Discovery Community Forum and Server Rules

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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.
   
   1.2 - 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.
   
   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.
   
   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- All IDs can:
   • Attack Alien IDs.
     
   • 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.
   
   2.4 - 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, or Ships you are currently flying in group with.
     
   • "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.
     
     
   • Gallia
     House Space: Ile-de-France*, Burgundy, Champagne, Languedoc, Orleanais, Picardy.
     
     _{*House Capital}
   
   
   • Independent Worlds
     Omegas: Dresden, Omega-3, Omega-5, Omega-7, Omega-11, Omega-41, Omega-48, Omega-52, Omega-58.
     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, Tohoku.
     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

• An official faction requires at least 3 active players and 3 days of activity per quarter. Factions that do not meet these requirements are considered suspended.
  
• If a suspended faction fails to meet the requirements in the subsequent quarter, it loses its official status. If the requirements are met, the faction will be considered on probation for the subsequent two quarters, during which failure will also result in the loss of its official status.
  
• AFKing on ships with tracked official tags is not allowed. The activity contribution by such ships may be zeroed and the faction may lose officialdom for repeated violations.
  
• Official factions are required to have an open feedback thread on the forums and are expected to respond to sincere feedback from the community.

All rules and regulations concerning faction creation procedure and home system claiming are listed in Faction Creation Rules thread. Server Administrators also reserve the right to limit recruiting for certain official player factions for a certain period of time to keep server factions balanced.

Faction Right 1. Official player factions have authority over players of the same NPC affiliation, as long as RP justification is provided. This authority applies in forums and in-game, and applies to player faction diplomacy, and strategic and tactical direction, however, exercise of that authority, on the forums and in game, is restricted to official faction members with the rank of the official faction leader and second in command(s) of the faction. The authority may be exercised through the use of in-game in-RP orders, which, if not obeyed, can result in in-game in-RP consequences (arrest, court martial, and even "lethal" force in extreme circumstances). Official player factions cannot, under any circumstances, require another player to follow non-canon RP if that player doesn't want to. In case of IDs with multiple official factions, this right can only be used if the faction leader of each make a unified decision to exercise it.

Faction Right 2. Official player factions have the right to bounty or attack any player who is using their technology without the faction ID or permission from the official faction, regardless of their diplomacy toward the faction of the ship in question. In case of IDs with multiple official factions, gaining permission from one of the official factions would suffice, and once a technology is granted by one official faction, the other official factions should treat it as approved technology as well. In this case, factions are advised to keep a public record of their approved technologies for the purpose of better coordination with other official groups of their ID.

Faction Right 3. Official player factions may request that the reputation of a player's ship be changed to hostile with respect to their NPC faction. These requests must be posted within the Violation Reports subforum, and include link(s) to valid forum roleplay, as well as actual interaction between the character and the official faction. In case of IDs with multiple official factions, this right can only be used if it has support of every official faction of the ID, but in case of disagreement between the factions involved, they can post an appeal to the Server Administrators to review the situation and come to a decision.
Groups that have been subject to the use of FR3 by another faction, may treat this faction as hostile targets, except for transports, within their Zone of Influence.

 
The House Governments of Bretonia, Gallia, Kusari, Liberty, and Rheinland, will be made up of the faction leaders of every Official Police, Military, Intelligence, and Corporate faction with an ID classification belonging to that house. All of these leaders will have equal votes in their respective governments, and their proceedings will be supervised by staff in DiscoveryGC Official Discord government channels. House Military, Police, and Intelligence factions may also enforce roleplay consequences upon any players, factions, and POBs found breaking House Laws within House Space.

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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]