodebris, Cryo-Organisms, and Organic Capacitors from non-Allies.
   
   2.5 - Terms used in IDs:
   
   • "Allies" - Ships of the same non-Generic affiliation or ID; Ships defined as your ID's allies on the in-game faction rep sheet; friendly or neutral Ships you are currently flying in group with. For corporate ships, non-hostile lawful ships count as allies.
     "Hostiles" - Ships defined as enemies on the in-game faction rep sheet; Ships rephacked red by your ID; Ships affected by an Official Faction's use of Faction Right 5.
     
   • "Trade Ship" - Transports, Liners, and Frigates.
     
   • "Combat Ship" - Ships other than Trade Ships, or Trade Ships used offensively.
     
   • "Contract" - An agreement for a service, such as combat or escort, in exchange for some form of payment.
     
   • "Alien Materials" - Artifacts, Low-Grade Artifacts, Xeno Relics, Nomad Power Cells, Nomad Remains, Azurite Gas, Cerulite Crystals, Chirodebris, Cryo-Organisms, and Organic Capacitors.
     
   • "Piracy" - a reasonable demand issued to a ship which can be attacked if it fails to comply. Piracy can include requests for credits and cargo or a roleplay requirement, such as following a instruction or answering a question.
   
   

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3. Player Owned Base Rules:
   
   
   3.0 - General rules:
   • Base construction guides can be found here.
     
   • Base construction must be in accord with the roleplay of the builder's ID. Siege Declarations must be in accord with the roleplay of the attacker's ID.
     
   • When a Siege Declaration is posted, players must wait 24 hours before the Declaration is considered live and the base is able to be attacked.
     
   • Siege Declarations last for two weeks once active. If the vulnerability window of a base changes during this siege period, the Declaration will remain valid for two additional days. Once a Siege Declaration expires, the base may not be subject to another Siege Declaration for four weeks.
     
   • POBs built in House Space are subject to House laws and fees.
     
   • POB location and affiliation are permanent and alterations will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
   
   3.1 - Bases may only be attacked by IDs that have in-roleplay justification and appropriate ID lines for the attack. Core 2 bases and higher require roleplay documented on the forum prior to the siege declaration being posted.
   
   3.2 - You can apply for your base to be upgraded to Core 4 with at least two months of productive base roleplay involving other players. Once approved, the base will receive the blueprints required to upgrade the base.
   
   3.3 - Official Factions can apply for their base to be upgraded to Core 5 after 3 months at Core 4 and demonstrating productive base roleplay. Once approved the base will receive the blueprints required to upgrade the base.
   • With the upgrade to Core 5, wear and tear damage on the base will be disabled.
     
   • Only one Core 5 base per Official Faction is permitted. If this status is lost, the Core 5 upgrade will be downgraded to Core 4.
   
   
   

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4. System Classifications:
   
   4.0 - For ZOI rules, systems are classified as:
   
   
   • Liberty
     House Space: New York*, Alaska, California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Texas.
     
     
   • Bretonia
     House Space: New London*, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle
     
     
   • Rheinland
     House Space: New Berlin*, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Thuringia.
     
     
   • Kusari
     House Space: New Tokyo*, Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, Tohoku.
     
     
   • Gallia
     House Space: Ile-de-France*, Burgundy, Champagne, Languedoc, Orleanais, Picardy.
     
     _{*House Capital}
   
   
   • Independent Worlds
     Omegas: Cayman, Dresden, Fischer, Omega-2, Omega-3, Omega-5, Omega-7, Omega-11, Omega-41, Omega-43, Omega-47, Omega-49, Omega-52, Omega-58, Omega-97, The Burrow.
     Omicrons: Omicron Alpha, Omicron Beta, Omicron Delta, Omicron Gamma, Omicron Iota, Omicron Kappa, Omicron Minor, Omicron Major, Omicron Pi, Omicron Psi, Omicron Theta, Omicron Zeta.
     Sigmas: Sigma-13, Sigma-15, Sigma-17, Sigma-19, Sigma-59.
     Taus: Orkney, Baffin, Edinburgh, Roussillon, Tau-23, Tau-29, Tau-31, Tau-37, Tau-44, Tau-61.
     Other independent: Bering, Chugoku, Cologne, Copernicus, Cortez, Coronado, Dublin, Galileo, Hudson, Inverness, Kansas, Kepler, Magellan, Ontario, Provence, Unknown, Vespucci, Zurich.
     Uncharted: Uncharted 1-10, Earhart.

