Starbase Alpha - EULA and Code of Conduct

[JoelFB]

Hi all,

Here below you can find the current version of the EULA/Code of Conduct (see all posts) for Starbase Alpha. We'll be revising this from time to time (it's not yet complete). We'll eventually move this to the website before Early Access launch (and include e.g. Developer participation rules, Fan content/copyright usage etc), and it's always displayed to you for approval before you get to install and play the game. We recommend you read it.

Starbase EULA for Closed Alpha

Last updated 6 May, 2020

Starbase Terms of Service and End-User License Agreement

CLOSED ALPHA

By accessing Starbase ALPHA (”Alpha”), you agree to the End-User License Agreement and Terms of Service below, and in addition you also agree to the following:

Frozenbyte will at some point completely discontinue Starbase ALPHA and prevent access to the game. You will not be able to play Starbase ALPHA after it has been discontinued. We make no promises to e.g. keep player character progress or any other progress or content you make in the game; expect server wipes (we’ll try to avoid it but we cannot make promises).

Having been given access to Starbase ALPHA does not give any access to the actual Starbase game, and you will have to buy a license separately once Starbase is available for purchase.

Your email reply to our Alpha invitation, or your Alpha survey/signup entry, or any other method of communication (that we’ve used to give you a key to Starbase ALPHA), which contains certain personal information such as your Discord username and email address, will not be deleted unless you specifically request it at any point in the future. We keep this information to keep track of our Alpha participants and in case we ever want to run some more community tests (such as a closed beta test for new features).

Anything created in the Alpha may be used by Frozenbyte in any and all ways in the Alpha, in Starbase (the main game) and in the marketing of Starbase.

You also agree to the regular terms (which we will be updating during the Alpha from time to time):

 

[JoelFB]

END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT AND TERMS OF SERVICE
This is a legal agreement (”Agreement”) between you (hereninafter referred to as ”you”, ”your”, ”Licensee”) and Frozenbyte Oy (”Frozenbyte”), the developer and creator of the computer and video game Starbase® (”Starbase”). Frozenbyte is a duly registered company under Finnish laws with the identification number FI17367343 and has its registered address at Krogiuksentie 17, 00340 Helsinki, Finland.

By installing Starbase, you must agree and abide by the Steam® Subscriber Agreement (”SSA”) found in the Steam Client and at https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/ .

In addition, by playing Starbase, you agree to the terms and conditions herein and all terms incorporated by reference, including the Code of Conduct. Do not play Starbase if you do not agree to all of these terms.

The terms of this Agreement may be modified from time to time. Changes become effective immediately upon posting. For any major changes that could reasonably be judged to affect your ability or desire to play Starbase, Frozenbyte will post the changed Agreement online or provide an excerpt of the changed sections, and enable you to terminate the Agreement and stop playing Starbase.

LICENSE GRANT
Starbase is licensed to you, not sold. Frozenbyte hereby grants you a limited, revocable, non-transferable, non-exclusive license to access and play Starbase for your personal, non-commercial use strictly in accordance with the terms and condititions of this Agreement (”License”). Frozenbyte reserves all rights in and to Starbase that are not expressly granted to you under this Agreement. Ownership of Starbase and all intellectual property rights in and to Starbase remain the property of Frozenbyte.

You may also create and make publicly available videos or streams, such as a reviews, previews, ”Let’s Plays”, on third party services and enable monetization. You may also use the music and soundtrack of Starbase in your videos or streams, as long as the use is directly related to the game. Using any part of Starbase separately not in connection with the game is not allowed.

ACCOUNT
Starbase uses your Steam account. We may change this later and require a separate registration.

You may use Starbase with multiple accounts (if each account has a legal license) unless the purpose of multiple accounts is to circumvent or evade e.g. temporary bans or other disciplinary actions or restrictions. Separately allowed is the creation and use of another account if your main account has been sent to Saltberia, the ingame prison.

UPDATES AND MODIFICATIONS
Frozenbyte may update Starbase from time to time at its sole discretion. Frozenbyte is not obligated to provide any such updates to you or anyone else.

