Advanced Rules

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This page can also be read here: https://paradisestation.org/wiki/index.php?title=Rules Mode specific rules: https://paradisestation.org/wiki/index.php?title=Mode_Specific_Rules Identifying antagonists rules: https://paradisestation.org/wiki/index.php?title=Identifying_Antagonists

If you're still in doubt try reading this: https://paradisestation.org/wiki/index.php?title=Not_Getting_Banned

These are rules, but they are not infallible or concrete. If something feels wrong don't do it, or adminhelp it first. Above all, use your common sense, listen to the game staff, and keep the round fun for everyone.

Bare Basics

Simple guidelines to avoid getting banned.

  • Don't be a dick.
    • This is a rule that should need no explanation. Don't ruin another person's fun in-game just because you can, and don't be mean in OOC chat or other places.
  • Act in-character, and play a character that is realistic and authentic.
    • Generally, avoid psychopaths and insane characters. Also keep in mind what would be a realistic thing for your character to do. A scientist with no weapons training is not going to be rushing armed boarders with a toolbox.
  • Avoid antagonizing as non-antagonist
    • No bashing in heads, unless you're an antagonist role or it's self-defense. Try to avoid creating situations in which you're performing other massive crimes and generally acting as an antagonist would, again unless you're an antagonist or under extreme circumstances.
  • No erotic roleplay
    • This should be self explanatory. Anything that you wouldn't be comfortable doing in a public park, don't do on the server.

Note that there are many "gray areas" and specific cases which have been more accurately defined in the elaborate rules below. If you've never roleplayed before, please read on.

Terminology

IC = In Character, means actions and events which happen ingame. Your character only has knowledge of IC actions and nothing from OOC. Using OOC knowledge is therefore metagaming. Things people say in-game are IC (e.g. say "Hello!"). Use of internet slang or smileys (E.g. Lol, rofl, :D, ^.^, etc.) is prohibited.

OOC = Out of Character, means the goings on outside the game. The things that you, the player, know, see, etc. The two should never be mixed or knowledge from one being used to influence the actions in the other. If you're angry at someone IC, don't bring it to OOC. OOC can be used to ask questions about game mechanics, but should not contain in-game knowledge. For example "How do I build a wall?" is fine. "halp, urist mcguy is beating me" is not okay.

Griefing = To cause grief to another player for no reason. Examples of this are beating random players senselessly for no reason, setting the singularity free for no reason, destroying the station for no reason, stealing vital items for no reason, etc.

Metagaming = Using information acquired out of character to influence the actions in character. An example is learning who the traitor is from IRC, a friend on another computer, through voip or through ingame OOC chat and than acting on this information. This also means using knowledge that your character, as an employee of NanoTrasen, could not have. As an example, a call to check the shuttle modes of play, or knowledge of the Syndicate or Syndicate items workings. Using knowledge that your profession would not have is also metagaming. This also includes some specifics mentioned below.

Powergaming = Also know as 'playing to win'. If you're trying to complete your objectives, kill the antagonists, or 'win', at all costs and ignore RP, you may be better off somewhere else. This includes having your character unafraid of death or pain, resistant to any torture, ready to battle alone against a crowd of opponents, or, being unarmed, senselessly attacking a gun wielder or hostage taker. This also includes loading up your character with items 'just in case', for example wearing internals 'just in case' there's a hull breach or plasma leak. Or wearing a space suit indoors for no reason.

IC in OOC = Saying IC things (like the gamemode) in OOC (e.g. "why the heck is it cult again" in secret). Generally, if someone not playing can tell what's going on using OOC, it's IC in OOC. This is generally not a good thing. Don't do it.

OOC in IC = Talking OOC in IC. Most of the time this is just bad (e.g "why is some of the game text red"). If you really, REALLY, have to only say something to those around you, you can use the LOOC verb. Do NOT use ((brackets)) as a substitute for LOOC if LOOC is muted for whatever reason. Exceptions are made for spelling corrections.

Multikeying = Using multiple BYOND keys/usernames. This is generally not needed ever for legitimate uses and so is a bannable offence.

Metacommunication = Using IRC, Skype, email, AOL Instant Messenger, a telephone, smoke signals, or any other form of communication between you and another player about IC events in the current round. This is basically the only way to "cheat" in this game, and it's generally an extremely crappy thing to do under all circumstances. Don't do it.

