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RULES
Following is a list of rules that are in effect for the mtrek.com game server. Ignorance of these rules is no excuse. By using this server, you agree to follow these rules. Breaking of the rules will result in administrative action, including but not limited to ship or player removal and banning. These rules are not meant to discourage gameplay, but enhance it. This server is open to the public, free of charge.
PLAYER ACCOUNTS
Players may have more than one “Player Account”. However, expect to be found out by the other players, because your conversation patterns, your play/fighting styles, your all-around personality will eventually shine through. Do not use multiple player accounts for the purpose of harassing, slandering, or annoying other players. Do not try to BS the admin with your multiple accounts, and don’t use your multiple accounts (personalities) to win an argument in the forums or elsewhere. That’s just weird.
CHEATING
Only one ship per player may be logged in for gameplay at any given time. This is To discourage those that would pointship, bank or multiplex. I realize that ships go link-dead, and that sometimes players have real-life friends playing from their houses etc… Those are THE ONLY REASONS this server does not auto-ban multi-shippers. If your ship goes link-dead, I’ll see the “brk” in the logs. If you’re planning to share a connection with a friend on a regular basis, give us a heads-up ahead of time. (Or if you’re connecting from a shared connection at a University for example. This latter is far less common than it was in the 90s) And again, as I said above, don’t BS the admin.
Pointshipping will not be tolerated. Pointshipping typically involves a player having multiple ships active at one time, and thus is already expressly prohibited. Specifically, pointshipping is taking an active ship and shooting another, usually flown by the same player or a friend, without actually engaging in combat. The target ship is not doing battle, it’s just being used to artifically increase the firing ship’s score. Sparring is not pointshipping. If you and a friend wish to battle, and set damage limits, this seems like an appropriate form of gameplay. Likewise, killing newbies is not pointshipping, however unsavory it may be. You may wish to consider though, how a game can survive without an influx of new players, and take a minute to actually pass on some helpful information. POINTSHIPPER SHIPS WILL BE DELETED
Banking will not be tolerated. Banking is collecting gold in one or more ships, and quitting or destroying those ships for the purpose of bloating the score of another ship in a players fleet. Similarly, giving the gold to another player to bloat their score is also prohibited. A ship’s score should be based on a ship’s merit. Not on any other ships within the player’s fleet. BANKER SHIPS WILL BE DELETED
Multiplexing will not be tolerated. Multiplexing is the use of any software or scripts that allow you to control more than one ship at the same time. MULTIPLEXER ACCOUNTS WILL BE DELETED. YOUR NETWORK(S) / IP(S) WILL BE BLOCKED FROM ACCESSING THIS SERVER.
Exploitation of bugs from any player will not be tolerated. We expect that bugs will be reported immediately, so they can be taken care of as soon as possible. Failure to report a bug will most certainly NOT be tolerated.
We want to make the high score list a proud acheivement for anyone that can make it there, not some place where anyone that can pointship, bank, or exploit a bug can get. Several of these problems are a result of bad apples from the original MTrek player base… Those that think it is cool to bank or pointship just to get on the high score list. It’s a really sad thing that any type of rules have to be implemented, but without rules, the game becomes stressful and frustrating, and is no longer fun to play. We want everyone to enjoy the game as much as we do.
TRYING TO BREAK THE GAME
DON’T TRY TO BREAK THE GAME. “Breaking the game” is broadly defined as any activity intended to ruin or damage the site or the game. This could include attempting to hack passwords, inject code, flood ports with data or otherwise malicious activity. Another example might be creating posts, content, sharing images, posting links, or creating ship/player names that might get mtrek.com black-listed or safe-search filtered. This game is provided to the public free of charge and we have a small, mostly friendly community here. We don’t go out of our way to mess with your online presence, so please don’t mess with ours. If you have some personal vendetta against mtrek.com or the admin here for any reason, please email mtrek@live.com and I’m sure we can work things out in a more adult manner.
HARASSMENT
Harassment, to include griefing, spamming, being a general nuisance: Simply put, this will not be tolerated. It is understood that profanity, vulgarity, and other adult language will often be used by adults. Players will talk smack after beating an opponent, and that’s fine. It is not my intent to limit anyone’s “free speech”, but when it crosses the line and makes other players not want to play the game, it is time to put an end to it. Behave as an adult, and you will be treated as one. To players offended by strong (adult) language, I encourage you to make use of the R* and R(ship letter) commands. And just as players are allowed to use profanity, you are also allowed to ask players to refrain from it. This isn’t about filtering out cuss words and I’m not about to start down that road… However, Harassment is another thing. Call it stalking, cyber-bullying, whatever, I won’t put up with it. As a litmus test, has the player explicitly asked you stop the behavior? If so, you have probably crossed that boundary between sportsmanlike banter, and Harassment. If harassment is reported to me, I’ll investigate the situation however I see fit, issue a warning if I feel doing so is appropriate, and ultimately, I will take action. I will almost always take the side of the individual claiming to be harassed. In cases of harassment, I fully reserve the right to take any action, up to and including: site-bans, account/ship deletions, and reporting individuals to their Internet Service Providers and/or Law Enforcement Agencies. Previously, only Global in-game chats were being logged (m*). That is no longer the case. I have no intention of reading your private conversations, but be aware that ALL CHATS ARE CURRENTLY BEING LOGGED.
ADDED 17 JULY 2016: Ship Names
Creating a ship that targets or impersonates another player can also be considered “harassment”. As I alluded to above, perception plays as big of a role as intent when it comes to what kind of behavior(s) might be considered harassment… Hopefully we can all be mature and avoid any issues here.
