Contact

Email rick.azmodean@gmail.com for matters concerning

• forgotten passwords
• updates to the contributor list
• faults preventing login or registration
• site administration

Contributors

The Rules

Introduction and basic conditions

• The Rules are here to keep Shadowmere Tales fun for everyone.
• The rules may be altered at any time.
• Should you not understand a rule or its wording contact an admin or post in general mail so it can be explained to you.
• You play this game at your own risk. The owners are not liable for any damages your computer or system may take.
• It is your own decision how much time you spend on Shadowmere Tales and where and when you play it. We advise you not to play in school or at work, if you are not allowed to. A healthy sleep routine, your friends and family are [probably] more important than playing this game, however you can alone make that decision.

General Rules

• The game staff/admins contribute on a volunteer basis. Their goal is to keep the game fair and playing the environment civil. Please do not abuse them.
• Excessively abusive behaviour is not tolerated in Shadowmere Tales. This includes, but is not limited to your kingdom and user name, your alliance name and any in-game mail systems and chat. Teasing and taunting an opponent is fine as long as nobody starts crying. You can be warned, deleted or even banned for displaying: Racially intolerant, sexist, ageist, faith based, homophobic, sexually based comments, words, graphics or external links, other comments, words, graphics or external links, intending to cause offense, using personally abusive or derogatory language, displaying naked people or images of pornographic nature.
• Constant and or malicious persecution of a player or their character in chat or General Mail, Private Mail and Role Playing Mail is forbidden.
• Being "in character" is not an excuse to break the rules. Remember that children of all ages and people who are affected by school or office Internet policies may access and play this game too. Anything posted must be suitable for viewing in these environments. A player doesn’t need to complain about things said towards them in order for action to be taken assuming the thing said is in violation of the rules.
• If you name your kingdom or user name is something which is deemed against the rules you will not have the option of changing the name of the offending kingdom/user name. You will be forced to delete the kingdom or user account. This isn’t intended as punishment, but due to the limitations of the game code. An admin or overlord also doesn’t have that power to change a kingdom's name.
• You may (indeed should) try to hide your identity by using an unusual kingdom name and then modifying your ruler display name for that kingdom in-game. You may not however try to impersonate another player or represent yourself as one of their kingdoms as this can be unfair on them and other players.
• Using automated scripts ("bots") to interface with the game on your behalf is not permitted. This includes script usage or any other non-human method of playing. Shadowmere Tales staff may use scripts for game testing/running purposes. Do not interfere with them. If you wish to develop add-ons or other helper functions please contact the admin, this will probably be fine.
• The use of a public or anonymous proxy is considered trying to circumvent the multi restriction rule (below) and is not permitted unless you can present a reason accepted by the administrative group for your actions. If you are intending to use a proxy, you must inform the admin staff.
• Exploiting a known bug or flaw knowingly will get you punished. Upon encountering a bug, please report it to the admins.
• Hacking is strictly prohibited. Any person attempting to hack another player's kingdom or the server will be blocked.

Game specific rules:

• Having multiple log in names (Rulers) is not allowed.
• The number of kingdoms a player may have per gamespace is controlled by the rules for that continent. You can create as many as the user interface lets you under your one user name. If you are caught playing more kingdoms (i.e. by using a secondary login), your kingdoms will be deleted or disabled at our (the admins) discretion.
• Severe offenders will be punished harder and can have all their kingdoms in all universes deleted or be banned. A deity "kingdom" still counts as a kingdom. An overlord or admin account is not included as a kingdom. An overlord is exempt from these rules only for testing purposes.
• The game will record your IP addresses for the purpose of tracking accounts only. If multiple users are accessing Shadowmere from the same IP this can confuse the system. Contact an admin or overlord to get permission enabled for multiple players to use the same IP (such as from the same home).
• If you would like to start over, you can delete a kingdom and start a new one if you have an available Kingdom 'slot' in that Continent. Deleted Kingdoms do not free up a 'slot' until 24 hours after deletion has been enacted.
• You and you alone may manage your kingdom. It is not permitted to:
  1. take ownership/control of a kingdom that someone has offered to you.
  2. give out your personal login details to someone else, except to the Overlords.
  3. take care of someone else's kingdom; vacation mode is there for that purpose instead.
  4. create a kingdom for someone else. This includes just reserving their name.
  5. allow someone else to login to your kingdom.
• Intentional land transfer is not allowed. Land transfer (LT) is defined as: Deliberately making it possible for someone to attack your kingdom and gain land. If you are caught without a proper defense, it will look like you participated in a land transfer. Attacking a kingdom from below it's score indicates LT. You will have to explain and prove why it was not a land transfer.
• Friendly abuse (FA) is not allowed. FA is an attack with the only purpose to fill a kingdom's attack slots to protect it from other kingdoms. In situations that look like FA you will have to explain and prove why it was not a friendly abuse. Examples are filling a kingdom's attack slots with harmless attacks when another kingdom has retals and a stack is probable. (These concepts explained further in-game.)

Admins/overlords/leadership group:

• Admins don't have control over what is said via private mail or a non-ShadowmereTales related instant messaging services like Skype, Line, FB, etc. You give out your contact details at your own discretion.
• Admins are appointed by overlords alone. The general playing group and other admins are free and welcome to make suggestions, but ultimately it's the overlord's decision. The same rule applies for removing admin rights.

Punishments:

• Punishment and warnings are up to the admin group's discretion and are generally issued to the offending kingdom, but may instead be addressed to the owner of the kingdom: the User.
• They may differ due to type, awareness and seriousness of the offence committed.

Please note that these rules were not created to restrict the playability of the game. They were created to level the playing field and to improve the overall game experience for everyone playing.