RULES OF MERCHANT EMPIRES

1. The decisions made by the Game Admins are FINAL.

   The Admins will have already debated the situation at length among themselves, and are neither likely not required to debate it with the players. The Admins have the prerogative to penalize as they see fit, based on the severity of the incident in question. New informtaion or later review of an incident may result in an admin decision to alter or override a prior decisions. However, the new information would have to be of significant importance to warrant such action.

   If at any time you feel that an Admin is handling or has handled an incident inappropriately or cannot maintain impartiality, you may request that a more senior admin handle the incident. The Senior Admin may refuse the request if he belives it to be frivolous.

2. Not reading the rules doesn’t mean they don’t affect you.

   Ignorance is NOT an excuse.

3. You shall not cheat.

   Cheating can take many forms (see some examples below). If you believe what you are doing is contrary to the spirit of the game, then it may be cheating. CHEATERS WILL BE PUNISHED. The standard punishment is suspension, however additional measures can be taken, based on the severity of the incident.

   Examples of cheating:

   • Creating multiple accounts FOR ANY REASON.
   • Creating an account for any purpose other than to play the game.
   • Freely allowing your own experience to be reduced to the direct gain of another player. An example of this would be "farming", where an in-game attacker and defender have consented in advance to let the attacker steal experience or kill the defender or bases with reduced or no risk to the attacker.
     While dueling is permitted, the two combatants must not be from alliances allied in any way (FMT, MAP).
   • Manipulating browser technology to manipulate events such as combat or trading. Though the use of multiple windows for combat has been fixed (you can try to use 2 windows, but your attacks will FAIL), however it is not possible to defeat built-in features of newer browser versions, some of these features have been manipulated in the past to assist in trading and combat. All of these manipulations are being logged and offenders WILL be found.
   • Exploiting a bug. What this means is finding a bug in the game and instead of reporting it, you continue to exploit the bug for gain. When exploits are reported the Admins usually log the use of the exploit for a time, before closing it, to see if anyone else found it, and is using it, and did not report it.
   • Hacking or attacks of any kind on others computers and/or networks. This is cheating as well as being illegal and will result in the deletion of account(s) and the notification of the ISP of the offender(s) as well as the local law enforcement agencies.

   Regarding multiple accounts: It is within the Game Admins’ prerogative to delete any such multiple accounts found to be used by any player(s). If you find that you are not in compliance, for whatever reason, please send an email to: support@advancedpowers.com so that corrective action can be taken which will not involve merchant deletion. Make sure you mention the merchant names/IDs involved and the email MUST originate from the address you entered as part of the sign-up process.

   If you have another family member or another person using the same computer as you (for example, at school or work), message the admins about it. The admins will then investigate the case, and if no suspicions arise, will mark the accounts as legal. If you do NOT message admins about another person using the same computer(s) as you, the accounts will be treated as multis, and dealt with as stated above.

4. You shall not provide false information.

   When creating your account, you are required to provide personal information. This information is not shared with ANYONE. The Game Admins use this information to solve certain problems players have that require an extra level of identification, for example validating a merchant. Providing false personal information is a breach of the End User License Agreement, and is punished by suspension, reset and/or deletion of merchant character.

5. You shall not bear false witness.

   Accusing someone of cheating or exploiting is a serious charge. Accusing someone is easy, proving it, is not. Use the email support@advancedpowers.com or message the Game Admins alliance ingame to report cheaters. Make your message clear in content, stating what happened, why you suspect someone of cheating, what proof you have and AVOID making disparaging remarks about other merchants or alliances. Furthermore, do not solicit messaging from your alliance or other players unless they are also witnesses, or this will cause penalties to be distributed to all involved. False accusations carry penalties based on Admin determined severity, which may include any or all of the following:

   • Loss of experience.
   • Ban from official external game communications (forum and official channels on IRC - #me and #help).
   • Suspension.
   • Suspension with reset.
   • Deletion.

   Furthermore, public accusations of cheating is met with an immediate ban from the official channels (if the incident occurred in #me), or with suspension (if the incident occurred via in-game All Online Messages). Or both.