Roleplay

The main focus of our community in contrast to other servers is Roleplay (abbreviated as RP). This means that we expect of you to be able to assume the role of a character and stay in that role. To put it simply, your character can (and should really) be different from your real life personality, and when you make decisions, you should pretend that the world of the game is real, rather than just a game. Roleplay is mandatory, and poor or terrible roleplay can and will be punished.

Here's a list of examples of what you can do to roleplay a character. Note that they're just examples, and to contribute in any way to a round, you have to create your own ideas for your character.

It is HIGHLY recommended you read A Crash Course In Roleplaying to understand what is expected in terms of roleplay.

  • Restrict yourself to the knowledge of your character. This is an important one. When you're the Medical Doctor, even if you, as a player, know how to hack an airlock, you should not do it unless your character has somehow gathered that knowledge. In this regard, it is also important to mention that things are not as easy as they seem. The fact that you only have to push two buttons to clone someone doesn't mean that your character can learn to perform the task by someone saying "push two buttons to clone someone", nor is cryogenics a simple "on/off" switch, research just sticking things in a machine and pressing "analyze", or any other example of a very simple task that would be much more complex in-character..
    • Related to the previous point, when something needs to be done that is not in the field of your character, ask someone else to do it. An example would be that you shouldn't treat yourself or give yourself implants when you don't have medical expertise. The Skill System is a useful tool in this situation, where you can clarify your characters skill for both yourself and admins. However, anything above an average character will come under heavy scrutiny. For example when there is a vital task, such as running the engine, and no one of that field is currently playing, you can try to do the task, but you must make it seem like your character only understands it to their skill level. AI's are generally expected to know most of the station's system and therefore can be consulted, and when the act is done entirely through computer systems it can access, can often do the job itself with minimal or minor human assistance where hands are needed..
  • Pick a normal name. You must have a first name and a last name (e.g John Smith). You must not use honorifics or nick names (E.g. Dr Greg House or Jack "Johnny" Johnson), and must be spelt fully with capitals and no shortenings (e.g. NOT J Hoffman or jaiden mallow). Try to avoid references if possible (e.g. HAL 9000, Gordon Freeman), they're generally unoriginal, a hallmark of a bad roleplayer, and break the atmosphere of the game.
  • Try to avoid pain. When you know that a process is painful, try to avoid it. You'll want to avoid surgery without anaesthetics, and torture will be a good way to force you to do something. Not considering pain at all in your decisions is a failure in assuming the role of your character, and can get you banned in the long run.
  • Try not to talk like you do in real life. For example, you can use short sentences and ...'s to indicate a shy character. Try to examine different personalities and imitating them. You can even play a female when you're a male and vice verca, it's a great way to explore your own personality!
  • Try to adapt to the goals of your character. For example, in a traitor round, do not make it your goal as a Captain to catch the Traitor (that's Security's job, if they even know there is a traitor), but instead try to keep the ship intact by keeping an eye on the Engine, doing checks on your employees, and so on. Engineers would be repairing and maintaining the station, doctors will be keeping the crew healthy, scientists will be giving the station a purpose through research, and many other things.
  • Be creative! Invent missions that the station could be on right now, historical events, or even a full backstory for your character. There's even a section of the wiki dedicated to it. There are no limits, as long as you avoid clashing with others!
  • Take into account your character's comfort. For example, constantly wearing internals, or a bio suit, or a space suit would likely be very tiring or extremely uncomfortable for prolonged periods of time. Don't wear these items without good reason. From a gameplay perspective, you're giving yourself an advantage without cost, so admins will most likely try to stop it.
  • Don't play Mary Sues. Unless you are an EXTREMELY good roleplayer, you should balance out your character with flaws and skills. Mary Sues are usually characters that have no or insignificant drawbacks too them, and massive advantages. For example, war veterans are usually done very badly, as well as any type of military characters. This also ties in to having far too many skills than your character should have. Note that most people think they are 'very good roleplayers' but actually are not.
But as this is a game, roleplay is not all.

In fact, there are cases when you could perform perfect roleplay and still be banned. In order to avoid that, do not take on a role because you think it'd be fun for yourself. Take on a role because it'd be fun for EVERYONE.

A lot of players like to kill, so if it'd be allowed, they'd all roleplay insane sociopathic mass-murderers. But a ship full of sociopathic murderers wouldn't be fun for anyone. This is why you have to roleplay normal characters more often than not, or at least not someone who would be entirely outside the possibility of work on the station.

Guidelines

Since the above points are often up to interpretation, to make perfectly sure not to get banned, you can play safe and follow the below points.

