I believe that the Warlight community (at least the good people) have developed a sort of code of Honour. There are codes for noble warriors down to filthy pirates, so I believe there should be a Warlight code. I will start off by writing down some, please add new rules and discuss present ones. If any of mine you think are wrong, please share your opinion.

Remember "the code is more what you call guidelines, than actual rules" - Captain Barbosa
Also these rules should not have any affect on the strategy of the game, for example, "no backstabbing in private allies in a FFA" should not be in the code as although some may think it is wrong, it can be a vital strategy in winning and part of a game. Some rules however may recommend not using dishonourable methods of winning.
These are in no particular order.
These do not include the Warlight rules, which are:
1. You shall be respectful to other players at all times.
2. Racial slurs, personal attacks, excessive profanity, or any other offensive language will not be tolerated.
3. You shall not operate more than one WarLight account in a way that gives you an advantage in a game, tournament or ladder.
4. You may never operate or access more than one account with a coin balance or that plays coin games, and that account may never be used by another person.

The Warlight Code:
1. Do not take as long as you can to take your turn to try and make people have to leave.
2. Try and take as short a turn as possible without rushing.
3. If you play another game or do something else while you wait for the turn to advance in a game, make sure you can see the Warlight tab so that the * is visible (The * appears at the start of the tab to show that it is your turn).
4. If you need to leave the game, surrender, do not get booted.
5. If you are booted because of a reasonable reason, type it in the game so people are not angry when you can.
6. If you are booted in a team game, apologise to your team.
7. If losing in a FFA, try not to surrender because you are losing if there are more than one player left, this is common politeness in all board games,only iIf surrenders need to be accepted, surrender and people who wish you to stay will not accept.
8. If personally losing in a team game, do not surrender without your teams majority consent.
9. If your team is losing, only surrender if your entire team agrees.
10. If someone proposes a VTE, either VTE or say that you will not, do not avoid answering, do not delay answering, do not ask questions about APT and total armies.
11. If the person who is obviously going to win has to leave, either agree to all surrender besides the winning person or VTE. However if the winning player 12. says they do not mind surrendering, continue playing.
13. Do not lie about having to leave.
14. If someone is surrendering for having to leave, accept their surrender, unless if booted, they become an AI.
15. If you know you will not finish a game before joining, do not join.
16. If someone asks you how much APT, armies you have or where you are, either tell the truth or tell them you will not answer. Do not lie.
17. If private messaging is disabled, this means the host does not want teaming or cross teaming, so do not team or cross team.
18. If private messaging is disabled, do not communicate with other players outside the chat log.
19. If the host puts up rules in the settings, do not join unless you plan to follow them.
20. Do not use the Warlight code to personally attack people, do not negatively use the code.
21. Do not adjust your strategy because people refuse to accept your surrender or VTE. eg attacking someone who will not accept your surrender or VTE because they will not VTE or accept your surrender.
22. If someone is close or beyond their boot timer, and say that they will do their turn and not to boot them, do not boot them unless they fail to respond when you ask about their turn later.
23. If hosting a custom scenario game, do not give yourself the best slot unless you say this in the description, do not make rules making your slot an advantageous or more fun.

Ladder code:
1. Don't manipulate the ladder.
2. Don't stall
3. Don't cherry-pick opponents.
4. Don't play in more than one ladder team on a ladder at a time.
5. Don't start a new run on a new account because your current run was "spoiled" by a loss.
6. Don't surrender all your remaining games when you leave the ladder unless you are going inactive.
7. Don't lose other games intentionally to drag an opponent's rating down.

As I do not make or use many templates, I do not have much experience in that area. Please add rules on this.
I also do not play coin games, this should also be added.
Do not add rules specifically for diplomacy, as they change from game to game.
Do not add rules specifically about clans.

Edited 3/25/2016 05:10:09

24. Do not lose to Atom.

Be serious on the first comment a forum receives.

25. If you can,boot G.T.C.O.A.L. .

I have obviously overestimated the warlight community, you seem to be all selfish idiots at the moment. I wish one day I will find another person that respects all life.

Rule 26. Don't expect anything good from the Warlight community.

Haha that was nice... Why don't you say more of these?

