# Terms of Use Agreement
*This agreement sets forth the terms and conditions under which you are bound by when registering or connecting to any Light's Hope service.*

*If you feel a player has violated this agreement, please report them with the corresponding system.*

## I. Code of Conduct
The guidelines and rules listed below explain what behaviour is expected of you and what behaviour you can expect from other users both in-game and on the forum. Note that the following guidelines are not exhaustive, and may not address all manner of offensive behaviour.

While using any Light's Hope service, you will encounter a large number of users who share different experiences and come from different backgrounds. While certain language and images may not be offensive to you, consider the fact that the same language and images may have a completely different effect on someone else.

**All users on Light's Hope must adhere to these rules. Violations will lead to the corresponding sanction on the player's in-game or forum account.**

### A. Naming policy
When choosing a character name, creating a guild, or otherwise creating a label that can be seen by other users using the Game or the service, you must abide by the guidelines set forth here, as well as the rules of common decency.

If Light's Hope staff finds such a label to be offensive or inappropriate, it may, in its sole and absolute discretion, change the name, remove the label and corresponding chat room, and/or suspend or terminate your use of the service. Guilds which violate the policy will be deleted with or without warning.

**You may not create a name or label related, referring, incorporates or utilizes any of the following:**

> - Religion, Politics, Organizations;
> - Nationality, Racism, Ethnics;
> - Harassment or Defamation;
> - Obscenity, Vulgarity, Insults;
> - Sexually explicit, Violence;
> - Hateful, Drugs, Unlawful;
> - Staff member or any staff oriented name;
> - Incomprehensible.



### B. Interacting with players and staff

Communicating in-game with other users and staff members, whether by text or any other method, is a fundamental element of the Game. The following rules are not intended to be exhaustive. Light's Hope staff may use their discretion to decide what may break these rules.

**When communicating with other users and staff, you may not:**

> - Communicate any unlawful, obscene, racist or any such language and/or imagery deemed inappropriate by Light's Hope staff.
> - Circumvent the /ignore function to communicate with a user, regardless of circumstances.
> - Disrupt any feature of the Game and/or any component thereof in a manner that is deemed negatively on other users, including but not
> limited to, sending junk mail, repeated unsolicited messages, sending
> advertisement and/or services for goods or services originating
> outside the Game.
> - Participate in any action that, in the sole and absolute discretion of Light's Hope staff, results or may result in a player being
> "scammed" or defrauded out of currency or any other items the user has
> earned.
> - Advertise or operate services in-game and/or on the forum which in the sole discretion of Light's Hope staff is considered a casino
> and/or gambling.
> - Send chat messages that has in any way been modified to change the publicly shown color of the respective message.
> - Impersonate any user, including without limitation any "game master" or any other Light's Hope staff member.
> - Communicate, post and/or direct users to information regarding a user's or staff member's identity and/or personal information.
> - Institute, assist, threaten, or become involved in an attack upon any Light's Hope service or any of its users in an attempt to disrupt
> the servers or experience of users.
> - Lie to, or attempt to deceive Light's Hope staff.
> - Use non-English language in public channels.



### C. Gameplay

#### a ). Player vs Player

The Light's Hope staff recognizes all play styles to be valid and a part of the game and not harassment. Killing players of your opposing faction, including camping players at spirit healers, corpses and/or gravestones, is considered a part of the game.

While playing on a Player vs. Player server, you should always remember to protect yourself in zones where the members of a hostile faction can attack you.

#### b ). Streaming / Stream Sniping

Streaming on any service is allowed by Light's Hope, however, we encourage you to research the TOU of the streaming service you intend to use in order to protect your streaming account.

The act of "stream sniping" is not a violation of this agreement as we cannot intervene if someone in-game makes the decision to communicate their every move, thereby informing other users of their position and/or in-game status.

#### c ). Safespotting

Safespotting is prohibited under all circumstances. This is the act of engaging in PvP combat while exploiting a position that cannot be reached with basic jumping (no wall-climbing), or engaging enemy players while being in an advantageous position where guards cannot reach you due to pathing, , or any other game mechanic used as an un-intended advantage

#### d ). Certain behaviour goes beyond what is considered fair and are considered a violation of this agreement. This behaviour includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Using or exploiting errors in design, features, and/or bugs to gain access that is otherwise not available, to facilitate and/or grant you an advantage over other players.
Engaging players through various world terrain, such as roofs that is otherwise not accessible to gain an advantage.
Intentionally not participating in a battleground.

