Vortacious Server Rules

Welcome to Vortacious Server! In order to create an environment that is enjoyable for all players, we have created a carefully defined set of rules, which apply to each and every player on Vortacious. Please read these rules carefully, as you are responsible for knowing and following them, and will be held accountable for any rules you break. Unfortunately these rules are still a work in progress. Not every specific rule is posted on here. It is up to the discretion of the staff as to whether or not a rule has been violated. If you have been found to have violated a rule not on this list, depending on the severity you will only receive a warning and the staff member who warned you is required to discuss the issue with the rest of the staff.



I. Griefing
a. Griefing defined
b. Consequences for griefing
c. Reporting griefing
d. Griefing replacements
II. Stealing
a. Chest stealing
b. Death stealing
c. Replacing stolen items
III. Murder/Violence
a. PvP
b. Other murder
IV. Building Rules
a. Pillars
b. Property restrictions
c. Redstone
d. Diamond Blocks
V. Staff Rules
a. Kicking/banning
b. Worldedit/cuboid
c. /item and selling items
d. Other commands
VI. Donator/Veteran Rules
a. /item
b. /tp and /tphere
VII. Selling Items
a. Player-owned stores
VIII. Banned Items / Storing Items
IX. Appealing a Ban
X. Proper Conduct/Censorship
a. Other servers
b. Swearing/Sexual content
c. Respect
XI. Subject to Change Clause
XII. Client-Side Modifications list

Section I. Griefing

a. Griefing defined
Griefing is defined as the act of destroying or modifying blocks that another player has placed without their consent. It also encompasses building on another person’s property without their consent, destroying or modifying public property, or not fully removing all log blocks from a tree you have cut down.

b. Consequences for griefing
If you are caught griefing, or evidence has been submitted proving you have griefed, you will be banned, for a period of time as determined by the staff. If your griefing is on a massive scale, it is likely that you will receive a permanent ban. If it is on a small scale, your banned time can last anywhere from a few hours up to one week.

c. Reporting griefing
There are two ways in which you can report griefing: 1. By making a post or private message to the staff on the Vortacious Server forums. 2. By alerting a staff member while playing in-game on Vortacious Server. If you’d like your case to have action be taken against it more quickly, please provide evidence of the grief, such as a screenshot or an incident the staff can search for in the server logs.

d. If a construction of yours has been griefed, you are entitled to have a staff member replace the exact number of blocks that you lost. The staff member may, but is not required to, assist you in rebuilding.


Section II. Stealing

a. Chest stealing
You may not steal items from another player’s chest. If you are caught doing this, you will be instantly banned, either permanently or temporarily.

b. Death stealing
If another player dies, they drop their items on the floor upon death. You will know a player has died if you see a pile of items on the ground. If you find an instance such as this, you are NOT allowed to take the items. You must leave the items where they were, since it is probably that the player has recently died, and is searching for their items.

c. Replacing lost / stolen items
Replacing lost or stolen items is a tricky thing, seeing as there is no way to prove the validity or exact amount of missing items. In addition, it is highly recommended that you lock all your chests with /cprivate. As such, a staff member is not required to replace any lost or stolen chest items on Vortacious Server. If you die from falling in lava, zombies, drowning etc. your items will not be returned. This is, after all, a survival server, therefore you have to survive. Replacing lost or stolen items can only be done by a staff member.


Section III. Murder/Violence

a. PvP
If PvP is enabled, you are able to cause damage to another player simply by hitting them. You may ONLY engage in PvP if the other player you wish to fight gives you clear permission to engage. If you are found to have killed another player without their permission to fight, it will be considered murder and disciplinary action will be taken, depending on the severity of the offense.

b. Other murder
Even if PvP is off, there are other ways to kill players. These include things such as spawning lava on them or pushing them off of a cliff. These actions are strictly prohibited, and assume the same consequences as PvP murder.


Section IV. Building Rules

a. Pillars
If you build a small, thin pillar in order to reach a high area, you are required to remove it when you are done using it. tall thin pillars or walkways are not allowed. It is up to the discretion of the staff member if a tower falls within this category. These pillars look very ugly and are an eyesore to the whole server.

b. Property restrictions
A player’s property is defined as the area enclosed by what they have built in one specific plot of land, plus 5 extra blocks in any direction. Example: if a player builds a house that is 10x10, they are entitled to a 15x15 area in which their house is the exact center. You may not fence or wall off large areas of land and designate it for private use. You may not claim open empty land with the intention of selling it. You are allowed to sell off plots of land within an established town or community so long as there is nothing built on the land using spawned items. Any issues concerning property ownership or building rights is within the discretion of the staff.

c. Redstone
You are allowed to build with redstone, but clock circuits are NOT ALLOWED. They cause major lag to the server and can result in a ban.

d. Diamond Blocks
Building with diamond blocks is strictly prohibited. You may store diamond blocks at your own risk in a chest in order to conserve room.