Promoting violence and hate-speech: Again, this isn’t mean to be a profanity filter, and I don’t care about “political correctness”. Not everyone has the same sense of humor though, so please keep that in mind. Since promoting violence and hate-speech tie right in with harassment, I again, fully reserve the right to take any action I see fit, up to and including: site-bans, account/ship deletions, and reporting individuals to their Internet Service Providers and/or Law Enforcement Agencies.
Final note on harassment: (catch-all statement) If you’re just being an asshole, you still might get banned/deleted/whatever.
ILLEGAL ACTIVITY
Mtrek.com is a game, and that’s it. It is not intended to be used for any type of illegal activities. As a user, it is your responsibility to be aware of the laws governing what you do online. Mtrek.com does not permit the use of its services for any type of illegal activity, and by using this server, you agree to not use it for anything illegal. All activity is being logged. Any attempts to use mtrek.com for illegal purposes will result in an immediate and permanent ban, and the appropriate authorities will be notified.
MTREK.COM PRIVACY STATEMENT:
Protection of personal information
Personal information includes, but is not limited to, real names, email addresses, ip addresses, geographic information, passwords, etc.
All personal information exchanged electronically with either the game server, the website, or directly with any administrator, moderator, or programmer on mtrek.com, will be protected by every reasonable measure within the limitations of the software and communication protocols used on this server.
These measures include:
Server-side security programs and firewalls will be maintained by frequently checking for, and executing security updates and upgrades as they become available.
Effective password protection and encryption methods will be used for storing and accessing all files and locations where personal information may be found.
No personal information will be shared with, sold to, or be made available to, any outside organization, company, or individual.
Personal information will not be used by any current or future admin, moderator, or programmer to gain any in-game advantage, or to harass or annoy any player.
To re-emphasize our privacy policy:
All personally identifiable information will be safeguarded on this server, and any names, email addresses, phone numbers etc will be treated as such. This information will not be given or sold in any part to outside entities for any purpose. (example: spam email farming)
Users of this server can make their own personal information publicly viewable at their own discretion. IE forum posts, article comments etc.
By using this server, users agree to absolve mtrek.com and all associated parties of any liability for any damages at all that may or may not be a result of using this server.
Users should also understand that data packets that are transmitted via the TELNET protocol contain data in clear text, which is unencrypted. Though an unlikely occurrence, personal information sent via TELNET can potentially be intercepted by third parties. This is the nature of TELNET and completely beyond the control of mtrek.com, so it is important to be mindful of exactly what information is being sent using the TELNET protocol. FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, DATA TRANSMISSIONS SENT VIA TELNET SHOULD BE CONSIDERED “PUBLIC”.
In-game data:
In-game data includes, but is not limited to: ship macros/key maps, life support status, current damage, xyz coordinates, weapon inventories, etc. This is referring particularly to ship data which would not normally be publicly available either in-game or on the mtrek.com website.
To the greatest extent possible, in-game data will not be viewed or manipulated by admins, mods, or programmers and only as a necessity for debugging and system maintenance.
ADMIN TOOLS
The admin toolset includes the website control panel, the database front-end, the server command line, the game server monitor, and the in-game debugging tools (admin Q/Z ships).
The admin toolset will not be used to affect changes or to retrieve/misuse any of the above-mentioned personal information or in-game data.
“Admin” ships will not be used to spy on, or annoy players. They will also not be used to attack, disable, or otherwise cause interference to a player’s game session.
Admin tools will not be used to modify, heal, resupply, or be used in any other way to give an advantage to, or to protect/restore any administrator’s, moderator’s, or programmer’s ship.
The only exceptions to the admin tools usage policy, are for enforcement of other policies listed in this document. (like, you know… because I have to use admin tools to delete a cheater or whatever)
About this server:
The current game on mtrek.com is proudly powered by the JavaTrek game engine, which was originally written by Joe Hopkinson and Jay Ashworth.
Without their contributions, MTrek would not be available for us to play in any form. THANK YOU Joe and Jay!
JavaTrek (Jtrek) is open source and can be downloaded for free at GitHub or sourceforge. If you’re interesting in starting your own server, feel free to drop me a line at mtrek@live.com and I can probably help you out if you run into any snags.
The mtrek.com domain name has been registered to a long-time player since 2012. Previously, (in the 1990’s and 2000’s) the domain name belonged to Chuck L. Peterson. He was the original author of Multi-Trek, the game upon which JavaTrek was based. mtrek.com is the domain that served CLP’s version of the game for several years.
All of the software powering the mtrek.com server is free and open source, including but not limited to: (LAMP stack – Linux Ubuntu Server, Apache, MySQL, php) the JavaTrek engine, WordPress software, and open source plugins and theme elements.
mtrek.com is -not- a commercial endeavor. The server upkeep and maintenance is funded privately. Members of the public will not be solicited for donations. No products or services will be sold here, and no advertising rights will be granted to third parties.
Copyright Disclaimer:
STAR TREK and all related marks, logos and characters are owned by CBS Studios Inc. This website, the promotion thereof and/or any exhibition of material created by the operators of this website are not endorsed or sponsored by or affiliated with CBS/Paramount Pictures or the STAR TREK franchise.
The game, the website, and all content herein is public, open-source, and non-profit in nature. If you have any questions or concerns, or if you’d like to take credit for any works in use on mtrek.com, derivative or otherwise, please let me know.
If you have any questions, please email me at mtrek@live.com
-obit