Server Rules

This thread includes server rules and how to reduce lag.

Keeping the Server Safe

We want SootMC to be the safest place possible for our players, so in order to do that we adopt some common sense rules.

• We do NOT allow harrassment, bullying or any similar behaviours on our server. This can include racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, ableism etc.
• We do NOT allow any discussion regarding sensitive or triggering topics such as comments regarding slavery etc.
• We do NOT allow any drama in server chats or forums. This should be kept private between those involved or should not happen at all.
• Any use of slurs will NOT be tolerated and shall result in a PERMANENT ban from the server as they are incredibly offensive and can be considered personal attacks these can include the R slur and the M slur (https://www.lpaonline.org/the-m-word). If you are unsure whether the word you are using is a slur or not, DO NOT USE IT. It is your responsibility to understand the words you use and how they can affect others. Please contact a staff member if you want to ask whether a word may be a slur or not.
• Respect other player's builds and claims. Please do NOT take resources from unclaimed land, claim builds that are not yours or destroy any bases/builds. It's toxic and uncalled for so please avoid griefing.
• We do NOT allow any NSFW talk or content, there are children who play on the server. Please respect that

Play Fair

We want to keep this server as fair as possible for all players. Cheating to win removes the fun out of the game as it removes any challenge in it. We ask that you please do not ruin the game for everyone else.

• SootMC is a "PvP free" server by default, however we make it possible to toggle PvP on and off. By enabling PvP you are acknowledging and accepting the risks of being killed and losing your items. Please do not attempt to use any item or method to get around not enabling PvP to kill other players.
• Alt accounts are allowed on this server as long as you have not been banned. If you have been banned we ask you not to join the server on an alt account as you risk being permanently banned for ban evasion. We ask if you have other people in your household playing on the server to notify staff to avoid future complications.
• Any hack or mod that gives a player an unfair advantage is not allowed. Do not use any exploits that can provide an advantage such as duping, using a composter and piston to mine, clay/gravel patch mining, xray resource packs, mods that allow to obtain a server seed or any other exploitation of our plugins. If you are unsure about a specific exploit please contact staff.

We allow modifications in the following categories:

• Mods that improve client performance (Optifine)
• Minimaps, as long as it doesn’t show anything you can’t normally see (caves, dungeon locations, etc.)
• Aesthetic modifications that do not give you an unfair advantage or change gameplay (Shaders)
• Inventory management systems, such as automatic organization
• Mods for recording gameplay (ReplayMod)
• The Schematica mod (auto-build and easy place features are prohibited)
• Armor and status HUDs (as long as info shown is accessible in vanilla)
• Macros (setting certain actions to specific buttons)
• Hotbar Items that have been brought in on the plots server must follow the guides linked in this document: Illegal Items Guide

General Rules

• AFK Grinding is allowed as long as it is not during peak times when the server is full. If you are caught doing this you will be kicked and banned if it is a repeated occurrence.
• Please refrain from speaking any language except English, as doing so prevents us from effectively moderating chat.
• Self Promotion is not allowed. You can share things you have created as long as you don’t share it with the intention of promoting it. Please ask us before promoting to avoid punishment.
• Spamming through chat, private messages and commands is not allowed.
• Abuse of permissions bought on store.sootmc.com may result in the removal of them.
• If a moderator feels it is appropriate, they may enforce stricter rules in order to control a situation that is occurring. However if you believe any abuse of power has happened,  you can open a modmail in the discord and report this. 

Reducing Lag

In order to reduce lag we use a plugin called Lagassist, which will despawn certain mobs and turn of some block physics such as water flow when the server is lagging. Our development team is constantly working hard to improve server performance. 

Rules we employ for you to help us reduce lag include:

• Put switches to turn your automatic farms on and off. Don’t make these farms too large and keep farms off during peak times.
• Seperate your afk farms out so they aren’t all loaded at once.
• Reduce the amount of animals/mobs around your bases. 

Anything causing too much lag will simply be removed from the server

Please use /report in game if you see any players abusing a rule mentioned above!

Server Specific Rules

Some servers have more rules to cover specific gameplay features that the server has, the network wide rules still apply to these servers

Prisons

• Do not use alts to access mines you have already passed
• Camping PVP areas is allowed but do not target players

Plots

• Do NOT fill up the path between plots with entities
• Do NOT spawn any mobs than can cause damage to other plots.