Rules, guidelines and appeals

Find all DayzUnderground rules and policies and learn how the team handles your reports or appeals

As few rules as possible: Our members should be able to play and create stories without having to keep a large volume of rules and limitations in mind. We are convinced that simple morality, respect, and fair play are the only things our members need to keep in mind while they enjoy themselves in the Underground. Our rules reflect that mindset.

As a mature and genuine person, you will most likely never be in conflict with our rules. From time to time, there is a need for clarification on specific details of what players can or cannot do. We expect all players to familiarize themselves with our rules and expectations. DUG is fortunate to have the reputation of being a respected, mature and helpful community. Let’s keep it that way.

Sometimes DUG Staff needs to contact you to inquire about your actions in-game. We will attempt to contact you via Discord, Reddit, and Steam to get the information we need. If we fail to contact you through these means, we will place a temporary ban on your account until you contact an admin. Once you do so the ban will be lifted automatically.

DayzUnderground’s golden rule is as simple as it is broad: Don’t be a jerk!

General
Server
TeamspeakTS
RoleplayRP

Don't Be a Jerk

All interactions must have the community at heart. Ensure that whenever you take a significant action against a group or individual there is some IC (In-Character) reasoning behind it.

We define a Significant Action as a raid, an attack on a base, an attack on an event, or other actions of a similar nature. Keep your reasons realistic and your actions proportional, so instead of tearing a whole base down because the owners robbed you, try to rob them back, raid them to get loot back, or negotiate something with them. If that's you or your group's whole roleplay or thing you do without provocation, that's cool. Keep it reasonable and think of everyone's enjoyment of the game, not just your own. Make sure every player can have as much chance to have fun as you have had.

If you ever question the reasoning, feel free to reach out to the other party or open a ticket if you are unaware of who it is. When communicating with other players in an OOC (Out-of-Character) situation, keep that communication civil and polite. Respect other players and respect all playstyles DayZ has to offer, just because you don't like their roleplay does not make it invalid.

While we don't want to restrict IC Roleplay, this rule will not be an excuse to hide OOC intentions that are unfit for our community behind roleplay.

No False Reports

Of course nobody can remember every single detail about every encounter. However, purposefully fabricated reports or allegations will be punished.

Do not lie OOC (Out-of-Character) to Staff or other members of the community regarding events that happened in-game. If you do not want to answer for any reason, just decline to answer with your reason. Do not lie to Staff about anything in or out of game, doing so will result in a removal from the community and a ban from our platforms.

No Derogatory Language

Any spoken/written bigoted/derogatory language that targets age, gender, race, nationality, religion, or sexuality is strictly forbidden and will be punished. If someone says something derogatory, don’t respond in a nasty manner. Staff have a zero-tolerance regarding all inappropriate language.

No Ban Evasion

Do not use a second account belonging to you or a friend to get around a ban on any account you own. We ban players, not accounts. Any attempts of ban evasion, assisting to ban evade or otherwise trying to avoid consequences of rule violations will lead to a permanent ban from all DUG platforms. Evading a ban will result in an automatic denial of any ban appeals and voids any future ability to appeal.

No Metagaming

Do not view content created from DUG to gain information, or pass along information you have gained from viewing the content, to gain an advantage in-game or alter roleplay.

Do not spy on another group’s private Discord server, use information from the DUG Discord, study TeamSpeak channels, or check server listings to see who is online.

Stories or content that is created with the intention of being public knowledge is exempt from this rule.

Zerging

Groups need to keep in mind proportionality with how they field their numbers: We expect larger squads to split up and consider how their numbers might be affecting the experience of others, especially if numbers are being deployed for mundane activities such as looting or roaming. Excessive behaviors fall under our DBAJ rule. If you are uncertain about whether or not the numbers you are running are proportionate, we encourage you to contact a member of our Staff Team for advice or input.

Double digit roaming, attacking, raiding, etc. should never be happening and fall under our DBAJ rule. This is not to be misconstrued as staff giving permission to gather in groups nearing double digits for no reason. Events advertised in the DayzUnderground Discord are the exception. Organic interactions in-game do not directly fall under this umbrella, but we also do not want to see members of our community traveling in "safety herds".

