Cycle 13/Ruleset Draft

Initially, all rules are persistent.

Persistent Rules

Time

All times mentioned in the rules are in UTC. Days begin at 00:00 UTC. Weeks begin on Sunday. Each phase is either (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday), (Wednesday and Thursday), or (Friday and Saturday).

The first Phase starts at the beginning of the first full Sunday after the Cycle begins.

Phases are identified by successive Roman numerals; the first phase of the cycle is Phase I.

Players

Any person may become a player by posting a message setting forth their intent to do so in the channel #game-actions, provided they have not been a player at any point in the past seven days. A player may cease being a player by sending a message that sets forth their intent to do so in #game-actions.

Actions

When defining a game action that can be performed by sending a message, the rules should specify a channel where the game action can be taken. If the rules enable performing an action by sending a message without providing for a specific channel, the action can be taken by sending a message in #game-actions. Similarly, if the rules provide that a game action can be taken without making any provision for any method to take that action, the action can be taken by sending a message in #game-actions.

Actions that are to be performed by sending a message are done by sending a message in the appropriate channel that clearly and unambiguously sets forth intent for the action to be taken.

Loops

The phase counter is an integer, initially 0.

At the end of each phase (immediately before the new phase begins), the following occur in order:

• The phase counter is incremented by 1.
• If the phase counter is not less than 9, the following occur in order:
  • Events defined by the rules as occurring at the end of a loop by other rules occur (TODO: ordering?).
  • All rules that are not persistent are simultaneously repealed
  • All items that are not defined as persistent by the rules are removed from inventories.
  • The phase counter is set to 0.

When a new phase begins while the phase counter is 0, events defined by the rules as occurring at the beginning of a loop occur (TODO: ordering?).

Rules and items that are not persistent are "ephemeral".

Leaderboards

At the beginning of every Loop, 1 goal is randomly selected. Each Goal is randomly given a reward from the list of rewards.

At the end of a loop, the players that best accomplished a Goal that was selected at the beginning of that Loop get the reward selected for that Goal, receiving this reward when the next loop begins.

Goal list

Have the most Coins at the end of the Loop.

Reward list

• 1 Orb

Items

Items are entities that players can have in their inventory.

While all items are wiped after the ends of Loops, the definitions of items stay.

TODO: proper text for persistent items or whatever

Item list

• Orb (persistent)
• Coin

Proposals

Proposals are documents that can describe changes to the gamestate, including rule changes. When a proposal takes effect, its changes are applied instantaneously to the extent they are not prohibited by the rules.

A 👍 or 👎 reaction on a Proposal message at the time when the voting period ends constitutes a vote in favor or against, respectively.

At the end of its voting period, a proposal takes effect if it is popular (as defined for its class), and the message in which it was submitted has been neither deleted nor edited. If, but for this clause, more than one proposal would otherwise take effect simultaneously, they take effect in the order in which they were created.

Urgent Class Proposals

The voting period of an urgent proposal begins at the time it is submitted and ends two days after. An urgent proposal is popular if it has no more than two votes against it. Only reputable players may vote on urgent proposals.

Any reputable player may submit an urgent-class proposal in #urgent-proposals, specifying its text. Urgent proposals should only be used to correct the game to its intended state and to maintain playability.

Standard Class Proposal

Any player may submit a standard-class proposal in #standard-proposals, specifying its text.

The voting period of a standard proposal is the first full phase that begins after it was submitted. A standard proposal is popular if it has a simple majority of votes for it.

Standard proposals cannot enact, repeal, amend, or otherwise modify persistent rules.

Transtemporal Proposal

Any player may submit a transtemporal-class proposal in #transtemporal-proposals, specifying its text.

The voting period of a transtemporal proposal is from the start of the third full phase after it is submitted to the first end of a loop thereafter. A transtemporal proposal is popular if it has a simple majority of votes for it.

Winning

The player or players with at least 100 Orbs win, and then the Cycle ends.

Judges

There shall be a sole Judge, responsible for resolving rules disputes. An incumbent Judge can be removed with the assent of two players, but they should not be removed except for abuse of office. A person can cease being the Judge by publicly stating so.

A request for justice shall take the form of a question or statement. The proper response to a question is an answer to that question, and the proper response to a statement is the truth value of that statement.

Upon formal submission of a request for justice by a person other than themself in #request-for-justice, the Judge shall, as quickly as possible, issue a response to the request. This response shall be binding only to the extent that it reasonably directly pertains to the request, and only to the extent that it does not blatantly and obviously contradict rules text.

Within 4 days of a judge issuing a ruling, a public vote of confidence on that ruling can be initiated in #request-for-justice. Votes may be cast in such a vote for a period of 2 days after initiation. Votes are to be cast by :+1: or :-1: reactions on a clearly designated poll message; if a person's vote is unclear, it is to affirm the judgement. A ruling is overturned if strictly more players vote in favor of overturning than affirming.

A ruling may be overturned by the Judge who made it within one week of being made. When a ruling is overturned in this manner, the Judge shall then issue a new ruling on the initial request, which shall be binding in the same manner as the original ruling.

An overturned ruling shall have no bearing on the interpretation of the rules or of the gamestate.

Any reputable player may become a candidate for the Judge by sending a message in the channel #judge-elections. If there are any Judge candidacies put forward during a week, the player whose message is both popular and has the most :+1: reactions becomes the Judge once that week ends. A Judge Candidacy message is popular if it has more :+1: than :-1: reactions on its initiating message. Ties are broken in favor of the player with the earliest text message during that week.