Update Server Rules

[Tych0theSynth]

About the PR

This PR commits updates to the server rules based on admin clarifications made on discord and the results of admin polls up to date as of 16/12/14.

The admin team are aware of these changes and have been fully briefed on them.

The rule updates are as follows:
Rule 6 - Frontier Safe Zone:
Players must make best efforts to keep the docks at Frontier Outpost free and clear for the use of others.

• The Trade Outpost / Trade Mall can be used if you wish to remain docked to a station to conduct business or provide services (such as selling food).
• The SR and STC cannot grant permanent or extended docking to Frontier Outpost.
• Exceptions can be made for shuttles purchased by station staff from the Staff Shipyard at the discretion of the SR or STC. However, docks must be kept clear at times of high demand.

Rule 9 - Piracy:
Pirates may not operate without a First Mate or Captain present.

• If the leader of the pirates has been captured or killed, the remaining pirates may make efforts to rescue them.
• First Mates and Captains are required to open their job slot prior to going to cryo, or ahelp if this is not possible. Inform your crew of what they can do in your absence.

The safe zone rules still apply to pirates.

If a player surrenders, the plundering of their vessel must be kept to a reasonable level.

• Following escalation guidelines, if a player fights, then all goods on their ship are fair game. However, you must leave the ship in a state where it is able to fly as a minimum.
• If you need to escape, then a player requiring medical attention can be left on a point of interest as a last resort. Do your best to keep them as far from death beforehand.
• If a player resumes combat after being revived and is killed again, they do not have to be revived again.

Rule 12 - NFSD and Frontier Staff Standards:
The NFSD are allowed to use their knowledge of ship layouts in order to aid ship searches.

NFSD who encounter a Syndicate dead drop are allowed to seize the contents of the pod and redeem it for FUCs at the NFSD Outpost.

• NFSD are not allowed to activate dead drops themselves or knowingly work with persons who have activated one with the intentions of smuggling.

Funds acquired on board vessels belonging to The Syndicate can be seized and deposited into the NFSD bank account. Officers may not keep these funds for personal use.

Rule 13 - Command Standards:
The SR and Sheriff must ensure they open their job slot prior to going to cryo.

• You are welcome to open that slot early in order for a new SR or Sheriff to join so you can provide a briefing to them beforehand.
• Ahelp if you are unable to pay your staff prior to going to cryo.

The Sheriff or SR are under no obligation to offer to purchase contraband from other players. Seizure of illegal goods is always allowed under Space Law.

• If contraband buy-backs or contraband hunting schemes are to be offered, how they are conducted is at the discretion of the SR or Sheriff.
• Admins will not grant compensation to players for contraband which is seized by the authorities.

The Sheriff is to ensure that any recruited cadets receive proper training and are supervised properly at all times.

• Cadets should be working alongside the Sheriff or assigned to a suitably experienced officer who can oversee their training as an officer and in Space Law, SOP and the server rules relating to the NFSD.
• Cadets who refuse training, try to farm playtime or insist on working alone can face consequences IC or be ahelped for their actions.
• Repeated incidents may be considered a sign of poor leadership. Cadets are your responsibility.

Why / Balance

Resolves a backlog on rule updates and clarifications.

How to test

Checkout the branch, check the rule xmls and load the rules in game.

Media

No.

Requirements

• I have read and am following the Pull Request and Changelog Guidelines.
• I have added media to this PR or it does not require an ingame showcase.

Breaking changes

None.

Changelog

🆑

• tweak: The server rules have been updated.

[dvir001]

Going to approve it on the code level, seems fine.

[whatston3]

Left my thoughts. Largely fine, but a docking section is probably a good idea at this point, since it's separate from the safe zone concerns.

[GreaseMonk]

status: needs another go-over according to tych0

[Tych0theSynth]

Yeah I'll try and give this another pass over the next few days, taking in the feedback and adjusting where it feels needed.