Large groups should strive to fight their own battles, but cooperation can push story. However, two large groups joint-raiding, especially if it's repetitive, will not be viewed the same as two small groups teaming up against a common enemy. We expect members of our community, especially our official groups, to display self-restraint and consider the fun of others while conducting themselves. Excessive behaviors on this front will fall under our DBAJ rule.

Regarding "excessive behaviors", we encourage those who feel they were the victim of over-the-top action from other players to submit a ticket for the Staff Team to investigate.

Report All Rule Breaks you Witnessed

Please report any and all rule breaking events that you have witnessed. A useful report should contain evidence in the form of in-game names, timestamps, chat logs, screenshots, and video.

Staff will take reports that are not supported by evidence into consideration and begin an investigation but will not be able to take action without further proof through logs or recordings.

If we discover you did not file a report for a rule break you witnessed or withheld incriminating evidence related to a rule break, you will be considered to have broken that rule as well.

Behavior to Avoid on DUG

Avoid using DUG platforms for discussions of topics and beliefs surrounding politics, religion and sex. If you want to talk about the above topics, please use communities created for that purpose.

Do not use any DUG platforms for malicious activities, even if their results don’t directly affect DUG members (e.g. hurting other communities while coordinating from the DUG Teamspeak).

Do Not Masquerade As DUG Staff

Do not pretend to be DUG Staff or use their usernames on platforms affiliated with DUG to avoid misleading or deceiving people. This also includes ingame names such as Admin, Owner, Moderator, etc.

Don't Try to Abuse Loopholes in the Rules

DayzUnderground is a gaming community and not a law firm. We want you to understand our rules and keep them readable.

Use your Common Sense: Just because a specific instance, specific glitch, or a rule break isn’t spelled out in here, doesn’t mean it’s okay. Your punishment will be the same as if you had directly violated one of the rules.

If in doubt regarding a rule or specific situation, open a ticket to ask the Staff team.

Don't Lie When You Apply

Any attempt to falsify information or content (this includes the usage of generative tools like ChatGPT, etc.) within our application process will be met with harsh penalties up to and including a permanent blacklist from our whitelisting process, server bans or both.

No forms of Hacking, Cheating, Glitching, Exploiting or Duping

Staff have zero tolerance towards any forms of hacking, use of glitches, or known defects in the game’s current state.

This can include but is not limited to; clipping storage (fully or partially) inside objects or building geometry; creating stashes that cannot be accessed or created without the use of a glitch; Using floating objects to scale a wall; Abusing hitboxes to force someone into or through an object using another player, vehicle, or object.

Do not store items or create stashes of any kind underwater.

Do not loot cycle.

Common sense: Even if a glitch or exploit is not specifically described here, it is still against the rules. If in doubt, open a ticket to ask the staff team.

No VAC or Game Bans

Players with recent VAC or game bans may be banned from DUG platforms without the opportunity for appeal. Even if it's from another game, we cannot trust you. Older bans will be reviewed by DUG Staff. If you feel your VAC or game ban was issued incorrectly or for something negligible, instead of trying to persuade us, please appeal your VAC ban with the Valve support team.

Do Not Stream Snipe

Do not watch a stream of DUG on any platform while also playing DUG. This rule is considered broken whether or not you interact with the streamer directly or indirectly. Players that receive information from someone who is observing a stream will be treated the same as if they themselves were viewing the stream.

Use Non-Offensive Names

Do not play under names that could be considered offensive or reference real world atrocities. Do not try to circumvent this rule by using “133t5p3@k/Leetspeak” or obscure references.

Follow All Base Building Rules

Please refer to this section of the website for a full breakdown:
https://www.dayzunderground.com/base-building/

You can find examples that illustrate the rule here: https://imgur.com/a/CkmVUdn

Do Not Combat Log

Do not log out, or stay logged out after the server crashes/restarts, to avoid other players or any possible negative consequences/interactions. If you need to leave the game for IRL reasons and are mid interaction with other players, inform them ASAP. If rules were broken during any interactions, please report them.

As a general rule, if you’ve been in combat you should leave the area and wait to log out as you can never be entirely sure that the interaction has been finished.

Logging out while unconscious is considered combat logging as we've removed the ability to respawn when this occurs.

