Rules

Rule 0. Admins and Above retain the authority to ignore or alter the enforcement of specific rules at their discretion should they feel it is in the best interest of the current round, the server or the player base at large. In the absence of an Admin or higher ranking member of staff, Moderators may exercise this power following their own chain of authority. Any use of Rule 0 holds it’s user fully accountable for the actions taken due to their change of the rulings.

Rule 0.1 Rules are enforced as intended. Every example of a rule break cannot be defined as written, therefore, enforcement of the rules is subject to staff interpretation of the rule's intention.

Rule 0.2 If a staff member gives you an instruction, even if you know the staff member is wrong, follow the instruction. You can file a staff report on the forums or take it up with their manager directly if you do not agree with the decision made.

Rule 1. No Erotic Role Play (ERP), erotic content, or 18+ sexual content - Roleplay intended to elicit a sexual response from the receiver(s), including but not limited to writing stories (WGW) or posting links to adult content. Doing so will almost always result in an instant permaban from our server. However, these actions could still be susceptible to Marine Law. A good rule of thumb for whether an interaction crosses this line would be to consider if the action would be allowed in a PG-13 rated movie in the USA. A few basic guidelines are as follows:

• No character should ever engage in any form of sexual intercourse in the game, whether alone or with another player.
• No sexual act or genitalia should ever be given explicit description. If a sexual act must be referenced, there should never be a description of how particular body parts made contact or interacted in any way, nor should any particular act be named. Distasteful but non-sexual bravado do not apply to this. A marine scratching their nuts, for example, is fine.
• Euphemisms that also have a sexual meaning are allowed in non-sexual contexts. Common terms or phrases like "Suck my dick" are fine, as long as saying such is not a literal invitation or solicitation to do so.
• If you are not sure whether something you wish to say or do is okay, AHelp first. We would rather you ask and be told no, than have it happen and a ban become necessary.
• Staff reserve the right to make judgement calls on situations to determine if they constitute a breach of 18+ or erotic conduct. If something is overly disgusting or crosses a line in a way that becomes an 18+ situation, it may be punished for regardless of nature. The above are guidelines for reference, and it is highly not recommended to straddle the line along what is and is not allowed when dealing with erotic/18+ content.

Rule 2. Roleplay - CM-SS13 is intended to be a Medium Roleplay server. Play a reasonably realistic character. Treat your character as a separate entity from you, the player. Your character's actions, feelings, and knowledge in-game should be based solely on the character's experiences and not your own as the player. Low roleplay actions that have no regard for your character or the setting (Memes, silly copypaste spam IC) are not acceptable. Character development can occur over rounds but each round is a soft-reset, meaning you can have previous mission experience but your character will never have died or fled the ship in the past. Both Marines and Xeno know of the others existence, but this does not guarantee every round is Marine vs Xeno (IE: Human vs Human events can still happen without you being aware). Follow the Roleplay Standards.

• Roleplay Standards.
  • Marines: All personnel employed by the USCM are mentally stable and physically fit for duty. They would not desert their post or go against the USCM without a good reason. Marriages are forbidden, no two people employed by the USCM on the same ship may be married. The USCM has knowledge of most threats, including all human forces (UPP, CLF, PMC, etc) and general knowledge of the Xenomorph hive structure. The USCM does not know there is a Xenomorph threat on the planet of operation unless that information is given in a custom event.
    • USCM Deployment: All personnel deployed should be following their role requirements. A doctor would not deploy to fight Xenos on the front line, a Squad Medic would not only be healing themself, and a Squad Leader would not ignore the orders of command just to do their own thing.
  • Survivors: Survivors have more leeway than marines with their mental stability due to the trauma they may have experienced during the xenomorph attack. They may be suffering PTSD, paranoia or similar conditions for roleplaying purposes. Survivors may NOT be hostile unless they have been spawned as hostile survivors (CLF).
  • Xenos: Aliens have no free will. They are a hivemind, and their purpose is to enforce the will of the Queen and expand the Hive. They are not friendly and will not negotiate. Due to the Hivemind, xenos know everything every xeno learns and know the basics of human equipment. At the start of the round, the Xenos can sense the human's ship looming above their hive and are aware that human forces will be visiting the colony shortly. Xeno hivemind is an English translation of their thoughts, so words such as “hydro” or “shuttle” are acceptable.
  • Predators: Predators are honorable hunters. They must follow the Code of Honor and act like a serious predator, not a prankster. The USCM does not hold any information about these beings, meaning each contact is unknown regarding them.
  • Synthetics: Synthetics are cold and do not feel emotions as strongly as humans, though they may fake them. They serve the USCM and may not turn against them. Synthetics must adhere to the Synthetic Programming and Guidelines.
  • ID Cards: These should only be taken for a roleplay reason, such as from a dead XO to call for help on a computer in the ship’s bridge. If you take an ID or find one from a living player (or a dead player that has since been revived), you should make every attempt to return it unless your character has a good reason not to.

