Once again, I come to you with instructions on how to do stuff. This time around, it's the way I expect you to conduct yourself on this board. If you look bad, you make me look bad. If you make me look bad, I don't like that. I don't care how many times before we've told you these, but repitition makes darn sure they don't get missed.

General Conduct
1. Do unto others as you would have me do unto you. How you treat people has a very great bearing upon how I treat you, and to be blunt, if I don't like you, you won't get the benefit of the doubt. If I do like you, I'm more likely to be lax if you screw up. Favoritism? Not really. Think of it more like advanced applications of justice.
2. Do not swear, unless you are in character. Yes, I am a prude like that. Keep out the sexual innuendoes, and don't even think about insulting somebody. I don't give a damn what you do off the board, but when you are here you are a member of my site and on my time. If you feel the urge to act like an ignorant twit, then you are wasting my time.
3. If you have a problem with anybody, take it up with them, first. Then take it up with me. Be polite about all of it. If you feel you cannot deal with something immediately without behaving the ass, then take a while to cool down before reacting. Kneejerk reactions are not tolerated here.
4. After two, you should think this one obvious. Keep it PG-13, folks. This site is open to little kids (God forbid) and I don't want to explain to some ten-year-old's mother where her precious offspring learned something he shouldn't be learning for another half a decade or so. Sexually-explicit content is the most obvious of the things this rule covers, but is not the only one. I'm not saying the RPs can't be realistic - just don't make it graphically so.

Discipline
Yes. Being that I am in charge of this site, I am also in charge of discipline. Regardless of what some may think, disciplining wayward members is not my favorite function, but sometimes it is my most common one. However, I do believe that discipline should be focused more towards rehabilitation than punishment. As such, once a matter is resolved, it is settled. Under no circumstances should any portion of the incident or discipline be discussed on the board.
First Infraction - I have a chat with you about why we don't do these things. I'll ask you once to keep yourself civil in that conversation. I'm on nobody's side, and my only interest is what's right. It may well be that the infraction was accidental.
Second Infraction - We have a repeat of that chat. But first is a one-day suspension in which you get to rethink your priorities. I know it's a slap on the wrist. It's intended to be.
Third Infraction - We skip the chat, and I suspend you for three days. If you're not getting it by now, maybe you should think about not coming back.
Fourth Infraction - You are suspended for a week.
Fifth Infraction - You are banned outright. Should you attempt to return, your new account and all posts will be deleted and you will receive an E-Mail explaining how you are no longer welcome back to the site.
There is no plea-bargain procedure. I may be your friend, or I may not, but if there is a need for discipline I will not be lax. If there are extenuating circumstances I will take those into account, but only to a certain extent.

Rules of PCs and NPCs
1. You may have only one PC, and as many NPCs as you can keep track of.
2. PCs are your title characters; they feature in just about every RP you have. Secondary Main Character NPCs are NPCs whom you have written a bio for; they might as well be PCs. Secondary Character NPCs tend to be two-dimensional static characters; they do not have bios and take a secondary role in RP. Background Character NPCs are those bystanders not even named.
3. All characters start off with three thousand credits, with an addition of two thousand credits per paragraph in their bio to a maximum of one hundred thousand, changed at staff discretion.
If you manage to get up to one hundred thousand, I swear I'll kill you.
They may pool their resources together or not, depending on how they are written and played. Secondary Character NPCs and Background NPCs have no affiliated rules; however, financial exchange between them and PCs or SMC NPCs will be highly limited.
4. Any and all bios, regardless of the character's status as a PC or SMC NPC, must meet the standards of this forum before entering play.

Teams
1. Zoid Teams are the meat of this site. A Team is formed of up to four pilots, player or non.
2. A Team will get its own forum, with the Captain as the Moderator of said forum.
3. You may have a Team that is just you playing, or you may have one with mercs. A merc is a player who does not have a Team, and generally only has one character. Any character owned by a player other than the captain's player is considered a mercenary.
Initial Zoids
Pilots purchase their initial zoids through the ZBC's Pilot Assistance program. The ZBC matches them credit-for-credit up to a total of ninety thousand credits, forty-five thousand from each party. After that, the pilot must pay as normal. The pilot must be able to muster at least thirty thousand credits in order to apply for a license; fifty thousand is the preferred average. The ZBC only assists pilots in purchasing zoids from officially-sanctioned retailers; the Junkyard and other third parties are not officially-sanctioned.

Combat
In the year or so I have spent on the internet, I have discovered but one system of combat that will suffice. That version pioneered and perfected at MMM, which I have dubbed the judged-round combat. Not sure what they call it.
There are three permutations of this. RP, Message Board, and Chat battles. RP battles are tacitly judged, left mostly to the good sense of the opponents. Mostly. Message Board battles are similar, save for the fact that they are actively judged. Chat battles take place in AIM chats.
Combat Etiquette
1. Be polite at all times. Be polite to the judge, be polite to your opponent, and be polite when I'm ripping you a new one for screwing up.
2. Do not attack the zoid's cockpit with anything save an uncharged melee attack that does little penetration damage.
3. Do not IM the judge during a judgment in a Chat battle.

Ranks and Winnings
There are two kinds of ranks. Pilot Rank and Team Tier. The Pilot Rank is figured from the number of personal CSFs subtracted from the number of kills. Only certain elite pilots have attained 'Ace' rank. Most of them have won the Royal Cup Tourney.
Pilot Rank
Ace: Special
Rank S: 41-50
Rank A: 31-40
Rank B: 21-30
Rank C: 11-20
Rank D: 0-10
Rank E: Below zero.

The Team Tiers, on the other hand, are a competetive thing. Only wins are counted in this tally, so the most active battlers are the likeliest to be the highest-ranking. It takes into account how many wins they have in relation to the other Teams. Think of it as a class rank sort of thing. The top ten percent of Teams, the ones that have the most wins, are Tier A, those who fit in the seventy-sixth to ninetieth are Tier B, and so forth.
Captains are suggested to pay attention to and assist with keeping the list updated. In case of a Team fitting into more than one category, it will be put into the lowest one it still fits in.
Team Tiers
Tier A: 91% and up
Tier B: 76%-90%
Tier C: 51%-75%
Tier D: Bottom 50%

Winnings
Ah, money. It's what all of these pilots are really after, despite what they say. And it's hard to come by. The ZBC pays pilots a cut of the money the ZBC's networks take in from broadcasting video footage of the fight. The number of people who watch the fight is directly related to the rank of the pilots, the tiers of the Teams involved, and the duration of the battle. The winning Team and the losing Team both receive an equal share, in the truest spirit of democracy. The following lists denote what the Teams will bring in:
From Pilots
Each and every pilot in the battle contributes to this tally. The total sum is added up and lumped together with the rest.
Ace: 1,000,000
Rank S: 100,000
Rank A: 10,000
Rank B: 2,500
Rank C: 1,500
Rank D: 1,000
Rank E: 100
From Teams
All Teams involved contribute, just like with the pilots.
Tier A: 50,000
Tier B: 10,000
Tier C: 2,000
Tier D: 1,000
From Duration
1,000 per CSF.

This post has been edited by Solaris on Aug 26 2005, 06:08 PM