Fleece,you havent seen the CORP forums

24. Don't complain about luck when you lose. There's (almost) always something you could have done better.

Ladder code:

1. Don't manipulate the ladder.

2. Don't stall

3. Don't cherry-pick opponents.

4. Don't play in more than one ladder team on a ladder at a time.

5. Don't start a new run on a new account because your current run was "spoiled" by a loss.

6. Don't surrender all your remaining games when you leave the ladder unless you are going inactive.

7. Don't lose other games intentionally to drag an opponent's rating down.

Edited 3/24/2016 13:29:54

14. If someone is surrendering for having to leave, accept their surrender.

I disagree. I've played plenty of games where boots and surrenders are treated differently wrt turning into an AI. I'll boot someone (be booted myself) to get them to turn into an AI rather than accept their surrender to get neutrals.

7. If losing in a FFA, try not to surrender because you are losing if there are more than one player left, this is common politeness in all board games. However if there is a person who will obviously win, it is ok to surrender if you get everyone's consent, or if surrenders need to be accepted, surrender and people who wish you to stay will not accept.

21. Do not adjust your strategy because people refuse to accept your surrender or VTE. eg attacking someone who will not accept your surrender or VTE because they will not VTE or accept your surrender.

Again, I disagree. These two rules contradict. FFA games can be such a mixed bag. So much of it depends on when you run into opponents. If I'm initially at a head-to-head on turn 1 of a FFA, we are both going to lose. If by turn 3 its clear I can't best the opponent I started next to, I surrender. Then, some other person won't accept my surrender because they want me to battle it out to eliminate another contender. Thus, the I will make the person not accepting my surrender wish they had by declaring peace to all other players and singling out the one player that thought they could game the "accept surrender" system to their advantage.

14. If someone is surrendering for having to leave, accept their surrender.

I disagree. I've played plenty of games where boots and surrenders are treated differently wrt turning into an AI. I'll boot someone (be booted myself) to get them to turn into an AI rather than accept their surrender to get neutrals.

You should always accept their surrender. People surrender because they think they are loosing or can't win or need to leave. People would rather have their surrenders accepted than be booted. You should discuss with your team before surrendering.

Edited 3/24/2016 14:02:11

Number 7 is kinda tricky it just turns the game into a gangbang, since a player who had a good chance to win must fight two opponents.

Rule 27. When you make a super long post always include a TL;DR

And i'll do one for you!

TL;DR-be good y'all.

Giving yourself the best slot in a diplomacy is not making it fun as you put yourself at a higher advantage and that's no challenge. Scenarios that are unfair to certain spots are that way for a purpose. Join in at a random spot so you are at a equal advantage.

Edited 3/24/2016 16:06:43

17. If private messaging is disabled, this means the host does not want teaming or cross teaming, so do not team or cross team.

Not necessarily, it just means the hosts didn't want people to team up without everyone else knowing about it.

23. If hosting a custom scenario game, do not give yourself the best slot unless you say this in the description.

23.1 : Do not make rules which give advantages to your slot.

Edited 3/24/2016 17:33:28

28. You must attack Public Enemies (PEs) in diplomacies if they refuse to comply with reparations (or any other rule regarding PEs).

e.g. WW1 Aftermath template game by Kretoma (ongoing)

Angry Koala jumps the gun on attacking me, he surrenders (for God's sake I can let you off once) then goes on vacation, not everybody accepts the surrender and the turn takes 2 weeks, and all the while other countries are claiming they can still attack me even though a PE has illegitimately taken income from me.
(towards the start of March, for more twattery, check out Guderian's reaction to becoming PE in the same game around the same time).

I think it would also be beneficial if we blacklisted people who go against the code several times, even if they don't agree to said code.

Edited 3/24/2016 18:20:39

So in a diplo you are only allowed to attack someone as long as you aren't winning? As the game emerges and a strong player rises he becomes public enemy and gets blacklisted for winning the game (as long as he isn't the host of course).

#1: Don' expect serious comments on the forums.

21 really is a piece of shit.
If someone refuses to accept my surrender in a FFA then i use every army i have against that player, ignoring all else i will seek out the player and suicide against him.
If I want out of the game and he is single handedly forcing me to continue then i certainly won't help him by attacking his adversaries.... In my opinion he doesn't deserve to win