Guild Pacts Terminology

[Maelyn]

• Commonly Used Pacts
• KOS - Kill on Sight: Not a treaty, per se, but one that's often listed. When a particular player has done something to annoy or offend a guild, that guild may place a KOS on this player. At that point, members of the guild will shoot the offending player at their leisure or sometimes go out of their way to do so.
• CF - Ceasefire: A ceasefire will often be declared towards the end of a large war when no terms for ending the war were agreed on in advance. The ceasefire simply means that the two sides will stop shooting each other for a definite period of time while a permanent peace treaty is negotiated. Sometimes negotiations will fall apart and the sides will resume fighting.
• NAP - Non-aggression Pact: An NAP bars its signatories from attacking each other. These are often part of a peace treaty at the end of a war.
• Peace treaty: This is a general phrase that refers to the terms upon which a war is ended. The details will vary but usual involve a time-limited NAP, and instructions for dealing with occupations and leftover debris.
• MDP - Mutual Defense Pact This pact simply states that two or more parties will come together in defense should one of them be attacked. An NAP is implicit in an MDP. If a member of an MDP is attacked, they will sometimes decline help from the other signatories. An MDP will often be offered as part of a peace treaty.
• Ally: Allies represent close relationships between guilds. An MDP is implicit with allies and often allies will engage in aggressive wars together.
• ZF - Zero fleet: To "ZF" someone is to destroy all or almost all of their fleet.
• Protectorate: Large guilds will sometimes offer protection to a smaller guild. The smaller guild will then be known as a protectorate of the larger. Rarely are protectorates called upon to help defend their protector so it is like a "one way" MDP. Usually, the protector guild has significant influence over the politics of their protectorate. Protectors are not restricted to only defending their protectorate and will often regulate wars involving their protectorate and see that an equitable peace treaty is arranged.
• Sub-guildThis functions very much like a protectorate although sub-guilds generally have more sovereignty than a protectorate. Sub-guilds are seen to be in the same "family" as their parent guild and will often fight beside one another in very large wars. Also, members will flow freely between Sub-guild and parent guild.
• Training Guild: A training guild is a type of protectorate. The difference is that a training guild is meant as a proving ground where players earn membership in the Protector guild. Training guilds do not "grow out of" their protectorate status whereas most protectorates are meant to. Training guilds do not maintain their own politics and diplomacy and instead are directed almost completely by their parent guild. Often, the GM of a training guild will be a member of the parent guild.
• Bloodpact: This treaty is exactly the same as an Ally except that it is seen as a much stronger bond.
• Family: Groups of guilds are often referred to as a family. A family may include guilds with bloodpacts, their protectorates, and training guilds. Families often fight together in very large wars. Families are not a treaty so much as a consequence of longstanding friendships. When protectorates graduate out of needing protection, they will often retain family ties to their former protector.
• White Peace: Common agreement used to end a war. Neither side surrenders and the terms regarding occupations and debris will be the same for both sides. The details vary from war to war.

Proposal for Treaty/Pact terminology:

In reference to the off-topic discussion in another thread, it came to light that there are those who have conflicting views of what some treaties, pacts, and agreements mean. In light of this, and in order to foster more equitable communication, this is the proposed terminology for the agreements already in place.

In order of increasing strength of ties and potency of the agreement. Ones further down the list trump ones higher up the list in case of a conflict. As such, MDPs take precedence over NAPs, Alliances over MDPs, and so on.

KOS - Kill On Sight (also, Enemies): Not a treaty, per se, but one that's often listed. Typically individual players are listed as KOS to a guild, though at times, such as war, entire guilds may be KOS to each other.

LMNOP - Llamas May Now Own Planets: A synanagram of KOS used by [RL] "In honor of the plethora of alphabetic anagrams".

CF - Cease Fire: A temporary cessation of hostilities between two or more parties. The cease fire may of indefinite time, but generally only lasts until another agreement is signed, a pre-determined period of time elapses, or hostilities resume for whatever cause

Armistice: A more permanent cessation of hostilities where the signatory bodies agree to withdraw from occupations, cease-fire, and refrain from provoking the other parties. Relations between parties generally remain less-than-amicable.

NFP - No Fart Pact: TK and CoRM's humorous take on an NAP stated for the purpose of "Relieving tensions by eliminating the excesive and needless farting at each other".

NAP - Non-Agression Pact: Signatories to this Pact agree not to engage in unwarranted agression (attacks, occupations, piracy, pillaging, or "stealing" occupations (including United Colonies and other Server Bot accounts)) against the other parties. A NAP is generally suspended, if not rendered null-and-void by one a signatory party's attacks on allies or defense partners of the others.

GuardPact - Guardian Pact: Currently unique to TGTF, the party offering Guardian Pacts agrees to come to the aid of the smaller signatory party. In return, the protected party agrees not to launch aggressive actions against others outside of retaliation for attacks received. Aid from the larger signatory party is cheifly in the diplomatic spheres, followed by assistance in liberating bases, and when necessary limited punative strikes against the agressor. This can be inferred as a one-sided MDP, where the smaller signatory party is not obligated to come to the aid of the larger.