Frozenbyte reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, Starbase or any service to which it connects, including online services, with or without notice and without liability to you. In the event of a permanent discontinuation of Starbase or its online services, Frozenbyte will provide a written notice within the game for at least 6 months prior to any discontinuation, and where reasonably possible, assist players in setting up alternative ways to continue playing Starbase. Due to Starbase’s hybrid model of networking and thus lower server costs than traditional massively multiplayer online games, a permanent discontinuation is unlikely. For more information, please reach out to Frozenbyte or find more information at the official Starbase website and Starbase forums.

RELATED USE
In addition to Starbase, you may be involved in the Starbase community.

Frozenbyte retains the right to revoke your license to Starbase based on your actions on the official forums or official Discord server, or for other behavior that negatively impacts Starbase or its community, at the sole discretion of Frozenbyte. If Frozenbyte exercises this right and you feel this has been a mistake, please get in touch to discuss. In case a solution is not reached, Frozenbyte may deny granting you a renewed license. In addition, Frozenbyte may, at its sole discretion, refund you the price you paid for Starbase.

USER CREATED CONTENT
Everything in Starbase is and remains the property of Frozenbyte.

During the course of playing Starbase, you may create content (”User-Created Content”, ”UCC”). You may use this content as part of playing Starbase in the ways that the game allows, but you do not own the content.

If Steam Workshop support is enabled for Starbase, you may sell or license content that you have created, provided that you agree to the terms therein.

Frozenbyte may use and exploit all user created content in any and all ways. For example, Frozenbyte may take screenshots or videos of the content and post these on the internet on their own or as part of a larger work such as a video feature.

INFRINGEMENT
You agree not to use any third party’s copyrighted intellectual property without authorization. You are responsible for any legal issues related to copyright infringement arising from any user-created content that you have created or have been involved in creating or otherwise assisted in.

FOR COPYRIGHT OWNERS
Frozenbyte will respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement. For any third party claims related to copyright claims based on intellectual property wrongly used in Starbase by users and content users have created, please contact Frozenbyte.

TERM AND TERMINATION
This Agreement remains in effect until terminated by you or Frozenbyte.

Frozenbyte may, at its sole discretion, at any time and for any or no reason, suspend or terminate this Agreement with or without prior notice. You are entitled to a refund if the termination is unwarranted.

Upon termination of this Agreement, you shall cease all use of Starbase and uninstall all copies of the game.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
FROZENBYTE PROVIDES STARBASE AND ANY RELATED SERVICES “AS IS”. OTHER THAN AS EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT, FROZENBYTE AND ITS AFFILIATES AND DISTRIBUTORS DO NOT MAKE ANY SPECIFIC PROMISES ABOUT STARBASE OR RELATED SERVICES. FOR EXAMPLE, FROZENBYTE MAKES NO COMMITMENTS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF STARBASE CONTENT, FUNCTIONALITY, OR RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, OR ABILITY TO MEET YOUR NEEDS OR DESIRES. SOME JURISDICTIONS PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN WARRANTIES, LIKE THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, FROZENBYTE EXCLUDES ALL WARRANTIES.

LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY
WHEN PERMITTED BY LAW, FROZENBYTE AND ITS AFFILIATES AND DISTRIBUTORS WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LOST PROFITS, REVENUES, OR DATA, FINANCIAL LOSSES, OR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF FROZENBYTE AND ITS AFFILIATES AND DISTRIBUTORS FOR ANY CLAIMS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING FOR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES, IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO ACCESS STARBASE. IN ALL CASES, FROZENBYTE AND ITS AFFILIATES AND DISTRIBUTORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE THAT IS NOT REASONABLY FORESEEABLE.

DISPUTES AND GOVERNING LAW
The laws of Finland, excluding its choice of law rules, will apply to any disputes arising out of or relating to this Agreement or Starbase. All claims arising out of or relating to Starbase must be litigated exclusively in the District Court of Helsinki, Finland, and you and Frozenbyte consent to personal jurisdiction in that court.

Prior to any court action, you and Frozenbyte agree to try to resolve any and all issues via mutual negotiation by email or other form of communication.

MISCELLANEOUS
If any particular term in this Agreement is not enforceable, it will not affect any other terms.

