UOT Rules

General Rules and General Information
We all hate rules but sadly human nature dictates their necessity. All Players need to be aware of this information - Ignorance of any Rule or Rule change is no excuse.
Two Notes:
1) We will do our best to let the community know of changes made to the rules. However . . In a game where people may not login every day they may find the Rules have changed without notification. It is the player's responsibility to stay updated regarding Rules.
2) The Rules apply to the use of any and all resources related to UO-Traditions. This includes all UOT shard game play, the UOT shard forum, any type of in game messaging system and the use of any third party program. In addition to these 'General Rules' there are also specific 'Forum Rules' set by the people hosting our Forum to which everyone must adhere. Violation of any rule may result in a ban on your account and IP address which can only be imposed by a shard owner.

#1 Rule and Most Important is Be Respectful:
Be respectful of all others (players and staff). UOT is open to all cultures, races, genders and ages but we are all people. Language and actions that are acceptable to you may be very offensive to others. We expect players and staff alike to conduct themselves in a mature respectful manner. All conversations are logged and while we have no time or interest in reading the logs, they are available to confirm abuse of all rules.

Accounts:
Each person is allowed to have ONE account with SIX characters and THREE houses. No one person is in any way or under any circumstances allowed to have have multiple accounts except as 'noted' below. Use of another person's account for any reason whatsoever is prohibited. Do not give your account information to anyone. There is no web-based form for creating an account. Your account gets automatically created when you log in. Multiple accounts per IP address are allowed, as long as each account is used by different person, and only by that person. At the moment the system will create up to three accounts per IP address to enable family members to share the same IP address.
'Account Note' If all six characters on your account have attained the shard's skill cap, then the account owner may apply for one additional account. This exception exists to assure everyone the opportunity to develop and play all template variations.

Account Inactivity:
After 365 days without logging into the game your account and everything it owns may be deleted. This purge is done to keep the server and the world clean. If you know you will be unable to log in for a period longer than 365 days then you are urged to contact staff and not rest easy until you have confirmation from a shard owner that your account will be exempt from deletion.

Contacting Staff:
Players needing to contact staff are asked to send a PM on our chat system. If staff are not readily available you can use the " help stuck " option on your character's Paperdoll. Please do not page staff using our global chat as your message may be missed.
To reach staff you can:
1) PM a Staff in game or
2) PM a Moderator on the shard forums or
Note: if you need "in game" support please try to send a PM message "in game" first. If you have any problem or issue please discuss it with a staff member other than the owners first. Owners spend much of their time behind the scenes scripting and testing game mechanics, new quests and system enhancements. It is difficult to do this work with interruptions.

Exploits and Bugs:
While UOT is a game intended for the enjoyment of all, there are aspects of the game that can stimulate competitiveness with others or even within yourself. You should be ashamed if you use any exploit to gain advantage or to gather resources (Athletes who take short cuts during a race are not winners). If you find some aspect of the game that brings you reward that is considerably above average it is probably an exploit. If you discover anything that you feel should be kept away from staff's knowledge it is probably an exploit. Games are eventually no fun if the playing field is not level for everyone. If you discover an bug or some flaw in the game mechanics please report it to the staff. You will be helping us all to improve the game and you may find a small reward in your pack for your honesty and sharp eye.

Favours and Special Items:
Do not ask staff for any modifications to your characters, pets or items. Staff are prohibited from giving 'any' items to players or from making 'any' character, pet or item modifications. If you have a specific problem relating to a character, pet or item then staff will take the issue up with one of the shard owners.

Selling special items to players by shard owners for money is driven by expenses or by greed. We hope this will never be necessary on UOT. We have made every effort to have all items available through crafting or adventuring. If it ever becomes necessary to put special items up for sale or donations they will be also be available free in game (although they may be fairly rare). UOT is first and foremost a freeshard not a business enterprise. For now (and hopefully always) we have no items that players can buy from staff.

House Placement:
Do not place boats or houses in a manner that blocks areas of the world that can be used by others to gather resources.

Houses that are legally placed own the surrounding land 10 tiles in all directions. Do not place a house where the foundation falls within a yard belonging to another house. If you place a house where the foundation falls less than 20 tiles from another house foundation then you have given up any rights to your 10 tile yard space on that side.

Do not use houses to create a mobile trap. Creating any house/yard/hedge setup which is designed to 'trap' any mobiles, including healers and/or monsters is illegal.

Do not place any house or boat in a manner which may grief other players.

Interaction With Other Players:
Do not interfere with the game play of other players by undue harassment, blocking their movements or spamming their screens with your chatter. Griefers and 'Village Idiots' are not appreciated.

No Player versus Player (PVP) allowed except on the facet of Tartarus, the Jhelom Fighting Pit and the Jousting Arena. If you decide to develop a character for use on Tartarus, that character should also exhibit a mature play style. Repeated undue 'Res killing' is prohibited. If you have killed and won the day then allow the other to withdraw. If you have been defeated then do not stick around to annoy the victor. Kill and die with grace.