[ronlopes95]

ROLEPLAY, POWERGAMING & EXPLOIT RULESET

The server as a whole is, in my opinion, in dire need of explicitly written ROLEPLAY, POWERGAMING & EXPLOITS.
Discussion can be found HERE.

Rationale:

• Frontier simply does not have powergaming rules, unlike other SS14 servers
• Frontier does not have "roleplay guidelines", as in, regulations and expectations with regards to how one should conduct themselves in a MRP server. A mere "don't be a dick, no netspeak, no funny names, meta" is far too simple.
• Frontier does not have explicit exploit abuse rules, only an umbrella term that seems subjective to admin discretion
• There are numerous public statements on Discord of community members receiving conflicting admin opinions (because there are no guidelines). A classic case of "but the other admin told me I could do this!".
• NFSD needs a list of do's and don'ts. Sheriffs seem operate extremely differently from one another which understandably causes unnecessary confusion. An immediate example: not being allowed to grab smuggler notes, modifyingNFSDO, boarding Vaults, unnecessarily NFZing UIVs, etc -- all widely "known" by veterans as a consensus, yet not written anywhere
• The exploitation of poorly designed enemy AI should either be regulated to some extent or officially acknowledged by server direction, explicitly described, with a definitive decision on whether it is considered unacceptable (and thus punishable) behavior
• Highgrading, AKA stripping a ship to add its unique systems to another ship/station, needs to be addressed by server direction and given a final verdict. It does not matter what the final verdict is, it simply needs to be explicitly written somewhere. As stands, the staff's opinion is unsettled and loosely scattered as either old Discord messages or personal statements. This needs to be publicly showcased somewhere and easily verified.

A Few Loose Examples:

• As publicly stated by moderator MagnusCrowe on Discord (HERE), there had been cases players built "arms" on the front of their ship to grab and push NT Vaults out of radar range, or times when the NFSD deliberately wrenched their IFF console onto NT Vaults to prevent radar detection
• It is still very unclear whether "modifying/upgrading" NFSD ships is legal or not. Some players allegedly received bwoinks for installing electrified fences on their NFSD Vessel's exterior. Some have made other players upset for, say, highgrading a chem-lab into NFSDO (Related PR) or transporting consoles/cannons/etc from one NFSD Ship to another on account of "powergaming" which, currently, is not only a non-existent rule but specifically waivered for the majority of players
• Using railings, crates, holobarriers or fences completely borks enemy AI, thus defying intended game design and granting the abusing players rewards (loot, cash). Special attention needs to be given to "soft docking" AKA floating in front of enemy bases but not docking to prevent invasion and repeatedly floating into space to break their AI. Overall, a consensus needs to be reached on what classifies as exploit of enemy AI and what is considered valid strategy

Proposed Solution(s):

• Explicit highgrading/ship modification/upgrading rules. At which point does it cross the line of creativity and becomes problematic, such as building 10 cannons or transforming your ship into a completely self sufficient, socially isolated vessel. Special attention to NFSD & Pirates, since those have the most impact on their targets/each other

• Explicit powergaming rules. Delta V can be used as a loose example to be followed (LINK)

• Explicit enemy AI abuse/exploit rules

• Explicit roleplay guidelines and expectations

• • EDIT: Potential AI Exploit fix:
  1. Make specific hostile AI (mercs, punk, cultists, syndies, xenos, etc) ignore collision on crates, and/or make them able to vault railings/holobarriers/fences (or ignore their collision too if that's too hard to code,). At least make it slow them down by 50% like a glue puddle or w/e.
  2. Make all UIVs and VGRoids walls unbreakable, and external airlocks only opened by docking. (but reduce overall amount of enemies present to counter immediate swarming, or allow player creativity to modify their docks with defense/trap mechanisms)

Conclusion

Before reacting to this post, read the discussion quoted in the first paragraph and consult with your peers. I know this messes with a lot of tricky implications.

