Server Rules

Welcome to Cosmatic Drift, this is a High Roleplay server, meaning generally stay in character, put in an effort to roleplay out your character, and just enjoy the community.

If you have any questions please do not be afraid to ask our administration team in ahelp or in the questions channel on the Discord, we're happy to help.

All Cosmatic Drift servers are strictly 16+ only. If you are underage, you will be banned for double the amount of time that it takes for you to be of age.

All rules apply at all times unless specified otherwise by an admin.

0.0 - The Golden Rule Policy

Game admins have the final say on all rules, game issues, and punishments. We reserve the right to remove you under this policy at any time if we see fit. Admins will be held up to high standards when invoking this policy.

1.0 - Zero Tolerance Policies

Policies and rules that we provide no or extremely low amounts of leeway and tolerance for.

1.1 - Do not attempt to evade bans or punishments. Do not ignore or abuse the ahelp system

Ban evading using an alternate account or other means will result in an immediate voucher ban.
Evading ahelp questioning by disconnecting upon being ahelped, during questioning, or ignoring the admin will usually end in an appeal ban.
Attempting to get around role bans by being promoted to that role in-game will lead to a game ban.
Spamming or being aggressive to our admins in ahelps will result in an appeal ban.

1.2 - Do not speak in anything but English

You may only speak brief one to five word phrases in another language, as long as it doesn't break any of the other rules or is used to communicate with another player in the same language.

1.3 - Absolutely no discrimination or bigotry

Absolutely no discrimination nor bigotry against any player or their characters for any reason. This covers ableism, homophobia, racism, sexism, speciesism, and hate speech as a whole. If it's to the point where it makes someone uncomfortable and they ahelp you or an admin finds an issue with it, you will answer for it.

1.4 - No sexual content, disgusting RP, or gross statements

No sexual content, disgusting RP, or gross statements. This is not an 18+ server. This means no erotic roleplay, emotes and messages that are sexual in nature, or overtly disgusting things no one wants to hear. Includes "technically not NSFW" jokes.

1.5 - Do not communicate in-round information about an on-going round to other people

Do not communicate in-round information about an on-going round through multiple accounts or to other people.

Communicating current-round info out of character - also known as "metacommunicating" - includes posting screenshots of a live round, talking about in-character events in out-of-character, sitting in a voice chat talking about the round, etc. It does not matter how minor it is, this is zero tolerance.
Do not multikey, which is to play or spectate in the same round with multiple accounts operated by you.

1.6 - Intentionally using and/or abusing exploits, bugs, or external programs is not allowed

The moment you learn of a bug, you are expected to report it immediately and never intentionally use it again.
Some examples of external programs are as follows: autoclickers, macros, client cheats, etc.
Any form of cheating or hacking will immediately result in a permanent ban with no chance of appeal without a voucher from another reputable server.

2.0 - General Etiquette

General rules and common practice. The "bare-minimum" expectations that you should be following.

2.1 - Do not be a huge dick and try not to over-escalate

Do not be a huge dick and try not to over-escalate. You are playing a roleplaying game with other real people. Do not go out of your way to ruin the experience of other players, and do not grief.

Killing yourself while in security custody is considered being a dick, as they have little way to stop you without depriving you of your basic rights. If you wish to commit suicide while arrested ask to do so in ahelp.
Try to avoid permanently killing or "round-removing" other players. While this is acceptable if it is in pursuit of a direct antagonistic kill objective, it is generally frowned upon and should be avoided if possible.
Try your best not to negatively affect absent or SSD players. Stealing, killing, and griefing these players is disallowed, however, things such as moving a player to a safe area or security performing a search acceptable.

2.2 - Do not commit major crimes without admin approval

Do not commit major crimes without admin approval. We are a server that permits crime in the effort to further RP story lines, however it must be kept non-intensive if you're doing it without the guidance of an admin.

