Version 1.0

Updated 21-03-2003 by Annexed

It is impossible to make rules for every given situation, so in some cases admin judgement will be needed to decide issues not covered by the rules. These rules will also be subject to admin interpretation. If in doubt about anything contact the admin of the Jedi Outcast Ladder. By playing on the ladder you are expected to abide by these rules. The rules may change at any time. If the rules are changed a notice will be posted on the ladder front page and no where else. It is your own responsibility to make sure you know these rules. These rules will be revised regularly by the admin in the future when needed.

Introduction

What's the ladder?
The Ladder is a competition for Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast by Raven and Lucasarts. It is a simple ranking system that uses rungs to rank teams.
Teams challenge other teams above them through this website, the loser of the game will lose their former rank to the winning team. The goal is to reach as high a rung as possible. Games between teams are played over 2 maps (Team DM), and the team with the highest combined points score at the end of two maps is the winner. The team who loses the game must report it on this website, when this is done the ladder automatically updates.

Who can play on the ladder?
Anyone in Europe with an internet connection and a copy of Jedi Outcast. You will also need to find a team to play for. Teams may field players from outside of Europe, but must be prepared to compete on servers based within Europe.
That team will also need to have the minimum 4 players since a ladder match is normally played with 8 players per side.

Administrative information

Admins
The Jedi Outcast Ladder has 5 head admins currently these admins are Nr|Five, neHru, Annexed, Omnipotent & Adema. They interpret the rules. Teams and players must agree to follow decisions made by them. The Admins are also the ones to talk to if you have any questions regarding the ladder.
Ladder admins may play on ladder teams, but when they do that they are not considered no admins and have no admin power.
Ladder admins will not be involved in making any decisions that involves their own teams directly.

Language
As we are a multinational and multi-cultural competition, all official ladder business takes place in English.

Time
All time used in the ladder is assumed to be Central European Time (CET).
Example: London time is CET-1 hour, Berlin is CET, Helsinki is CET+1 hour

Communication between admins and teams.
The primary communication form between teams and the admins is email. To have a ladder binding agreement make sure it is done by email and between team contacts.

IRC contact
The Ladder uses IRC chat for organization purposes. Ladder admins can be reached on #jediladder on Quakenet IRC. Many ladder teams also use this IRC network. You can get an irc client at www.mirc.com and you can read a lot about it at www.irchelp.org
Examples of Quakenet servers are: irc.dk.quakenet.eu.org and irc.uk.quakenet.eu.org

Email address
The main email address for contacting the Jedi Outcast Ladder admins is [email protected]

Players
To play games on the ladder a player must have created a player account on the website and have joined a team.
Players may not play games for a team they are not a member of. Only players listed on this website are considered members of a given team. To create a player account go to the create player page and fill out the form.
You must choose a nick that is recognizable.

Then you must log in with your account and select a team to join. You will need the joinpassword for the team you want to join ask the contacts of that team for the joinpassword. You can only be a member of one team at a time.
Playing for more than one team on the ladder, under alias for instance, is not allowed and will get the player and the team he played for penalized and in worst cases even banned.

A player must use his nick signed up on his ladder team when playing ladder games.

Eligible players
Players living in Europe are the main audience for The Ladder. Jedis from other countries are welcome, as are those playing in other compeitions. However by joining the Jedi Outcast Ladder they will play according to rules set by us. No special treatment.

Players changing teams
A player can change his team at any time. A player is only allowed to play a game for a team if he was on that teams roster when the challenge was made. The only exception is for completely new teams, players are allowed to play even if they join after their team makes it's very first challenge is made. This applies for a teams very first game only.

Teams
Ladder games are played with teams of 4 players. To create a team go to the team signup page and fill out the form. You will then get a login and password that you use to challenge other teams.

Team contacts
Each team has two contacts, these are considered leaders for purposes of the ladder. They are the ones who make agreements with other teams, manage the team on the ladder and talk to the admins if necessary. They also act as spokespersons for the team during matches. The contacts can also request a team to be deleted, so make sure they are people you trust. The contacts are also responsible for the behaviour of their members. If members disbehave TheLadder will make the contacts responsible for their behaviour and may choose to penalty the entire team or in worst cases even remove them from ladder play.

Managing a team
When your team is created you should immediately log in and set a joinpassword for your team. Give this password to you team members so they can join your team. You will also need to select 3 time slots where your team is able to play ladder games. You must select either sunday or saturday + 2 weekdays. You must also select a time span of at least 3 hours between 19 and 23CET where you are available for playing games.

An example: Team A logs in and sets their available days as Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, time is set to 20-23CET.
This means that other teams can only challenge them to play on these days and in that timespan.

You can only update your availability once a week.