  • Don't be a dick. This was stated above. Don't ruin others' fun, don't act like a dick in OOC.
  • Read the rules. Yes, thank you for reading this, many people don't. Not reading the rules will get you banned to give you some time to go over them.
  • Knowledge of the antagonists and Syndicate Items is restricted. We expect players to allow traitors some leeway and as such have a list here (https://paradisestation.org/wiki/index.php?title=Identifying_Antagonists) of who and what can be recognised and by who. We expect players to not powergame and give the antagonists a little leeway to get away with things.
  • Listen to what the admins say. Admins will sometimes message you or give you directions through direct PM's or a subtle message of "You think...". It is highly recommended you do what they say (this is different to the Genetics superpower message, if it is not "You think..." it is not an admin message, and should be reported if abused). Arguing about it, unless there is a very good reason, will just frustrate both sides (and no, there are often not very good reasons). If you receive a PM or a "You think..." message, and do not follow it, expect repercussions. If you have a problem with an admin, save it for the admin complaints forum here: http://baystation12.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=29
  • Make every effort to not kill anyone. Unless you're a traitor.
    • Killing in self-defence is not preferred. In all situations you should make to disable or flee your attacker, rather than kill. If that's not possible, delaying before help can arrive is preferable. Only when the attacker will not back down, there is NO chance of help, and the intent to kill is highly likely, is murder in self-defence acceptable.
  • Do not break the atmosphere of the game. Also know as 'breaking immersion'. For example, using slang terms for antagonists IC "traitor", "rev", "cultist", "syndie", "wizard","changeling", etc. Use of OOC game slang IC, "robust", "shitcurity", "emag", "esword". Or use of chatspeak or smilies IC, "lol", "srs", ":D", etc. These are often signs of bad roleplayers, so do not use them unless you have an extremely justifiable reason.
  • Stick to sane and mature characters. Immature characters can be fun, but can also ruin the game for everyone. Insane characters are not allowed. If your character has induced insanity (Clone Memory Disorder, drugs, etc.) this is not an excuse to kill people.
  • Stick to the in-game Chain of Command. If you don't listen to your direct superiors, expect to be reprimanded both IC and OOC.
  • Let your character only know what is in their job description. Again emphasized for importance. Some variance is allowed here, ala the Skill System, but any more than that is considered very bad form.
  • Do not spam other players. Anything that causes unnecessary chat spam or other types of spam (e.g. spamming show ID, spamming OOC or IC chat, spamming shuttle calls, etc.) is not cool. Don't do it.
  • Calling random restart votes is not allowed. Restart votes should only be done when the round is physically unplayable due to lag/glitches, or with admin consent. Calling an random restart vote is a bannable offence. The crew transfer shuttle should otherwise be called, in a transfer vote, which will bring an IC end to the round.
  • End of round shuttle grief is not allowed. This rules is different to most other servers, but the reveal message is not IC knowledge, and RP continues until the round reboots. That means no random killing or attacking each other at round end. Generally, any attacking whatsoever after round end will earn a ban. This is an automatic ban without warning. ALL ACTIONS UNTIL THE SERVER REBOOTS ARE IN-CHARACTER, EVEN AFTER THE SHUTTLE DOCKS WITH CENTRAL COMMAND.
  • No metagaming, metacommunication, or multikeying. This is pretty self-explanatory, but any of these will get your banned very quickly. No outside communication with another player about IC events, and no using multiple BYOND keys on your own. This includes using knowledge from previous rounds without admin/player consent. Metagrudging (attacking/greifing someone because of something they did in previous rounds) is also an offence.
  • Being a round antagonist does not exempt you from the rules. Rules still apply for antagonists. The role of an antagonist is not to kill everyone and sit on a pile of loot, it is to make an entertaining round. Following the rules will generally help that. Remember to adminhelp if you're not sure about something, especially since nine times out of ten, the answer for an antagonist asking if they can do something is "yes" unless it's on the level of station-destroying (without good reason).
  • Erotic roleplay is not allowed. Also known as ERP, it is not allowed. Period. Nor is it acceptable to go AFK to ERP, if you are taking up an important job to ERP, expect a swift ban. A good guideline is that anything you would not be comfortable with doing in a public park should be avoided.
  • As a free willed AI/Cyborg you should make every effort to not kill. Mass murder will very likely get you banned. The same goes for not following your laws. If you receive a law which tells you to kill everyone, adminhelp it. Otherwise damage done by the AI/cyborgs is on whoever uploaded the law.
  • Leave AFK/SSD/disconnected players alone. Killing/stealing from/doing anything to AFK players is considered very poor form. Do not mess with them without an exceptional reason, and make sure to admin-help it for permission before you do so. Antagonist Note: If your target is SSD, admin-help about seeing it changed to another target. Most likely it will be capable of being changed.
  • Suiciding to leave a round is not okay. Killing yourself because you're bored and want to observe/switch characters is not good. If you have a very good reason, adminhelp it first. Otherwise you are expected to log out in the dormitories, or if not possible, your own department or somewhere else where you can safely "sleep". If you would like to observe or switch characters, use the "ghost" command in the dorms or another place you would log off.
  • Use English. We are an English-speaking server. Occasionally using a different language in-game is all right, but english should be your main language. OOC is pretty much english only. This is to prevent miscommunication in investigations and such.
  • Do not be offensive. This includes things such as racism OOC, or using offensive stereotypes. This is an idiot filter, if you break it, expect to be banned.
  • Do not lie to the moderators or administrators. Lying to mods or admins will almost always earn you a permaban. This applies for IC and OOC activities, especially in ban appeals.
  • Intent of the rules is more important than the letter. Line-toeing or generally trying to rules lawyer your way out of a situation will usually net you a ban anyway. It is the spirit and intent behind the rules that is followed, not necessarily their exact wording. This also includes situations not explicitly mentioned in the rules.
  • Promotion of other servers is not allowed.
  • Understand the effects of Clone Memory Disorder. If you are a clone, roleplay according to CMD; if you are a doctor or are performing a cloning, do not tell them they are a clone.
  • In regards to other peoples' characters, your character has no pre-existing relationship with anyone without the other player's consent. If you do not have the other player's consent then you do not know their character from a previous round. Due to things like the station blowing up and people dying, inconsistencies can occur. Unless you have an agreement with a player about something, specific events and the like should not carry between rounds. It requires the agreement of everyone who would be carrying this information between rounds.
  • Don't take mechs on the emergency shuttle or crew transfer shuttle. The exception here is Odysseus (medical) mechs that are carrying patients. The reason for this is because they block up the shuttle and make movement and everything else difficult. No mechs on pods, either.
  • Only call in transfer votes on the hour starting at the second hour as per the in-game clock. We used to have an automatic voting system that did this for us, but until it gets re-implemented this rule shall be enforced by administration. This is to prevent transfer vote spam.

