Rules of the Game
General Rules:
Before joining, you may need to alter your game settings in order to comply with the rules:
Player Types:
There are three types of player: Regular, Police and the Mayor:
Regular players follow different rules to the police - joining/leaving the police may require you to forfeit certain property, resources or weapons in order to comply with the rules.
For regular players:
* The locations of all hospitals, medical centres and police stations can be found on the useful material page
** A Regular player's cash can be banked to prevent loss when killed. This is explained in the cash section of the rules below.
For police players:
* A Police player's money is always considered banked. This is explained in the cash section of the rules.
Law Enforcement:
Becoming wanted:
The police are encouraged to patrol the map and keep the peace. The crimes they should look out for include;
*For small crimes the police are encouraged to charge fines. These are handled as voluntary transactions and can be no greater than $1,000. Transactions are explained in the cash section further down the page.
Note: For regular players, owning any weapon is perfectly legal - although police can remove & destroy your non pistol weapons during an arrest.
Players cannot lie to the police if asked questions regarding current vehicle status (stolen/not stolen), resource inventory or finances. Refusal to answer is allowed, however this may lead to an arrest order.
The police/mayor cannot become wanted, however it is against the rules for them to kill other players (unless they are resisting arrest, or it is in self defense).
Losing a wanted level:
*The police should keep a note of death notifications, to ensure that killed players are no longer wanted.
Arresting/killing/sentencing criminals:
Rules of Police engagement:
If a player feels the police have not followed the rules of engagement, they should record a clip of the incident and send it to the mayor for review - the mayor may chose to remove offenders from the police force.
Money & Cash:
IMPORTANT: All players start with $5,000 in cash.
Money and Cash are key resources within the game. Money is the name given to 'banked' cash. Money and cash are used to purchase properties, generate resources, and to trade with others. Players must keep a record of their money & cash, and update it by adding or subtracting when necessary. The useful material page contains a Gamercard document to make this easier. The rules for money and cash are as follows:
Cash:
Banking Cash:
Losing Cash:
The mayor will attempt regular audits to keep track of player cash : If there is significant inequality he may propose wealth & property taxes, which would have to be put to a player vote each session.
Note 1: A wealthy player may consider contributing to the mayor or police in return for political/criminal support. This could be to influence any potential tax policies, or even to reduce potential criminal punishments & investigations.
Note 2: A player with large amounts of cash will lose a lot from dying. If threatened they may agree to pay a fee in return for their life - but only if they believe the other player will keep his word! Remember to say 'shake hands' to complete any transactions.
Vehicles:
Safe Zones:
All drop off locations* are classed as safe zones & passive mode is allowed there:
Killing, arresting and stealing vehicles is not allowed in the following locations:
Killing and stealing vehicles is not allowed (but arresting is allowed)
*Drop of locations are a type of property described in detail on the Property and resources page.
Before joining, you may need to alter your game settings in order to comply with the rules:
- All players must have their Radar, HUD and gamertag display turned off.
- The pause menu can be used as a map (and to find other players.)
- All phone abilities are forbidden unless stated.
- Passive mode is allowed only in designated areas or when required by the rules.
- Killing notifications are visible to all players & can be acted upon - including alerting police/ rivals to a murder.
- Players are required to keep track of their own inventory, property and finances.
- Verbal communication can take place at any distance between players.
- Game chat, crew chat, party chat & the in-game phone can be used to communicate (Game chat can be listened to by everyone)
Player Types:
There are three types of player: Regular, Police and the Mayor:
- Everyone except the mayor begins as a regular player.
- Joining and leaving the police force is voluntary, however permission from the mayor is required. (The mayor reserves the right to revoke a players police status)
- The mayor follows the same rules as the police unless stated in the rules.
Regular players follow different rules to the police - joining/leaving the police may require you to forfeit certain property, resources or weapons in order to comply with the rules.
For regular players:
- When killed, players must enable passive mode and head to the nearest *police station or *medical centre. Only once the player has touched a medical centre or police station can they disable passive mode and continue.
