The Rules

[Fellis]

Site-wide General Rules

Restricted Content
There are forms of content that we do not permit to be posted, nor should links to the content be posted anywhere in the forums, discord, or the game.
The following forms of content are not permitted:

• Do not post any personally identifiable information (PII) about other people or yourself publicly on the nexus clash website (also known as "doxxing").
• Do not post explicit material of ANY KIND. If you need a "not safe for work" tag, it's not appropriate. This includes gore or other “shocking” images.
• Do not use words that are widely accepted as being slurs or offensive towards any race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, disease, age, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity.
• Do not harass other users. This includes harassment over the game on any other platform outside the control of the administrators.
• Glorification of Nazis or other extreme fringe groups is not tolerated under any circumstances.
• This includes advocating for any real-world violence against any group, or support for any real-world violent groups.
• Do not post any malicious links. Do not attempt to inject malicious code into the game.
• No shilling of products, referral links, cryptocurrencies, or scams will be tolerated.

Report Problem Behavior to a Game Master (GM)
Do not post it publicly on the forums or in discord or elsewhere - this just creates unnecessary drama. If you believe that someone else is cheating, exploiting bugs, harassing another user, or anything else that you feel deserves admin intervention please follow these simple steps:

1. Gather as much information as you have. This includes logs, links to character profiles, screenshots, anything you can get.
2. Private Message (on forum or discord) all of that to a GM. Currently those are Rincewind, BobGeneric, Kandarin, Fellis, plscks, Lychwood and Repth. You may also email [email protected]
3. Please let us take care of it from there.

The GM will be able to review logs and to take action if warranted.

Use the Appeal Process
We have an appeal process in place if you feel you have been disciplined unfairly. Please don't complain about the discipline publicly (that just creates drama). Instead, present your side of the story by way of following the appeal process outlined in our disciplinary process - send a PM to multiple admins and/or use the email address provided there to submit your appeal.This ensures that multiple admins will have access to your side of the story as your case is reviewed.

Respect the Development Team
The dev team is here to keep the game safe, sane, and fun for everyone. If you are having problems with members of the development team, please be civil, explain your point, and detail your opinion on it clearly and respectfully. You may question the behavior of any developer as you wish, as long as you are not rude about it. The development team consists of the following folks:

Administrators - Rincewind, Bob Q Generic, Kandarin, Fellis, plscks
Game Masters - Repth, Lychwood
Active Developers - Thalanor, Nova, Argavyon, NearNihil, Plum, Rinkou, Liche, jelly_m00n, Weirdomen, Badziew
Inactive - Wozzy, haliphax

Aside from being able to access game code and a development server, developers have no special game privileges. Game Masters have limited ability to edit characters, view player logs to help resolve bugs and other issues, and assist admins with moderation decisions. Inactive Devs are still on the team, but are currently away long-term for various reasons.

Catchall Rule
These community and game rules are written just for the baseline standard of interaction on this website. If you are considering debating your interpretation of the rules, instead of just seeking clarification of the rules, this is a sign you should stop what you are doing. If GMs feel you are consistently causing issues within the community, but not “technically” breaking any rules, you can still be warned, moderated, or banned. These rules can also be modified as necessary to account for any situations we haven’t thought of yet.

[Fellis]

Game Specific Rules

Your Characters must remain Independent from one another
Players are allowed to have multiple characters within the game. The following are the rules of how you may - and may not - use those characters (unwanted behavior is typically referred to as “Alt Abuse”).

ALT ABUSE RULE ONE:
Do not use your characters together to gain an advantage against any other character, player, faction, alignment, in a specific area of the map, or to accomplish your own (player) goals. Do not aid another player attempting to use multiple characters in this fashion. Your characters *may* be located nearby each other, but do make an effort to keep them apart as much as possible

ALT ABUSE RULE TWO:
Do not use any knowledge gained by one character you control to affect the actions of other characters you control EXCEPT as is necessary to comply with Rule One. Out-of-game methods of communication that are tied to one character, for example membership in a Discord channel that is based on you having a character in a faction or group, should be considered to fall under this rule.