6. You shall understand the concept of BETA GAME.

   Yes, you must understand the concept of a beta game. Essentially it means that the game is not finished yet. There ARE bugs in the game. Many of them. Your job as a player is to:

   • Enjoy the game
   • Report the bugs

   Most important is patience. It is highly unlikely that bugs will get fixed overnight. No timeframe will ever be given that won’t be flexible. Be patient with what happens, whether your base is not working, your ship has changed into something else, a planet’s goods total supply/demand does not equal the maximum… There are many little things that you, as a player, will have to tolerate as this game evolves. However, you can also be heartened, the Development Team is working tirelessly and with no pay to make your fun easier to enjoy.

7. You shall not make unreasonable demands.

   This is a tough one. In this game, you trade, you hunt, you bust bases - and you die. Not everyone trades, not everyone hunts, and a many will get podded over the course of the game. Being podded will always mean losing a percentage of your experience. In the case of the hunter or base buster dying, they may lose both experience and a rather expensive ship. It is natural, since this is a beta game, to believe that you died because of a bug. It happens from time to time. You may die and not even know that either the game screwed up or that your killer has cheated. Basically, if the fight was fair, don’t bother to complain or ask for an investigation (see rule 5). If you REALLY suspect foul play you may ASK an Admin to look into it. You may ASK once, and if there is foul play at the hands of the server or player the Admins MAY do one of the following:

   • Restore the involved merchants to their status before the event. This is usually the outcome preferred by most merchants. However, it is a time consuming operation and may require the Admins to shut the game down to complete it. The Admins will not make this determination without difficulty. It would help that if all involved parties acknowledge the error and request the restoration.
   • Provide restitution to the defeated in the form of credits and/or experience restoration.
   • If the cause is due to foul play on behalf of player(s), the Admins may fine said player(s) as is covered by rule 3 and by rule 5.

   Regarding restitutions
   In the case of restitutions, they will be offered only ONCE and in the form of "take it or leave it". There will be no debate. The length of the investigation is entirely up to the Admins, the more you bother them about it, the more it will affect the time it takes and more likelyhood of any restitution. Player restoration is an extremely time-consuming activity. The Admins have the prerogative to offer different solutions.

8. You shall be moderate in chat and in-game messages.

   The official IRC server for Merchant Empires is irc.associatedpowers.com, the official Merchant Empires channels are #me and #help. In #me, the main talk channel, you will find many different players from different alliances along with the Admins. Topics can range from talk about the game or digital phones, to drag racing. This chat is moderated, and you may be expelled from the chat room or even the IRC server if you:

   • Use foul language.
   • Talk about a topic, which is of an adult nature (some ME players are under aged).
   • Make racist comments.
   • Spam or flood the channel.
   • Slander the Admins or Developers.
   • Impersonate another person, Admin or Developer.
   • Tell other people to "shut up" or make any other inappropriate comments over a general comment made by a person.
   • Express extremist social views.
   • Annoy others by echoing what they say or repeating the same thing over and over.

   A good rule of thumb is: if you wouldn't want your grandmother to hear you say it, it is probably inappropriate.

   Chat has many wonderful uses. You are invited to form your own channel so you and your alliance or friends may scheme, plot and strategize. Quite a few of the larger alliances have channels on the APME IRC server. There is also the #help room, where, if you are new to Merchant Empires, or have a game related question, you can enter and ask or listen all you want. If the game has slowed, or stopped, and you come to chat to see what is up… READ THE TOPIC first. This will usually explain everything. The above rules on chat etiquette also apply to messages in the game itself, especially when sending messages to All-Online Merchants, entire alliances and Racial Ruling Councils.

   Also of note:

   • just because a message is private and sent to one person in-game, does not mean you do not have to be civil. If the recipient of the message is offended by the said message, they can complain to the Game Admins, and action will be taken.

   • when you have a problem with the game, and would like the admins to do something about it, coming to #me or #help and swearing is exactly the wrong way to do it. Keep cool, and we'll all be happier. If you do not, however, the admins have the prerogative of not helping you at all

   • in channel #me, no bots except the official ones (HelperBot, News) are allowed. That means you have to disable any remote response scripts (for example, "!seen" script) in channel #me.

9. You shall not pod or raid the Game Admins.

   If you see a ship, base or forces, with the alliance name Game Admins, give it a wide berth. Raiding or firing on any translates in a quick reduction in experience points (to near 0) and/or suspension.

   Note: sole exception to this rule is the PtAD – Pod the Admins day.

10. You shall accept:

    WE PROVIDE THE ACCOUNT, THE GAME AND ALL OTHER SERVICES "AS IS." OUR SUPPLIERS AND WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.