IHOC Quake Rules!

Rule #1: Have fun. IHOC Quake is for entertainment purposes only. When in doubt, see Rule #1.

This is a work in progress... Contact IHOC with any suggestions or corrections.

BOTS   PAK2  Camping   Winning  Chat   Names  Admin

BOTS

Auto-aiming, auto-dodging, timers, radar, are all out. If you get caught you will be banned. Bots are obvious -- if you are running one you know it, and we probably know it too. Don't do it! If you have a new bot you want to test, or you just feel like sitting back and letting a machine kick ass for you, take it to quake.xoc.net:26666, the IHOC Bot server. Bots are welcome there, any bot, any client mod, any time. Try your luck against 3 low-skill Terminators and whoever else shows up.
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PAK2

It is possible to change Quake's graphics and sounds by replacing the id1/pak*.pak files, or just adding new ones. Generally this is OK -- many mods require you to install new graphics/sounds, and some of these change the default appearances too. The problem is when the new graphics/sounds give you an unfair advantage by letting you see players through walls or around corners, or to hear them when they aren't doing things that usually make sounds. See IHOC's PAK2 Page for details and examples.
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Camping / "Spam"

What is camping? Sitting in one place for a long time while playing. (Sitting in one place while you chat / toke / pick your nose / whatever is not camping... it's just sitting, like a duck.) Sitting in one place while firing a continuous stream of shots at a high-traffic area is the worst kind of camping, and if an admin sees you doing it you will probably get some unwanted attention (i.e., burned, killed or even kicked). There's nothing wrong with firing continuous streams of rockets, after all that's what IHOC RocketWar is all about! Just don't camp in one spot doing it -- trying to get through a room that's being saturation-bombed by a player in an inaccessible spot sucks.

In general camping is actually OK, as long as you do it intelligently -- set a trap and wait for someone to walk into it, then blast them! This is called "strategy" and can make the game more interesting. Camper Bob is the master of intelligent camping.

Some people use the word "spam" to refer to a continuous stream of grenades or rockets. Spam, of course, was originally a brand of icky canned meat, but became Internet slang for saying the same thing over and over and over and over, etc. It seems to have become further generalized to refer to any mindlessly repetitive annoying behavior, such as dumping grenades. IHOC RocketWar is all about continuous rocket/grenade fire, as long as it isn't being done by a camper for saturation-bombing purposes. Fire a few grenades, then move along; dump as many as you want to cover your retreat down a hallway -- this is part of the game! We don't consider the use of grenades to be "spam", so if you complain about it you'll probably just get a blank stare in response.

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Competition

Everybody likes to win. Nobody expects to win all the time, but it's nice to have even the slightest chance of winning. If you are winning every single game by a wide margin, or if your low ping is giving you an unfair advantage, please get a clue and let the others have a turn. Use the HANDICAP command to make yourself more easily killed, use a weaker weapon, or just plain sit out a game or two. IHOC Quake is not about proving who has the m4dD3StSk1lLz, it's about having fun. If people have no chance against you, they will leave and not return; then who will you beat on?

Naturally this does not apply to challenge matches, which are not supposed to be fun and really should be played on the designated match server at PORT 26002.

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Chat

Do not "spam" the console -- if you say the same thing(s) over and over and over, you will probably get "gagged" (so you can't talk at all). If you come back and do it again, you might even get banned.

Do not harrass, insult, threaten or provoke people. Good-natured trash-talk (for entertainment purposes only!) is acceptable as long everybody is in on the gag. (E.g. the standard "you bot bastard!" joke... the usual POD-vs-MFR baiting... etc) Keep it friendly! Also, be nice to newbies -- they are fun to kill, and should not be chased away!

Profanity, obscenity, and general dirty-talk are mostly OK. We are not prudes, and consider four-letter words to be a vital part of the English language. Please use some discretion though -- many people find "hate speech" (particularly epithets involving race, religion, sexual preference, etc) extremely offensive. If you are driving people away with your foul mouth, you will probably be banned.

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Names

Do not forge somebody else's name or clan tag. Do not use "hate speech" in your name. As above, do not harrass or threaten people. If you do, you can be tracked down easily and you will be banned (or worse).

Name animation and control characters ("ping hiding") are annoying, so the server won't let you do that. Do not try to get this "fixed", it is intentional.

Colors

Do not color-cycle. If you change colors too many times, you will get kicked. This is automatic, and intentional!

Certain colors are not allowed at IHOC, because too many bleary old farts can't see them against typical backgrounds. Don't worry about using the "bad" colors; the server will automatically replace brown, green, and blue-green shirts (colors 1, 3, 5, and 11) with more visible colors (14 and 15).

Nobody owns a color. Feel free to use any color you want. Do not complain if some newbie "steals" your clan color scheme. There are only so many colors available, so we all have to share.

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Admins

Do not insult the admins. It's stupid and pointless. It won't make you any friends, and could very well get you banned. Consider what you would do if someone you hardly knew came into your house and started calling you names... there would be no "arguing" or "reasoning", you would just throw them out.

If you get burned/killed/kicked, do not scream obscenities at the admins. That will just get you banned forever. If you get banned, do not send hate mail and threats. It won't get you un-banned, but it might get you some very unwanted special attention. If the reason for the kick or ban was not obvious, consider contacting IHOC to ask why. It might have even been a mistake or misunderstanding. If you get kicked do not come back and do exactly the same thing again -- if you must have more Quake try another server, such as GooLand or DarkZone... you will soon appreciate how tolerant the IHOC admins are in comparison!

Being an Admin

By far the best way to become an admin is to start your own server. Get a good high quality DSL or cable connection, or even better get a machine at a well-connected data center, then contact IHOC to get the mods and other pointers. IHOC has a policy of co-administration with well-established servers (i.e. we exchange admin codes with other server admins).

You can also get restricted administrative privileges if you are a long time player with a good reputation, or the leader of an established clan. (This only applies to people and clans who are already well-known at IHOC. Newbies need not apply.) Contact IHOC to find out how.

Admins are expected to be polite, fair, tolerant, and level-headed. They should choose levels that satisfy everybody present, and should interfere with game play only when absolutely necessary to correct serious problems. An admin's main responsibility is to facilitate game play and to make the game more enjoyable for more people -- this involves answering stupid newbie questions (how do I use the jet???) and settling disputes, usually without resorting to super-powers. Admins should be able to put up with stupidity and laugh off insults, up to the point where these things interfere with the game.

If an admin changes any of the game settings (monsters, "new" runes, low-gravity, etc) they should put the settings back to "standard" before leaving.

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