If you do not comply with these terms, and Frozenbyte does not take action immediately, this doesn’t mean Frozenbyte is giving up any rights that Frozenbyte may have (such as taking action in the future).

PRIVACY POLICY
We will keep all actions related to moderation (including emails and chat logs, where available) for as long as necessary (up to the lifetime of Starbase).

SUPPORT
We hope you have a good time playing Starbase! We provide support online via email at support@frozenbyte.com . You may also join our Discord server at https://discordapp.com/invite/starbase and chat with one of our Community Managers. We usually try to reply to emails within 24 hours, and on Discord we are online usually during the Finnish business hours (approx. 05:00-13:00 UTC)

CONTACT
You may contact Frozenbyte at support@frozenbyte.com for any issues or questions related to Starbase.

... and finally, you agree that Lauri is the Emperor. Lauri may transfer all or part of his artificially created rights to the Empress.

 

[JoelFB]

Starbase Code of Conduct
CODE OF CONDUCT

Last updated 18 November 2020

Starbase is a game driven by its community – we want everybody to enjoy their time in the universe and take part in creating something truly astonishing.

To make sure the game is as enjoyable as possible, we as developers have two jobs: A) develop the best possible game, B) maintain the best possible community. We take both of these jobs very seriously. This Code of Conduct focuses on the second of these, the community. Please read this carefully to know what is allowed and what is not in the Starbase universe.

Each player is expected to follow these rules and guidelines, and while we try to enable as much freedom as possible within the game, there are certain things that we will enforce.

If we identify a violation of these rules, we may take action that could result in a temporary or even permanent ban from Starbase. So please do not take these lightly.

In addition to this Code of Conduct, by playing Starbase you also agree to the End-User License Agreement and Terms of Service.

Until we have more comprehensive rules in place, the simple rule is this:

Play nice!


Important gameplay rules

• No safezone ramming! Do not purposefully "ram" other players' ships in the safezone. This may cause unwanted effects and may cause irreparable damage to the affected ships. If your ship is affected by ramming, please file an F1 report.

Methods of enforcement

We have two main methods of enforcing the rules in this Code of Conduct:

A) Community Managers and official Frozenbyte Support
B) Empire VIS, the ingame ”police force”

Empire VIS will have a clear identification in Starbase. VIS works mostly in secrecy.

Any player pretending to be part of Empire VIS will be severely punished for such act.


Keep it civil

Act civil to one another. In Starbase, everybody starts on an equal footing (or no feet, if they have been lost in battle or otherwise) and every endo is the same. Any human traits a player may have are not part of the game, and we have a zero tolerance policy against any acts based on e.g. race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity, or any other characteristic of the human player.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of things:

• No discrimination
• No hate
• No harassment
• No bullying
• No threats
• No trolling
• No NSFW material/links

In addition to the tools we have ingame, we may report cases of illegal action to the relevant authorities, and we will always aid and help the police and other law enforcement agencies with information.


Chat behavior

• Don’t use excessive swear words
• Don’t use obscene, profane or sexually explicit language
• Competitive banter is ok within your faction or group of friends as long as it’s ok to everybody

Customization

You are free to customize your endoskeleton (and space ships, station lots, and whatever else we may make available for customization). Please do not infringe on anybody’s copyrights, however, or in any way violate the other parts of this Code of Conduct.

Separately forbidden is any kind of impersonation of any other player or human being, or other midleading or wilfully confusing acts.


User created content

We may rename your username or other public-facing part of your Starbase character, profile or other game content if we feel the original is inappropriate.

We may at any time and for any reason modify or delete any content in the game, including user created content and content created by you, without notice or with notice.


Roleplaying

You are allowed to ”roleplay” in Starbase, i.e. be a robot/endoskeleton in the Starbase universe that may or may not be part of a faction such as Empire or Kingdom. However, roleplaying does not free you from the human world and these rules. This applies to any ”ambassadors” or other leaders or officials of any faction, even Empire and Kingdom.


Privacy

Do not share any personal information about yourself (except first name, if you wish), and moreover, do not share any personal information of anybody else. For example, do not share any of the following:

• Credit card information
• Passport or ID information
• Account passwords

Frozenbyte employees or VIS officials will never ask for the above information.

