Code of conduct

Official page: This page is maintained by Frozenbyte, the developers of Starbase, and cannot be edited by users. Information on this page has been confirmed to be correct at the time of writing (please get in touch if you notice anything odd or outdated).

Adherence to this code of conduct and to the Terms of Service is required while engaging with any service(s) provided by or related to Starbase, including the game itself and other services such as the official Discord server, Starbase forums, or Steam forums. Failure to comply with the rules herein laid out may result in the permanent revocation of your access to Starbase or to any of its related services, without any guarantee or presumption of refund.

Social Conduct and Behavior

1) You may not use Starbase or any of its official or otherwise related community services as a platform to spread hateful, discriminatory, abusive, defamatory, offensive, obscene, or explicit content. This includes use of the in-game mail, chat system, or other related services like the official Starbase Discord, Starbase forums, or the Steam community forums.

2) You may not use Starbase or any of its official or otherwise related community services to slander, libel, belittle, insult, ridicule, stalk, harass, threaten, or abuse any users or persons. Making threats concerning a real-world person – be they players or not – is considered grounds for an immediate and irrevocable ban.

3) You may not spam any channel of conversation in the game at any time or for any reason. This includes advertisements for companies, factions, groups, services, trades, or transactions.

4) You may not impersonate other users, players, or real-world people for any reason. Further, you may not misrepresent yourself as Frozenbyte staff for any reason. Frozenbyte staff are highlighted in the world with a pink username.

5) You may not report false information or give false testimony to any in-game moderator or Frozenbyte staff; nor may you withhold information or details should they be relevant to any investigation that a moderator or administrator is conducting.

6) You may not intentionally partake in behavior that detracts from others’ enjoyment of the game that goes outside of the normal flow of gameplay. This includes actions intended specifically to cause grief (‘griefing’), such as repeatedly ramming a spaceship inside the safezone, attempting to block market terminals, attempting to blockade spawn and despawn zones within an active safezone, etcetera.

7) You may not violate local, regional, state, national, or international laws while engaging in any aspect of gameplay.

8) You may not register or use a character name that would otherwise violate these rules.

9) You may not use role-playing as an excuse to violate any rule in this code of conduct.

Content and Data

10) You may not create ships, stations, decals, or other constructions within Starbase that portray, describe, or espouse inflammatory content, political ideologies, or any such symbolism.

11) You may not create ships, stations, decals, or other constructions within Starbase that directly plagiarize copyrighted or trademarked works, symbols, or any such content to which you do not own the rights and/or have permission to copy, modify, or reproduce.

12) You may not use Starbase to upload, recreate, transmit in any capacity, or discuss the illegal transfer of any copyrighted or trademarked works (eg: software piracy).

13) You may neither create nor partake in any faction, company, or group that is predicated upon hateful, racist, sexist, or other egregiously offensive ideology.

Privacy

14) You may not divulge the personal details of any user or person to any extent or in any fashion, be it in public or in private, at any time, on any service related to the game.

15) You may not collect nor ask a user for – or require as part of admission to a faction, company, or group – any personally-identifiable information or details, to any extent or for any purpose, on any service related to the game.

16) You may not publish, make available, promote, or otherwise disseminate any materials that could reasonably be considered to be private or confidential information that belongs to any in-game faction, company, group, real-world institution, government, or other organization via Starbase, or any of its affiliated services such as the official Discord, Starbase forums, or Steam forums.

17) You may not share your account nor the password to your account with any other person or player.

18) You may not publish private communications from Frozenbyte or any of its in-game moderators or staff without express authorization.

External Applications and Services

19) You may not use or promote any external application that interacts with the game to provide data or feedback, interpret conditions, read memory or network traffic, or monitor, modify, or control any game data or inputs. Exceptions to this rule may be found on the General Rules page.

20) You may not partake in, facilitate, encourage, promote, or solicit any transaction of real-world currency, goods, or other items in exchange for in-game credits, items, blueprints, or other game content including such things as the locations of stations, company or faction data, game accounts, etcetera.

21) You may not attempt to play Starbase on any server that is not operated or authorized by Frozenbyte.

22) You may not require in any way the transmission of private information, login tokens, or other personally-identifying information for the usage of any service related to Starbase.

Hacks, Cheats, and Exploits

23) You may not attempt to decode, modify, interfere with, or intercept the transmission of any network data related to Starbase.

24) You may not attempt to decode, decompile, or modify any files related to Starbase that are saved to your computer; nor may you create or adapt any cheat, hack, or other 3rd party addon for use in Starbase.

25) You may not exploit any bug in Starbase in order to gain an unfair advantage, to any extent, at any time.

26) You may not facilitate, advertise, promote, encourage, or discuss the use of exploits in any capacity, except with an authorized Frozenbyte representative.

27) You are required to report exploits, cheats, and hacks within a reasonable timeframe after discovery. You are also required to report users who may have exploited, cheated, or hacked the game or game mechanics within a timely manner. Such reports may be entitled to some form of in-game compensation as part of our on-going bounty program.

Origin Network Safezone

28) You may not attempt to deceive, scam, or beguile users within the Origin station safezones, to any extent at any time. This includes, but is not limited to, the following types of scams:

• Mining permits
• Warp gate passes
• Tricking new users into exiting the safezone with the express intent of griefing
• Any such behavior that specifically targets new players in order to take advantage of their naïveté or lack of game knowledge

29) You may not block access to market terminals, respawn terminals, buildings, or respawn/despawn zones within the Origin network safezone at any time. 30) You may not use an Origin station’s /station chat channel to advertise services or trades, nor to advertise recruitment for a company, faction, or group. 31) While in the Origin station safezone, you may not directly or indirectly partake in any action which could reasonably be construed to be intended to cause irritation (‘trolling’), or that which may otherwise be reasonably considered to negatively affect another user’s experience outside of the normal course of gameplay (‘griefing’). This includes, but is not limited to, the following types of behaviors:

• Ramming ships, players, constructions, etcetera
• Stealing components, ships, materials, or other items
• Harassing or haranguing users through chat
• Purposefully causing poor client performance via dropped item spam, etcetera
• Persistent and repeated use of weapons or equipment with the intention of irritating users

31) You may not camp at the edge of the safezone or attempt to lure users beyond the safezone in order to bypass any of these rules.

Methods of Enforcement

Frozenbyte shall be the sole arbiter in enforcing this code of conduct, and may – at its discretion – issue punitive actions in accordance with what it alone deems to be the severity of the offence. Frozenbyte reserves the right to temporarily or permanently revoke or deny access to Starbase, with or without advanced notice as is deemed necessary. Frozenbyte also reserves the right to modify or ‘roll back’ in-game player data such as inventory, owned ships, bank accounts, station storage, or any such parameter in order to maintain game balance, with or without advanced notice.