There are several important miscellaneous rules to keep in mind while playing out and operation.
TIMELY PLAY - BattleTech is a turn based and not a real-time game. There is some expectation of players taking sometime to think moves through like one would in a game of chess. However there is a certain expectation that players are considerate to their opponents regarding the amount of time they take to plot moves or firing. Players taking an excessive amount of time will be subject to forfeiture of their game if deemed appropriate by the server staff. A player who believes his opponent is taking an excessive amount of time to play the game should contact a staff member and request observation. Staff decisions after observation are subjective and final but its a safe bet to consider consistently taking more then two minutes to move a unit or five minutes to complete a firing phase in a normal sized game to be excessive. Remember this is a leisure activity and people have real life obligations.
OBSERVERS- A lot of players enjoy observing other peoples games wether to learn or relax and players entering a dedicated host to "check out" a game is a common happening. However, there is protocol to be observed and players and observers should remember that an observer MUST ask if any player (not other observer) minds that they watch. Usually a simple "Mind?" will suffice. If for whatever reason a player indicates he does not want or is not comfortable playing with that specific observer then the observer should immediately vacate the dedicated host or be kicked from in by either player using the /kick command. An observer who repeatedly insists on re-entering a host after having been kicked will be banned from the main server for the remainder of the day (24 hours).
TIMEOUTS- Real life happens. You forgot to do the laundry, your kid is complaining that he is hungry, your other kid says she has a stomach ache, diapers need to be changed, your boss is on the phone. Basically...shit happens. For those times players may invoke a timeout. Each game a player may invoke one 15 minute time out no questions asked. We all know no one is "knocking on the front door" or that "girlfriend that just called" is probably more likely a mom threatening to yank the internet if a room isn't cleaned NOW! But hey, as mentioned above real life happens. A player using a timeout should type timeout in dedicated host and in main channel. A player failing to do so has not called timeout. During the 15 minute timeout a player is not under obligation to do anything. After the timeout period ends if a player has not returned to and advanced the game they will upon request be immediately kicked from the main server by a staff member leaving their game to auto-resolve in opponents favor if they do not return. If they return and do not immediately advance the game, they will be banned for 24 hours by a member of the server staff
RELOADS- Megamek is a great program made by a volunteers that help us all be able to play BattleTech against each other without having to actually be next to each other. Like any software it sometimes runs into a bug or problem and needs to be restored from an auto-save point. Luckily the auto-saves are frequent and this is not usually a problem. When an issue occurs that requires an reload that will bring players back to the movement phase. It is polite convention that all players move their units in the exact same manner. A player repeatedly and blatantly differentiating from this protocol is to be considered acting in poor sportsmanship. Please be considerate of other players in this regard.