Hi all

I need to summarize what happened and to give a final word on rules and changing rules to avoid missunderstandings

I copy here for clarity the part of the rules regarding the matter of these days debate:

Joining server rules:
- The server will be password protected to ensure only ATC players belonging to one of the two factions roster and identified from their participation form can join. The password will change every week and will be communicated by PM or TS. Only players authorised by the Faction Commander may join the server, not authorised players will be invited to leave the server. Substitutions are allowed during the game to replace players that had to abandon the game because of crashes, disconnections or other causes. Of course substitutions must not exceed in any case the max number of players for faction and have to be authorised by the Faction Commander. If a faction has more than the max number of players during game the extra players must leave the server immediately. Deceitful intrusions of players with false/different nicknames in the game server during a match will be punished by immediate and permanent ban of the intruder.

- Players must join TS and server ordinately at least 20 min before battle time and take the assigned slots, so the battle can start at the agreed time. Latecomers can however join later the gameserver if their Faction Commander authorizes them

- Leaving server before the end of game is not allowed. If a team leaves the server, the remaining teams in the faction have to continue the battle and accept the final result (or either declare in global chat the other faction is winner). In the case all a faction abandons the game the battle is lost. Forfait of a faction will result in automatic end of the war and victory assigned to the enemy faction. The same is true if a faction or a single team does not show up in the battle day, the battle is lost or is played with the number of players present at the start time. Latecomers may join the battle if the Faction Commander allow them, but in any case the battle result is valid

- In case of in game complaints the team representatives will report to their Faction Commanders the reasons of complaining using the faction chat or TS. The Commander will communicate the problem to the other Commander using global chat. If the two Commanders can't reach an agreement they will report to Staff. The Staff will decide if or not repeat the battle.

- In case of server crash during game the game will be restarted if the crash happens within the first 20 min, in all other cases the game will be repeated in the following week

These are the relevant rules at present, I put in bold type the part of the rules relevant to this debate, please pay attention to them

In facts, the rule about server crash was not the one relevant to the Sobor battle because as stated by the server log I attached that was not a server crash

It was instead a connection problem of unknown nature affecting most of us but not all of us and for what the ATC staff is not responsible

The ATC staff indeed acknowledged there was a trouble but that kind of trouble was not foreseen and so not covered by the present rules

For that reasons we (ATC) tried to reach an agreement with the opposite factions to fill up this hole in the rules, but the agreement was not possible because some of you thought a new rule cannot be added now while the war is in course

Of course we accept this view and therefore we are not going to add any new rule or amendment and we keep the current rules as such for this first part of the campaign, and we deserve the right to make amendments and additions at the first waypoint after 3 months

Said this we know that the unlucky situation of the last battle was not fault of anyone of us so we maintain the decision of repeating the battle for the sake of sportsmanship, because this one is the value we most appreciate and honor in this organization

However we all must be aware that the situation of the last night, faultless disconnection of most players, but not all, is not covered by the present rules, that at present deal only with "server crash" and "leaving server before the end of game"

I'm fully aware that making perfect rules covering any issue is difficult and/or nearly impossible and it is not easy to distinguish faultless from malicious behaviours

I leave this for your careful consideration and thought. Be aware that if the rules are appealed the rules have to be applied literally, and that the intention of the ATC was to interpret them for their truly meaning

Hope this clarify this issue and dissipate the misunderstandings, and it is my final word on behalf of ATC

Best regards you all,

Sincerely

Nemesi

PS - for sake of clarity I attach again the server log, it is in Italian, I give you the translation of the relevant terms

Connessione in corso = connecting
Giocatore ... connesso = Player .. connected
Il giocatore ... sta perdendo la connessione = Player .. is losing connection
Giocaore .. disconnesso = Player .. not connected
Missione .. letta (dalla banca/cartella) = mission read (from library/folder)
Ruoli assegnati = slots assigned
Partita iniziata = game started
Partita terminata = game over

If you need further assistence please tell me