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Post by FunkySwerve on Mar 27, 2005 19:56:02 GMT
Im posting the current sever rules and guild rules here, in a format easier to read than the sign & book ingame. Any changes to those rules will also be posted here. Server Information and Rules 1.) General Information a. Read the Bulletin Boards! i. This server is updated frequently, and the Bulletin Boards are provided to inform players of the changes we make. Click on the Board to view the most recent update, and examine it to view past updates. b. Custom Class Abilities i. If you are playing a spell-caster of any type, it is highly recommended you check out the compendiums available in the Wondrous Items shop which detail all the changes made to spells on this module - there are many. ii. There are also many changes that impact the abilities of classes. For more information on this, check out the Class and Equipment Information sign in the Docks of Ascension. c. Experience System and Leveling i. Leeching is frowned upon, and doesn’t work well with this servers XP system, as you gain no experience if anyone in your nearby party is 6 or more levels higher than you. To gain more experience, party with several people near your level for the party bonus. You will gain maximum experience per kill in a party of 5, but additional members will not decrease the experience rewarded. Summoned creatures do not reduce experience, but do not count towards party number. ii. You can level your character to level 2 or 3, depending on class, at the Rowan Tree in town. iii. You may delevel your character at the Priest in Town, so long as you have not become immortal. DO NOT ask DMs to relevel you, if you do you may find yourself missing more levels than you wanted. There is a known issue with deleveling characters who have levels in Red Dragon Disciple – if you delevel them, the character will be invalidated via the Enforce Legal Characters function – DON’T do it! d. Respawning Players i. If you die, you will be forced to respawn within 2 minutes. Respawn times are randomized, so you should resurrect or raise fallen party members quickly! If you want to prevent respawn, keep near people who have raise dead or resurrection scrolls (like your party members) ii. If you respawn, you will lose xp, gold, and possibly (25% chance) an equipped item. e. Inactive Players i. Players who are inactive, and do not respond when questioned, may be booted to free up space for others, if space is needed. You may attempt to relog when you return to your keyboard. No offense is intended. f. Respawning Loot i. When a container is opened, it disappears, and a loot bag is dropped. You can get your loot from the bag. This is part of the respawning container / trap script that is used here. Loot will respawn after a set amount of time. ii. Some treasure chests spawn one item per party member in the area. g. Inventory Items i. Item Limit and Encumbria 1. Characters are limited to 150 items in inventory. Stacks of items, such as potions, are counted as 1 item per stack. When you exceed this limit, you will be sent to Encumbria, and you will not be able to leave until you are under the limit. This helps decrease server lag. ii. Despawning 1. Items left on ground will be despawned after a short time. h. Forums i. There is a great deal of information and discussion about the server on the Higher Ground website and bulletin board: 1. WEBSITE: higherground.blogsite.org/2. BULLETIN BOARD: http:://highergroundbb.blogsite.org/
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Post by FunkySwerve on Mar 27, 2005 19:56:22 GMT
2.) Server Rules
a. Introduction i. For the most part, these rules are designed to be intuitive. If you are polite and respectful of others you generally won’t have any problems.
b. Exploits i. The DM team has a pretty good handle on potential exploits. We prefer to deal with exploits by scripting around them, in order to keep cumbersome rules to a minimum. Generally speaking, if your character CAN do something, they are welcome to do so, so long as it doesn’t violate any of the rules listed below. ii. We do ask, however, that you report any exploits you might find to a DM, using DM channel.
c. Interaction with the Game Environment
i. Rest Spawning a. Anyone caught resting for the sole purpose of creating spawns may be subjected to whatever punishment the DM sees fit, with no warning. If your rest is successful, move on.
ii. Town 1. Combat in Town a. Town is off limits to combat. The only time combat is permissible in town is if hostile monsters invade. (Even then, it is easy to injure a townperson, and be jailed or worse) The Town Guard is well trained to handle such situations, but if you must enter the fray, do not use area effects. Absolutely no offensive action is to be directed at PC's or the Town NPC's. This includes, but is not limited to, traps, spells, summoned creatures, pick pocketing, disarm, etc. The restriction extends to the Town, the Docks, and the shops, temple, and bank located within these two areas. 2. Crafting in Town a. Do not craft in the Town area. Many players congregate there before and after adventuring, and the crafting messages make conversation there extremely difficult, since they appear in every player’s text log. 3. Dropping Items in Town a. Please use the trash containers located in the Docks and Town, rather than dropping items on the ground. Because these areas are almost constantly populated by players, items dropped there rarely get a chance to despawn.