Rule 3. Don't be a dick - Harassment, racism, bigotry, homophobia, exploiting bugs, cheating, hacking, and just plain being an asshole. Giving out plot spoilers to any media with malicious intent is not allowed, but the general discussion of plot that contains spoilers about media released 1 year ago or longer is fine.

• Roleplaying hostile actions, beliefs or emotions through the use of profanity is permitted. However staff reserve the right to make calls on situations if a player has crossed the line. If a staff member tells you to stop, you stop.
• Racism, the use of slurs and other targeting terms or phrases is strictly forbidden and will not be tolerated.
• Playing a character that is based upon a specific stereotype is permitted however playing to a racial, religious or cultural caricature is not. Management staff, or the highest ranking alternative available, reserve the right to make calls on specific stereotypes being racially, religiously or culturally offensive.

Rule 4. No griefing - Griefing is the intent of one player wanting to cause grief or annoyance to other players or the server without a valid roleplay reason. If Staff believes that the player’s intent is to grief, then action will be taken whether or not it was the player’s intent. Any damage to the station or players caused by griefing can be repaired at an Admin's discretion. If you are being griefed, don’t retaliate - Adminhelp it and you’ll get healed. Shooting a griefer can cause you to get in trouble as well, and the combat logs you’re generating make it harder for Staff to prove who the real griefer is.

• End of Round Grief (EORG) is fighting and generating any combat logs with friendly players after the round ends and is an immediate 3-hour ban without warning. Exceptions are between normal enemies, such as Marines and Aliens, Marines and UPP, etc.
  • This includes suicide at the end of the round without a valid RP reason.

Rule 5. Mechanical Exploits - Do not abuse bugs or unintended features to gain an unfair advantage for yourself or your team. Xenos should not be moving structures/crates across the map for cover or moving fuel tanks to specific locations to blow them up.

• A standard Marine deconstructing walls is not considered a mechanical exploit. The same marine somehow making an OT grenade would be considered a mechanical exploit.

Rule 6. No Metagaming or Metacommunication - Acting upon knowledge your character would not have or providing unknowable information to another player. Should you be in a voice call with other players, you are still expected to relay information through IC channels (talking, radio, etc) to preserve in-game roleplay. IC information should not be posted to any public location where other parties can be given an advantage. Any form of cheating via metacomms will result in a permaban. All public chat on the CM Discord should refrain from talking about any ongoing round information until the round ends.

• Examples of Metagaming:
  • Wordlessly following a friend around without having any IC communications or interactions.
  • Building defenses on the ship before a hostile force is en route.
  • Xenos sitting next to the dropship landing pad to attack right as the Marines open the doors.
  • Xenos melting every colony wall in a specific location to remove a building/defensive point.
• Examples that are NOT Metagaming:
  • Xenos destroying colony assets prior to Marine landing, such as APCs, lights, vendors, etc.
  • Xenos & Marines building traps to catch and kill the other side.
  • Marines killing themselves after becoming infected or captured by the Xenos.

Rule 7. English only - All communications within the server should be done in English only. Phrases from other languages are fine but should not make up the majority of your conversations.

Rule 8. No Advertising - Don’t post byond://, Discord, Twitch, etc, links to other servers purely for the sake of advertising. If you wish to share links to these kinds of places, either ahelp for permission or do so off the server (IE: over Byond messages).

Rule 9. No Ban Evading / Multi-Keying - Logging in with different accounts at different times, logging in with another account because you died (or were banned), or logging into two separate accounts at the same time. If you have multiple accounts tied to CM-SS13, please ahelp regarding them. Players caught breaking this rule may receive permabans from the server.

Rule 10. No IC in OOC or Vice-Versa - Keep In Character (IC) communication in character and Out Of Character (OOC) communication out of character. Don't use (( or )) to communicate OOC. Vice versa, you should not use LOOC to share IC information to bypass IC restrictions, this includes the use of Discord and other external communications. You may use LOOC to talk someone through something if they ask for help.