ALT ABUSE RULE THREE:
There is a minimum 22 hour cooldown on Alt interactions with any character, faction, or specific area of the map. It is *your* actions that determine whether you are alt abusing, not anyone else’s actions. This means that once 22 hours have passed, another one of your Alts are allowed to interact with a character, faction, or specific area.

Refer to the common scenarios section for more detail on how these rules are interpreted in some common situations

Play One Account Only
Under no circumstances should you attempt to make more than one user account on the NexusClash site in a bid to bypass the character limit, conceal the identity of your characters from other users, or for any other reason. Each user should have one account only. Please contact an Admin or [email protected] if you have multiple players in one household!

Play Reasonably Nicely (in-game)
We're all playing a bunch of sociopaths in a murder simulator, but that doesn't mean we have to be jerks about it. Provoke and cajole your enemies in-game, but treat players with respect out-of-game. If someone informs you that they are not comfortable with the roleplay of your character, please consider your actions, and possibly consult with a Game Master (GM) for a second opinion.

You don’t have to portray a nice character! But please realize that there is a human on the other end of the screen, and what might seem like lighthearted roleplay, a funny meme, or other jokes might not be received as well by others. Creating stories, or writing up game interactions with your character in our in-character forum will go a long way towards easing negative feelings and making fellow players more aware of your character’s tendency! Likewise, if someone is insulting in-game, don’t automatically assume that the player is a jerk and being mean to you in particular. When in doubt, communicate! Any player can be contacted by Private Messages on our forum, and many players utilize our public discord.

However, if it seems like someone has singled you out to pick on, or if someone is being rude and insulting despite asking them to stop or tone it down, please get a GM involved. Cases of harassment, in-game, or out-of-game, should be brought to the attention of a GM immediately.


Treat Fellow Players with Respect (metagame)
This is a catchall rule in regards to metagame conduct. Nexus Clash is a small community, made up of players of diverse interests in our unique sandbox. Some folks enjoy bloodthirsty, unabated PvP combat, and some folks enjoy a more casual roleplaying experience. If you (a player, faction, or other group) are taking actions following the game rules, but are otherwise consistently causing players to be miserable, you may be asked by a GM to stop. Getting the enemy team to quit in frustration is not victory, nor is it an acceptable goal in this game.

By the same token, no one should immediately assume malice from players who attack your faction. The core of this game is violent conflict between good, neutral, and evil factions. Being attacked at least once a week (or more, if you are a member of a high level faction), should not be considered as overly hostile. There are many avenues of fun to be had in our game, and death is an experience (equal to character level). Making players into villains because you don’t like getting attacked is not acceptable conduct, and you may be asked by a GM to stop.

If you are concerned that something you are doing is disrespectful, we encourage everyone to communicate in-character and out-of-character, on both our forums, and in discord communities. Getting to know your fellow players will help ease some of the negative feelings of the PvP experience. This rule is obviously a subjective rule to follow, and a GM will always reach out before taking any action concerning this rule.

Do Not Exploit Bugs and Unintended Interactions
Nexus Clash is complex, and occasionally class skills and abilities can interact in unforeseen ways that are more powerful than intended, interactions may not be working as intended, or an added game feature might not be fully completed. In some circumstances we have code to disable these interactions, but the Dev team is a volunteer unit and far from perfect. We appreciate any reports and questions concerning game mechanics, and if they are working as intended! We have a list of exploits, unintended interactions, and blocked actions for reference. If you are contacted by a member of the development team and warned that what you are doing is unintended or exploitative, please cease your actions.

Browser Modifications, Scripts, and Automation
Nexus Clash is played by many people with a variety of skill levels, and it is the intent of the Development Team that it not become an arms race of browser modifications that players must have to be competitive. Nexus Clash is designed with the intention that it be typically played by people in brief windows of time, and they will be logged off and not actively paying attention to the game for most of their day. Scripts that violate this intent by alerting players to in-game events, without spending player time and attention, violate the intent of the game, and will not be tolerated.

