From HGWiki

[Server Rules]

Warning: Playing this mod may result in addiction and loss of employment. Path of Ascension is designed with teamplay in mind. Soloers will find it rough going.

Contents 1 Server Information and Rules 1.1 General Information 1.1.1 Read the Bulletin Boards! 1.2 Custom Class Abilities 1.3 Experience System and Leveling 1.4 Respawning Players 1.5 Inactive Players 1.6 Respawning Loot 1.7 Inventory Items 1.7.1 Item Limit and Encumbria 1.7.2 Despawning 1.8 Forums 2 Server Rules 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Character Names 2.3 Exploits 2.4 Interaction with the Game Environment 2.4.1 Rest Spawning 2.4.2 Town 2.4.2.1 Combat in Town 2.4.2.2 Dropping Items in Town 2.5 Shout Channel 2.5.1 Abuse of Shouts 2.5.2 Offensive Language 2.6 Deleveling/Releveling 2.7 Interaction with Other Players 2.7.1 Etiquette 2.7.1.1 Battle Looting 2.7.1.2 Leeching 2.7.1.3 Booting 2.7.1.4 Player vs. Player (PvP) 2.7.1.4.1 Guilds 2.7.1.4.2 Pickpocketing 2.7.2 Other forms of interference forbidden 2.7.3 Evil Roleplayers 2.8 Consequences for Rule Violations

Server Information and Rules

General Information

Read the Bulletin Boards!

This server is updated frequently, and the Bulletin Boards are provided to inform players of the changes we make. Click on the Board to view the most recent update, and examine it to view past updates.

Custom Class Abilities

If you are playing a spell-caster of any type, it is highly recommended you check out the compendiums available in the Wondrous Items shop which detail all the changes made to spells on this module - there are many.

There are also many changes that impact the abilities of classes. For more information on this, check out the Class and Equipment Information sign in the Docks of Ascension.

Experience System and Leveling

• Leeching is frowned upon, and doesn't work well with this servers XP system, as you gain no experience if anyone in your nearby party is 6 or more levels higher than you. To gain more experience, party with several people near your level for the party bonus. You will gain maximum experience per kill in a party of 5, but additional members will not decrease the experience rewarded. Summoned creatures do not reduce experience, but do not count towards party number.

• You can level your character to level 2 or 3, depending on class, by talking to the Rowan's Guardian in town, do this before starting on quests as it will overwrite any experience previously gained.

• You may delevel your character at the Priest in Town, so long as you have not become immortal. DO NOT ask DMs to relevel you, if you do you will find yourself missing more levels than you wanted. There is a known issue with deleveling characters who have levels in Red Dragon Disciple - if you delevel them, the character will be invalidated via the Enforce Legal Characters function - DON'T do it!

• Once you have achieved immortality you can talk to the Rowan's Guardian to 'Shackle' your character to various levels, including level 40 non-immortal, to allow assistance to be given on certain runs where there is a maximum level restriction to obtain accomplishments or loot.

Respawning Players

• If you die, you will be forced to respawn within 2 minutes (for Hell and some other Legendary Level runs this timer is increased). You should resurrect or raise fallen party members quickly! Every death not prevented by a special effect such as Contingency, Eternal Return or Possums Farce sets in place a new respawn timer, if your character is dead at the completion of a one of these timers you will be sent to Fugue (or Limbo depending on where you are adventuring). If you want to prevent respawn, keep near people who have raise dead or resurrection scrolls (like your party members).

• If you respawn, you will lose xp, gold, and possibly (25% chance) equipped item will be slagged and require a waiting period of 24 hours real time before it can be recovered (for a cost), the Priest of Lathander the Morninglord in the Docks of Ascension area will do this for non-immortal characters and Zerial will do it for items lost on Hell, Abyss, etc. runs.

Inactive Players

• Players who are inactive, and do not respond when questioned, may be booted to free up space for others, if space is needed. You may attempt to relog when you return to your keyboard. No offense is intended.

Respawning Loot

• When a container is opened, it disappears, and a loot bag is dropped. You can get your loot from the bag. This is part of the respawning container / trap script that is used here. Loot will respawn after a set amount of time.
• Some treasure chests spawn one item per party member in the area.

Inventory Items

Item Limit and Encumbria

• Characters are limited to 150 items in inventory. Stacks of items, such as potions, are counted as 1 item per stack, Note:Some items need to have the !combine command used on them to stack (e.g. Spell Focus and other consumables found in LL areas) and will only show as having multiple charges when examined. When you exceed this limit, you will be sent to Encumbria, and you will not be able to leave until you are under the limit. This helps decrease server lag.

Despawning

• Items left on ground will be despawned after a short time as long as no active players are on the map.

Forums

• There is a great deal of information and discussion about the server on the Higher Ground website and bulletin board:

1. BULLETIN BOARD: http://highergroundpoa.proboards.com/
2. EMAIL: highergrounddmteam@yahoo.com

Server Rules

Introduction

• For the most part, these rules are designed to be intuitive. If you are polite and respectful of others you generally won't have any problems.

Character Names

• While we do not want to dictate the terms of your playing style to you, this is a fantasy role playing game, and we encourage players to name their characters accordingly. Players who name their characters things too reminiscent of Real Life will be asked to choose a new name and be renamed by the team. Examples of things in this category are copyrighted names such as those of cartoon characters, and anything else that is just plain hokey. This is done out of respect for those who just want to get away from it all, and not be constantly reminded of RL.

