Rules

Last Update: November 12, 2023

# Terms of Use

This agreement sets forth the conditions you are bound by when you register for or connect to a Hateforge service.

If you believe that a player has violated this agreement, please report them through Discord or the appropriate in-game ticket system.

# I. Code of Conduct

The following guidelines and rules explain the behavior expected of you and the behavior you can expect from other users in the game and in the forum. Note that the following guidelines do not cover all types of offensive behavior.

When using a Hateforge service, you will encounter a number of users who have different experiences and come from various backgrounds. Even if certain language and images are not offensive to you, consider that the same language and images can have a completely different impact on other people.

All users of Hateforge services must adhere to these rules. Violations will result in appropriate sanctions for players in the game or in the forum.

# A. Name Policy

When choosing a character name or founding a guild, which can be seen by other users in the game or in the forum, you must adhere to the guidelines set forth here and the rules of decency.

If Hateforge staff deem such a designation offensive or inappropriate, they may, at their sole and exclusive discretion, change the designation or suspend or terminate your use of the service. Guilds that violate the policy will be deleted without warning.

You may not create a name or guild that refers to, incorporates, or uses the following:

  • Religion, Politics, Organizations
  • Nationality, Racism, Ethnicities
  • Harassment or Defamation
  • Indecency, Vulgarity, Insults
  • Sexually Explicit, Violence
  • Hate, Drugs, Illegality
  • A name associated with the staff

# B. Interaction with Players and Staff

Communication in the game with other users and staff, whether by text or otherwise, is a fundamental element of the game. The Hateforge staff may, at their discretion, decide which content violates these rules.

When communicating with other players and staff, you MUST NOT:

  •  
  • Use unlawful, obscene, racist, or otherwise deemed inappropriate by Hateforge staff language and/or images.
  • Circumvent the /ignore function to communicate with a user, regardless of circumstances.
  • Disrupt the functions of the game and/or individual components in a manner negatively perceived by other users, including but not limited to sending junk mail, repeated unwanted messages, advertising, and/or services that originate outside of the game.
  • Engage in any act that, in the sole and absolute discretion of the Hateforge staff, leads or may lead to a player being cheated or defrauded of in-game currency or other items earned in the game.
  • Send chat messages that have been modified in any way to change the publicly displayed color of the message.
  • Impersonate a user, including, but not limited to, a game master or another member of the Hateforge staff.
  • Communicate, publish, and/or forward information about the identity and/or personal information of a user or staff member to other users.
  • Initiate, support, threaten, or participate in an attack on a Hateforge service or any of its users to disrupt the servers or the gaming experience of the users.
  • Lie to or attempt to deceive the Hateforge staff.
  • Use non-German or non-English languages in public channels.

# C. Spielablauf

# a). Spieler gegen Spieler

Hateforge staff recognize all play styles as valid and part of the game, and not as harassment. Killing players of the opposing faction, including camping players at spirit healers, corpses, and/or gravestones, is considered part of the game.

When playing in Warmode, always remember to protect yourself in zones where members of an enemy faction can attack you.

# b). Streaming / Stream-Sniping

Streaming on any service is allowed by Hateforge. However, we recommend researching the terms of use of the streaming service you wish to use to protect your streaming account.

Stream-sniping does not violate this agreement, as we cannot intervene if someone in the game decides to communicate every step they take, thereby informing other users about their position and/or in-game status.

# c). Safespotting

Safespotting is prohibited under all circumstances. It involves initiating PvP fights while:

  • Exploiting a position that cannot be reached by simple jumping.
  • Being in an advantageous position where an NPC cannot reach due to pathfinding or another unintended game mechanic.

The following situations are considered safespotting:

  • Being on an object and within range of a guard who would attack you as soon as you leave the object.
  • Being on various interconnected platforms (roofs, decks, walkways, etc.) with different heights and connected paths that reduce the distance you must be from an NPC.

Please note that we rarely, if ever, intervene in a battleground due to safespotting. The following rooftop areas are forbidden in battlegrounds and considered safespotting:

  • Forge
  • Stables
  • Sawmill

# d ). Certain behaviors go beyond what is considered fair and constitute a violation of this agreement. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:

  • The use or exploitation of flaws in design, features, and/or bugs to gain access that would otherwise not be available, to give yourself an advantage over other players.
  • Engaging players through various world terrains, such as roofs, that are otherwise inaccessible to gain an advantage.
  • Deliberately not participating in a battleground.

# D. Griefing

Players can interact in various ways, and not all of these interactions are constructive. You may encounter players who steal resource nodes, chests, items, lead monsters into new areas, and summon demons that cause chaos.

The Hateforge team will not intervene in such situations as the community can take measures against these players. However, behavior that is considered contrary to the spirit of the game will be regarded as a violation of this agreement.