Section V. Staff Rules

Intro:
Your first priority as a staff member MUST be to help out other players and catch griefers before you build for yourself. If there are other players who require legitimate assistance, you MUST help them out, even if it means interrupting construction on one of your projects.

a. Kicking/banning
Here is the procedure for kicking/banning a player who has broken a rule. You must first give the player a warning in chat, then if no response comes or if the illegal act continues, you may kick the player with a warning message upon their return. If the rule breaking continues, you may ban the player with the message “You can appeal on the Vortacious Server forums.”
On a separate note: /kick and /ban are ONLY to be used for legitimate, moderating purposes ONLY. This includes Mumble.

b. Worldedit/Cuboid
Worldedit and Cuboid have the power to completely wreck the server. If used incorrectly, these plugins can cause massive lag and even cause the server to crash and rollback up to 10 or so hours. You MUST be fully versed in how to use these plugins. You can find wiki’s and instructions on how to use these plugins online. If you goof, you may have your Worldedit/Cuboid permissions revoked.

c. /item and selling items
ONLY staff members may sell spawned items to other players.

d. Other commands
/time, /send, /tp - If you are given access to these commands, they are only to be used for legitimate purposes only, such as cleaning up griefs, catching griefers, assisting players, etc. In general, its best to assume that all commands are to be used for legitimate purposes only, no trolling.


Section VI. Donator/Veteran Rules

a. /item
To be used for personal reasons only! The only time you may give spawned items out is when another player is helping you with a project of your own, and in that case, you may only give out the EXACT number of items needed to help with your own project. Also, you MAY NOT spawn items listed on the banned items list. You MAY spawn and use bedrock, but you MUST get permission from a staff member before use, and the bedrock must not be visible from outside. Since you will have no way to get rid of the bedrock, you must be sure you place it correctly. Staff members will not delete bedrock you place incorrectly.

b. /tp and /tphere
These commands are only to be used with expressed permission of the person in question with the teleport. This goes for teleporting TO players, and bringing players TO yourself.


Section VII. Selling Items

Any player may sell items at any price they wish, as long as the buyer agrees to the price, and the items are not spawned with /item or /kit. The items must be gathered legitimately. Be warned, however, that a set price exists for some rare/unobtainable items, and that players may buy these items from staff if you try and sell them at a higher price.

a. Players will not be able to own more than one store at a time. Each store is limited to only two owners at one time.
Players will not be allowed to own a store that sells more than one kind of item at a time. The only exceptions to this rule is if you're selling items that are really close to each other, such as: A bakery can sell cake, bread, wheat. A tool store that sells pickaxes, swords, axes, hoes. A armour store that sells Platebodys, Legs, ect. If you want to build a store and you are either unsure or feel that it might not be allowed, ask a staff member. Staff reserves the right to close down a store when they feel that it is in violation of the above rules.
(This means no more Mega-Mart, O-Warehouse, or any other stores like these.)


Section VIII. Banned Items / Storing Items

Here is a list of items that are BANNED from being stored in chests. They are banned from chest storage because, if stolen by a griefer, could cause major problems. If you are found to have these items in a chest, disciplinary action will be taken against you immediately.
- Fire blocks
- Flint and Steel
- Lava buckets / Lava Blocks
- Bedrock

Here is a list of items that are BANNED from being spawned or found in your inventory. If you are found to have these items in your inventory, disciplinary action will be taken against you immediately.
- Fire blocks (Whom ever can spawn fire can use fire for fireplaces. That's the only place it is to be used.)
- Flint and Steel (not allowed at all)
- Lava buckets (not allowed for guests and members only)

Usage of Lava blocks:
Admins and above are allowed to spawn and place lava blocks. You may spawn and place lava blocks for someone other than yourself, but you cannot give them the blocks and that person must have a legitimate reason for their placement (ie pig killer, trashcan, cobble machine). Decoration purposes is not a legitimate reason. Trusted and above may spawn lava and place it in a bucket in order to fuel a furnace, but the lava bucket must never be placed in a chest, given to another player, or placed in another players furnace for their own use.

Section IX. Appealing a Ban

Any player who is banned for any reason may appeal their ban on the Vortacious Server Forums at INSERT LINK TO BANAPPEAL HERE. You MUST have the reason you were banned, and a convincing argument as to why you deserve to be pardoned. It will help your case to know the particular staff member who banned you.


Section X. Proper Conduct/Censorship

a. Other servers
If you decide to start your own server, or become infatuated with another minecraft server, there’s nothing we can do to stop you. However, we do ask that you not promote outside servers while in-game on Vortacious Server. Doing so will result in one warning, then continued advertising of another server will result in a permanent ban. We only ask that you give our server the same level of respect that the founders of Vortacious gave every other server upon its inception.

b. Swearing/Sexual content
Swearing and lewd conduct is allowed on Vortacious Server, but we do ask that you keep it at a PG-13 level. That is to say, no continuous f-bombs. Also, please attempt to keep the sexual content of your language to a bare minimum. Be aware that the known age range of players on Vortacious is 7 years old all the way up.

c. Respect
We ask that you exhibit a level of respect that would be expected from you in person. Please respect the authority of the staff members; they generally know what they’re talking about. Also, the use of racial slurs or other extremely offensive language/behavior is strictly prohibited.


Section XI. Subject to Change and Discretionary Clause

Please be aware that these rules are subject to change at any time, and it is the responsibility of you, the player, to review the rules and be aware of any changes. You will be held accountable for your actions, and any rule breaking can and will be met with punishment. All of the above rules are under the discretion of the Vortacious staff. If at any time you feel a staff member has overstepped their bounds, check with a different staff member for a second opinion. This also means an administrator can enforce a new rule at any given time whether in game or on this official list. It will be documented in the server logs and will be reviewed upon if needed.

Section XII. Client-Side Modifications

This section of the server rules states which modifications are allowed and are banned.

Banned:
Xray. (Or xray and Mob xray. This modification includes fullbright, which is also banned.)
Zombe's Client Modifications pack. (This is punishable up to, but not limited to: Kick, Ban, Temp Ban, Demotion, IP Ban)
FullBright

Allowed:
ClientSide Mini Map