For Your Entertainment and to indulge yourself in how many different changes have been made over the years, here is the original Rules page.
Welcome to The Maestro Cluster. These servers are a home for a friendly, competitive Ark community. Let's keep it that way.
Playing here requires you to have read, understood and follow these rules or be subject to corrective action.
The guiding philosophy behind the rules is: Don't be a dick.
If you have a complaint against another player or tribe, please remember the "Burden of Proof". Unless the Admin witnesses the event in question, some proof regarding the claim is needed. This can be accomplished with screen shots, in some cases.
I will do my best to be available and responsive to issues that arise. Please remember that being the Admin is not my full-time job.
Bottom Line: If you don’t like it here, feel free to play on any of the other thousands of servers out there.
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The rules generally fall into four categories: General, Environment, PvP and Raiding.
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General
Code/Programming:
Ark may some day in the distant future be stable to the point that this will need not be said. That means that if a dinosaur, item, blueprint, i-win-button is lost it will NOT be replaced by the Admin. Not everything is able to be addressed with Admin commands. With respect to access to late-game/tek engrams, the game was designed by Wildcard. If you have to follow a sequence of events to access them, I cannot and will not change the programming to help select groups. This is to preserve fairness for all players through progression.
Server Chat/In-Game Voice Chat:
The rule here is to keep discussions in Global Chat and In-Game Voice Chat at a PG-13 level. Discussions/conversations of an overtly sexual nature or excessive profanity are not permitted. Your sense of humor and choice in name will conform to standards that I deem appropriate for a healthy community. Don’t like it? See the Bottom Line above.
Character Names:
Salacious, edgy or offensive names are not permitted. It should go without saying, but offensive names include terms deemed or perceived to be derogatory towards an ethnic, cultural, national, religious group. I do encourage being cheeky with character names,but crossing the line will result in a character rename to whatever whimsical thought pops into my head. You can request a rename if you don't like mine, but no guarantee that I will grant it. Remember that what is considered salacious, edgy or offensive is determined by my standards.
Steam Names:
Follow the Character Name rule. If offensive, suggestive, etc., they will simply be banned. You have power over choosing your Steam Name, so it's your issue - not mine. Also, players who choose "123" as their Steam Name may be kicked frequently because I have had a bad history with them on this server, and I cannot tell the good ones (if any exist) from the bad ones.
Plus, this isn’t an Official, who are you hiding from? Keeping the “123” Steam name just guarantees that I will end up scrutinizing your activities more closely than everyone else.
Tribe Limitations:
Tribes are capped at a maximum of 10-players. If you’re looking for that power trip of being the biggest, toughest tribe on the server – go someplace else. Plus, I have witnessed well-organized tribes of two wreaking more havoc than groups of ten.
Tribe/Player Interactions:
I will not police every interaction between players and tribes. However, some excessive non-PvP interactions that will merit my involvement include merging tribes and then kicking out tribe members who merged with or without the intent to steal their tames, structures and possessions. Once things become commingled, it's not my job to separate it all out. So, if things become bad enough, I will just wipe the entire tribe including tames. Learn to resolve your own problems. I don't need to be oversee your divorce, too.
Map Choice:
Studio Wildcard released four official maps to play on. Fanboys began and then failed to finish two others which Wildcard (I’m assuming) felt sorry for and picked-up to finish. The latter two I am referencing are Ragnarok and Center. These maps do not have the same level of balance as the four officials, plus they make it incredibly easy to access powerful, late-game tames such as Wyverns. For that reason, they are not and will (likely) not ever be included in the cluster. While those maps are not included, I have carried-over Griffins to the Scorched Earth server, because (let's face it) they're cool.
Environment
Building Structures/Rafts:
There is a fixed amount of space. Do not spam foundations/pillars/etc. to prevent people from building. Placeholder foundations should be built on within 24 hours or they may be removed by the admin. This includes Temporary Taming barricades. Once you are finished taming, please be courteous enough to remove them. Should you be inconsiderate and forget, I encourage any other players/tribes to remove these structures to keep the servers clean. If you built on a raft and left it behind long ago, I encourage other tribes/players to sink them. There is nothing attractive about a glut of rafts sitting along shorelines taking up the server's CPU processing.
Caves:
All caves may be built in*. Caves with artifacts have one restriction – do NOT prevent another player from being able to get to the Artifact.
*Caverns of Lost Hope/Faith may not contain main base facilities. Small outposts for farming are permitted. No fortresses. No external turrets.
Resource-Rich Areas:
There are select zones spread across the map (mostly atop the mountains) where certain strategic resources spawn. Do not block these spawns. Should you decide to build in these zones, your structures may be removed by the Admin or other players.
PvP
A word about PvP. Because PvP is allowed does not mean that anything permissible by the code is also allowed on this server. I have reserved the right to put some training wheels on what you can/cannot do in this regard. To that end, here are some things not to do…
-Don’t spawn camp.
-Don't pick up another player with your flyer to drop them and steal their kit.
-Don’t bully smaller tribes to achieve a desired end (i.e. getting them to move).