Do Not Spawn Cycle to Return to the Fight

Do not commit suicide or purposely get yourself killed via PvE or PvP elements to return to a fight’s location. If you happen to respawn near the fight you are welcome to return to it.

Do Not Share Accounts

Do not share access to Steam accounts. Offences committed while an account was shared will affect all parties equally and cause the removal of all Steam accounts. This includes VAC and game bans obtained on a shared account.

Do not abuse alternate DayZ accounts

Only Whitelisted Members can use an alternate account on our server. If caught using more than the allowed amount of accounts, all accounts in excess will be permanently banned from the server. On subsequent offenses, all accounts will be banned.

Do not claim to be another character or person you play to avoid in game consequences or interactions. Please change your name in game to reflect who you are.

Do not use one account to “gear up” another or to store loot for your main account, aka “no barrel alts."

Do not use alt accounts to rejoin a firefight/interaction or change locations to get to a fight quicker.

Do not use your alternate account to trade loot with another account you own or swap accounts to trade or give loot to someone else. You cannot have an alternate account in the same group as your main, or use a second account to play the same character.

Do not use your alternate account for the purpose of playing the same character or in the same group.

Do Not Spam

Do not spam users, DUG Staff, or the Ticketing system (e.g. pokes, chat messages, VOIP etc). If you feel a rule was broken, submit a report.

If you interact with someone in-game and you wish to talk to them about it, send them a personal message over Teamspeak/Discord and wait for a reply. Please remember to be respectful during this interaction.

Do not abuse VoIP to spam Music, Soundboards or other forms of Sound Effects to other players in a malicious manner (distract, harass, etc.)

Event rules

Certain community events may require small sets of event-specific rules to ensure they are possible to carry out. If an event has any specific rules, they are shared through our private forum in advance.These event rules are enforced the same as other server rules.

Users are Responsible For Their Own TeamSpeak Room Security

All users can decide freely with whom to be in a channel or not. If you don’t want someone listening to what you’re talking about, ask that person to leave or switch into a different room just with the people you want to play with. If you join a channel and the people inside ask you to leave, please do so.

Our Teamspeak is a place for our players to socialize. You can find new friends and talk with the people you’re interacting with in our forums. Various private and public rooms give everyone the ability to find their place in the community.

DUG staff is identifiable by the pink cupcake and silver shield tags, as well as by the [TS Admin] or [Mod/Admin] tags after their names.
Our staff try to be available as much as possible in Teamspeak. Please understand we also play the game and have families and commitments outside of the DayzUnderground community. If you message a member of the staff and do not receive a reply within 5 minutes they may be AFK or in game. Please submit a report in order to have your concern addressed.

Respect the privacy of others and their rooms

If you join a channel and the people inside ask you to leave, please do so. Those failing to meet the request will be removed from the room by DUG staff.

Do not contact users for being upset over ingame events

If you’re upset over ingame events, do not spam users or DUG staff through Teamspeak with e.g. pokes. If you feel a rule was broken, submit a report.

If you interact with someone in game and you wish to talk to them about it, send them a text message over Teamspeak and wait for a reply. (You can do this by right clicking anyone’s name and selecting “Open Text Chat”, it’s the first option in the right click menu.

Users are responsible for their own TS room security

Organic RP gives players ingame freedom to create and tell stories. There are no rules for initiation or killing. Instead, our rules ensure that everyone is treated with respect.

AI-Generated Content

DO NOT solely rely on generative tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, or similar when creating and sharing content like stories or artwork. We as a community are not interested in sharing these with one another and is against the spirit of this community.

However, this does not entirely bar the usage of these tools if it's to help add "flavor" to your content, such as creating a unique identifier (logo, etc.) for your group. Overall the creation of your content should be done by you, a human.

Separate IC (In-Character) and OOC (Out-of-Character) Emotions and Actions

Leave in-game actions and events in-game.There is no reason to have any issues with a player because their in-game character killed, stole from, tortured, or otherwise wronged you. If you have valid concerns with the way another player behaved themselves in-game, resolve it in a mature and respectful manner or submit a report. Comments created on out of game written communications (such as Discord) are OOC and should not be used to roleplay or respond to IC content or situations.