Arranging games

Challenging
To make a challenge you must log in with your teams username and password and select the team you want to challenge. You can challenge 7 positions above you. After you have played a team you must wait at minimum 7 days before you may challenge them again (add 7 days to the report time for your last game with them, that's the earliest your're allowed to challenge them). At the same time you must select the time you want to play and the map you want to play. You must also select the server that you want your map to be played on.

The server must be selected according to the table at the end of the rules. Only approved servers can be used for ladder games unless both teams agree to play on a non-approved server. Only servers, which ping acceptably for the vast majority of The Ladder's users, are approved. Only servers running the pure model are allowed. Score mods and administrative mods are allowed, but not mods that change the standard Jedi Outcast gameplay in any way. See end of document for approved mods.

A team is allowed to change their homeserver after the match is arranged. This has to be allowed because servers can be down, in use and have connect problems etc. You still cannot play on servers not listed as approved unless your opponent wants to.
If you play on an fstat server or any other enhanced server any custom additions (such as the fstat hit event for instance) must be turned OFF for ladder games. It is encouraged that teams play on a neutral server if possible - this is a much fairer way to play games.

Due to the nature of the Internet it is hard to find a server where teams ping the same. Thus each team gets the choice of one server to play one map on. If a tiebreaker map is needed it is played on the home server of the defender. Teams can't refuse to play on an approved server - doing so means they will lose the game by forfeit.

Responding to challenges
When your team is challenged both the team's contacts will receive an email about it. You must then respond to the challenge inside 48 hours. You do this by logging in at the website and choosing your map and your server. You can never refuse a challenge, if for some reason you can't play a match then you will have to forfeit the game (report it lost without playing).

What happens if a team doesn't respond inside 48 hours?
All their choices are void, the challenger team selects all information missing. The attacker team must send an email to the contacts of the defending team with the information.
If 48 hours pass without the challenged team responding the game can be cancelled or won by forfeit if the attacker wishes it, contact the ladder admins for this. It is suggested that the attacking team tries to contact the defender by other means if they don't receive a response.
If a team repeatedly fails to respond in time they may receive a penalty.

Maps
Maps are chosen at random by the ladder systems. There is no querying of the selections generated, and the admins have no control on changing them, so don't bother asking.

The ladder admins reserve the right to alter the map selections if there are good reasons to do so. The map pool can be found at the end of this document.

Playing Games

Meeting up
Team contacts should contact each other on IRC before the game to figure out any last second problems.
In case there is any problems making contact the channel #jediladder on the Quakenet IRC network will be the meeting point for the teams. If contact has not been made inside 15 minutes after match time the team who has failed to appear will lose the game by forfeit.

Servers
If a mutually agreeable server is available all maps are played on that. Once a map has been played on a server that both teams have stated is agreeable all maps must be played on this.
If a mutually agreeable server is not available the following system is used.
Each team has selected a server during the challenge proces.

Order of maps and what servers first
The attacker decides what maps to play on what servers as well as where to play first. The attacking side also has the initial choice of force strength (see below) If a teams server is unavailable or otherwise not playable on the night of the match they are allowed to select a different server. Teams are not allowed to change their server choice for other reasons.

Match settings
Timelimit 15
Teamdamage ON
Killlimit OFF
Jedi Outcast default settings must be used.
Server mods like admin mods are allowed (if previously okayed by head admins) if no modifications have been made to the standard Jedi Outcast gameplay.
If at all possible each team should have at least 2 admins.
It is not allowed to switch teams or to observer to gain a better spawn, it is also not permitted to reconnect to the server for that purpose.
No custom skins are permitted at this time on the ladder, although this is subject to change.

Team size
Normally the game is played with 4 players per side. A team must field at least 3 players in order to play a ladder game. A team is never required to field less than 4 players no matter how many players their opponent can field.
If a team cannot field minimum 3 players their opponent wins the game by forfeit if they so choose.

Timelimits
Once a team is on the server with a full team it is only required to wait for 10 minutes before it can demand the game to be started, or do so themselves if they have admin.
The following conditions must be fulfilled before the game can be forced to start:
1)The team wanting to start must have a full team on the server.
2)It must be 10 minutes past the scheduled time for the game.
3)If these two conditions are met a contact of the team must state that they want the game started, and can force the game to start. Refusing to start a game after these 2 conditions are met will result in the offending team losing the match.

This rule applies when changing maps and servers too.

The Force
The ladder admins have decided for the benefits of the competition that only the force ranges Jedi Adept to Jedi Knight (inclusive) are to be used. This is subject to change as the ladder gets underway. The challenging team may pick the force strength for the map of their choice, while the defending side will choose the force strength for the other.