I would like to emphasize the fact that the word "explicit" has been extensively repeated in this comment, and for a reason. They need to be written down and showcased publicly, to be followed by all. I do not care about the decisions themselves, just that they are officially written.

The purpose of these additional rules and guidelines is to serve as clear guidance for players. It is unacceptable for admins to provide conflicting responses due to the server's lack of official rulings on recurring scenarios. Establishing consistent guidelines ensures fairness and avoids confusion in such situations.

So, let me reiterate once again:
Even if server direction chalks all those scenarios off as "eh, it's okay" or "nah this and that are definitely bad", it does not matter. It is not my business to judge their decision. I JUST WANT THE RULES WRITTEN DOWN SOMEWHERE. CONSISTENCY IS KEY.

[BluCottonCandy]

https://discord.com/channels/1123826877245694004/1328933316593848320

The full thing is posted there.

Short end, Purpose we make NFSD SOP Meta shielded from all that aren't Command, NFSD, or PAL approved lawyers.

[Tych0theSynth]

https://discord.com/channels/1123826877245694004/1328933316593848320

The full thing is posted there.

Short end, Purpose we make NFSD SOP Meta shielded from all that aren't Command, NFSD, or PAL approved lawyers.

I fundamentally disagree with this.
There's nothing unusual at all about people learning police procedure as a way of keeping themselves safe from mistreatment or malpractice if a situation arises where they're unfortunate enough to be a victim of it.

I've been on the receiving end of it multiple times in game, and every time it has been resolved with a good sit down and a chat with the sheriff.

Ultimately I think this is a restriction that'll limit people from resolving issues IC and instead going immediately into ahelps the moment a cop does something wrong, potentially removing the opportunity for it to be resolved through IC correctional action such as training.

[Tych0theSynth]

Yeah I'll try and give this another pass over the next few days, taking in the feedback and adjusting where it feels needed.

Yeah I wasn't able to just yet due to some mental health stuff.
There's more feedback to go through anyway now.

[noldevin]

https://discord.com/channels/1123826877245694004/1328933316593848320

The full thing is posted there.

Short end, Purpose we make NFSD SOP Meta shielded from all that aren't Command, NFSD, or PAL approved lawyers.

I also have to disagree with this. It's reasonable that citizens would know their sheriff's procedures as we often do IRL. Those SOPs are partially there to protect us from abuse so we should know what they are to call out that abuse. Shielding them takes them out of IC interaction and will encourage more LOOC corrections.
If the issue is rules lawyering then the rules themselves need to be less lawyerable.

[Houtblokje]

https://discord.com/channels/1123826877245694004/1328933316593848320

The full thing is posted there.

Short end, Purpose we make NFSD SOP Meta shielded from all that aren't Command, NFSD, or PAL approved lawyers.

I think this is a horrible idea, and the reason I think so has to do with accountability.
NFSD already has a problem with assholes who think they can intimidate people just because they have a law position. Having people not be allowed to comment on someone's shit behaviour because it is metashielded will not prevent LOOC rules lawyering, it will only prevent people from holding NFSD accountable. I will remind you that things like escalation guidelines are all in the SOP.

Also, Frontier already has a pretty loose seperation between roles. How would admins reinforce this? Would my character, who has plenty of NFSD experience, magically not know NFSD SOP when not playing NFSD? What about my other character, a
"smuggler" who has a small bit of experience as a detective but decided it wasn't for her? Would she magically forget NFSD SOP while smuggling, even though the SOP would probably realistically be available online and even though someone planning on doing illegal things would probably read up on it so she knows how to NFSD?
I think adding a rule like this without deciding where the line is will add to more vague rules that are enforced differently by each admins. I feel like we already have too many rules like that.

[MagnusCrowe]

https://discord.com/channels/1123826877245694004/1328933316593848320

The full thing is posted there.