-Don’t build random, hidden turret towers.
-Don’t imprison people and forget about them.
-Don’t join a tribe/alliance with the intent to betray them.
-Don’t bait Alphas, corrupted or predator dinosaurs to another player's base.
-Don’t drop WILD or AGGRESSIVE Dinosaurs on passive dinosaurs.
-Don’t kill tames on Neutral/Passive that can be avoided.**
**The "Don't kill passives" rule seems to be wildly misinterpreted. Let me clear it up.
-If a tame is on passive and it isn't in your way in a raid or PvP, don't kill it.
-If a player or their tame is used in a raid or PvP - they are both fair game for retribution (within an hour of the raid/PVP).
-If a tame happens to be too close to an explosion or is on the other side of a door/wall when someone breaks in, they may become collateral damage.
If you crossed a line and killed a passive tame that could have been reasonably avoided, it's better for you to resolve the issue with your victim than having me get involved. I usually deal with this issue in a heavy-handed manner.
If you choose to become your own posse and seek justice under your own interpretation of these rules, be prepared as I will declare your entire tribe "open season" on the server allowing any other tribe/player to deal with you without the PvP training wheels. Read another way, I actively encourage other tribes/players to wipe and remove you from the server. I call this the "Warcraft 3" rule.
If you read these rules and thought to yourself "These are stupid." You have two options.
Go play on an Official, because the Limited PvP servers here are not for you. Or...
Go play on Valguero, where it's Free-for-All. Quite literally like an Official, but with boosted rates.
Raiding
In Ark, there are two main ways to acquire items, resources, etc.
Getting it yourself. Or...
Taking it from others.
In this section, we will address the latter.
You should only raid tribes of your relative level and size. If you are deep in the Tek world, don't blow into a lesser-developed tribe's thatch beach house. Read more in the Progression section below.
Please allow at least 48 hours for your victim to rebuild.
If your victim decides that they would be better served by striking back at you… I will view the situation as an open state of war and will not get involved. Good luck to you both!
Bidding another tribe or player to raid your victim before this timer ends is a great way to get yourself in trouble… This is what I like to call “The Conan Rule”.
Spectating A Raid/PvP
Honestly, I didn't expect to have to create a section for this. But, alas, here we are.
Let's assume that a Raid or some PvP is happening. And you wish to spectate the event. Much like when the Confederate and Union soldiers took to the field at the First Battle of Bull's Run, spectators may and sometimes do end up as casualties.
Now, a note on guiding philosophy here. The PvP section states "Don't bully smaller tribes to achieve a desired end." This selectively applies here. Let's make up a hypothetical here. You and your tribe of low-swingers show up on your Gigas to watch some other tribes have at it. You intentionally (or otherwise) get shot in the process. It may seem like there is a clear line that has been crossed. But, your presence on the field alters the flow of how things might have otherwise proceeded.
In this case, I will hold the spectators (who are not original participants) to the Raiding rules below - in so far as your progression tier limits interaction.
Now, if it is beyond reasonable doubt clear that they are coming after you, you may defend yourself. But I would expect some restraint. And if you do not, I will drop a DM on your tribe and ask you to make it right.
I call this "The Company" rule.
Progression
This seems to be another area of much discussion and concern. I field frequent questions about what this means and read plenty of global chat entries from aggrieved parties loudly proclaiming "You are going to get banned!"
As it isn't explicit, some subjectivity will be employed here at my discretion.
There are three clear tiers as I see them. Within these tiers are sub-tiers.
Early Game
Beach Bobs (Thatch Buildings) [Levels 0-10]
Pioneers (Wood/Adobe Buildings) [Levels 11-30]
Frontiersmen (Stone Building, Smithy, Forges) [Levels 31-50]
Industrial (Metal)
Early Industry (Fabricator, Metal Building) [Levels 51-64]
Mid Industry (Auto Turrets, C4) [Levels 65-80]
Late Industry (Industrial Forge, Chem Bench, Heavy Turrets) [Levels 81+]
End Game (Tek)
Tek Pioneers (Broodmother, Megapithecus, Titans, Moeder)
Tek Engineers (Dragon, Manticore, Rockwell)
Tek Titans (Overseer, King Titan, System Root)
Raiding within your Tier is acceptable. Raiding above your tier is also acceptable, though not necessarily prudent. Within each tier, raiding down a single sub-tier is acceptable. Raiding two down is not.
Please note that the character levels are guides and not to be used explicitly. Even though a character may have just reached 68 and has access to Auto Turrets does not put them on an even footing as an established tribe with Heavy Turrets and level 100 players.
For players in the Tek world, any of those unlocks puts your tribe in that sub-tier.
Use some common sense here. If you don't, I will.
Also, hiding a metal base inside of a wooden one may disguise your progression. But keep in mind how horrible the program is at rendering in building components, and your secret may not be so well hidden to clever players hovering at render distance.
The Exploit Loophole
Just as Wildcard makes some effort to keep the game fair and balanced. Should you encounter a situation where you would normally be prevented from raiding someone because of the aforementioned progression rules, all is not lost. If a tribe or player is conning the system, take note of the transgression and bring it to the attention of the moderators and deputies. If they are able to verify what you have discovered, you will be allowed to correct the situation.