Such behavior is considered "griefing" and includes, but is not limited to:

  • Summoning demons in the initial starting zones of new players.
  • Intentionally killing or disabling important quest NPCs over an extended period.
  • Deliberately causing the disappearance of one of the four demons for the Staff of the Ancients.
  • Intentionally causing "The Cleaner" to appear during "The Balance of Light and Darkness".
  • Intentionally disrupting or negatively impacting a raid group that is currently fighting a world boss.
  • World boss encounters are special circumstances, and the resolution will be determined at the discretion of the present GM. We strongly recommend a "First come, first serve" mentality when encountering world bosses.

# E. Forum

Hateforge cannot allow all types of discussions in the forum. The forum is designed to provide a friendly environment where you can discuss ideas, give game advice, conduct role-playing, and talk about other aspects with other players.

Community forums work best when participants treat their fellow users with respect, courtesy, and decency. Therefore, please be civil when participating. The Hateforge staff must be able to read everything you post to ensure it complies with this agreement.

Posts not written in German or English may be deleted.

The Hateforge staff reserves the right to delete, move, or edit posts without prior warning or explanation to the user. In extreme cases, the Hateforge staff may restrict or ban a user's access to the forums.

# II. Account Information

Hateforge staff will never ask for your account details or share confidential information. To protect your account, never share your account information such as email addresses, 2FA keys, or passwords.

# A. Account Security

The account holder is responsible for the security of the account and its adequate protection. Note that Hateforge staff do not restore hacked accounts.

You should:

  •  
  • Never share your account information.
  • Use a unique and complicated password that is no longer than 16 characters.
  • Log in from a secure computer and network.
  • Avoid downloading insecure files that could contain viruses or malware.
  • Never use the same login details (username and password) on another server or services.

# B. Account Transfer/Trading

You are not allowed to buy, sell, gift, share, lend, or trade an account. You are also not allowed to offer to buy, sell, gift, share, lend, or trade an account. Any attempt may lead to the locking or closure of the account.

The only exception to this is a guild bank. To be recognized as a guild bank, no character on any server should be above level 5. If a guild decides to establish a shared bank, it does so at its own risk. The Hateforge project will not take any action to investigate, restore, or punish someone for removing items from a shared guild bank.

Sharing a guild bank is at your own risk.

# C. Forgot Password

Click on this Link to reset your password. Please note that Hateforge does not restore lost accounts.

# III. Restoration of Characters/Currencies/Items

The Hateforge team cannot guarantee the restoration of lost or deleted characters. We have limited ability to restore deleted characters and will do so when possible, but not 100% guaranteed.

Game items such as experience, gold, or equipment that were lost due to an accident, a very rare server failure, or in other ways cannot be restored. There are two exceptions:

  • Unique quest items or keys can be restored with sufficient evidence that the player previously obtained them.
  • Raid items of Epic rarity and higher can be restored in the event of a server crash/rollback, provided an in-game ticket is sent to us that meets the following conditions:
    • Exact date of the raid.
    • Video of the complete fight, showing the raid ID, loot, and full list of raid members.
    • Name of the player who received or should have received the item.

Item restoration is always at the discretion of the Hateforge team. Falsified information leads to the immediate closure of the account.

# IV. Misallocation of Loot

The Hateforge team does not handle requests for reallocating loot from one player to another if the item was accidentally assigned to the wrong player. Players are advised to exercise caution when choosing items and during master looting.

In cases where a misloot occurs due to an error or system failure, the Hateforge team may, at their discretion and with evidence (videos), decide that the item should have been awarded.

# V. Cheating/Illegal Behavior

The Hateforge team can lock or close any account if you violate the provisions listed below or assist others in doing so. You agree that under no circumstances will you wholly or partially do or support the following:

The use, offering, advertising, distribution of, or support for:

  • Cheats; methods to influence and/or facilitate the game, including exploiting existing in-game bugs that provide you and/or other users an advantage.
  • Bots; including, but not limited to, any code, hardware, and/or software that enables automated control of the game or any of its features or components.
  • Hacks; accessing or altering the game code, memory, packet data, software, and/or any component or feature thereof, altering and/or facilitating gameplay.
  • Electronic attacks; methods to block/delay connections, impair bandwidth, fragment packets, and/or applications, or any attempt to disrupt a Hateforge server, network, and/or service or a feature or component thereof.

# VI. Trading of Virtual Goods/Services (Real Money Trading/RMT)

Hateforge does not tolerate the trade of virtual goods or services that appear in or originate from the game, or other attributes associated with an account or any part thereof, for real money, or the exchange of such items, currencies, or services for values outside of the game.

The Hateforge team reserves the right to close any account involved in such a transaction.

# VII. Multiboxing

Multiboxing Ban in PvP Situations

Any PvP actions, whether in Open-World PvP or on battlegrounds, are excluded from multiboxing. Multiboxing refers to playing multiple characters simultaneously, regardless of whether this is done through third-party software, switching between instances (ALT+TAB), or running on multiple machines.