How to win
At the end of each map, the score for each team must be recorded. For a challenge, the scores over the two maps are added together, and the team with the highest total is the winner. To ensure arguments are kept to a minimum, the ladder admins insist that each player records a demo of the match (see below).

Reporting the game
Once the game is over the team who lost must report the game to the ladder website. This must be done no longer than 2 hours after the game finished. If the team is not able to report the game they must contact the admins immediately.
The admins will review the situation and may decide to report the game. Teams not reporting games in time may receive a penalty.
If the challenger team wins it moves up to the defending teams position - the defender team loses their previous position.
If the challenger team loses it drops no position however and the defender holds it's own position.

After a team wins it will be immune to challenges for 1 day, it can still challenge others.
After a team loses it will be blocked from challenging for 1 day, it can still be challenged. The winner immunity and loser challenge block is removed each night at 19:00 CET, so it is strictly speaking not one full day.

Spectators.
Spectators are NOT allowed. Ladder admins can spectate any game they want at any time and are, it goes without saying, impartial. Members of the Euro Shoutcast Network (ESN) may spectate any ladder match for purposes of shoutcasting, they may also record and publish observer demos in connection with the coverage. Should two teams who are playing a match not wish the game to be shoutcasted, the contacts of both teams must send an email to [email protected] saying so. This must happen at least a day in advance. Teams are required to provide connection details to ladder admins and shoutcasters (server names/IP's and passwords.)

Postponing games
Games can only be postponed if both teams want to. And they cannot be postponed any further than one week from the original match date.

However the Ladder Admins can postpone all games of the ladder whenever they feel like too. Most oftenly this is because of some period, like christmas or summer holiday season or when something very important happens in the world (like 11 sept).

Disconnects & server crashes
If a player disconnects during the game he will have to rejoin as fast as he can. It is also allowed to put in a reserve player instead of him. Play is not stopped if a player disconnects. Should the server crash the remaining time is played once teams are back on the server, the score before the crash carries over.

Behavior
All players must act in a respectfull and sportsmanlike manner towards their opponents. This goes for behavior towards admins as well. Contacts will be held responsible for any disbehaviour of their members. The global chat should be reserved for talk relating to getting the game going. Badmouthing the other players or team is forbidden and is a valid complaint reason for the affected team. Demos can provide witness to any complaints.
Spam chat packs that spam the global channel are forbidden as are any other automatic spam scripts. Spam also includes excessive use of the ingame global chat and auto messages. Bad behavior can very well cost the offending team a forfeit loss or worse. This is at the admins discretion.

Complaints
If you have a complaint contact the admins.
We only accept complaints made by email. Not irc or any other communications form although you are always welcome to ask the admins questions. We need as much proof as possible when reviewing complaints. This means logs, demos, emails and such. If you want to complain then the complaint must be sent to the admins inside 48 hours of the game finishing, we will not consider complaints made after that. If you have a complaint about a match you lost then DO NOT report the game since the admins may decide to give you the win. Reporting a game means that you accept the loss. When you file a complaint you must do it in a clear and polite way. You must also send a copy of your complaint to the team you want to complain about so they can get a chance to defend themselves.

Cheating
Is not allowed, this includes modifying your game models and skins, various auto aim scripts etc.
Exploiting various bugs for own advantage may also qualify as cheating depending on admin judgement.
Use of voice communication software is allowed and is not considered cheating.
Players caught cheating will be banned and their team will be banned also.

- Server settings that change the default balance, physics, and gameplay are also cheating and it will be extremely obvious as to the perpetrators. Attempting to crash the server during a challenge will be investigated by the admins and, if proven, will result in a complete ban.

To let us have a chance at catching people cheating it is required that every player record demos of their ladder games. These demos are to be stored and presented to the admins if a valid complaint is made. We hope that would be cheaters can be dissuaded from cheating if they know that they might be asked for a demo afterwards. Needless to say people who cannot provide a demo if asked will have quite a bad case.

House Rules
You are not allowed to challenge another player to a dual during the match. Any player found doing this will recieve a punishment relative to how distracting he has been.

Penalties
Can be a warning, forfeit losses, a drop in rank or whatever else the admins feel are fitting for the transgression.
In severe or repeated cases a team or player may be banned from the ladder for a time period or forever.
In normal circumstances a team is normally held responsible for the actions of their players. Ignorance of any of these rules is no excuse

Map Pool

Team DeathMatch

Bespin Exhaust Shafts
Bespin Streets
Death Star
Garbage Facility
Garrison 27-D
Imperial Lab: Raven
Massassi Temple
Nar Shaddaa Streets
Star Destroyer
Temple Tournement
Warring Factions

Current ladder approved servers (not final)

Want a server approved? Mail to [email protected] with admin name, how to book and the possibilities map wise. We will review and get back at you!

Current ladder approved server mods (not final)