iii. Shout Channel 1. Abuse of Shouts a. Please restrict shouting for use when you need to speak to everyone on the server. The default channel is talk, let’s keep it that way. You may feel free to ask a question in shout, but should only respond to these questions in tells. 2. Offensive Language a. Under no circumstances is offensive language of any kind tolerated in shout. If you’re not sure whether something might be offensive, don’t say it in shout. This includes curse words, discriminatory slurs of any kind, and anything a reasonable person would find offensive.
iv. Deleveling/Releveling 1. You may delevel your character at the Priest in Town, so long as you have not become immortal. DO NOT ask DMs to relevel you, if you do you may find yourself missing more levels than you wanted. There is a known issue with deleveling characters who have levels in Red Dragon Disciple – if you delevel them, the character will be invalidated via the Enforce Legal Characters function – DON’T do it!
d. Interaction with Other Players
i. Etiquette 1. Battle Looting: a. Battle looters run the risk of the DM's attention. It is frowned upon, to say the least. A battle looters is someone who loots while others in their party are in battle nearby. While the DM's may look the other way, if it becomes a problem or is excessive, the DM's may decide to take an interest. Your party is also unlikely to welcome your presence, if you engage in this behavior. 2. Leeching: a. Leeching involves parking your character somewhere in an area where your party is adventuring, and soaking up experience while not helping to earn it. It is frowned upon, but the most likely repercussion is that your party will boot you from the party. You should let your party know if you need to leave the keyboard, and tell them when you will return. 3. Booting: a. If you are booted from a party for whatever reason, you should leave the area you are in immediately, as if you were a member of another party just coming to the area (see the PvP rules below)
ii. Player vs. Player (PvP) 1. PvP combat and other types of interference with other players is forbidden on this server, with two exceptions: a. Guilds i. See the guild rules located in a book in the item shop. b. Pickpocketing i. Pickpocketing other players is allowed, with the following restrictions: 1. If you are caught, the person catching you may kill you immediately. You are free to defend yourself once attacked. 2. To ‘catch’ a person pickpocketing you, you must: a. See the item acquired message above their head, and verify that the item is now missing in your inventory, or b. Detect their pickpocket through the spot skill, or c. Actually see the item vanish from your inventory when they take it (unlikely). 3. If the pickpocketing is frequent enough to interfere with your victim’s enjoyment of the server, you must leave that person alone. 2. Other forms of interference forbidden include: a. Stealing of treasure and loot from areas another party is clearing b. Stealing of monster kills from areas another party is clearing. c. Hostile interference in battle, designed to throw the outcome of the battle in the monsters favor. This includes laying traps, casting area of effects spells, and luring monsters to them. You may not, for instance, block a route of escape with Blade Barriers. 3. In other words, if another party is clearing an areas or group of areas, you should either ask to join their party, ask if they will let you have the area, or leave immediately. If they do not want you in their party, for whatever reason, and do not want to yield the area, you must leave immediately. This prevents unintentional conflicts. The odds are, if you are within their level range, you will be welcomed into their party.
iii. Evil Roleplayers 1. If you want to roleplay an evil character, you may do so within the constraints of the guild system and pickpocketing rules. You should refer to the rules governing guilds for more details.
e. Consequences for Rule Violations i. As long as you follow the rules of conduct, you will most likely have a pleasant experience here. Usually, DM's are willing to discuss transgressions, providing they do not have to deal with an attitude problem while trying to reason with a player. You really have to go out of your way to get yourself banned, but frequent abuse of the rules of conduct can and WILL result in a permanent ban, no appeals. Giving a DM a hard time is probably a faster method of getting yourself banned. If a DM asks you to do something, or stop doing something, telling the DM to "Go to hell" (or something along those lines) will most likely end up in YOU being sent to hell. ii. Server Rules are enforced when and how the DM's choose. Repeated violations can result in a wide range of actions, from jail time to permanent ban. The DMs have a wide array of choices in between as well, including level loss, gold loss, item loss, xp loss, bannishment to hell, and more.