- Regular players always have access to melee weapons & pistols (apart from the AP pistol) - they do not lose these even after death.
- Other weapons are classed as a resource and require special property or trading to acquire.
- When killed, players lose all non cash resources in their inventory - this includes any weapon that isn't a pistol or melee weapon.
- If a regular player is killed whilst holding $5,000 or more in cash, they lose half of it.**
* The locations of all hospitals, medical centres and police stations can be found on the useful material page
** A Regular player's cash can be banked to prevent loss when killed. This is explained in the cash section of the rules below.
For police players:
- When killed, police are allowed to re-spawn and continue straight away.
- The police are allowed to call lester to remove wanted levels & request turn blind eye
- Police always have access to night sticks, pistols (apart from the AP pistol), shotguns (apart from auto shotguns) and teargas.
- Other weapons cannot be carried by the police.
- When killed, the police lose all non cash resources in their inventory, however they keep their weapons.
- If a police player is killed with $5,000 or more in their account, they pay a fee of $1,000 per death*
* A Police player's money is always considered banked. This is explained in the cash section of the rules.
Law Enforcement:
Becoming wanted:
The police are encouraged to patrol the map and keep the peace. The crimes they should look out for include;
- Traffic violations,
- Refusing to pay fines*
- Fighting
- Driving a stolen vehicle
- Transporting drugs
- killing other players (as confirmed by the on screen notifications)
- Refusing to answer questions regarding any of the above. (refusal to snitch on other players is not a crime however)
*For small crimes the police are encouraged to charge fines. These are handled as voluntary transactions and can be no greater than $1,000. Transactions are explained in the cash section further down the page.
Note: For regular players, owning any weapon is perfectly legal - although police can remove & destroy your non pistol weapons during an arrest.
Players cannot lie to the police if asked questions regarding current vehicle status (stolen/not stolen), resource inventory or finances. Refusal to answer is allowed, however this may lead to an arrest order.
The police/mayor cannot become wanted, however it is against the rules for them to kill other players (unless they are resisting arrest, or it is in self defense).
Losing a wanted level:
- Each new in-game day is a clean slate for players - They cannot be punished for crimes committed on previous days. (As a result, criminal activity will likely peak in the run up to midnight!)
- Once the police have fined or arrested a criminal, they are no longer classed as wanted.
- If the police kill a player but do not follow up with the arrest, the player is no longer considered wanted.
- If a player is killed by another criminal, the dead player is no longer considered wanted.
*The police should keep a note of death notifications, to ensure that killed players are no longer wanted.
Arresting/killing/sentencing criminals:
- The police are authorised to kill criminals who refuse to comply with arrest orders.
- If a non-compliant criminal is killed by the police, the criminal must enter passive mode and comply with the original arrest order. (the criminal must still apply the standard financial/resource penalties for dying)
- If the police do not follow up with the arrest, then the criminal should treat this as a regular death & head to the nearest medical centre/police station before continuing.
- When a criminal complies with an arrest order, they should enable passive mode and follow any police instructions. Police may take the criminal to a police station, and the amount of time spent there is at the police players discretion. (5 real world minutes is the maximum sentence however)
- Once complying with an arrest order, a criminal cannot change their mind.
- If a criminal complies with an arrest order but the police officer gets killed, the criminal must still remain compliant and wait for the police officer to re-spawn.
- Once complying with an arrest order, the criminal must answer police questions truthfully and refusal to answer is no longer permitted. (snitching on other players is not required however)
- Once arrested, criminals must comply with all financial penalties charged by the police.
- The penalty for an arrested player is at the discretion of the arresting officer, however the maximum amount is $5,000. The police must ensure that any arrest penalty will leave the other player with at least $2,500 (cash & bank balance combined). The arresting officer is allowed to keep this money!
- The removal of an arrested player's non cash resources is at the discretion of the arresting police officer - this includes any weapons they are holding. (The police do not get to keep these resources for themselves however)
Rules of Police engagement:
- When issuing a fine or arrest order, the police must enable 'everyone chat' and provide ample time for the other player to respond.