The way we play the game isn't everyone's cup of tea. We understand that and we don't fault you if you enjoy more a competitive style of play, but we do expect you to go elsewhere for that.

If you get banned for one of them and think it's not justified, put the exact case on the forums and make a ban appeal (you'll need to make an account).

We admins are no gods, and we make mistakes and also sometimes interpret things differently. If one admin banned you, that doesn't mean all admins agree on that. If you want to not stick to one of these and there's an admin on, you can also use the adminhelp verb to ask if it's okay with them. For example, if you want to kill someone because you think it's what your character would do, while it's not necessary for your objectives, you should ask for permission in most cases.

Measures the Admins Take

You may or may not receive a warning for what you did, and this entirely depends on the leniency of the individual admin.

Currently there are two methods admins use to encourage players to stick to the rules. The first, lighter one, is the jobban. It will make it impossible for you to select a specific job on the pregame screen. Note that if you're jobbanned from a job, you should not ask to be assigned to that job in game, as this might be seen as evasion and get you a ban.

When the jobban is not sufficient, we sometimes throw out temporary bans, which will make it impossible for you to play the game for a while. And when this one fails, there's the permaban, which should make it impossible for you to join our servers ever again. So yeah, try not to go there. Also note that evading a temporary ban by using a different key will almost certainly get you a permaban if caught.

If You Get Banned

Do note that measures taken by us admins are not absolute. In fact, we do make mistakes, and we also tend to handle situations differently. If you think that a measure taken against you is unfair, go to this forum and make an appeal (yes, you need an account to do so). The same applies if you feel that your behaviour has improved significantly, or if a month or two have passed since the ban.

Note that bans with less than a day remaining can not be appealed, since it would take longer than that for a consensus to be reached about the ban than it would for the ban to expire normally.

Under no circumstances should you attempt to evade a ban, either by multikeying or by attempting to be promoted ingame. If you do then any appeals will be rejected, and it is likely you will be facing a permanent ban.

tl;dr? READ IT

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