As a rule of thumb, if it significantly harms anyone other than yourself, causes a public or work location to be unusable or unsafe, or involves the theft of irreplaceable gear such as command gear, you should ahelp. If you are unsure if what you're about to do is a minor or major crime, always ahelp.
After you are caught and punished in-characterly, you are expected not to do the same crime again that round without an admin's approval.
The arrivals station, arrivals shuttle, and end round Central Command station are entirely off-limits; do not grief, attack others, or do any antagonistic acts in these locations under any circumstance, even as an antagonist.

2.3 - Speak and act like a believable person

You are playing a high-roleplay server; speak and act like a human being. While playing in this server, you will be held to a higher standard of roleplay. With this being the case, you are expected to actively engage in roleplay when it comes up.

Do not use text speech such as "omg," "idk," "wtf," or "lol," while physically speaking as your character. Using text speech in non-verbal ways is fine, like writing on paper or in PDAs.
Referring to gamey terms like "admins" or "RNG" is disallowed.
Do not abuse emotes to bypass chat filters. Emotes should represent actions that your character could actually perform. Emotes should have effort put into them; this means that you should not be typing things such as "John Doe motions with his hands to signal syndicate agents west of you."
Do not respond to events in a highly unbelievable manner, stick to how your character would react.

2.4 - Do not remove yourself from the round as an important role or while facing in-character punishment

Do not disconnect, ghost, suicide, or otherwise intentionally permanently remove yourself from the round as an important role or while facing in-character punishment such as jail time without ahelping beforehand. You do not need to wait for a response, however, failure to notify admins will result in consequences.

This does not apply to cryo.

2.5 Your character name should be believable and realistic

Your name must only contain basic English letters and accented characters.
Your character name should not mimic popular real-life or fictional people, even if it is a "clever" plays on them, such as "White Walter."
Your character's name should not be phonetic word plays, such as "Mike Oxlong" or "Ben Dover."
Your name should not be overly dumb or gamey either, such as "John Graytide."
Names should not include titles, such as "Doctor," "Sergeant," or "Father."

3.0 - Roleplay Expectations

Expectations and policies centered around roleplay.

3.1 - Do not intentionally prepare items or locations 'just in case'

Do not intentionally prepare items or locations "just in case" a certain scenario happens unless you have proper in-character reasoning, especially if it is intended to gain an upper-hand or advantage over another player. Cosmatic Drift is heavily based around roleplay; you should generally be focused on this rather than playing to win.

The concept of "playing to win" is commonly referred to as "powergaming."
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) dictates how areas should be locked down and what gear should be held and/or equipped during any given circumstance. Minor things such as getting a crowbar on round-start is fine, however, seeking out weapons is not.

3.2 - Do not overly crowd a departmental RP situation

Do not overly crowd an RP situation. This is mostly designed around security and people following others into departments. We do not expect you to be absolutely always cautious about this rule, nor do we intend to enforce it with a heavy hand, but please just be mindful of it, as it can seriously detract from others' RP.

If security is dealing with a situation, be respectful of their operation, do not needlessly intervene or chime in verbally as a third party, basically you should only be stepping in if you're taking the full side of the suspect and intend to act as an accomplice.
Medical and similar departments get roughly the same protections, do not follow a patient/involved person into a location such as the medical bay unless you have good reason to, for example you having information on their condition that you are going to give or an officer making an arrest.
In short do not barge into situations you do not belong in and force yourself into it. Treat it like a real security or medical emergency; discuss things on the sides quietly, but do not intervene.

3.3 - Avoid abandoning your job for no good reason

Because this is an HRP server, you should avoid abandoning your job for no good reason. You can focus on and off of work, or ask the Head of Personnel to clock you out if you plan to be away for quite some time. Don't spend the entire round away from your job while on duty and your department needs you.

3.4 - Follow the new life rules

This server uses a New Life rule. You may not remember any events that may have happened while you were in an unconscious or dead state. You may not retain any knowledge that you have learned whilst you were a ghost.