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Bounty Hunting Rules

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1.0 - Bounty board operators may only issue blanket bounties against targets they are hostile with. Characters claiming bounties must be neutral to the board operator and hostile to the faction or individual that is bountied.

1.1 - Players must submit their bounty claims within 7 days. Board owners must pay outstanding claims within 14 days of submission.

1.2 - All bounties must specify which characters, tags, or IDs may claim the bounty. Bounty Hunters Guild ID may claim on bounty boards operated by Police, Military, and Corporate factions without registration unless stated otherwise.

1.3 - IDs that can attack any ship in pursuit of a contract may be hired in-game by players with non-generic IDs to engage in combat. Parties involved in combat must be made aware of such hiring.

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Official Factions Rights & Responsibilities

Official Factions are groups that have been recognised by server staff as improving the Discovery community by making the game more fun, and contributing high quality roleplay.

Official Factions are role models that create an enjoyable environment for other players - whether they are in-game enemies or allies.

Official Factions act as representatives and custodians (not owners) of their NPC faction, and help influence that faction’s development in the mod story.

Responsibilities and Requirements of Official Factions:

• Official Factions must have at least 3 active members. Active members are players who log at least 1 hour of activity per month on their own personal ship.
  
  
• Official Factions must have a designated Official Faction Leader who is an active member.
  
  
• Official Factions must maintain at least two days of activity per quarter.
  
  
• Official Factions must continue to improve the Discovery community. There are many ways of achieving this - for example, recruiting and teaching new players, providing exemplary roleplay, acting as role models for your NPC faction’s players, championing fair play and fun for all players.
  
  
• Official Factions must proactively drive activity in their Zone of Influence / area of play. This could be through running roleplay focused events or coordinating missions that involve other players / factions.
  
  
• Official Factions must maintain and update any laws they are responsible for.
  
  
• Official Factions must maintain an information thread detailing - at minimum - the identity of the Faction Leader, the group description, and diplomacy.
  
  
• Official Factions must maintain a feedback thread where community concerns or compliments are addressed in a timely manner.
  
  
• Official Factions must maintain an internal roster of their active members, and provide this to server staff on request.
  
  
• Official Factions must submit a Faction Activity Report in the third month of each quarter (March, June, September, December). The template for this report can be found below:
  
  
  Faction Activity Report

  Code:

  [size=large]Name of Faction:[/size]
[size=large]Name of Faction Leader:[/size]
[size=large]Number of Active Players this Quarter:[/size]

[size=large]What have you done to advance your faction’s goals this quarter?[/size]

[size=large]What are your faction’s goals for the next quarter?[/size]

[size=large]What have you done to drive activity and promote high quality roleplay this quarter?[/size]

[size=large]How would you like your NPC faction’s story to be developed moving forward?[/size]

[size=large]What roleplay, events, or activities have you done this quarter to promote this development?[/size]

Rights of Official Factions:

To ask for a faction right or a faction perk to be applied, a request should be submitted in the Official Faction Requests subforum.

1. Official Faction players can issue reasonable orders to independent players of the same NPC faction. Official Factions can apply roleplay consequences if these orders are not followed. This cannot be used to force independent players to follow an order that conflicts with the NPC faction’s established roleplay / lore, but can be used to maintain fair play, i.e. balancing fights. Official Faction Leaders are responsible for their members’ use of this right, and misuse may result in the right being lost for the entire Official Faction.
   
   
2. Official Faction players can attack or apply roleplay consequences to players of different NPC factions / IDs that are using their NPC faction’s technology without permission. If an NPC faction has multiple Official Factions, permission issued by any counts for all.
   
   
3. Official Faction players may use the /nodock command to temporarily deny other players access to their NPC faction’s stations. House Military, Police, and Intelligence Official Factions have /nodock permissions for all Lawful stations in their House. Use of /nodock is subject to the same restrictions as an attack, as described in rule 2.1.
   