- Violent behaviour from the police is only tolerated in self defence, or once it becomes clear the other player is not complying. (This includes pointing weapons & provoking others)
- If a non compliant or aggressive player evades the police, then an arrest order must be re-issued before police are allowed to use violence. (Evading the police is defined as losing line of sight for 1 in game hour - 2 minutes in real time)
If a player feels the police have not followed the rules of engagement, they should record a clip of the incident and send it to the mayor for review - the mayor may chose to remove offenders from the police force.
Money & Cash:
IMPORTANT: All players start with $5,000 in cash.
Money and Cash are key resources within the game. Money is the name given to 'banked' cash. Money and cash are used to purchase properties, generate resources, and to trade with others. Players must keep a record of their money & cash, and update it by adding or subtracting when necessary. The useful material page contains a Gamercard document to make this easier. The rules for money and cash are as follows:
Cash:
- Cash is kept on your person and cannot be stored in a property or vehicle. Other players cannot directly steal from you, and they cannot loot from you body.
- Un-banked cash is the only form of money that can be transferred to other players.
- Cash is transfered by players meeting up in game and shaking hands
- Shaking hands is completed when both players agree on the transaction and say the words 'shake hands'.
- Players are responsible for keeping track of their own money & cash.
Banking Cash:
- Only the mayor and police officers can deposit/withdraw from the city bank - this does not require any in-game action.
- Regular players can request the mayor or police deposit & withdraw cash to the bank on their behalf - this requires agreeing the amount and shaking hands.
- A police officer can deposit money once per in game day for each player.
- The police must pay a fee of $2,000 for every $10,000 they deposit for other players (They are free to pass this fee on to the other player)
- Police cannot deny/charge for a withdrawal (unless the player is wanted for a crime or the police are involved in urgent action.)
- Any money the police are trusted to deposit is considered 'banked by the city', and is in no way transferred to the police player themselves.
- Regular players can request a withdrawal from any police player - even if they are not the same police officer that deposited the player's money.
- The mayor & police player's money is always considered to be banked (as they can withdraw/deposit at any time). To trade with other players the police can make temporary withdrawals of their own money.
- Properties and their resources can be purchased with banked money, however only un-banked cash can be transferred to other players through hand shakes.
- All players including the mayor and his police are required to note down any deposits and withdrawals they engage in (including gamer tags & amounts). Periodically the mayor will collect notes from his police to check for discrepancies & cheating (eg, people attempting to withdraw more money than they deposit)
Losing Cash:
- If a Police player is killed with $5,000 or more in their account, they pay a fee of $1,000 per death*
- If a Regular player is killed whilst holding $5,000 or more in cash, they lose half of it
The mayor will attempt regular audits to keep track of player cash : If there is significant inequality he may propose wealth & property taxes, which would have to be put to a player vote each session.
Note 1: A wealthy player may consider contributing to the mayor or police in return for political/criminal support. This could be to influence any potential tax policies, or even to reduce potential criminal punishments & investigations.
Note 2: A player with large amounts of cash will lose a lot from dying. If threatened they may agree to pay a fee in return for their life - but only if they believe the other player will keep his word! Remember to say 'shake hands' to complete any transactions.
Vehicles:
- Weaponised vehicles are not allowed (eg, gunships, jets, tanks and technicals)
- High performance vehicles are not allowed unless purchased
- Vehicle are classed as high performance if the in-game website claims the stock vehicle has a top speed of 150 mph or more.
- Turbos & bulletproof tyres are not allowed on any vehicle.
- Realistic driving is preferred as police are authorised to charge fines to players caught violating traffic rules.
Safe Zones:
All drop off locations* are classed as safe zones & passive mode is allowed there:
Killing, arresting and stealing vehicles is not allowed in the following locations:
- within the airport fence at los santos airport
- The Vespucci Marina car park & boat moorings.
- Inside Dignity Village homeless camp
Killing and stealing vehicles is not allowed (but arresting is allowed)
- inside Mission Row police station and its' surrounding sidewalk & car park
*Drop of locations are a type of property described in detail on the Property and resources page.