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Post by FunkySwerve on Mar 27, 2005 19:56:58 GMT
Guild Rules:
1.) Introduction a. These rules are crafted to be as intuitive as possible. We kept them as brief as possible, but they are still fairly long. This was necessary in order to carefully limit PvP activity to consenting players. b. Guild Members are charged with knowing and obeying these rules. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse for an infraction of these rules. c. Pickpocketing is generally allowed on this server regardless of guild status, and is mentioned frequently in these rules. The rules governing pickpocketing are set out in the general server rules. Any mention here is merely an attempt to clarify those rules with respect to guild activities.
2.) Guild Formation a. Requirements: i. Group Size: Gather a group of no less then 4 players. ii. Theme: All guilds must have some sort of theme that must be approved by DM Sorceress. Guidelines for these themes are very loose as HG has never been a heavy roleplay server, but SOME basis for the guild must exist. iii. Cost: 200 million gold is required in order to establish a guild. This money is to be turned over to DM Sorceress. iv. Votes: If you have taken the time to form a guild you obviously enjoy Higher Ground, so please ensure that all your members cast a vote for Higher Ground on the Neverwinter Vault, to help us continue to expand our player base. b. Once you have met these requirements, inform DM Sorceress. Once she determines that you have fulfilled all the requirements listed above, construction of your guild headquarters will commence. c. There are no guidelines in place for internal guild structure or rankings. This is done intentionally, as it is your guild; you decide what is required to qualify for membership. You can require certain items, amounts of gold, immortality, whatever you want. This freedom is subject to the following rules: i. Each character may only belong to ONE guild. It will be nigh impossible for a character to obtain a guild token for more than one guild. If your character IS able to infiltrate a guild somehow, you are welcome to do so. ii. Each new member accepted by a guild after formation must vote for Higher Ground on the Neverwinter Vault. We ask that the guilds police this, and we will keep it on an honor system basis. iii. Each Guild must appoint one or more persons as the head of the guild, for the purposes of Declarations of War (covered under Rule 4 below). The names of these guild heads will be posted on a Guild List sign next to the Guild Notice Board in the Docks. This designation has no other significance within the guild, unless the guild wants it to.
3.) Consequences of Guild Membership a. You open yourself up to forms of behavior not normally tolerated on Higher Ground, including: i. Stealing of loot from areas you are clearing by other guilds ii. Stealing of spawns by other guilds in areas you are clearing iii. Hostile interference in battle, designed to throw the outcome of the battle in the monsters favor. This does NOT include targeting spells at players, which amounts to PvP. It DOES include laying traps and casting area of effects spells, so long as they do not affect the intended victim immediately. You may, for instance, block a route of escape with Blade Barriers, but you may not cast them directly under your victim. The same goes for non-damaging spells such as Grease and Mind Fog. You can cast these spells where they will cause difficulty for your victim, but not in a place where they will be immediately effected by them. Even nondamaging spells like Bigby’s Interposing Hand may not be cast directly on your victim, unless you are at war with their guild (this counts as full PvP). iv. Any other forms of nastiness HG players can devise, short of full PvP. This includes pickpocketing, which is allowed regardless of the guild status of the victim. We know we have some devious souls here, and expect to see some creative tactics. v. Full PvP, but only if a guild war has been officially declared between your guild and another guild or guilds, per the guidelines for declaring guild wars set out in Rule 4. vi. Do not under any circumstances use tactics like these on non-guild members (except pickpocketing). Punishment will be swift and certain. b. You are able to engage in the same behavior against members of other guilds. c. You get access to a custom guildhouse, with teleportation magic and a replenishing stock of healing potions and teleportation gems.