If you enter a dead state and get defibbed back to life you forget all the events that led up to your death. (This is the basic type of memory loss for anything else that is not specified)
If you enter a dead state and get cloned back to life you forget all the events since the beginning of the shift.
Respawning as a new character or taking a ghost role eliminates all memory of everything that may have happened previously in that shift.

3.5 - Full continuity of your character and events that happen to them is to be expected

Full continuity of your character and events that happen to them is to be expected. All rounds are canonical unless stated otherwise by an admin.

You are allowed to recall past shifts in any manner unless it violates the New Life rule.
Punishments you receive will be enforced and carried out in-character throughout rounds. If your character gets demoted, you are expected to stay out of that job until a reasonable amount of time has passed or you are rehired again in-game.
Your characters should generally hold no more than two departmental jobs and a service side job in-character. You may swap departments from time to time so long as it doesn't happen constantly or consistently.
Permanent death is not required, as there is an off-site DNA storages available for all crewmembers.

3.6 - Stay within your job, reasonable knowledge, and abilities

Stay within your job, reasonable knowledge, and abilities.

Do not use knowledge that you have learned out-of-character while you are in-character. This is referred to as "metagaming."
Unless your character has a past in a particular line of work, they should not know how to do jobs outside of their own.
Do not do the jobs of other people for them, only play the role you signed up for. If you want to work a different job, ask the Head of Personnel for a job change. Exceptions can be made for if no active staff exist for a department.
Basic crew should not be knowledgeable on most non-NT technology and items unless they've experienced it in-character. Security and command may have some leeway within reason.

3.7 - Command and Security are expected to be competent, to be lawful, and to follow procedure

Command and Security are expected to be competent, to be lawful, and to follow procedure.

Neither roles should be grossly incompetent at their job or in their judgment. You are held to higher standards and should be able to be depended upon. Be a role-model for your department.
You cannot take direct, unchallengeable orders from people other than your job superiors.
You should not knowingly break the law as either Command or Security roles.
Command staff should know Standard Operating Procedure and follow it to the best of their abilities. Security should know both Standard Operating Procedure and Space-Law; they should follow them and enforce them to the best of their abilities. Failure to do so will likely result in a role-ban.
Space Law and SOP can be found in the guidebook and on the wiki.

3.8 - Silicons should follow their laws and policy

Silicons should follow their laws and policy.

Silicons are any borgs and AIs with mechanical lawsets, gamewise.
Silicon roles should not violate their laws without extreme reason. If a silicon has no laws they do not need to follow this rule.
Be thoughtful about your actions; letting someone into atmos could cause crew harm because they're not qualified or may have malicious intent.
The term 'crew' when seen in a law refers to any person who has an ID on your HUD unless specified otherwise by another law.
You may choose how to deal with law conflicts how you see best fit, as long as you stay consistent with your interpretation.
You do not need to follow clearly ridiculous commands such as destroying yourself because the person who ordered you to do so disagreed with you.

3.9 - Your character and lore should be believable and fit within the universe. Don't be a Mary Sue

Your character and lore should be believable and fit within the universe. Don't be a Mary Sue.

Under normal circumstances you are not allowed to play characters that are or were extremely important members of non-player made organizations like, Central Commanders, the CEO of NT, Syndicate high commanders, Death Squad members, and so on.
If you're using a player-made organization, it can not be extremely important in the universe. A basic rule of thumb is that it shouldn't be powerful enough to be known by the common spacer and that it's absolutely nowhere close to the level of power that NT has.
Your character can not possess godlike abilities, nor can they be a god or partly a god.
Your character should not be in active work service to NT if they are known to be an active syndicate member. NT wouldn't hire someone who is known to be working for a hostile organization.
Your character can not have immunities to in-character punishments.
Admins have the final say on characters and lore in-game, if you want to be something on this list they can grant you permission, but they also hold the power to retcon things that don't fit then work with you to adjust your lore to be more in line with the universe.