If you have any reason to believe that a third-party script you are creating may be in violation of this rule, approach a GM and explain as well as you can what your modification does. They will begin a discussion internal to the Development team to come to a consensus and a ruling. Do not assume that because you spoke to a GM about it once, or that because a developer knows about your script and didn’t actively stop you, that it is allowed. Not every GM understands the underlying game code that you’re interacting with, and no individual makes rulings about these things without consulting the development team.

[Fellis]

Below are some common scenarios in game that tend to come up when playing multiple characters. Please use these as guidelines for things not specifically addressed or discuss your questions with the Development Team.


SCENARIO ONE: Your Character A's faction is going to attack Your Character B's faction.

It is *acceptable* to:

• Move Character B out of their faction stronghold to allow Character A to participate in the attack.
  Rule 1 restricts your involvement to one character, the Player may use knowledge gained to move Character B without violating Alt Rule 2.
• Leave Character B in the stronghold to be a passive target (taking no actions), and participate in the attack with Character A after your Character B is killed. This is a good option when your Character B contributes passively to defense of Faction B (a petmaster class). It is also acceptable to inform Faction A who your alt is, if they want to prioritize killing Character B to bring in reinforcements.
• Leave Character B in the stronghold to be a passive target (taking no action), and not bring Character A to the attack.

It is *NOT acceptable* to:

• Use Character B to actively take defensive measures against the attack from Faction A. This violates Alt Rule 2 as you are using knowledge gained by one character to benefit another. Taking defensive measures also includes alerting Faction B to the raid *after* attackers are inside.
• Use Character B to actively take defensive measures against the attack from Faction A, but only after your factionmates alert you to the raid separately. If a player knows about an attack, being online at the time of the attack and thus very responsive to the defense is using Alt knowledge to benefit your other character, which is an Alt Rule 2 violation.
  Note: This assumes that the Player is aware of the attack from their Faction A, not everyone follows discord chats closely. Instead of confronting a Player directly, please contact a member of the Dev Team if you believe this rule is being broken.
• Move Character B out of the way to allow Character C to participate in the attack. This violates Alt Rule 2 as well because you are using Character A’s knowledge to participate in the attack.

SCENARIO TWO: Another player’s Character X kills your Character A and then moves to another location, attacks, but does not kill your Character B. Characters A, B and C in this scenario all belong to you.

It is *acceptable* to:

• Retaliate with Character B, as Character X is the one choosing to interact with you. Alt Rule 3 dictates that only *your* actions determine what is Alt Abuse.
• If character A has an independent method of knowing Character X's location (such as the Revenant's ability to track their killer), they can later retaliate vs. Character X once Character B has resolved their interaction.
• If character A or C comes across Character X in another location other than where Character B is attacked, they are allowed to attack character X. (Alt Rule 3 specifies a specific area)

It is *NOT acceptable* to:

• Move character B out of the way so that Character C can retaliate against Character X. Character C is not aware of this conflict and knowledge sharing violates Alt Rule 2.
• In a situation where Character A knows where Character X is via an independent method: Move character B out of the way so character A can respawn and retaliate against Character X. Moving Character B due to the knowledge that Character A has, and wants to act on, is also an abuse of Alt Rule 2. Character A is also now involved with Character X and Alt Rule 1 only allows one character in conflict.

SCENARIO THREE: You have two characters in the same alliance. The member factions of that alliance are organizing a joint attack, and you are trying to decide which character you should bring.

In this scenario, Alt Rule 1 (Use only one character) and Alt Rule 2 (No information sharing) is very context dependent. A general guideline is to pick your highest “ranked” character (Leader, Lieutenant, etc.) to participate in the attack. For example, if you helped plan the attack (picking time, target, and/or tactics) with Character A who is a Leader, it would not be appropriate to bring Character B in the alliance who is only a Veteran. If you have two equally ranked characters, try to pick the one that found out about the attack first. It is good practice to declare what character you will be bringing ahead of time, so that there is no pressure to “choose” the most beneficial character on the day of the attack.