PvE Exceptions

The only exception for multiboxing is that players are allowed to play two characters at the same time by switching between instances. The use of third-party software is considered cheating and will lead to the closure of the player's account.

Sanctions for Violations

If a player has two or more instances active simultaneously and this is deemed an attempt to gain an unfair advantage in PvP situations, the Hateforge team reserves the right to impose sanctions at their discretion.

These sanctions can extend up to a permanent ban.

# VIII. Assistance from Staff

We understand that a player contacting the Hateforge team may be upset about a problem they have experienced in the game. However, the use of vulgar, offensive, or disrespectful language towards staff is unnecessary, inappropriate, and counterproductive.

Players exhibiting such behavior will be asked to stop. If they continue, a sanction may be imposed on their account. A staff member will never ask you to do anything that jeopardizes an account or its personal information.

The Hateforge team will endeavor to extend due respect to you. We ask that you extend the same respect to us. We take no pleasure in imposing sanctions on an account, but must do so in accordance with this agreement.

# A. In-Game Assistance

You can access the in-game ticket system by clicking on the red question mark at the bottom right of the interface bar. Note that if a staff member cannot reach you in-game or if the problem does not require further information, they will send the player an in-game mail.

Before using this feature:

  •  
  • If your issue is related to a quest, abandon and then reaccept the quest.
  • If you are experiencing any bugs, disable all add-ons and restart the game.
  • Clear the game cache by deleting the WDB folder in the game directory.
  • Talk to other players to find out if they have had the same problem and how they solved it.

Requests that will not be processed include, but are not limited to, the following:

  •  
  • Incomprehensible requests.
  • Requests for items and/or gold.
  • Requests to unlock/lock accounts.
  • Information and/or help for a quest.
  • Bug reports: Please use our public bug tracker for all bug reports so that the QA team can review, reproduce the bug, and forward it to the developers.

# B. Interaction with Staff

Time spent addressing issues that have already been answered prevents the Hateforge team from dealing with urgent problems of other users. If a single player repeatedly creates abusive or multiple tickets about the same closed issue or otherwise misuses the system, they will be asked to cease. If they ignore this, a sanction will be imposed on their account.

Any attempt to bribe a member of the Hateforge team will lead to the immediate closure of the account.

Hateforge reserves the right, at its sole and absolute discretion, to change, modify, add, supplement, or delete the terms of this agreement at any time, for any reason or no reason, even if you have been informed beforehand or not.

# IX. Sanctions

Previous sanctions or warnings imposed on an account will be considered in case of a repeat violation of the rules. Disposable accounts violating the rules will always be permanently banned. Some sanctions can be imposed without prior warning, depending on their severity.

For example, a player spamming in public channels should receive a warning. However, if the spamming is deemed excessive, the Game Master may decide to skip the warning and impose a temporary mute on the player.

# A. Warning

For minor offenses, a warning will be issued first to inform the player about the rules and to warn them of future sanctions. Warnings are noted in the player's log:

  •  
  • AFK in battlegrounds.
  • Excessive killing of important quest NPCs.
  • Harassing players.
  • Racist or offensive remarks.
  • Using color-changing scripts in chat.
  • Abuse of the help system (forum or in-game).
  • Safespotting.
  • Lack of respect towards players or staff.
  • Multiboxing.
  • Attempting to bribe a staff member.
  • Non-German language in public channels.
  • Spam.

# B. Muting or Temporary Account Suspension

This sanction can last between 3 hours and 30 days, depending on the severity, and is imposed for repeated violations of the rules or for any of the following offenses:

  • Scamming.
  • Lying to or attempting to deceive Hateforge staff.
  • Abuse of in-game bugs.
  • Organized killing for farming rank and/or honor (Win-Trading).
  • Griefing at world bosses.

# C. Permanent Ban

This is the most severe sanction. It is imposed for multiple violations of the rules or after several account suspensions, as well as for any of the following offenses:

  • Scamming via cash on delivery (COD).
  • Hacking.
  • Using any type of botting software.
  • Any client modification not provided by Hateforge services (libraries, executables, MPQs, etc.).
  • Revealing the identity of a Hateforge staff member.
  • Advertising other private servers or gold-selling websites.
  • Selling/buying player names.
  • Exchanging accounts, gold, items, or in-game services for features of another game.
  • Selling/buying accounts, gold, items, or in-game services with real money.
  • Possession of items or gold obtained illegally.
  • Publishing software, methods, or articles for cheating that can be applied on the server.
  • Abuse of serious in-game bugs.
  • Impersonating staff members.

Hateforge reserves the right, at its sole and absolute discretion, to suspend or terminate your use of the service at any time, for any reason or no reason, with or without prior notice to you.