Squad Server Administration Policies

[Deleted User]

Mission statement

By becoming a server owner you are agreeing to the Code of Conduct (referred to as ‘the CoC’) which underpins the Administration guidelines. This gives License owners and their admin teams more guidance and support when dealing with the community.

Introduction

The following guidelines and the CoC are recommended for all in-game admins in Squad, and specifically MUST be adhered to by game admins on licensed servers as a condition of holding a license.

[Deleted User]

Section 1: Game Server Admins

1.1 - Admins should make an effort to promote a culture of teamwork and communication through their actions on the server and through the creation of server rules which do likewise.

1.2 - Admins should encourage a fair, friendly and sportsmanlike atmosphere when mediating the interaction between players.

1.3 - Licensed servers must have enough admins to properly run the server to maintain the integrity of the community and the server itself. A minimum required 10 per server instance. Admins need to be presented the vast majority of the time during populated hours. Failing to adhere to this will result in a revoked license. (Updated 16 June 2019)

1.4 - All Server owners and admins should ensure that they and their communities are conducting themselves in a reasonable and respectful manner. Server owners and/or admins will be acted on accordingly for any racist, sexist, homophobic, hateful or grossly offensive content/behaviour in their server, server name, description, broadcast, chat/text, kick/ban reason, voice transmission or in bias/discrimination to these points through their actions. (Updated 10th July 2020)

1.5 – Admins are allowed to set a desired style and level of gameplay on their servers by stating it in the server name and server rules MOTD. When a server is named 'New Player Friendly' admins are allowed to take measures to ensure a positive environment and gameplay experience for new players. Subsequent servers can be named specifically 'Experienced / Veteran'. Definition of required skill level is up to admin's discretion, stemming from server rules and guidelines. In order to maintain the integrity of the server, admins are allowed to remove problematic players. (Updated 23rd October 2020)

1.6 - Admins should not impose server-wide rules requiring microphones, provided players are willing to use text chat in its stead. The two exceptions are that it is acceptable for individual squad leaders to impose a "microphone required" rule for their squad at their discretion, and it is acceptable for a server to require squad leaders to have a microphone.

1.7 - Admins are allowed to enforce a server-wide rule disallowing locked squads if they so choose. If the server does this, it should be clearly displayed in their server rules and players should be warned for violating this rule before any action would be taken against them.

1.8 - Admins may select a single common language for their specific server if they choose to, though it is not required. This requires the players on each individual server to at least understand the selected language of the server to be able to effectively communicate with their squad/team. If the server admins choose to select a common language, this language should be portrayed within the server name.

1.9 - Admins are free to kick and ban as necessary to protect the integrity of their server as long as other administration guidelines are adhered to and sufficient reasoning or evidence can be provided for a large group or blanket bans. To publish your bans externally for example: Hosting Discord, Squad Community Ban List, etc., evidence is required in order to be used in any potential appeal (Updated 24th June 2022)

1.10 - Admins are present to enforce the server rules. The priority is to maintain high-quality gameplay and good teamwork for the benefit of all players. They retain the right to act accordingly to any undefined disruptive behaviour within the confines of the server administration guidelines.

1.11 - Squad leaders should be free to kick members of their squad for any reason they choose (including for what the SL may perceive as 'ineffective tactics') as long as kicking the player is done respectfully, and is not in an attempt to circumvent or break server rules, and does not breach the CoC. (Updated 11th May 2022)

1.12 Admins are not allowed to impose rules that are not equal to everyone on the server. E.g Admins who use their position to give priority of assets to themselves, whitelisted players, or specific clans which would deny access to these assets to the general public player base. (Added 23rd October 2020)

[Deleted User]

Section 2: Server Policies 

2.1 - Server policies should be made clear to players in-game, and should be listed and kept updated in a thread on the Official Squad Forums, as well as, within server messages. (Updated 14 August 2017) 

2.2 - Licensed servers now have the option to disable vehicle claiming on their servers. This is to be used at the discretion of the server admins, but ONLY when server admins are present to ensure fair and balanced gameplay. (Updated 14 August 2017)

2.3 - Licensed servers must notify Offworld Industries when they switch server providers. Switching from an approved licensed server provider to a non-approved provider is prohibited. (Updated 14 August 2017)

2.4 - Licenses that have been inactive for longer than a week will be disabled and you will need to reapply if/when you bring your server back online. (Updated 14 August 2017)

2.5- Licensed servers have admin & debug access enabled for active OWI developers and QA. Admin commands that affect gameplay will only be used in-game with permission from the online admins before being run. It is visible to in-game admins that a Dev is joining the server. (Updated 7th July 2020)

2.6 - Licensed servers are allowed to run modded game modes on their servers and at times this could affect the performance on the server. License holders and their admin teams need to ensure the performance of their server is too standard for a license. This may mean the removal of the modded game mode. However, should the server continue not to perform to the standard that is required, the license will be removed (Updated 5th September 2021)

2.7 - Using any sort of fake clients, bots, or Squad instances with the intent of seeding or boosting player counts is not permitted. Jensen's range is allowed to be used during the seeding phase only (Updated 11th July 2020)

2.8 - Server owners are allowed to accept monetary donations to fund their server on the condition that in-game and/or gameplay affecting permissions are not applied in exchange. A donator may be given the "reserved" permission on a server as a reward for their contribution, however, no other permission may be given in return. (Updated 1st September 2021) 

2.9 - All Licensed servers must be run on adequate hardware and have above 15 tickrate at all times. Overpopulating your server hardware or in other means failing to meet the performance demand will result in a revoked license. (Updated 16 JUNE 2019)

2.10- Servers need to make clear how players should conduct themselves while on the server and how to appeal a ban through their forum's thread, server messages and discord. Players in breach of the CoC need to be reported through the hosting discord and admins need to act accordingly. (Added 10th July 2020) 

2.11- All Servers must provide information to players on how they can report admin abuse, alongside their server rules. To report problems with a specific server, players can email [email protected]  with the following details: 

- Name of the server 

-Any evidence such as video, pictures etc

-Date and time of the incident

Or alternatively/and you can fill out the following form https://forms.gle/R3D434WVuaY9obtT6 

(Added 05/08/2020)

[Deleted User]

Section 3: Information 

3.1 - For any server licensing problems, or to appeal a revoked server license, you will need to email [email protected] (Updated 07/07/2020)

3.2 - To report problems with a specific server, email [email protected] with the following details: Name of the server, any evidence such as video, pictures etc, date and time

Or alternatively/and you can fill out the following form https://forms.gle/R3D434WVuaY9obtT6 (Updated 07/07/2020) 

3.3 - All server owners and three admins are encouraged to join the Offworld Industries Hosting discord for information and support. Please follow the instructions in #getting-started to acquire appropriate permissions on the server: https://discord.gg/ZQyT5Zh  (Updated 10/07/2020)