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Read and remember the rules and conventions, they can be found at Help
ATS House Rules
From ATS Wiki
More or less well documented rules that are in play on the mush:
Intro
Trekmush Among the Stars is a work of fans. Its purpose it to provide other fans with a place to enjoy the Star Trek universe in a multi-user shared hallucination environment (MUSH). Like many multi-user online roleplaying games, we are now seeing new players who have found the game before they have found fandom, or even fellow players. Our purpose here is to lay out the expectations that the people running the game have for players, the expectations that players may reasonably have of other players, and the expectations that players may have of the staff. Like other online games, we lay out a code of conduct that players are expected to adhere to, so please read and understand this, as well as the ATS Rules of Engagement, which are a separate agreement about what's fair in space combat, available on our website (www.trekmush.org). You will be responsible for knowing these things, and all things available from the "rules" command, as part of being a player.
Robert A. Heinlein, the science fiction writer, once described his political affiliation thus: I am a rational anarchist. When people are rational, I will be an anarchist. If everyone had the uncommon sense to be wise, we would not need this contract. All you really need to remember is that we are all here to have fun enjoying the game, and you will need very few rules. Until that day comes that all are wise, we need government, and a few rules. Here is what you agree to abide by, in return for playing here at no cost.
Admin
The staff here, the admin and wizards, are here to help you. They serve at no pay, as volunteers, and take time from their lives to do work so you can have a good time on this game. They contribute more than just their characters, so we prize them. Do not abuse your admin. It is natural to get into conflict with the referees in any game. If you need to argue the facts, argue the facts. If you take it personal, or you stop being civil and courteous, you will be asked to leave even faster than mentioned under players. The referee here, as elsewhere, can throw you out of the game when you will not abide by the rules.
The admin should be reasonably available to you. You should be able to make requests for help by @mail, @post or use of your organization's OOC channel. Admin have agreed to be online 20 hours per week. They will not always be online, or able to instantly help you. If you need immediate assistance, you may be able to get the attention of another org's admin, or a wizard. Try to exercise patience, and remember free service runs at its own speed. Give admin who are busy building or coding a break, and do not pester them if they ask for a few minutes. Wizards are reasonably available to the admin.
Admin are the ones who commission ships, build the world, and tell the stories. They can help you with zone commands, building problems, and advice. They are expected to treat you just as you do them, with courtesy and respect. Staff are also players, and you will encounter their players in the game, either knowing or not knowing the player behind the character is on staff. You should treat their characters like any other, so they can have fun, too. If a staff member needs to say something as a staff member, it will not be via his player character(s).
Admin and Wizard characters are never IC, and are considered non-player characters (npcs) who are always wearing the referee uniform, not players in the game. If they are present, you may consider that "time out" has been called. All other NPCs are IC, and should be treated just like any player character. It can really break the illusion if you start treating NPCs differently than PCs.
Advertising
You can advertise for other MU* on GZII. There, you can make an object which you drop in #0. The only requirement for advertising is that you do not flame other MU*.
You will not use other means of advertising, both on GZII and ATS. This includes channels, magazines, pages and mails. Advertisements in @finger notes are allowed, with the same regulations as the above one.
Failing this rule can cause reactions up to a detach.
Building
- ALL space objects are to fall within proper and established quota restrictions. The quota restrictions are listed in @budget. The building limits include rooms, exits, objects that are permanent fixtures, and any databases of local custom @descs.
- Zoning and Ownership: All rooms and exits and permanent objects on any space object will be owned by an appropriate builder character, and zoned to the space object. Admin should not own rooms, exits, lockers, etcetera.
- Security systems: Space objects (including planets) must use the mush global room parent(s) for their security system. Special-purpose locks must be wizard-friendly. They should be admin-friendly.
- No excessively idiotic waste of objects or queue cycles. If you don't know what you're doing, count on us to find out about it, and react badly...
- No OOC communication with other space objects (possibly via the ship's computer, etc). Remember, range/speed/reliability is not infinite. Communication functions will be provided by mush global systems.
