Alpha: Quality of report outweighs quality of play. This is a medium of entertainment and our reason for being here is to have fun. Sure, winning can be fun, but a boring win pretty much sucks.
Bravo: An auto-log dump does not count as a turn report. Unless unusual circumstances prevent, a turn report should have more player-generated content than auto-log content. Screen shots of major events are expected. Shots of the F9 screens are nice too, once in a while, possibly even an aerial shot of the empire in early years.
Charlie: Punctuality is encouraged. Standard time frame is for a player to post a "got it" within 24 hours of the time the previous player posted the save, then play within 48 hours of his "got it" post. Waiting 47 hours to ask for a skip is lame. You might find yourself "skipped" the next time, as well. Skips and swaps are fine, just try to arrange them sooner, rather than later.
Delta: Being a better player than others does not give you the right to belittle anyone or anyone's decisions.
- Sometimes other people are going to disagree with you on the major decisions. Get used to the idea.
- Trash talk, when presented humorously, is encouraged. This is a fine line, though. If you lack a command of either humor or English, you might want to consider waiting until the group gets to know you before you let slip the dogs trash talk.
Echo: Major game decisions should generally be arrived at via group concensus.
- If most or all of the team disagrees with you, either argue your case better, or do it their way. Do NOT just blow them off and do it your way because it's your turn.
- However, if the team is (fairly) evenly split, the decision is yours. Do it your way, and make it clear why.
- Similarly, if it's split and someone else's turn, don't whine when they do it their way instead of yours.
- In extraordinary situations, sometimes an opportunity presents itself that the group didn't foresee. If the consequences of said opportunity weigh greatly, the player is encouraged to stop, write a report up to that point, and ask the group to discuss.
- Major decisions include, but are not limited to, war declarations, peace declarations, city placement, and civics or religion swaps. In some cases, major tech trades, wonder builds, great person actions, or tech paths are "major" enough to warrant significant discussion.
Foxtrot: Overruling your predecessor's builds and tech choices after hammers/beakers have been invested can be rude. If your reasoning is sound, make the switch, but please state both the action and the rationale in your report.
Golf: Automation is generally fine, when well documented.
- When automating workers, it is an absolute MUST that you set your game options to disallow automated worker chopping and to keep previous improvements.
- Auto-explore is generally inefficient and problematic. Particularly during wartime when they'll pillage enemy improvements. If you automate exploration, it is your responsibility to remind the group of this when war breaks out.
- Turning on the auto governor in a city is fine, but please explain your reasoning. If you automate the governor to prevent growth, it is your responsibility to remind the group of this when the time arrives that the city can again grow.
- Sending units on go-to routes that last beyond your set is acceptable if you're sending troops to rally point, or if you otherwise inform your teammates.
- A good idea is to cancel automation at the end of your set. According to Ruff, you can cancel all worker actions at once by selecting a single worker, holding down ALT, then clicking on cancel.
Hotel: Fortifying great people, at any time, is a jackassed thing to do. Seriously, how hard is it to press the space bar a few times?
India: Sign spamming is rude. In certain instances, signs can be helpful reminders. Too many signs, however, are easily ignored. If you placed a sign, it is your responsibility to erase it once that sign is obsolete.
Juliet: Leniency against ettiquette infractions will be given to those whose prior play has reflected the spirit of these rules. In other words, guys I've played with for two years get a little more latitude than guy I just met.
Oh, and hopefully you'll start somewhere near the edge of the map - it's not nice having to guard against attacks from all fronts!