Also consider Alt Rule 3 (22 hour cooldown on Alt interactions). If you interact with an enemy faction with one character, you must wait 22 hours before interacting with another character. An alliance should not be attacking one target with all the Alts from one faction one day, and then attacking another target with the same player group's Alts the next day.

Finally, you should consider the rule to *Treat Players With Respect*. Try to think about the conflict from the enemy perspective and if your actions are fair to them. Your opponents are also players in the game! Talk to the players on the opposite side about if they think it is getting out of hand. If they think it’s unfair, the Dev Team will be hearing about it from them first.

SCENARIO FOUR: Your Character A and your Character B have both been hit by Faction X within a few days. Are you not allowed to hit Faction X back with both characters since this would be a violation of Alt Rule 1 (Characters can not work together against a common faction)?

In this case, Alt Rule 3 provides the necessary guidance. It is your actions that determine alt abuse, and both characters have reason to fight back against Faction X, provided that you leave a 22 hour gap between participation in attacks with your Characters. This also has some implication of retaliation by your characters, this would not apply if your Characters were part of initiating attacks.

SCENARIO FIVE: Your Faction A attacked and cleared your Faction B, and you moved Character B out of the Stronghold so Character A could participate. When can Character B return to the former Stronghold location? Can Character B go recapture the flag? Also, when can information about an Alliance or location of a Stronghold be considered “public knowledge”?

If your character was raided by a Faction you participate in, you can’t return to the stronghold unless the all-clear (no more attackers present) is given by *other* members of your Faction B. Knowing when the attackers left via Character A’s information is a violation of Alt Rule 2.

The only exception is that if you want to go talk In-Character to the attackers after they have finished the attack you may do so, but you may take NO OTHER ACTION, and should quickly leave until the all-clear. You MUST warn attackers you are coming in so that they do not waste resources on you, and if you are attacked anyway you MAY NOT retaliate. Character A participated in the attack on Faction B, and Character B attacking characters at Faction B’s location is a violation of Alt Rule 3 (22 hour cooldown on interactions in an area)

Your Character B may help recapture Faction B’s flag from Faction A, as long as Character A is not present in Faction A. This is a separate area of the map (No Alt Rule 3 violation of a 22 hour cooldown). Your Character B knows about the attack and location of the attackers from the Flag Capture message (no Alt Rule 2 violation of information sharing), and Character B is not working to Character A’s advantage (no Alt Rule 1 violation).

Information is public knowledge when it is posted in a “public” area, such as the Nexus Clash General Discord, on the Forums, or publicly visible in the game. Community Discords are *not* considered public areas. Stronghold locations should be kept secret unless the game announces the location somehow. For Example: Factions of certain sizes will have their location publicly known after a certain amount of time passes as noted in the Factions wiki page.

SCENARIO SIX: You have two characters in leader positions for factions A and B of the same Alignment. As various factions from that Alignment reach out and begin to negotiate Alliances, how do you resolve your dual roles?

In general, leaders should always represent only one faction in any discussion, as you can only represent one character at a time (Alt rule 1 prohibiting multiple characters for a single goal). You also may not initiate discussions or politics between two factions, you must have another faction leader who is not in both factions initiate the discussion, and abide by all decisions they make. You do not have to remove yourself from the negotiation entirely, but keep in mind the character you are representing in any discussion.

If there are no other leaders in one faction, you must either find someone to help lead the faction or represent only that faction. If you are the sole leader of both factions (through player inactivity or otherwise), then you can not have any formal agreements between those factions.

SCENARIO SEVEN: In a similar scenario, you have characters involved in the leadership positions for Faction A and Faction B, but now from opposed Alignments. If these two factions enter opposed discussions, how should you resolve your dual roles?

Similar to the above, you must always represent only one faction in any discussion. However for this specific scenario you should make sure your position in both factions is clear to everyone. Anyone representing a faction you lead, but are not currently representing, has the sole authority to make decisions. You should try to maintain the same role for any future negotiations, but if you must “change sides” within the discussion, please make sure to notify all parties to the discussion. Role changes should be limited to when one faction is limited on leaders due to player inactivity.