### D. Griefing

Players can interact in a variety of ways, not all of them constructive. You may encounter players that steal resource nodes, chests, items, lead monsters to new areas and summon demons that raise havoc.
Light's Hope staff will not intervene in these situations as the community may take measures concerning these players. However, behaviour that is considered to be contrary to the essence of the Game will be considered a violation of this agreement.
**Such behaviour is considered griefing which includes, but is not limited to, the following:**

> - Summoning demons at the initial starting zones of new players;
> - Intentionally killing or disabling important quest NPCs for an extended period of time;
> - Intentionally causing any of the four demons for Stave of the Ancients to despawn;
> - Intentionally causing The Cleaner to appear during The Balance of Light and Dark;
> -  Intentionally interrupting or negatively influencing a raid group that is currently engaged in ANY world boss encounter on the PvE realm
> with either faction characters;
> - Intentionally interrupting or negatively influencing a raid group that is currently engaged in ANY world boss encounter on the PvP
> realms with same-faction characters.

World boss encounters are unique circumstances, and resolution will be determined at the discretion of the attending GM. For same faction on PVP & all raid groups on PVE - we strongly suggest a "first come, first serve" mentality when encountering world bosses.

### E. Forum

Light's Hope can't allow all kinds of discussion on the forum. The forum is here to provide you with a friendly environment where you can discuss ideas, give game-play advice, role-play, and converse about any other aspect with other players.

Community forums work best when participants treat their fellow users with respect, courtesy and common decency. Therefore, please be civilized when participating. Light's Hope staff need to be able to read everything you post to ensure it abides by this agreement.

Posts not in English are subject to deletion.

**Light's Hope staff reserves the right to delete, move or edit any post with or without warning nor explanation to the user. In extreme cases, Light's Hope staff may limit or block the forum access from a user.**

## II. Account Information

Light's Hope staff will never ask for your account details or share any confidential information. For the safety of your account, never share any of your account information, such as email addresses, account names, or passwords.

### A. Account security

The account owner is responsible for the security of the account and that it's sufficiently protected. Note that Light's Hope staff does not recover hacked accounts.

**You should:**

> - Never share your account information;
>  - Have a unique and complicated password that does not exceed 16 characters;
> - Connect yourself from a secure computer and network;
> - Never download unsafe files that might contain viruses/malware;
> - Never use the same credentials (username and password) on another server or service.



### B. Account sharing/trading

You may not purchase, sell, gift, share, lend or trade any account or offer to purchase, sell, gift share, lend of trade any account. Any such attempt will result in immediate account closure.

The only exception to this is a guild bank. To be considered a Guild Bank no character on any server can be above level 5. If a guild chooses to create a shared bank it is at their own risk. No action to investigate, recover or punish anyone for removing any item from a shared guild bank will be taken by the Light's Hope Project. Sharing a guild bank is at your own risk.

### C. Forgotten your password

[Click this link to reset your password](https://lightshope.org/reset). Please note that Light's Hope does not recover lost accounts.

## III. Character/Currency/Item restoration

Light's Hope staff can't guarantee the recovery of any lost or deleted characters. We have a limited ability to restore deleted characters and will do so if possible but it is by no means 100%.

Game items such as experience, gold or equipment that you have lost through accident, very rare failure of the server, or otherwise, cannot be restored. There are two exceptions to this:

Unique quest items or keys can be restored with sufficient evidence that the player had previously obtained them.
Raid items with the rarity of Epic and above can be restored in the case of a server crash/roll-back, providing an in-game ticket is sent to us which fulfills the conditions below

**a.** Exact date of the raid;
**b.** Video of complete encounter which also shows the raid ID, loot and complete list of raid members;
**c.** Name of the player who received or should have received the item.

More information regarding item restoration requests can be found in [our FAQ post regarding item restorations.](https://forum.lightshope.org/viewtopic.php?t=486)

**Restoration of any item is always at the discretion of Light's Hope staff. Falsified information will lead to immediate account closure.**

## IV. Misloots
Light's Hope staff does not handle requests for reassignment of loot from one player to another when the item was accidentally awarded to the wrong player. Players are advised to exercise caution when choosing to roll on items and when master-looting.

In cases where a misloot occurs due to a bug or system failure, Light's Hope staff may (at our sole discretion), resolve issues with proof (such as screenshots or video) that the item should have been awarded.

## V. Cheating/Unlawful

Light's Hope staff may suspend or close any account if you violate, or assist others in violating, the sections set forth below. You agree that you will not, in whole or in part or under any circumstances, do the following.

**Use, offer, advertise and/or distribute the following or assist there in:**

> - Cheats; methods to influence and/or facilitate the game-play, including exploits of any existing in-game bugs, and thereby granting
> you and/or any other user an advantage.
>
> - Bots; including, but not limited to, any code, hardware and/or software that allows the automated control of the Game, or any feature
> or component thereof.
>
> - Hacks; accessing or altering the Game code, memory, packet data, software and/or any component or feature thereof, which changes and/or
> facilitates the game-play.
>
> - Electronic attacks; methods to block/delay connections, impede bandwidth, fragment packets and/or application or any such attempt to
> disrupt any Light's Hope server, network and/or service, or any
> feature or component thereof.



## VI. Trading Virtual Goods/Services

Light's Hope does not condone the trade of virtual goods or services appearing or originating from the Game, or any other attributes associated with an account or any component thereof for real money, or exchange those items, currencies or services for value outside of the Game.