No drama please! Accept the things you cannot change. If you are in an unresolvable conflict, be the smart one and walk away. Keep the private problems out of public chats, send a private message instead. If you are in a situation with another player that won't go away by itself, don't make it worse for yourself by doing something against the rules.

Language and Comments:
Keep chat clean (no cussing, arguing, harassing, etc.) Racial/religious/national/ethnic/gender slurs are not tolerated. Speaking positively or jokingly about or condoning drug abuse in any form is prohibited.

Guild chat and private messages are not monitored - rules there are not being enforced on a regular basis - however, statements can be taken as offensive and reported to staff.

No advertisements or soliciting of real world entities allowed. Mentioning a website or product is permitted to some extent, but if a staff member deems your words to be an advertisement, you may be banned from chat, or even banned from the shard.

Names of Characters Pets and Items:
Do not use offensive names for characters, pets, houses, or engraved items. Failure to comply risks loss of the item or more serious action. The staff reserves the right to deny use of any name in the game. If a player is asked to select a new name and refuses we will pick a random one. If you are offended by the name of a player, pet or item contact the staff.

Other Shards:
UOT respects the work and effort of other shards. Do not promote UOT 'in game' or on forums on other shards and do not promote other shards 'in game' or on forums on UOT.

Pets:
Players are asked to shrink their pets when in town as they can be a problem by blocking other player's recall spots or preventing others from seeing things they need. Pet Hitching Posts are available for this purpose and Pet Leashes can be crafted or purchased.

Unshrunken pets in town are tolerated if it is urgently necessary for you to recall in to access your bank and then recall quickly back out. Please be considerate to others and try to avoid this by better planning. Abandoned pets will be removed.

Healing monsters that your pet is fighting in order for it to gain skill and stats will not be tolerated. If you are caught by invisibly roaming staff your pet's gains may be decreased.

Privacy statement:
We do not store any kind of personal information. All passwords are encrypted, making them impossible for anyone to read, even in the event of a hacker attack. Children under 13 are advised to play with parental supervision. This is a multiplayer game, with chatroom capabilities. Please watch over young children. Filling out any "email" field in the forums is not mandatory, write it in if you wish. We will not in any way pass any information to a third party. We will not use your email to send you unsolicited advertisements.

Nobody on the shard, not even a staff member, needs to know any of your private information. If a staff member is asking you for your real name, last name, where you live or anything that you feel is not something they should be asking, please send an email to the shard owners.

Right to Use:
UO-Traditions is a "freeshard" where anyone can play for free. That said . . Playing on UOT, and using the forums, and other resources is a privilege, not a right. This privilege can be revoked at anytime at the discretion of the shard owners.

Scamming:
Do not scam other players by selling or trading false items. On the other hand - buyers beware! Being in a guild with other players, accessing them to your house and secure containers, letting them have an item before you receive compensation, letting them "hold" an item for any reason, all require a certain level of trust. If you make a bad decision on trusting someone, that's considered your fault, and we will not mediate any item disputes caused by it. Even 'secure' house trades can have catches. Mostly commonly, someone may have the victim stand under the sign of one house, when actually trading the house next door. This is simple to check. Take a sextant with you, check your location when you are under the house sign, click the 'deed' that appears in the trade window and make sure they match. There is a reason the deed shows the coordinates.

Basically, game mechanics provide you with all the security features you will ever need to keep your items, houses and characters safe from illegal losses. Not taking advantage of those options, again, is your own fault.

Security:
Do not share your account password with anyone at any time for any purpose. If you need assistance with an account password the only ones who can help are the shard owners. Administrators, Gamemasters and Counsellors cannot help with password issues. If you have to be away from the game for longer than 180 consecutive days then you must speak with one of the owners to avoid account deletion.

Temporary Rules:
If staff are conducting an event there may be special rules imposed for the duration of that event. Any rules that the staff running the event decide they need to add for that event must be respected by all players in the area of the event.

Third Party Software:
Use any software you download from a third party at your own risk.
Currently the following third party software is allowed:
Razor
UO Automap (uoam)
EasyUO but not for macroing and 'ONLY' to perform what you would usually be able to perform using Razor.

Unattended Macroing:
(AFK Macroing) is not an exploit provided it is done within the following guidelines:
1) AFK Macroing is only allowed for the 'sole purpose' of 'Skill Gain' for the characters on your account (not for your pets and not where any resource is involved). That means you cannot use AFK macroing for any mining or lumberjacking activity. If you have to step away from your computer while mining, lumberjacking or pet training be sure to turn your macroing off.
2) 'Razor' is the only third party program allowed for macroing.
3) AFK macroing is only allowed in the training areas on the Isle of Arete or outside the cities on the other facets.

Usability:
While we do our best to keep things operating smoothly, there is no warranty or guarantee of playability or usability for any of the UOT services. The services can be affected by factors over which we have no control. You can make a complaint, so we know you have an issue, but there are times when we may not be able to fix the problem. The server has run without interruption for two years but "stuff" can happen. We want a solid game platform as much as anyone and will do all in our power to deliver.

Vendors - Player Vendors:
You can place a vendor in your house or staff can help you placed a vendor in the Public Market on the Isle of Arete.