Faction admin may enforce additional aesthetic or thematic requirements.
Channels
OOC Channels are thematically restricted, just as magazines.
This means that you should stick to a channel's topic.
Additionally, as a general rule for all places of ATS, you must not advertise other MU* on channels.
Usually, you can get detailed information about channels using
@chan/what <channel>
Failing in following the rules will result in a denial of your speaking rights on the MUSH'es public channels for a certain period of time.
All OOC channels will be named "<Name-OOC>". Exceptions are:
<Admin> <Wizard> <Public> <Announcements>
All IC channels will be named "<Subspace-Name>". There are no exceptions.
In-character Subspace channels may never be called directly. All Subspace channels have standardized MUSH globals that help make sure all IC issues and restrictions are handled appropriately. See 'help aq' for more info.
Christening
Space objects can only be commissioned and christened by admin or wizards.
The wizards will not christen a new space object if the faction is over its @budget in either quota or ram usage.
Coding
The following guidelines should be followed when coding objects, to protect game performance:
- Objects should not be coded that mimic mush-wide standards (globals) without the approval of a Wizard. Examples: Compins, transporters, turbolifts, bars, reformatted versions of global commands.
- Objects that keep a log should not go out of bounds and should be self-cleaning. You should try to limit the number of entries also, to about 50 or so attributes. A Db check will be done reguarly and objects not adhering to this guideline may be @nuked or cleared without notice.
- Try and keep mail or any long texts for archival purpose in your @mail. Use folders to seperate them. Excess and useless information only increases the mush save time and wastes memory.
Conduct
First, do no harm to other players. When you are in-character, you can take on the poor manners and evil objectives of your character, as you wish. However, out-of-character, the other players are (I hope) the friends with whom you share a hobby, an interest in Star Trek and mushing, and upon whom you depend on to keep the game going, so you can play -- without them, you may as well play a first-person shooter against a computer. Do not use the anonymity of the internet to hide your own poor manners. Treat other people with the respect and courtesy you would use if they were standing right next to you, in your own home, and as if they were much larger than you are. Expect the same of others.
On public forums and OOC channels, you should avoid any language you would not use in real-life, in-person, in public. You should not engage in any activity that is considered illegal or sociopathic. Do not attack people personally, and do not attempt to make people uncomfortable, but rather try to treat them as people you want to have around for a long time. Players in enemy factions are still players, and still sharing your hobby. It is only their characters you may be squaring off against.
If you have a personality conflict, take a break, seek advice, or agree to disagree and move on. Do not engage in any activity which fractures the cohesiveness of the game. Personal attacks, especially those based on race, color, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender will be grounds for an immediate sitelock. Non-game-related discussions which make other players uncomfortable should be moved to page, or off the game. Such discussions will include divisive politics (off the Debate-OOC channel), lewd, crude, sexual, excretory humor/comments and other obnoxious behavior.
Let people play their characters their way. Do not blur IC and OOC by telling other players that you think their behavior is unacceptable, does not conform to your expectations, religious beliefs, or human notions of propriety. Some characters are nasty, brutish, warlike and looking to steal from you. Some will treat your character with extreme disrespect, and make demands upon your character that seem reasonable to them, but not to you. Klingons do not say 'please'. Ferengi do not feel they have to warn you about their business practices. Not every single Cardassian is like Gul Dukot. Not every Bajoran is religious. Some aliens may not like you. Some may want to conquer or kill or eat you. Some may not act the way that you heard they act. You play your character, let others play theirs.
If you want to share canon information OOC, do so, but as suggestions, not as demands. Remember that a lot of good stories come from people who go beyond what's normal for them. Try to remain plausible, and have reasons for any very extreme behavior -- check with your admin when in doubt. Try to get better at your acting, and help others with theirs, but do it by choosing to set a good example, rather than coercing people into doing it your way.