The DayzUnderground Subreddit may be used to create IC content and comments on said posts may respond IC.

Have Genuine OOC (Out-of-Character) Intentions and Purpose For All Your Interactions or RP.

All interactions must have the community at heart.

DUG is a mature community and our members have explored various dark or morbid RP themes as part of their stories, such as the Cult of Papa. Players showing derogatory RP themes have to make their genuine OOC intentions and purposes clear to the rest of the community and the DUG staff.

To fully understand this policy, you must first understand the difference between IC (In-Character) and OOC (Out-of-Character). OOC thoughts and actions come from the person and his or her genuine intentions. IC actions come from a constructed and artificial persona. With this policy we are not restricting IC actions, however IC and OOC actions will be judged by their OOC intentions and purpose. While we hardly restrict IC RP, it will not be an excuse to hide OOC intentions that are unfit for our community behind RP.

When the community or team feels like a group displaying derogatory themes is not showing a visible and successful effort to outline genuine OOC intentions and purpose, the DUG team will intervene to either help support efforts of genuine OOC intentions and purpose or will censor and punish intentions that are unfit for the community such as specific harassment or complete disregard of others.

These efforts are most likely successful when they include subreddit posts, OOC interaction with other community members, the ability to compromise as well as unique creativity in RP.

Have the Ability to Solve Differences with Other Players Maturely.

Staff prefer not to become involved in personal disputes between players and encourage them to resolve their own issues in-game and out of game. Our members are expected to be able to solve differences and make compromises with each other. If you find difficulty resolving an issue, please contact the Staff team for assistance.

Communicate, Coordinate, and Collaborate with Your Fellow Community Members to Avoid or Solve Issues.

Everyone is free to be in control of their personal narratives. E.g. permadeath of characters is used by a lot of members but is not forced and while there are large amounts of lore created, nobody is forced to conform to it. Story creation within DUG is kept organic and dynamic.

To avoid potential conflicts of story continuity, please communicate and coordinate OOC with members that are part of your stories. All of our members are creating stories together.

How we enforce the rules, investigate reports and make sure we remain impartial

A preset format and process helps with consistency

Permanent or temporary bans are issued after a ban report was created and archived. These ban reports follow a pre-set format and have to contain all relevant information and evidence. This can be in form of server logs, screenshots, videos or other formats that were part of the investigation. All server ban messages will contain a reason and date that links back to its ban report. When a community member is banned, we send out a message with the ban reason through our forum.

An impartial staff team is key to fair administration

Bans and appeals are handled by a dedicated team of the DUG staff, with years of experience in leading a community. Impartiality, experience, a cool head and a healthy dose of distance are key to effective and fair administration. If a staff member has any form of personal involvement or investment in an incident, he or she can only supply evidence or information. Participation when decisions are made will not be allowed. In some cases where the incident depends on policies instead of hard evidence, the dedicated team has to anonymize suspects and argue their case in front of the rest of the senior DUG moderation staff.

Innocent until proven guilty

We care about all of your reports, incidents or concerns and want to hear what you have to say. Every report will be taken into consideration and investigated but we will not act upon them if no sufficient evidence is available. Players are to be seen as innocent until proven guilty. If we repeatedly receive valid reports that fall short just for not having suitable evidence, we will still make note of them in DUG’s “naughty list”. All notable rule breaks, minor infractions or reports against players are archived in the naughty list.

Keeping privacy as high priority

When reports are investigated or concluded, we do not release personal information that will aid in identifying another player’s identity in game or out of game to anyone. Policy related issues are frequently handled by keeping suspects entirely anonymous. This way we can remove any potential bias and uphold impartiality.

A fair chance: all bans can be appealed

Mistakes happen, evidence can be misinterpreted. While we enforce all rules with confidence, we think it’s unfair to proclaim any and all staff decisions as final. All bans, except those issued for ban evasion, can be appealed.

To appeal a ban, please fill out the ban appeal form with all the required information.

Ban appeals may take multiple days to complete while we perform our investigation. We ask that you remain patient throughout the process. If you do not hear back from us via E-mail within 2 weeks, feel free to contact us through [email protected] again to inquire about the state of your appeal.