We recommend not sharing any personal websites or other links that may reveal your human identity.


Hacking and cheating

We do not condone hacking or cheating of any kind. Don’t do it.

If you find a clever ingame way of using the game mechanics, that is excused under this Code of Conduct, but if you break any ingame rules, Empire VIS will still track you down.


Don't do anything illegal

Starbase has its own rules and laws, but in the community we must abide by the laws of humankind. Don’t do anything illegal. And don’t be a terrorist or involved in any terrotist organization. Any content relating to terrorism or promotes or glorifies terrorist acts or incites violence is strictly prohibited.

Also please be mindful that drug use or may be illegal in parts of the world. Any selling of drugs or drug glorification is prohibited.


Reporting

You can use the ingame reporting tools to report violations or suspected violations, or other inappropriate or bad behavior.


Consequences and how we process violations

We may respond to Code of Conduct violations in a variety of ways and may include:

• Temporary ban for a fixed amount of hours/days/weeks/months/years
• Impaired game functionality (such as not being able to shoot or cause damage to other players)
• Permanent ban

For infractions, we would typically get in touch and discuss the issue, or send a warning. Repeated violations for the same subject may result in a temporary ban, or in some other method we deem viable.

For major violations, such as cheating and causing negativity in the community, we may immediately ban the user in question.


Dispute Management

We understand people make mistakes but our main commitment is to the overall Starbase community, and we will protect them to the best of our ability. If we have made a mistake ourselves, or if you have other things to discuss, complaints and feedback can be sent to community@frozenbyte.com .

Frozenbyte Community Managers or Empire VIS officers manage the day-to-day running of Starbase and the community. If you are dissatisfied with a solution, you may take it up to the official Frozenbyte support at support@frozenbyte.com where we will look at each case with a more wider perspective. In the end the Emperor’s word will be the final say on any matter.


Parting words

Thank you for reading this Code of Conduct. We hope it was clear and concise. Any feedback can be sent to community@frozenbyte.com . And now – we hope you enjoy playing Starbase!

 

[JoelFB]

Code of Conduct - additional Discord rules
These are additional guidelines and specific case rules to our Discord rules, which can be found on #rules in the official Starbase Discord server.

Sharing personal information (DON'T!)

• DO NOT use a developer's real name in discussions (Discord, game, forums, others) unless the dev has previously revealed their real name in the chat or it's a direct part of the username (like JoelFB, LauriFB).
• DO NOT use developers' last names
• DO NOT share a developer's real life image/face (such as pictures from Facebook, LinkedIn); screenshots of e.g. developer streams where devs are visible are ok as long as the purpose of the screenshot is something else than the devs' faces. Morever, do not compare dev faces to anything (such as another person, or a game character).
• DO NOT in any way "out" a developer's personal life
• Same rules also apply to other users (do not "out" your real life friend's name or especially the full name, for example)

Exceptions

• Posting press/media articles about Starbase and Frozenbyte is ok (regardless of content, e.g. full names and images etc)

Examples of NOT ok content

• Posting screenshots/video of Starbase credits is NOT ok (if you must, please censor devs' last names)
• Posting LinkedIn links is NOT ok
• Posting devs' personal social media accounts such as Twitter is NOT ok

We want to be involved in our community, but at the same time we must protect our devs' real life identities to a degree and prevent any unwanted attention. Posting the devs' personal information could lead to e.g. some creep coming to their homes and knocking on the door - these things happen in real life too, not just in the movies. Our community is huge (over 35,000 members as of April 2021) and you never now who is lurking in the shadows - if somebody has bad intentions, we want them to go through as many hoops as possible (such as buying the game and looking up all the information themselves).

Please do your part in preventing such unwanted behavior by following these rules!

Using developer information in memes and images

• Same naming rules apply to memes and images as to sharing personal information
• It is ok to use developers' Discord name and the Discord profile picture in memes and images
• DO NOT use developers' real-life faces or other pictures in memes or images

Similarly to the personal information, very few people want to see their faces in memes, even if it's in good humor. So please avoid them.