For example, let's say that a tribe has found a way to access an area below the mesh. If you have to take very peculiar steps to get into said location, such as:
Sitting on a chair, logging out and having your body flop its way through.
Using a grapple to pull yourself through the mesh.
Sliding through with the use of climbing hooks.
Then, you are exploiting.
According to Wildcard, bases under the mesh should not exist. So, you will be tasked with helping to keep Ark and the TMC Cluster free of people who would otherwise disregard these rules. While you are busy removing it, if you find it in your heart to return some of your loot to the offenders - good on you. Otherwise, enjoy the spoils of exploit war.
We'll call this the Dango rule.
Special Considerations/Exceptions in Raiding and PvP…
Excessive damage/structure wiping.
Attempts to remove another player from the server by eliminating their base of operations and infrastructure will earn you a ban. People come here to play, not have to rebuild from scratch every 48 hours.
To be clear, this is a flagrant violation if you remove a player/tribe's main base of operations. Satellite bases may be subject to corrective action depending on the severity.
This rule does NOT apply to player/tribe buildings that have become "Demolish Allowed" due to an inactivity timer.
Raiding happens. And it is a deeply personal experience. There is no need to overreact. Should someone break down your door with a pick and steal some token items, don't go use C4 to wipe out their campfires. If you find that you have crossed that line, it is much better for you to go back to your victim and help sort things out than have me get involved. I don't like bullies, or people who don't read my server's rules.
Leading dino tames to the slaughter.
Sometimes, tribes leave their tames on aggressive, defending yourself from them is understandable. However, if tames are on neutral and they stop pursuing you after you run away, they're not going to bother you further. Killing them at this point is the line you cross into "being a dick" territory.
If you were dumb enough to get killed by their tame and it took your materials. Too bad, you Sir (or Madam) are an idiot. Poor planning on your part does not constitute a need to massacre someone else’s tames. Or, figure out another way to retrieve your items that does not involve killing the tame.
Dino Turrets
Wildcard decided that what the game really needed were more organic turrets and options to complicate an established set of rules for my server. With the introduction of "Turret mode" on dino tames, it has become apparent that I need to address this item.
Tames guarding a base in "Aggressive" mode are much like any other turret, and consequently can be killed. If you can make an effort not to kill them, I encourage you to do so. However, it is unlikely that I will take corrective action against a player(s) for killing tame(s) on aggressive/turret mode.
Tames guarding a base in "Neutral" mode should follow the "avoid killing if at all possible" rule above.
Special Note: Parasaurs and their unique ability to detect enemies lend themselves toward being used in a PvP/Raiding capacity. Parasaurs, generally, are fair game in detect/turret mode. If they obviously are not and run away when you shoot at them, you're killing a passive. If at all possible, try to knock them out.
Platform Abuse is real.
This includes but is not limited to “floating” building components that defy the laws of real-world physics, and/or encasing a tame in a giant box of metal building components to prevent incoming damage. In both cases, the platforms will be deleted with no warning, and no compensation given for materials lost. Best not to build them. Learn to deal with the game’s mechanics in a fair and balanced way.
And lastly, Raiding is Raiding. PvP sometimes happens in Raiding. But let's be clear, Raiding is not always PvP. Especially if there are no players on the receiving end (and online) to do anything about it. Try not to conflate the two.
Free Advice regarding dealing with the Admin…
Generally, when you come onto a private/unofficial server you have accepted the premise that there is an individual or group of individuals out there who may determine your continued presence on the server, should the need arise. A modicum of respect in tone and civility is expected.
Please remember that this server has been online for three years. That’s far longer than any player currently playing on here, which includes you. So, accept that I don’t take orders from any of the players. I do consider requests – provided they are done in a respectful manner.
Asking repeatedly for clarification of these rules in-game is a bad idea. If you have questions, post them in the discussion thread or the discord channel.
While I am performing administrative reviews, remember a few things. Lying to me will not help sway your presentation of facts. I have a log. Last I checked, the server doesn't misrepresent the events as they happened, at least not factually. Also, I tend to be methodical while doing these reviews. Don't rush me - it just makes me suspicious regarding your motivation(s).
Don't view administrative actions in a You-versus-Me light. This isn't adversarial in nature. These are rules established to provide a certain level of stability so that most people who play can enjoy their time spent here. How that plays out for everyone will vary to some degree, but if you thrive on another's misery, I may help reflect that misery back to you.
If you are looking for an argument, or trying to be terribly clever and want to parse each and every word in these rules to meet your own interpretation, you are entitled to do so. Similarly, I am entitled to remove you from the server - because I have interpreted your actions as a challenge to the rule set for the server. I call this the "Tom Bombadil" rule.
Lastly, do not consider it a mark of honor and distinction to have a rule named after you or your tribe. Many of these have come about because of specific scenarios that played out in less-than-exemplary ways. If you want your own rule, you're already on my radar and just egging me to press that ban button.
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