   
4. Official Factions can influence the story direction of their NPC faction through their quarterly Faction Activity Report. Story proposals must be reasonable, fit the existing canon of the NPC faction, and be within the faction’s capabilities. Story developers will have regard to the roleplay and requests of Official Factions, but retain ultimate control over the direction of the mod story. More weight will be given to requests that are submitted collaboratively by multiple groups, particularly opposing groups, i.e. a region’s lawfuls and unlawfuls creating development plans together.
   
   
5. Official Faction Leaders can request a player, faction, or ID be set hostile to their NPC faction as a form of roleplay consequences. Requests for FR5 must provide documentation of any relevant roleplay, i.e. communications with the other character(s) / faction, message dump reports, etc. If an FR5 is applied to an individual, their ship will be locked so the name cannot be changed. If an NPC faction has multiple Official Factions, FR5 requires consensus agreement to be applied. House law enforcement factions and Governments cannot use FR5 in response to activities outside their House’s core systems.
   
   
6. Official Faction Leaders can request an ID be prohibited from docking on specific bases of their NPC faction as a form of roleplay consequences. Requests for FR6 must include documentation of any relevant roleplay, i.e. communications or interactions with the other faction, message dump reports, etc. If an NPC faction has multiple Official Factions, FR6 requires consensus agreement to be applied. House law enforcement factions and Governments cannot use FR6 in response to activities outside their House’s core systems.
   
   
7. Official Factions can request a unique serverside IFF if they do not represent an NPC faction (generic IDs such as Freelancer or Pirate), or if their roleplay diverges significantly from their original NPC faction. Adopting this IFF removes access to Faction Rights 1 - 6.
   
   
8. [WIP] Official Factions can request a unique flagship armour upgrade for one of their faction's ships. This further increases the hit points and mass of the ship it is applied to.
   
   
9. Official Factions can request an Official Faction Event once a quarter. These include server support, i.e. PvP bounty payouts, point tracking, cargo trackers, event POB deployments, staff supervision, facilitation by Storytellers, etc. Involved Official Factions can restrict participation in these events to specified groups, within reason. Events will be approved depending on suitability and availability, i.e. whether staff can attend, or other official server events or faction events are taking place.
   
   
10. Official Factions can request that a single Core 4 base they own be upgraded to Core 5. This disapplies wear and tear, meaning it is no longer necessary to supply it with Basic Alloys, Robotics, or Ship Hull Panels. This requires that the base has spurred on significant roleplay and activity relating to it. This could be achieved in a number of ways, for example, through faction projects or player interactions linked to the base, construction RP involving multiple factions, etc.
    
    
11. [WIP] Official Factions can request the deployment of a Forward Operating Base (FOB) once per month. This is a core 2 Player Owned Base, represented as a faction-appropriate battleship, Bustard, or liner. The FOB can be deployed anywhere in the faction’s ZOI +1, where justified by reasonable roleplay. The FOB is not subject to wear and tear or core crew upkeep, and does not require Hangar Provisions for restocking. FOBs are equipped with two Storage Modules, and one other module of the Official Faction’s choice. When a FOB is deployed in a system, the requesting Official Faction and any independent players of the same ID have ZOI in that system, and their death timer is reduced to 30 minutes.
    
    
12. [WIP] Official Factions can send Message of The Day (MOTD) bulletins to players using their Official Faction ID, or corresponding NPC faction ID. These messages must be in-character, and will be displayed on login. They can be used for sharing news, advertising the Official Faction, promoting roleplay objectives, etc.
    
    
13. [WIP] Official Factions can submit a promotional infopage to be included with the in-game user guide. Guidelines for pages and their formatting can be found here.
    
    
14. Official Factions may submit a logo for inclusion as a mountable holo-roundel. A list of ships with roundel hardpoints can be found here. The Official Faction can nominate one additional ship to be added to this list. An Official Faction can specify which ships they want their roundel to be automatically mounted on when they equip their Official Faction ID. If no ships are specified, the roundels will be automatically mounted on any ship with appropriate hardpoints. Submissions may be rejected by developers on quality or suitability grounds.
    