Short end, Purpose we make NFSD SOP Meta shielded from all that aren't Command, NFSD, or PAL approved lawyers.

It makes little sense to me why NFSD's SOP would be secret using in-universe logic.

Maybe if NFSD were not a completely altruistic organization I could see them keeping it secret...like if it contained some procedure that they wanted to hide. If they were the Nanotrasen Death Squad, they would want to keep their SOP secret, for example, because it contains info about purging Nanotrasen employees and other stuff you probably don't want getting out. Even ERT probably would keep their SOP secret because I'm sure they get up to no good as a matter of procedure as well.

I don't think NFSD has anything to hide from the citizens of the frontier.

[Tych0theSynth]

I have committed some changes based on feedback, largely improving the wording of some things.
The recent comment on powergaming rules will be addressed in due course, and nothing on the idea of metashielding the NFSD SOP has been added due to overwhelming negative feedback and no admin agreement on this.

The PR description has been updated to reflect the changes of the latest commit.

[VividExcision]

Can every action that will definitively result in admin action against you be made explicit in the new document?

It's an unwelcome surprise to learn from a staff question that it's against server rules to even leave machines behind on FO for others to take at their leisure when multiple SRs, (whom are supposed to be mentoring new players, therefore set the standard for expected player behavior with their actions while in that role), Sheriffs, and other non-WL role players have indicated, implicitly or explicitly, that this is acceptable behavior.

Building a full kitchen on FO is one thing as there's a lot of reasons to be aware of the rules against operating food ships/kitchens on FO and extrapolate from there (even if that kind of extrapolation might be difficult for some folks who struggle with that sort of thing), however there's a lot of people who leave behind R&D servers, lathes, booze dispensers, or other desirable machines they constructed or found when they go to cryo and log out for a shift. They will talk about it on common even, while SRs, Sheriffs, Sec, etc. are online and sometimes talking with said players about it. I don't want to get ahelped over something that is not indicated in the current, nor future judging by what has been said in this thread, server rules as a violation and I would hate to see someone I enjoy playing with get hit with one too and have it bite them in the ass.

[Tych0theSynth]

Can every action that will definitively result in admin action against you be made explicit in the new document?

It's an unwelcome surprise to learn from a staff question that it's against server rules to even leave machines behind on FO for others to take at their leisure when multiple SRs, (whom are supposed to be mentoring new players, therefore set the standard for expected player behavior with their actions while in that role), Sheriffs, and other non-WL role players have indicated, implicitly or explicitly, that this is acceptable behavior.

Building a full kitchen on FO is one thing as there's a lot of reasons to be aware of the rules against operating food ships/kitchens on FO and extrapolate from there (even if that kind of extrapolation might be difficult for some folks who struggle with that sort of thing), however there's a lot of people who leave behind R&D servers, lathes, booze dispensers, or other desirable machines they constructed or found when they go to cryo and log out for a shift. They will talk about it on common even, while SRs, Sheriffs, Sec, etc. are online and sometimes talking with said players about it. I don't want to get ahelped over something that is not indicated in the current, nor future judging by what has been said in this thread, server rules as a violation and I would hate to see someone I enjoy playing with get hit with one too and have it bite them in the ass.

Not unreasonable. Will look into it.

[Leander-0]

ROLEPLAY, POWERGAMING & EXPLOIT RULESET

The server as a whole is, in my opinion, in dire need of explicitly written ROLEPLAY, POWERGAMING & EXPLOITS. Discussion can be found HERE.

Ok so it is quite a lot there and different topics, but in regards to powergaming it will always be an uphill battle, new additions and features come into the game that change how people play and there is cases where just the most optimal boring and lame way of doing things results from said features, yes, there is people that abuse from those but there is no way to list each and every single example of powergaming on the server rules and even more when stuff constantly can change.

People get bwoinked, notified and moderated for said things and that is fine because also someone has to do them at least once to find the issue in the first place and get it fixed too.