Rule 11. Suicide, Rage-Quitting, and Logging off - If you are a marine and need to leave the game, go to Cryo on the ship and put yourself in a cryotube. This will release your job slot and allow another player to join with your job. If you are unable to get to cryo, send an Adminhelp to staff. If you are the Queen, Adminhelp to let staff know. If you leave without cryo-ing yourself or informing staff, you risk a job ban, especially if your job is an important one. Suicide is permitted if you have a reasonable roleplay reason why, such as you are infected with a xenomorph and there is no hope of rescue, or you are the last xenomorph alive and there is no queen. Committing suicide without a valid reason will result in a ban and/or jobban.

Rule 12. Character names - Use a reasonable, unique, lore-friendly character name that has a first name and surname. Short reasonable nicknames are allowed inside the name (e.g. Derek 'Double-D' Donahue, Jane 'Crusher' Sanchez, Dan 'The Man' Thompson). Other character names should not be used as nicknames. Nicknames should not be considered an absolute meme. Ranked, titled, honorific, offensive, famous and pop-culture names are not allowed (e.g. Dr John Smith, Barack Obama, Lt John Doe, Adolf Hitler). Also, avoid Aliens lore-based names like Weyland, Bishop, Ripley, etc. You may be a sibling or cousin of another player's character. However you cannot play another player's character unless it's part of a staff event. References can be made to characters in the Official CM-SS13 lore, but those characters may only be played as part of a staff event.

Rule 13. Roundstart Shenanigans - Major shenanigans that may disrupt the normal flow of the round are not allowed at roundstart. This includes but is not limited to; big or lethal fights, briefing brawls, riots, massive equipment restrictions and tackling players trying to reach their prep room.

Rule 14. Lethal Force - Do not attack another player without a legitimate, explainable roleplay reason that could be applied in a similar, real-life scenario. A fist fight does not suddenly escalate into a gun fight. Even if you are justified, you are still susceptible to Marine Law.

Rule 15. Marine Law - All Military Police jobs and the SEA must follow Marine Law and are forbidden to commit any crimes.

• • Military Police may ignore Minor Crimes unless ordered to enforce them, but they may not ignore Major or Capital Crimes.
• Synthetics and Marine Law
  • USCM Synthetics are required to follow Marine Law by their Whitelist Guidelines and are unable to commit crimes.
  • Survivor Synthetics are not forced to follow Marine Law, dependent on their chosen alignment (Colony/Survivors/USCM/WY etc.)

Rule 16. Battlefield Execution - Whitelisted Commanding Officers are allowed to instantly kill any player at any time if the player fulfills the conditions found in Marine Law. Excessive or poorly-reasoned battlefield executions (such as BEing MPs over a valid arrest) may end with the Commanding Officers being removed from the whitelist.

Rule 17. Mutinies - Mutinies must be Adminhelped by a chosen leader stating the reasoning and the players directly involved. There must be at least 5 members with MPs not eligible to mutiny.

• If the mutiny does not have a valid reason, it can't happen.
• Only the Acting Commander can be mutinied against for their actions, decisions, or inactions. They must be given a chance to stand down peacefully.
• During the mutiny, attacking any uninvolved, medical, or surrendered personnel is strictly forbidden, as is perma-killing anyone involved. If you have surrendered during a mutiny, you must remain as such.
• Once concluded, all sides must be given medical treatment. Only a Captain or higher is able to deny treatment or battlefield execute specific mutineers.

Rule 18. Agents - Agents are a side-antagonist role on the ship. They are given objectives to complete that cause a minor disruption in shipside operations. However, they are still bound by rules and are not to cause a major disruption.

• Agents have to follow proper escalation and are encouraged to use non-lethal abilities to avoid capture. The goal of an agent is not to murder anyone, however they can defend themselves if need be.
• Agents may not kidnap people. They may incapacitate them, restrain them, and run away. Agents should not be removing a player from the round unless proper escalation was met while defending themselves.
• Agents should follow their objectives, however they should avoid destroying equipment required for round progress (OB Equipment, CIC/Overwatch Consoles/Reactors, etc...) They should also not upset the flow of the round or cause a severe imbalance.
• Agent violations are handled by Marine law, and agent actions may not be considered outright sedition. Refer to Marine Law if an agent is caught conducting illegal activity. (Example: It is not sedition to place a tracking device down, or break a window in a specific place. It may be sedition to blow up a wall in CIC which injures anyone within the explosion radius)