Resisting Scams

Rule 1: Never bring all your stuff to other's lands

If you bring your stuff to another person's land, whether that's for trade or invasion, beware that they will be able to steal your items as well as having a closer respawn then you even if you get the upper hand.

If someone suddenly seems eager to trade and it's unlikely a real person would ever act that eager (maybe they want to pay you way too much etc) then it's a scam to lure you into a trap.

Rule 2: Read Terms, Make Terms Specific

The example has two issues. The first is that if Royal doesn't read the condition then he may be stuck as a merling. This contract doesn't state whether KingNero will pay to change Royal's origin. That means Royal is legally required to pay 1000$ despite it not saying anything on here. Additionally this contract doesn't state whether Royal must keep the merling origin.

Rule 3: Beware Land Managing

Never agree to let someone manage your territory without conditions. They might sell your land, ruin the territory, or issue private property. If you get private property on land it's super hard to evict people.

Rule 4: Careful Stock Trading

You always make half of the value when you sell a stock. The value can increase so you can make a profit, however that increase is based on the stock being bought.

This means that you should never buy stock which has no tangible value. Always check if the stock has tangible perks granted for owning it. Additionally, make sure those perks will not suddenly vanish. 

For example the GrapeVine stock crashed after their leader gave up and their country got invaded thus making the perks to influence the nation completely worthless.

Rule 5: Always have a backdoor

If you transfer your country and have no backdoor to take back control...consider that country lost. Transfering your nation is also vague enough that the person could argue they own all your private property depending on your nation's rules as well as whether you were planning to quit the server and not just your nation when you wrote the message.

Rule 6: Don't listen to silly lawyers

If your lawyer tells you a silly argument like giving free stuff to new players is okay because they're your sucessor...that lawyer is either naive or actively trying to sabatoge you.

Courts are often run by people who care about the intent of the law more then literal wording or loophole edge cases.

Rule 7: Always track who is benefited

Here's a example in this long winded speech. The private bread is established but upon further research one might find that this would benefit Gluon a lot more than most players since she has a monopoly on bread. Thus legally she decides who can start a private bread shop.

Additionally the using money for corporations is so vague that it could refer to Gluon literally transferring money to her allies/bread monopoly.

Rule 8: Treaties can bind you if you're not careful

If you sign a treaty with a world conqueror, they will find loop holes.

Here's a example.

Killer was never officially declared Owtia's ally so Royal stole all of Killer's stuff. Owtia argued that Royal was aggressive to their ally but Royal got away with it because Owtia couldn't prove Royal would reasonably know about the alliance.

Rule 9: Keep your lawyer on a leash

If you grant your lawyer too much power they could do things like sign things without your permission. In this case Killer wasn't there so Goofy got Tis to sign it since Tis is Killer's lawyer. Then Goofy subleased the land to Gluon and Gluon subleased the land to Owtia. Long story short Killer might have lost that island if Gluon hadn't included a clause that says Killer can ask for control of the island at anytime. Never assume everyone will be that nice.

Rule 10: Beware Fascists and Communists

If a country shows they are fascist or communist to you before you join then your private property can be confiscated and rebelling will be more difficult.