ICE9 is meant to be a community based TW game board.  There is no place on this board for childish name calling and posting. This includes but is not limited to naming ports, planets, ships or beacons with abusive remarks orlanguage, or using the same in announcements.   Take such talk to the forums if you must.

ICE9 welcomes players of ALL caliber to test their skills against each other.  Match your skills with those that are as good or better than you, teach those that are not.  The better the players, the better the games.  What fun is it if there's no danger, no risk?

At no time will dupes be allowed in any game at ICE9.  In the eyes of this board dupes = cheating and dupers will be removed from all games and blocked with out warning or discussion.

Bug use is strictly prohibited, players using bugs will be removed from the game and the board.   I reserve the right to make the final judgment on what is or is not a bug.  If it seems too good to be true, or if you've heard or read somewhere that it may be a bug, it probably is. My email address is ice9@uci.net.  If you have any questions on whether something is a bug or not, contact me prior to using it.

Individual games may have game specific rules posted and/or sent to new players by ship mail.   It is the players responsibility to know these rules. ICE9 reserves the right to refuse access to anyone at anytime without reason or prior notice.

In the unregulated games you are free to kill anything and everything at anytime.  The only thing I ask, other than you follow the guidelines intended for all ICE9 games, is that if players who obviously need to be in the other games stumble into these games, please point them to the other game so they can learn before getting frustrated and quit TW entirely.

Before getting into some of the specific guidelines of the building games let me say up front, the point of each of these rules is to allow players, new to the game or not, the ability to join a game at any time and get started.  If you are the type of person who intends to read these rules and find every crack in them that can be exploited then Don't bother, I will ask you to go to the unregulated games, after all we both know that's were you belong in the first place.

No Stardock or Fedspace blockades.  A blockade occurs when anything is used to inhibit the free flow of traffic to and from SD or Terra.   Anything more than one toll fig put there as a warp beacon is a blockade.  For example, one toll fig used as a trigger *next to SD for any offensive purpose is a blockade.  Sitting at SD and using attack scripts as players warp in and out is a blockade.   Sitting at SD and using photon scripts is a blockade.  Do not blow up SD or the Class O ports.   This is not to say that your opponents that are not Fedsafe are free to use Fedspace as a Safe Haven and sit there all day either.   Use common sense.

Do not use fighters as a method of controlling the universe.   Setting up fig grids and using attack scripts as an offensive or defensive weapon is a great tactic for the unregulated games but not the building games.  I'm not saying you can't mark ports, or leave figs in various places, but again this is a building game, just don't leave them everywhere.  Go find a tunnel or a set of sectors and build in it.

Allow players a chance to join the game.  Many players would like me to be more specific on this point but I really Don't want to turn into a baby sitter.  If a player joins the game and starts killing anything he can find of yours to kill, explain to him that your going to have to kill him if he keeps it up, then if he does, kill him.  If he is willing to be respectful let him play.  Simple so far.  If you come across someone who's is just getting their sector started and you have been playing for weeks and can easily take it, give him a break.  Go find someone that's more of a challenge.  Try to help new players who Don't really know the game.  You would be surprised how rewarding this can be.<\P>

If you agree with the ideals of this game, take offense when someone kills new players for no particular reason except that they could.  In reality I can post all the rules in the world but its the community that makes it happen.  If the new player does get squashed but does not quit, help him back on his feet if you can preferably without just giving him assets.  If he is actually a new player who has never played, help him learn.  Build the community at the same time as you build your game. As so many people have pointed out Trade Wars 2002 includes the word War in the title.  No one is telling you you can't attack other players or invade their planets and tunnels.  Just try to keep it to the players who are somewhat established in the game and a match for you, that's all.  And lastly, for those of you who have heard the term "Don't Poke The Bear," well, if you bother a Bear, he will eat you.  If you bother someone much bigger than you in TW, they will eat you too.