And that brings us to the last: It is said of science fiction that it works because the audience engages in a willing suspension of disbelief. ATS tries to maintain a world in which you can believe that Star Trek happens. Try and avoid any action or inaction on your part that undermines this willing suspension of disbelief. Don't make people stare at the man behind the curtain. Don't bemoan the accuracy of the props until the play is over and someone is soliciting criticism, Allow people to have fun, and put your suggestions for better fun on mag 20, not in people's faces.
Dbrefs
Because it needs to be possible for people to impersonate others, or at the very least disguise themselves, for whatever IC purposes, the concept of identifying players or objects by their dbrefs has been called into issue. Dbrefs are an absolutely unforgeable encoded mechanism of the MUSH code that does not lend itself in any way as an IC method of identification. The following set of rules for dealing with dbrefs and player-identification is intended to offer a solution to the problem of dbrefs and identification.
All code that looks up the dbref of a player, such as %#, must pass the player dbref through the id() function (See: help id()). This function will return the dbref of the player, according to the designated scan type provided to the function. The value this function returns will be a dbref that may or may not be the dbref of the player in question, as id() will be susceptible to disguises the player in question may have.
Of course, disguises will be regulated by the admin. Some, like DNA disguises, will be necessarily settable only by wizards. Likewise, using id() to return the DNA-scan identity of a player will also require special permissions, as such scans should NOT be widespread. Players SHOULD on the other hand be able to disguise say, their Appearance, to fool id() scans that look for such things. There will be a tendancy for everyone to automatically lock down everything with DNA or Brainwave scans to make sure it is difficult or impossible for anyone to bypass or trick their security. This tendancy is the very reason for making some kinds of scanning and disguising admin or wizard only, to discourage it.
Under this rule, ALL IC COMMANDS are required to pass all enactor (the player using the command or triggering the code) dbrefs through the id() function. This is to necessarily affect all IC commands or locks that check the player's dbref agains a stored list of dbrefs, or masterorgs, etcetera.
Deletions
All players are required to log in at least once every 30 days. Otherwise, they risk having their character and all its possesions deleted.
The only exception to this is for players set ON-VACTION. This flag, with the consent of admin or wizards, can allow a player to be idle for up to 90 days. You should always inform the staff if you need an extended absence and wish to retain your character.
Detach
A player may ask for a detach at any time, This kills your character, and allows you to create a new one without violating rules multi-char. You should request a detach if you plan to leave the game, as a courtesy.
In some cases the staff will permit the recreation of detached characters in the same faction. This usually involves only characters who have not died but left the faction for OOC reasons. We will not return any items, skills, experience or other attributes to the character. Characters killed in the game are detached after having a chance to clean up (@decompile things, send goodbye notes, and so on).
If you plan to have your player perish in-game as part of changing characters we encourage you to play out your death. Please make it clear to your admin that you plan to do so, and avoid premature termination.
Dir-Removal
All faction admin are required to log in at least 2 hours a day/or at least 20 hours a week (With a minimum of 1 hour a day) unless they have arranged otherwise temporarily with the wizards.
If an admin cannot login for an extended period of time, s/he needs to inform the wizards. In the case where this period is greater then 7 days, the admin needs to name a temporary replacement that will take care of his/her duties while he/she is absent. Admin of factions with more than 2 active admin are excepted from naming a replacement.
Longer leaves require consultation with the wizards. The wizards will remove and replace faction admin as required to keep the game alive.
IC-Comms
When using an in-character communications medium, such as @icmail, @post to an IC @mag, the subspace radio or even speaking in-character, you will not use -any- references to OOC MUSH commands (@icmail, @mail, page, @finger) or constructs. If you must give your means of address and your name is inappropriate, use something that could be IC, such as contact beacon #dbnum or send messages to <your-alias>.
Failure to adhere to this rule is known to cause catastrophic damage to active space objects and painful wounds to player-characters.
IC-Rules
You are expected to maintain a separation between the in-character (IC) world of the game and the out-of-character (OOC) world of the player. Things you learn about the current plot in the game OOC are not to be used in the game IC. Things that you know, but which your character does not, should not appear in your character's play.