Exploits

• The DM team has a pretty good handle on potential exploits. We prefer to deal with exploits by scripting around them, in order to keep cumbersome rules to a minimum. Generally speaking, if your character CAN do something, they are welcome to do so, so long as it doesn't violate any of the rules listed below.
• We do ask, however, that you report any exploits you might find to a DM, using DM channel.

Interaction with the Game Environment

Rest Spawning

• Anyone caught resting for the sole purpose of creating spawns may be subjected to whatever punishment the DM sees fit, with no warning. If your rest is successful, move on. Rest spawning gives no benefit as creatures thus created give no experience and have no chance of dropping random loot.

Town

Combat in Town

• Town is off limits to combat. The only time combat is permissible in town is if hostile monsters invade. (Even then, it is easy to injure a townperson, and be jailed or worse) The Town Guard is well trained to handle such situations, but if you must enter the fray, do not use area effects. Absolutely no offensive action is to be directed at PC's or the Town NPC's. This includes, but is not limited to, traps, spells, summoned creatures, pick pocketing, disarm, etc. The restriction extends to the Town, the Docks, and the shops, temple, and bank located within these two areas.

Dropping Items in Town

• Please use the trash containers located in the Docks and Town, rather than dropping items on the ground. Because these areas are almost constantly populated by players, items dropped there rarely get a chance to despawn.

Shout Channel

Abuse of Shouts

• Please restrict shouting for use when you need to speak to everyone on the server. The default channel is talk, let's keep it that way. You may feel free to ask a question in shout, but should only respond to these questions in tells. If you abuse the shout channel you may be barred from using it either temporarily or permanently.

Offensive Language

• Under no circumstances is offensive language of any kind tolerated in shout. If you're not sure whether something might be offensive, don't say it in shout. This includes curse words, discriminatory slurs of any kind, and anything a reasonable person would find offensive. If you curse on the shout channel you may be barred from using it either temporarily or permanently.

Deleveling/Releveling

• You may delevel your character at the Priest in Town, so long as you have not become immortal. DO NOT ask DMs to relevel you, if you do you will find yourself missing more levels than you wanted. There is a known issue with deleveling characters who have levels in Red Dragon Disciple - if you delevel them, the character will be invalidated via the Enforce Legal Characters function - DON'T do it!

Interaction with Other Players

Etiquette

Battle Looting

• Battle looters run the risk of the DM's attention. It is frowned upon, to say the least. A battle looters is someone who loots while others in their party are in battle nearby. While the DM's may look the other way, if it becomes a problem or is excessive, the DM's may decide to take an interest. Your party is also unlikely to welcome your presence, if you engage in this behavior. There are exceptions to this rule especially where there are breakable containers in an area where loot breaking spells are being used.

Leeching

• Leeching involves parking your character somewhere in an area where your party is adventuring, and soaking up experience while not helping to earn it. It is frowned upon, but the most likely repercussion is that your party will boot you from the party. You should let your party know if you need to leave the keyboard, and tell them when you will return.

Booting

• If you are booted from a party for whatever reason, you should leave the area you are in immediately, as if you were a member of another party just coming to the area (see the PvP rules below)

Player vs. Player (PvP)

• PvP combat and other types of interference with other players is forbidden on this server, with two exceptions:

Guilds

• See the guild rules located in a book in the item shop.

Pickpocketing

• Pickpocketing other players is allowed, with the following restrictions:

• If you are caught, the person catching you may kill you immediately. You are free to defend yourself once attacked.
• To 'catch' a person pickpocketing you, you must:

• See the item acquired message above their head, and verify that the item is now missing in your inventory, or
• Detect their pickpocket through the spot skill, or
• Actually see the item vanish from your inventory when they take it (unlikely).

• If the pickpocketing is frequent enough to interfere with your victim's enjoyment of the server, you must leave that person alone.

Other forms of interference forbidden

• Stealing of treasure and loot from areas another party is clearing
• Stealing of monster kills from areas another party is clearing.
• Hostile interference in battle, designed to throw the outcome of the battle in the monsters favor. This includes laying traps, casting area of effects spells, and luring monsters to them. You may not, for instance, block a route of escape with Blade Barriers.

In other words, if another party is clearing an areas or group of areas, you should either ask to join their party, ask if they will let you have the area, or leave immediately. If they do not want you in their party, for whatever reason, and do not want to yield the area, you must leave immediately. This prevents unintentional conflicts. The odds are, if you are within their level range, you will be welcomed into their party.

Evil Roleplayers

• If you want to roleplay an evil character, you may do so within the constraints of the guild system and pickpocketing rules. You should refer to the rules governing guilds for more details.

Consequences for Rule Violations

• As long as you follow the rules of conduct, you will most likely have a pleasant experience here. Usually, DM's are willing to discuss transgressions, providing they do not have to deal with an attitude problem while trying to reason with a player. You really have to go out of your way to get yourself banned, but frequent abuse of the rules of conduct can and WILL result in a permanent ban, no appeals. Giving a DM a hard time is probably a faster method of getting yourself banned.

• If a DM asks you to do something, or stop doing something, telling the DM to "Go to hell" (or something along those lines) will most likely end up in YOU being sent to hell.

• Server Rules are enforced when and how the DM's choose. Repeated violations can result in a wide range of actions, from jail time to permanent ban. The DMs have a wide array of choices in between as well, including stat loss, level loss, gold loss, item loss, xp loss, banishment to hell, and more.

Thanks for reading, have fun.