Rules

In general, if the game will allow you to do something it is permitted. There are a few exceptions to this, however. If you discover something while playing that seems too good to be true (provides a great benefit to your character or someone else's for very little effort), you have probably found an exploit. If you find something you think is an exploit, you should report it to the *exploits mailing list in the game. If you abuse an exploit to make your character more powerful you risk losing the character or being banned from the server entirely.

There are also some guidelines for improving your character to increase fairness for everyone and to reduce the load on our server. Please read the rules on grinding for details.

Killing other players is also generally permitted, but you'll need to follow the rules on griefing if you do. We try to make sure that players aren't killing one another purely for harassment value, so if you are tempted to be a jerk just because you can... don't do it.

Grinding

Grinding is a term used for exercising your character's abilities for the sole purpose of increasing that character's stats, skills, or credits. Grinding is permitted so long as it is done by a human being, not a script. If you're sitting at the keyboard typing commands you can practice anything you like. You can even use up-arrow or repeat macros, but you need to be paying attention to your character if you do this.

Automated grinding is considered bad because:

• It bogs down the server for players who are actually playing
• It gives a huge in-game advantage to people who are good at scripting, which is really not what this game is about

You may wonder, how will admins know if you're automating your grinds? The answer is pretty simple. We'll try to talk to the character. If you can't answer us in a timely manner we'll have to assume that you're scripting. If you're caught you're likely to be cursed with a deadly disease or other suitable punishment. If you're caught repeatedly or if your scripting causes particularly nasty problems you may be banned from the server.

Locations on the map can be marked public or private. This can be determined by looking at the minimap display; if you are in a public area, the () location indicator will be blue. If you are in a private area, it will be red. If it is night time, try map. Alternatively, with @brief set to 1, you will see (public) or (private) for the room. This can be useful because the minimap and map may both be incorrect, showing a blue marker on a private area. One example of this is the front room of Any Port.

All skills can theoretically be ground to 1.00 raw in private locations such as one's home (though some, such as flight, obviously require a special environment) Only craft, chemistry, science, and fuck; IP can be gained past 1.00 raw in private rooms.

To increase your chances of gaining IP in a given skill (with a corresponding decrease for other skills), type grind <skillname>. To stop grinding skillname, either switch to a different skill, or type grind nothing. This is only used for grinding skills, not stats or credits.

Griefing

Player-versus-player (PvP) combat is permitted on HellMOO, but there are limits to what is permissible in that area. We want the game to be fun for everyone, whether they're veterans or just starting out. In general, the best rule of thumb is: DON'T BE A DICK. You might be saying to yourself, 'But my character is a dick, it's not me!' If you want your character to be a dick that's your choice, but you'll be punished for any of the following:

• Killing the same newbie repeatedly (more than once in a real day)
• Spawn camping (repeated killing of those who have just died)
• Killing random players of a "far lesser XP value" for no good reason

For the purposes of these rules a newbie is defined as a player with less than 5000 experience points and/or whose character was created less than one week ago.

If you are uncertain if a given course of action constitutes griefing, it is wise to ask an admin before doing so: ignorance is not an excuse.