OOC communications are a good way to arrange cooperative roleplay. You can invite players from other factions or groups to meet you at certain times and places, you can even suggest you will bring a fleet of some size if they bring a fleet of the same size, and then pretend it happened by accident.
What you cannot do is spread information that you gained in-game or out by OOC communications. Telling your friends OOC that you just saw a lusciuos target go by, whether you are in their faction or not, by OOC means, is right out. If you wouldn't get on the IC radio and do it, don't do it. If you would get on the IC radio, get on the IC radio. In both cases, don't do it OOC.
No spying or information taking is to take place without approval. IE: do not spy on other faction's bases, planets and so on, even though you are able to get there IC and look or scan. Such information is OOC at the moment because most factions do not have enough people to be able to react to your attempt at spying on them. Check with staff first. See also: ROE.
Macros
Any macro that forces a player to automatically enter a command, be it a console command, a combat action, etc. is not allowed, no matter if it's on the client, softcoded on the player or wherever else. This explicitely includes cut & paste and keybinding. Typing commands inside @wait is fine.
Magazines
Magazines have definite topics and rules which you need to follow. Check the @mag/info for the magazine in question.
For example, -only- Suggestions will be posted on the Suggestions mag. Replies or comments concerning suggestions will be posted on the debate mag, and should reference the suggestion by topic and article (eg: Re: 20/999 ships). The Public magazine is only for notices of interest to the players, and not for discussions nor for advertising. Personal notices go on mag 97, not mag 1.
Failure to adhere to the @mag/info specifics will likely cause your post to be deleted, may result in loss of posting privileges, or loss of public channel privileges for some period of time. Blatant or repeat offenders may be shown the door, as with any continued breach of the rules.
Multi-Character
Each RL player, as well as each RL email address, is allowed to have one and only one player-character. This means, that
- Players with more than one email address must not get more than one char.*
- Players who share an email address must not get more than one char.*
- RL siblings, relatives, roommates, etc. should not join different factions, for the sake of maintaining the IC/OOC barrier.
Additionally, registrations from free email sites may be declined.
Builders and other non-player characters (NPCs) that you have been asked to play do not count against this limit.
Players caught with multi-chars will be @detached, and, depending on the circumstances, possibly @sitelocked.
TrekMUSH keeps track of sites and email addresses in order to maintain these regulations.
* "Must not" is defined as in RFC 2119
Player Kills
It is possible for a player to be killed and lost on ATS. This is to preserve the risk of death and the excitement that taking this risk causes. We do not encourage killing other players. Where possible, the risk of character death should be undertaken by consent in advance. If a player does not want to engage in mortal combat, avoid forcing this upon him or her.
There are certain actions that give implied consent: number one would be killing players. Serving as crew in space also makes you a viable target. If you want to avoid dying with your ship when it goes down, we have provided you with escape pods -- you must use the escape pods. It is generally considered very poor sportsmanship to go after some other side's escape pods. In most cases, the game works better when your objective is to capture rather than to kill. If you are out for blood, make sure that the story and situation demands it. If you are out for blood because you dislike someone's player, expect trouble from the referees (wizards and admin).
You cannot use our guidelines as a shield. If your character engages in provocative behavior (fighting words, drawing a weapon and/or brandishing it) you are giving your consent to engage in mortal combat. If that is not your intention, get the other people involved to understand that (OOC if necessary) before you do it. If your character decides to engage in theft or murder or other crimes, expect the police, and expect them to detain you by force. We will not prevent other characters from killing yours if yours clearly deserves to die as a result of actions that your character has taken.
Recruiting
- You can only recruit non-factioned players, who are Guests.
- You may not promise position, rank, money, or anything else to players to induce them to join your faction. You may say that your faction has many positions open that need filling and you may talk about your faction.
- You may give general information about other factions, however, you may not give negative reviews of other factions -- that is not good for the overall health of the game.
- You should not push a player to join your org. Give them time to consider other factions and encourage them to make a good choice.