**Light's Hope staff reserves the right to close any account involved in such transaction.**

## VII. Multiboxing

Multiboxing is not allowed and refers to playing multiple characters simultaneously regardless of whether this is done via 3rd party software, alt-tabbing between instances, or by running multiple machines.

The only exception is that you may have up to two characters in a non-hostile city with an Auction House.

## VIII. Staff Assistance

We do understand that a player who's contacting the Light's Hope staff might be upset over an issue they experienced within the Game. However, the use of vulgar, abusive or disrespectful language towards staff members is unnecessary, inappropriate and unproductive.

Players who engage in this behaviour will be told to stop, if they continue, a sanction may be placed on the account. A staff member will never ask you to do anything that would compromise an account or its personal information.

Light's Hope staff will make every attempt to show you the respect you deserve. We ask that you show us the same respect. We take no joy in placing sanctions on an account, but must do so in accordance with this agreement.

### A. In-game assistance

You can access the in-game ticket system by clicking on the red question mark located to the right in the interface bar. Keep in mind that if a staff member is unable to reach you in-game or if the issue does not require further information, the staff member will respond with an in-game mail.

**Before using this feature:**

> - If your issue is related to a quest, abandon it and reacquire it;
> - If you are experiencing any bugs, disable all add-ons and restart the game;
> - Clean out the game cache by deleting the "WDB" folder within the Game directory;
> - Speak with other players to see if they already faced the same problem and how they solved it.

**Requests that will not be processed which are not necessarily limited to, the following:**

> - Incomprehensible requests;
> - Requests for items and/or currency;
> - Ban requests for players and/or accounts;
> - Information and/or help for a quest;
> - Bug reports: Please use our public Bug Tracker for any bug reports so that the QA team can verify and reproduce the bug and forward it to
> the developers;
> - Requests not related to the server where the ticket was created.

### B. Forum assistance

Please direct all help request related questions to the support section on the forum. If you believe a user has violated this agreement, please report the user by clicking on their forum name and then clicking ‘Report this member’.

### C. Staff member interaction

Time spent processing issues that has already been answered keeps the Light's Hope staff from addressing other users' pressing issues. If a single player repeatedly creates abusive or multiple tickets and/or reports regarding the same closed issue, or otherwise misuse the respective system, they will be asked to stop, and if ignored, they will receive a sanction on their account.

Any attempt to bribe an Light's Hope staff member will result in an immediate sanction being placed on the account.

**Light's Hope reserves the right, at its sole and absolute discretion, to change, modify, add to, supplement or delete, at any time, any of the terms and conditions of this Agreement. Effective with or without prior notice to you.**

## IX. Sanctions

Any sanctions or warnings previously set on an account are taken into consideration should the account be found in violation of the ToU. Throw-away accounts in violation of the rules are always permanently banned. Some sanctions can be applied without previous warning. This will depend on its seriousness.
*e.g. A player spamming any public channel should receive a warning. If the spam is found to be excessive the Game Master can decide to bypass the warning and give the player a temporary mute.*

### A. Warning

For minor infringements, a warning is first given to inform a player about the rules and warn him about future sanctions. Warnings remain in the player's record.

> - Spam;
> - AFK in BGs;
> - Extensive killing of important quest NPCs;
> - Player harassment;
> - Racist or offensive sentiments;
> - Using color changing scripts in-game;
> - Abuse of assistance system (forum or in-game);
> - Safespotting;
> - Lack of respect towards the server or the staff members;
> - Casinos;
> - Multiboxing;
> - Any attempt to bribe a staff member;
> - Non-English language in public channels.



### B. Mute or temporary account interruption

This sanction can last anywhere from 3 hours to 30 days, depending on severity, and is given for repeated violation of the rules, or for any of the following:

> - Scamming;
> - Lying to, or attempting to deceive Light's Hope staff;
> - Abuse of in-game bugs;
> - Organized killing for farming rank and/or honor;
> - Same faction / PvE server griefing on world bosses;
> - Tagging a world boss and having the other faction kill it for you.

### C. Permanent ban

The most serious sanction. This sanction is applied in case of multiple violations of the rules, or after multiple account interruptions, as well as any of the following:

>  - COD Scamming;
>  - Hacking;
>  - Using any means of botting (e.g. a program);
>  - Any client modification (libraries, executables, MPQ, etc.);
>  - Revealing the identity of an Light's Hope staff member;
>  - Advertising for other private servers or gold selling websites;
>  - Selling/Buying player names;
>  - Exchanging accounts, gold, items, or any ingame services for another game's features;
>  - Selling/Buying accounts, gold, items, or any ingame services with real money;
>  - Possession of any item(s) or currencies obtained with illegal methods;
>  - Publishing software, methods or articles on cheating which can be applied on the server;
>  - Abuse of major in-game bugs;
>  - Staff impersonation.

**Light's Hope reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to increase a sanction, suspend or terminate your use of the service at any time, for any reason or for no reason, with or without prior notice to you.**