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Post by FunkySwerve on Mar 27, 2005 19:58:32 GMT
4.) Guild Warfare and PvP a. Guild Wars are encouraged and are a large part of the reason for the implementation of guilds. That being said, there are some definite guidelines which must be followed to the letter. i. Any characters involved in Guild Wars MUST be above level 30. ii. No lowbie killing will be permitted at any time, and will carry punishments up to and including the disbandment of your guild, so don’t do it. For the purposes of guild warfare, lowbie killing is the killing of anyone under level 30. iii. There must be a roleplay reason to kill any guild member not involved in a guild war at the present time. If they provoke you by engaging in behaviors listed in Rule 3a above, such as loot or spawn stealing, that is sufficient reason, so long as you and they are guild members. If you or they are not guild members, you MAY NOT kill them until you have reported the behavior to a DM and received DM permission to do so. Pickpocketing is the sole exception to this rule. If you catch someone picking your pocket, you may attack them immediately – but you had better be certain! iv. Declaration of War: A GUILD MUST PROVIDE A WARNING 24 hours before commencing a war on another guild. This warning must be posted by the head of the guild on the new Guild Notice Board in the Docks. Declarations of War are only valid if posted by a guild head, as listed in the Guild List next to the Guild Message Boards. v. Guilds may agree to end a guild war at any time. The head of the guild that declared war must post notice of the cessation of hostilities on the Guild Notice Boards. This notice is effective immediately, and means that PvP between members of those guilds is no longer acceptable, until a new Declaration of War is posted and 24 hours has passed since that Declaration. vi. A guild must have a reason to declare war on another guild. Any of the provocations listed in Rule 3a are sufficient. This means that if you WANT to go to war with a guild, you only need to provoke them into declaring war on you. If they don’t, you can continue to provoke them until they do, or wait until they provoke you. Please do not ‘invent’ provocations, this system is meant to be consensual to a degree. If a rival guild refuses to declare war on you, and does not provoke your guild members, you may continue to harass their members, but may not attack them directly. vii. All battles must take place in PvP areas. Please keep the full scale battles out of areas which low-level characters frequent, such as the Road to Town and the Beetle Cave. Try to keep the battles to the east of town and other high-level areas, like Manatakloss. viii. In the course of battle throughout the lands of Ascension, please be careful not to endanger people not involved in the battle. ix. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should a guild member attack someone not involved in the guild system, UNLESS that person has pickpocketed the guild member. There are many players who only want to play and level their characters while doing battle against the many monsters in HG. If you interfere with a non-guild member’s enjoyment of HG, you may be subjected to severe consequences, including disbandment of guilds and in extreme cases, banning. This means that, if a guild member is traveling with other non-guild members, that guild member is essentially off-limits to any type of action that would impact their non-guild companions negatively. Pickpocketing, as always, is allowed, but if it
5.) Mechanics a. There will be a way for guild members to differentiate guild members from the general public. Pay careful attention to guild designations, since these may save your life, and will help you avoid targeting non-guild members. i. A token will be given to all guild members. When used, this token will tell the player using it if the targeted character is a guild member, and to which guild they belong. ii. These tokens may only be acquired by characters of level 30 or above; this helps prevent lowbies from being subjected to guild warfare. iii. You may not under any circumstance target a player for any of the actions listed in Rule 3a (except pickpocketing) who is not a token-bearing member of a guild. iv. You may not under any circumstance engage in guild behavior allowed in Rule 3a (except pickpocketing) unless you CURRENTLY have a guild token in your inventory. If you lose your token for whatever reason, you must replace it before you can again engage in guild activity. v. If a character not belonging to a guild performs any of the actions listed in Rule 3a, you must report the server rule infraction to a DM at first opportunity and may only kill that character pending approval of the DM staff. Pickpocketing is the sole exception to this rule. If you catch someone picking your pocket, you may attack them immediately – but you had better be certain! vi. You may only kill the offender one time. Resurrecting, or even worse, raising dead the character in order to kill them again is seriously frowned on, and will result in actions being taken against you by the DM staff.
6.) Actions not to be taken, even by guild members, under any circumstances a. Unprovoked attacks on players at any time. Guilds must declare war on each other to allow full PvP combat, absent provocation. b. Any hostile actions taken on a player other then those specifically allowed against other guild members by guild members.
7.) What Constitutes Provocation a. We are walking a fine line between PvP and cooperative play here. Situations will arise in which it is unclear whether provocation sufficient to merit an attack or declaration of guild war has occurred. In such cases: i. There is a presumption that provocation is SUFFICIENT, if the allegedly provoking party entered an area occupied by a member or members of the opposing guild or guilds. In other words, if you don’t want to incite a combat or guild war, stay out of areas occupied by members of rival guilds, just as regular non-guild players should stay out of areas occupied by other parties. ii. There is a presumption that the provocation is INSUFFICIENT, if the allegedly provoking party was in an area when the member of the opposing guild claiming they were provoked first entered that area. In other words, you cannot claim provocation by placing yourself conveniently in harm’s way. iii. If there is any doubt, ask a DM to resolve the dispute before engaging in full PvP.
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Post by FunkySwerve on Apr 17, 2005 9:28:17 GMT
Guild formation cost reduced to 200 million, made the change in the original post as well.
Funky
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