Rules of Engagement (ROE)
Please refer to ROE. If you do not have WWW access, please contact an admin to email you a copy.
To quote Atuarre:
Read it, learn it, know it. No excuses. Aloha to yah.
Security
There has been a MUSH @vote on terms of security holes. These have been the results:
- @nuke people who hunt for security holes?
- Yes: 32.5%, No: 61.4%, Abstain: 6.1%
- @nuke people who advertise security holes?
- Yes: 72.0%, No: 16.1%, Abstain: 11.9%
- @nuke people who abuse security holes?
- Yes: 81.7%, No: 13.0%, Abstain: 5.2%
According to the postings explaining it, @nuke means @nuke + @sitelocks. Therefore, from now on, the TrekMUSH Staff will follow above results, and people who advertise and abuse security holes will get @nuked and @sitelocked.
Ships
Factions may build ships (and bases) up to their allowed @budget's. The @budget is based on the number of players in the faction. There are separate quotas under @budget for ships, fighters, freighters and bases.
Factions may build only the ship designs listed on their @org/listclasses. Some designs are unique to a faction, some are shared by more than one, some are universal (freighters). If you obtain a ship from another faction and you could not have made it yourself, it will count double against your quota.
A faction may not construct a ship for sale or gift to another faction, unless both factions have the available quota.
Players need to get permission from their faction admin to build a ship.
If a player is getting a ship from another faction, THAT faction's admin has to clear it as well as the player's own admin.
Telepathy
Any player code that allows remote communication with other people that is not wizard-approved is forbidden. Period. We don't need any more pages with nice ansi() and people claiming them being IC since they are telepaths and can communicate over the whole galaxy.
Transfers
The transfer of a character into another empire can only happen through IC roleplaying and with the approval of both faction admin involved. It is best to ask both admin before doing said RP, but if for some reason this RP happens spontaneously (in an active TP, RP after Battle), you must still make the request. Make sure that you have a log of such a spontaneous event.
Normally the admin will recommend your transfer to the wizards, who actually perform the transfer. If your admin declines, you may appeal to the wizards, if the following are true:
- The player has attempted to discuss the matter with the concerned staff.
- A complete RP log has been kept of the RP that led to this transfer. (We need to make sure that the reason is IC and the means to it was IC.)
- The transfer is not punitive to the faction being left.
If the request is turned down, the player must roleplay his or her way out of the situation created. Asylum may be denied. If necessary, the events which were logged may be voided by the staff (retroactive continuity or retcon). Reasonable negotiations over any ships and possessions are to be expected.
Note this applies to moving a living character, not a player. See Detach.
Weapons
Weapons and Armor take up RAM that Doogie and I have to pay for. Making boatloads of them for your own personal armory will not be taken ... well ... by the admin or the wizards, and will ensure your ass is soundly kicked right out the door. Here is what I want you to abide by, and what I will enforce:
All players are restricted to -- 3 -- $combat items. This includes $weapons, $armor, $tricorders, $medkits, and any other wiz-powered $combat objects we create. En totale.
If a player is found with more than three $combat objects (excepting brief situations such as disarming a prisoner and putting their stuff in a box), or a player goes into a fight with more than 3 items, all the $combat items on their person will be @nuked. Second and further offenses risk the wrath of the Wizards, who find players to be crunchy and good with ketchup.
The weapons and armor will remove OPAQUE flags. These devices are typically too large to be hidden. If you're a $combat object and you have an OPAQUE flag set, you're being OOC and cheating.
If you are carrying a $combat device of any kind, it goes in your personal inventory. You may NOT have the OPAQUE flag set. You may NOT place the $combat object inside any other object inside your inventory. At all.
Additionally, if you use @conformat, the FULL NAME, including the serial number at the end, if any, MUST be shown. This should generally include any object with a wizard bit on it, $combat or otherwise (like Compins).
We will blow up all of the weapons by dbref that are reported. If someone decides to do it twice, we'll skip right to blowing them up directly.