IPI - Imperial Protectorate Initiative: (seeking clarficiation) The Imperium's apparent version of the Guardian Pact, stated that "the IPI will bring the strength of The Imperium over new and vulnerable guilds in order that they should be allowed to grow to a stage where they can rightly fend for themselves, adding to the growth and diversity of the known universe."

ODP - Optional Defense Pact: Signatories to this Pact may come to the aid of the other signatories in the event of unwarranted attacks or aggression against other signatories but are not obligated to do so. Typically, this requires the party being attacked to request assistance under the terms of the ODP, but it is not required for a formal or official request to be received in order for the other parties to act. A signatory to this Pact may choose to stay uninvolved when they hold identical Pacts with the parties involved. (Currently seeing limited use in the A2x cluster of galaxies)

MDP - Mutual Defense Pact: Signatories to this Pact agree to come to the aid of the other signatories in the event of unwarranted attacks or aggression against other signatories. Typically, this requires the party being attacked to request assistance under the terms of the MDP, but it is not required for a formal or official request to be received in order for the other parties to act.

Brotherhood Pact: Any Aggression towards any 1 member in this pact is an automatic declaration of war against all members of this pact. Also All members of this pact swear to never break this pact or attack an Alliance member of any other Guild. In which case if any one guild breaks this Pact it will be an automatic declaration of War against the members of this pact. Unless the de-joining guild contacts each guild.

MAP - Mutual Agression Pact: Signatories to this Pact agree to join together to wage war against a specified foe, or against any opponents now or in the future. It does not mandate assistance in purely defensive operations.

Ally - Alliance (also known as MADP - Mutual Agression/Defense Pact): Two or more signatory bodies agree to act as one in manners of offense, defense, intel, and commerce. Attacks against one are considered attacks against the other, and attacks made by one are usually accompanied by attacks made by the other.

ZF'ed - Zero Fleeted: Destroying all of a player's main fleet.

Blood Pact: A variation of Alliance practiced by the BORG in which signatory parties who break their word are de facto considered at war with the BORG and all other parties to the agreement.

Vassalage: (seeking clarification) The vassal-state guild owes alliegance to a more powerful guild (aka overlord). Guild policies for the vassal-state are directed by the overlord guild. Relations between the two guilds should be interpreted as per an alliance, in that actions against one are actions against the other, but it does not always follow that the overlord guild will come to the rescue of the vassal-state.

Special Circumstances: Some guilds are to be considered as one guild, even if they span more than one in terms of gameplay systems. Currently two known cases - The Imperium, due to its size, spans two guilds IMP and IMPII; EeY, OCL, and AoE are considered one guild, but are separate for roleplay and language reasons.

----

Those listed above are as I believe they are commonly and correctly interpreted. Please provide feedback so I can adjust for what is the practice in AE.

Further, clarification on what guilds mean when they list each other as "Friends" (ie NAP? MDP? Ally? Friendly relations but nothing formal?) will be helpful. At this point I am unable to assign it a place in the listing.

Thank you.
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changelog:

2006.11.04
armistace->armistice
added ODP between GuardPact and MDP
added IPI between GuardPact and ODP
added NFP between Armistice and NAP
changed contact information, temporarily

2006.10.19
added Blood Pact between Ally and Vassalage

2006.10.18
added "enemies" as alternate for KOS
added MAP between MDP and ally
added MADP as alternate for ally
added Vassalage between ally and special circumstance, and requested verification
added request for clarification on "friends"

2007.08.03
added "LMNOP"

2006.11.01
added Brotherhood Pact

2009.07.03
added ZF'ed

[Flute]

Thanks for your time Maelyn.

Topic locked. To request a change PM a moderator.

[Hammurabi]

Hey folks, weigh in here. Does anyone feel that this thread still deserves a sticky? I'd like to clear it off, and it seems to me that it's fairly common knowledge.

[Super Grover]

most of the terminology is outdated (TGTF gone, IMP renamed) or not used (MAP, Armistice).. personally I don't really think it's essential to have a pact terminology thread, and people who don't know the terminology can easily ask in their guild if something's unclear (I doubt new players will have to deal with many diplomatic issues anyhow).

[Griffin Vengeance]

It either needs a big update or a deletion. Personally, I'd aim for the former; never hurts to be thorough. There aren't that many pact-types as there were then, anyway.

[Crazed_One]

It either needs a big update or a deletion. Personally, I'd aim for the former; never hurts to be thorough. There aren't that many pact-types as there were then, anyway.

These days it basically comes down to whether your friends with someone or not, above all.

[Num Yummy!]

Wow, reading this is like a blast from the past. Seeing names like "Eey", and "IMP".

Anyways, I dont think it should be deleted. I know when I was a noob, this thread helped me out alot. It needs MAJOR updates though

[Paestero]

Wow, reading this is like a blast from the past. Seeing names like "Eey", and "IMP".

