Miriani

Stranding

Stranding is the act of leaving a player in a location in which they have no immediate means of escape. This is legal under specific circumstances outlined in this policy.

What is stranding?
To strand a player means that you're leaving them in a location in which escape would be difficult or impossible without outside intervention. This is a natural part of the game and, when used appropriately, can be an effective means of deterring another player from taking hostile action against you. However, stranding is not meant to be permanent imprisonment meant to remove a player from the game. It's intended to be used as a temporary means of detainment. There is a difference!

Limitations of Stranding:
To help ensure that stranding is a temporary punishment, there is a limit to how long you can keep somebody stunned and actively work to keep them stranded. This limit is six hours. This means that after six hours, you can no longer continue stunning the person, nor can you actively interfere with attempts to rescue them from being stranded. Basically, after six hours, you're required to give up the chase and let the person continue playing the game. Attempts to actively interfere include, but are not limited to: Asking other players to take over where you left off, destroying ships that attempt to land to rescue the player, stunning the player, putting the player in a situation where the game stuns them but you technically are not, putting the player at any risk that they themselves have not instigated. A two hour window cooldown is in place once the stranding limit has been reached. During these two hours, you may not actively attempt to strand or interfere with the player you previously stranded unless directly provoked.

On the other hand, the person being stunned should not and cannot use this policy as a shield to act with impunity after the six hours is up. This means that you cannot harass the other player without fear of consequence just because their six hour stranding window has closed. If you're found to be instigating a new conflict, the player is well within their rights to take appropriate actions given the in character circumstances.

Legal Stranding Venues
You can legally strand a player any place that another player can reasonably rescue them OR any place that the player can freely rescue themself without undue time and effort. This includes any planet inside communications range or inside a starship that can be ESCAPED from or SELF-DESTRUCTED.

Illegal Stranding Venues
The list of illegal venues is slightly longer, as these are situations that have been found to be difficult for players to rejoin the game from. Illegal venues include, but are not limited to:

Asteroids where the stranded player doesn't have access to a ship. The ship should be located near the player and unlocked, or the player should have a key. It is illegal to force the player to hunt for the ship and / or the key.
Asteroids that have been completely blocked from launching or landing. This applies to any space object surrounding the asteroid and preventing escape, not just blockades.
Any planet, space station, asteroid, moon, relic, platform, or landable location in general outside of the numbered sectors. This includes remote outposts.
Behind a locked door, including starship blast doors.
Private structures. Since private structures provide access controls not normally applicable, they are prohibited from becoming stranding destinations. Private structures include any player-owned apartment, house, space station, moon, planet, asteroid, or platform.

It is legal to temporarily strand a player behind a locked blast door or in an otherwise illegal location if your intention is to temporarily interrogate them. The conditions of this arrangement are that you MUST ACTIVELY be engaging with the person in roleplay by talking to them. Note that the six hour limit still applies, so you must return them to a legal location after the time limit expires.

Enforcement

If found in violation of this policy, you will be required to unstrand your captive, making certain they are unstunned and on a planet where they can find transport elsewhere. If this is not possible, a host will move your victim to their alliance's capital planet. In addition, these penalties will be enacted depending on how many times you've violated this policy:

You will receive a warning from the host dealing with the situation.
You will lose 100 license points.
You will lose 20% of your total license points.
You will be locked out of the game for two weeks.
You will be locked out of the game for two months.

Examples

Holding someone stunned for more than six hours in a place that is not accessible to any potential rescue attempts.
You capture Joe McSnerfleton and actively hold him stunned for six hours. Once that six hours is over, you ask your friend to continue stunning him and to deter any rescue attempts while you log off.
Stranding someone on your privately operated space station, several lightyears from sector 33. This would make rescue nearly impossible do to the abnormal locale and potential inability to land do to access restrictions.
John Doe has been stranded on Earth for six hours. He is not actively being stunned, but there are blockades surrounding the planet and you and your friends are circling the planet like vultures in your battlecruisers. Every time someone comes to rescue him, you blockade them and disable any attempts of rescue.
Provoking someone while actively working under the impression that you cannot be stunned or stranded again. If you provoke or attack someone during the two hour cooldown, people are within full rights to strand you once again.