Guild pact terminology

Proposal for Treaty/Pact terminology:

In reference to the off-topic discussion in another thread, it came to light that there are those who have conflicting views of what some treaties, pacts, and agreements mean. In light of this, and in order to foster more equitable communication, this is the proposed terminology for the agreements already in place.

In order of increasing strength of ties and potency of the agreement. Ones further down the list trump ones higher up the list in case of a conflict. As such, MDPs take precedence over NAPs, Alliances over MDPs, and so on.

KOS - Kill On Sight (also, Enemies): Not a treaty, per se, but one that's often listed. Typically individual players are listed as KOS to a guild, though at times, such as war, entire guilds may be KOS to each other.

LMNOP - Llamas May Now Own Planets: A synanagram of KOS used by [RL] "In honor of the plethora of alphabetic anagrams".

CF - Cease Fire: A temporary cessation of hostilities between two or more parties. The cease fire may of indefinite time, but generally only lasts until another agreement is signed, a pre-determined period of time elapses, or hostilities resume for whatever cause

Armistice: A more permanent cessation of hostilities where the signatory bodies agree to withdraw from occupations, cease-fire, and refrain from provoking the other parties. Relations between parties generally remain less-than-amicable.

NFP - No Fart Pact: TK and CoRM's humorous take on an NAP stated for the purpose of "Relieving tensions by eliminating the excesive and needless farting at each other".

NAP - Non-Agression Pact: Signatories to this Pact agree not to engage in unwarranted agression (attacks, occupations, piracy, pillaging, or "stealing" occupations (including United Colonies and other Server Bot accounts)) against the other parties. A NAP is generally suspended, if not rendered null-and-void by one a signatory party's attacks on allies or defense partners of the others.

GuardPact - Guardian Pact: Currently unique to TGTF, the party offering Guardian Pacts agrees to come to the aid of the smaller signatory party. In return, the protected party agrees not to launch aggressive actions against others outside of retaliation for attacks received. Aid from the larger signatory party is cheifly in the diplomatic spheres, followed by assistance in liberating bases, and when necessary limited punative strikes against the agressor. This can be inferred as a one-sided MDP, where the smaller signatory party is not obligated to come to the aid of the larger.

IPI - Imperial Protectorate Initiative: (seeking clarficiation) The Imperium's apparent version of the Guardian Pact, stated that "the IPI will bring the strength of The Imperium over new and vulnerable guilds in order that they should be allowed to grow to a stage where they can rightly fend for themselves, adding to the growth and diversity of the known universe."

ODP - Optional Defense Pact: Signatories to this Pact may come to the aid of the other signatories in the event of unwarranted attacks or aggression against other signatories but are not obligated to do so. Typically, this requires the party being attacked to request assistance under the terms of the ODP, but it is not required for a formal or official request to be received in order for the other parties to act. A signatory to this Pact may choose to stay uninvolved when they hold identical Pacts with the parties involved. (Currently seeing limited use in the A2x cluster of galaxies)

MDP - Mutual Defense Pact: Signatories to this Pact agree to come to the aid of the other signatories in the event of unwarranted attacks or aggression against other signatories. Typically, this requires the party being attacked to request assistance under the terms of the MDP, but it is not required for a formal or official request to be received in order for the other parties to act.

Brotherhood Pact: Any Aggression towards any 1 member in this pact is an automatic declaration of war against all members of this pact. Also All members of this pact swear to never break this pact or attack an Alliance member of any other Guild. In which case if any one guild breaks this Pact it will be an automatic declaration of War against the members of this pact. Unless the de-joining guild contacts each guild.

MAP - Mutual Agression Pact: Signatories to this Pact agree to join together to wage war against a specified foe, or against any opponents now or in the future. It does not mandate assistance in purely defensive operations.

Ally - Alliance (also known as MADP - Mutual Agression/Defense Pact): Two or more signatory bodies agree to act as one in manners of offense, defense, intel, and commerce. Attacks against one are considered attacks against the other, and attacks made by one are usually accompanied by attacks made by the other.

ZF'ed - Zero Fleeted: Destroying all of a player's main fleet.

Blood Pact: A variation of Alliance practiced by the BORG in which signatory parties who break their word are de facto considered at war with the BORG and all other parties to the agreement.

Vassalage: (seeking clarification) The vassal-state guild owes alliegance to a more powerful guild (aka overlord). Guild policies for the vassal-state are directed by the overlord guild. Relations between the two guilds should be interpreted as per an alliance, in that actions against one are actions against the other, but it does not always follow that the overlord guild will come to the rescue of the vassal-state.

Special Circumstances: Some guilds are to be considered as one guild, even if they span more than one in terms of gameplay systems. Currently two known cases - The Imperium, due to its size, spans two guilds IMP and IMPII; EeY, OCL, and AoE are considered one guild, but are separate for roleplay and language reasons.

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Those listed above are as I believe they are commonly and correctly interpreted. Please provide feedback so I can adjust for what is the practice in AE.

Further, clarification on what guilds mean when they list each other as "Friends" (ie NAP? MDP? Ally? Friendly relations but nothing formal?) will be helpful. At this point I am unable to assign it a place in the listing.

Thank you.
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changelog:

2006.11.04
armistace->armistice
added ODP between GuardPact and MDP
added IPI between GuardPact and ODP
added NFP between Armistice and NAP
changed contact information, temporarily

2006.10.19
added Blood Pact between Ally and Vassalage

2006.10.18
added "enemies" as alternate for KOS
added MAP between MDP and ally
added MADP as alternate for ally
added Vassalage between ally and special circumstance, and requested verification
added request for clarification on "friends"

2007.08.03
added "LMNOP"

2006.11.01
added Brotherhood Pact

2009.07.03
added ZF'ed

as to ur "Friends" question, I believe that it can either mean that u have friendly realations but no formal diplomatic things (this being the more common), OR it can mean that they ahve MDP with said guild (this being les common).

I think it unlikely that people say that they r friends with some guild becuase they ave a NAP purely becuase most people with NAPS have them becuase of a war or a mini war )like sniping at eachother with increased action then normal, but not declared). We had a "NAP" with S3D in beta (we being MI5), and that didnt stop us from taking their bases and murdering their fleet when we wanted to lol