Anyways, I dont think it should be deleted. I know when I was a noob, this thread helped me out alot. It needs MAJOR updates though

[Bruskie]

I feel if we update this, and move it tavern, it will continue to be a guide to noobs.

P&W is getting sticky happy again.

[Im Good Not God]

I feel if we update this, and move it tavern, it will continue to be a guide to noobs.

P&W is getting sticky happy again.

this


oh and maybe keep the original as the second post.

[Paestero]

Which items can dropped:
-Armistice (can't remember it ever being used)
-NFP
-GuardPact
-IPI
-Brotherhood Pact (perhaps changed to Family?)
-Special Circumstances (don't think any guilds existing apply to this)

Items to be changed:
-Blood pact: Same as ally, but usually is valued A LOT higher by guilds involved in it.

Items to be added:
Sub guild: Usually an extension of a top-guild to the "lower tiers", which has lower recruitment standards. This allows new(er) players to work up to the standards of the top guild. Politics are usually closely related (and approved first) by the 'super' guild. Interaction between two guilds is close to that of being one big guild.

-Training guid: Similar to a sub guild, but usually less closely involved (politically and internally) with the top guild. Where a sub guild is usually formed by the top guild itself, a training guild is (usually) 'selected' out of existing guilds. And by that is held in a 'lower' regard by most guilds.

[Hammurabi]

Tell you what. I'll bump this over to the tavern tomorrow, and whenever someone gets around to it, make a completely new post; feel free to use BBcode and everything, because I can go into your post and copy it all. Once that's updated, I'll take it and stick it in the first post, and put the existing first post in quotes for posterity. How's that sound?

[Paestero]

Tell you what. I'll bump this over to the tavern tomorrow, and whenever someone gets around to it, make a completely new post; feel free to use BBcode and everything, because I can go into your post and copy it all. Once that's updated, I'll take it and stick it in the first post, and put the existing first post in quotes for posterity. How's that sound?

That could work

[Arbiter]

Here ya go hammy. Let me know if I forgot anything.

• Commonly Used Pacts
• KOS - Kill on Sight: Not a treaty, per se, but one that's often listed. When a particular player has done something to annoy or offend a guild, that guild may place a KOS on this player. At that point, members of the guild will shoot the offending player at their leisure or sometimes go out of their way to do so.
• CF - Ceasefire: A ceasefire will often be declared towards the end of a large war when no terms for ending the war were agreed on in advance. The ceasefire simply means that the two sides will stop shooting each other for a definite period of time while a permanent peace treaty is negotiated. Sometimes negotiations will fall apart and the sides will resume fighting.
• NAP - Non-aggression Pact: An NAP bars its signatories from attacking each other. These are often part of a peace treaty at the end of a war.
• Peace treaty: This is a general phrase that refers to the terms upon which a war is ended. The details will vary but usual involve a time-limited NAP, and instructions for dealing with occupations and leftover debris.
• MDP - Mutual Defense Pact This pact simply states that two or more parties will come together in defense should one of them be attacked. An NAP is implicit in an MDP. If a member of an MDP is attacked, they will sometimes decline help from the other signatories. An MDP will often be offered as part of a peace treaty.
• Ally: Allies represent close relationships between guilds. An MDP is implicit with allies and often allies will engage in aggressive wars together.
• ZF - Zero fleet: To "ZF" someone is to destroy all or almost all of their fleet.
• Protectorate: Large guilds will sometimes offer protection to a smaller guild. The smaller guild will then be known as a protectorate of the larger. Rarely are protectorates called upon to help defend their protector so it is like a "one way" MDP. Usually, the protector guild has significant influence over the politics of their protectorate. Protectors are not restricted to only defending their protectorate and will often regulate wars involving their protectorate and see that an equitable peace treaty is arranged.
• Sub-guildThis functions very much like a protectorate although sub-guilds generally have more sovereignty than a protectorate. Sub-guilds are seen to be in the same "family" as their parent guild and will often fight beside one another in very large wars. Also, members will flow freely between Sub-guild and parent guild.
• Training Guild: A training guild is a type of protectorate. The difference is that a training guild is meant as a proving ground where players earn membership in the Protector guild. Training guilds do not "grow out of" their protectorate status whereas most protectorates are meant to. Training guilds do not maintain their own politics and diplomacy and instead are directed almost completely by their parent guild. Often, the GM of a training guild will be a member of the parent guild.
• Bloodpact: This treaty is exactly the same as an Ally except that it is seen as a much stronger bond.
• Family: Groups of guilds are often referred to as a family. A family may include guilds with bloodpacts, their protectorates, and training guilds. Families often fight together in very large wars. Families are not a treaty so much as a consequence of longstanding friendships. When protectorates graduate out of needing protection, they will often retain family ties to their former protector.

[Hammurabi]

The first post is updated. I'll leave this open, in case anyone has an update/change.