In a nutshell, these are the rules for this host.

  • You are allowed to play one race per game (with the exception of temporary replacements).
  • If you cannot do your turns anymore, find a replacement. Dropping from a good game without a replacement will give you a big reliability penalty. Likewise, missing turns will give you a reliability penalty.
  • The host does not automatically remove you from a game when your empire is dead. (This is so that you can still access your last RST with insightful fights.) You must resign yourself. In this case, you will not get a penalty.
  • Your rank is determined from the your position in the game and your reliability (see Ranking System). You will get a small number of points even if you are defeated in mid-game.
  • For a no-cooperation game (e.g. North Star), you are expected to play on your own. This means: no alliances, non-aggression pacts, joint attacks, or trade agreements. On the other hand, this doesn't mean you need to be 100% hostile in any encounter.
  • Unless a different victory condition is set, your position in the game is determined by the scoring system used in the game. The scores are also plotted on the game overview page.

Finally, some technical tips:

  • You can submit turns by email or using the web interface. If it's short before the host date, prefer the web interface. Mail is processed four times per hour, independant from the host schedule. Mail also sometimes takes some minutes to travel through the intertubes.
  • The host runs on Universal Time. If it says the host runs "Thursday", that might be Wednesday evening or Friday morning in your time zone. The website tries to transform actual time points into your timezone ("Next host: Wednesday 1:00 AM"), but cannot transform schedules ("every Thursday 22:00").