    
15. Official Factions may submit a custom texture for an existing ship for their own exclusive use. This could include a stylized version of an existing texture, or a texture featuring the Official Faction’s logo / livery. Submissions may be rejected by developers on quality or suitability grounds.
    
    
16. Official Factions can request that shared assets be locked so their name, account, loadouts and other configurations cannot be altered.
    
    
17. Official Factions can request special perks once a quarter. Examples of requestable perks can be found here. Approved perk requests are published for the community to see.

Official Faction Leaders:

The Faction Leader (1iC) is the person who is responsible for an Official Faction’s direction and conduct, and is the person who can exercise many Official Faction rights or perks.

• A player can only lead one Official Faction at a time.
  
• The 1iC must be one of the group’s active members. If this requirement is not met, the role is considered vacant and the Official Faction must nominate one of its active members to take over.
  
• A 1iC can at any time nominate another active member to take over the role. This should be done by posting a notification in the Faction Leaders Section of the forum.
  
• An Official Faction’s active members can trigger a vote to replace the 1iC by contacting the Server Administrators. If a single member receives a majority vote of all active members, they assume the 1iC role.
  
• If a faction’s 1iC role is vacant for two months or longer, the group loses official status.

House Law Enforcement and Governments:

House Governments are groups of lawful Official Factions that represent their House by passing laws, considering licenses, and responding to governmental roleplay. House law enforcement are the House’s Military, Police, and Intelligence factions.

• House Military, Police, Intelligence, and Corporate Official Faction Leaders are automatically entitled to be members of their House Government.
  
• Official Faction Leaders may choose one additional player to act as an assistant / advisor.
  
• House Governments must vote on significant decisions, with a simple majority winning. Votes must be carried out in the House Government channels in the community Discord.
  
• House Governments are responsible for writing and maintaining their House’s laws in the Laws of Sirius thread.
  
  
• Outside of House core systems:

- House laws can only be enforced when the infringement is directly witnessed by the law enforcement player.
- Player Owned Bases cannot be required to obtain licenses / permission from House Governments or House law enforcement factions.

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Ban Appeal Guidelines

• Appeals can first be submitted 6 months after ban date.
  
• Appeal must be posted in the Player Requests subforum using the form below.
  
• Appeal must contain a clear understanding of why the ban was handed down in the first place.
  
• Appeal must contain an explanation for the behavior that lead to the ban.
  
• Appeal must contain why that behavior will no longer happen again
  
• If an appeal fails, 6 months must pass before another appeal can be initiated, unless stated otherwise.
  
  
• If an appeal passes, the member is assigned the Probation Usergroup for 6 months, during which their forum and server behavior is evaluated. This includes Alt accounts used for RP.
  If during this period the player has broken forum or server rules, their participation as a community member is re-evaluated and may result in a warning and reset of the probation timer, or, the reinstatement of the ban depending on the context and severity of their transgression.
  

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• Forum Name of Banned Individual: <forum name>
  
• Link to profile: <link>
  
• Date of original ban: <Month, DD, YYYY>
  
• Context of behavior leading up to ban:
  <paragraph>
  
• Why is this behavior wrong?
  <paragraph>
  
• Why will this behavior never happen again?
  <paragraph>
  
• If form is not completed properly you forfeit your appeal and have to wait six months.
  I understand
  

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Code:

[list][*] [color=#FFFFFF]Forum Name of Banned Individual:[/color] <forum name>
[*] [color=#FFFFFF]Link to profile:[/color] <link>
[*] [color=#FFFFFF]Date of original ban:[/color] <Month, DD, YYYY>
[*] [color=#FFFFFF]Context of behavior leading up to ban:[/color]
<paragraph>
[*] [color=#FFFFFF]Why is this behavior wrong?[/color]
<paragraph>
[*] [color=#FFFFFF]Why will this behavior never happen again?[/color]
<paragraph>
[*] [color=#FFFFFF]If form is not completed properly you forfeit your appeal and have to wait six months.[/color]
I understand
[/list]