Nonchalant Dominance Community Guidelines

Staying until the end
When you join a race, a playlist of races, or an event you are expected to participate for the full length of it. This means you do not quit before the end or stop by the side of the road, even if you are in last place. Continued reports of rage quitting races or stopping and waiting for them to finish, in addition to not showing up to events that you've signed up for, will result in the usual warning and potential community bans as explained in our Community Guidelines, as will not following any of the guidelines below.


During a race

1) Race cleanly
1.1) We mostly race with contact turned on (no ghosting) because it requires an extra level of skill in overtaking and defending from opponents. This does not however mean contact is allowed. Some side by side rubbing going into a corner when a move is already mostly done cleanly is fine, but knocking someone off-line or causing them to crash most certainly isn't. If this happens as an accident you are expected to pull over to the side of the road away from other cars and wait for the person you hit to get back into position as an apology.

1.2) Driving backwards on the track and intentionally ramming people off the road are severe no-nos and will result in being kicked from the community very quickly. If you want to troll please go elsewhere.

1.3) Adding to point 1, When "waiting" for another driver, using an event mandated slow such as a pit stop or joker lap is not an appropriate way to give a player the position back, as you still are in front of them overall and everyone has to take said mandatory slow lap anyway.

1.4) If another driver causes an incident where you need them to wait for you, you must explicitly use the phrase "wait" in your voice or text chat informing them clearly that they caused the incident and are required to slow down for you as per rule 1.1.

1.5) When calling a 'wait', you must be sure it is the fault of the other driver. In cases where a wait call is believed to be unfounded, either disregard the request at the time, and provide proof that it was not a valid call and not a lag issue after the race to the other person, a moderator, or event host - or obey the call and report it as any other incident would be it after the race. The penalty for an unfounded call or refusing to wait for a founded call are the same.

2) Re-enter Safely
2.1) If you are knocked off the track do not make it your number one mission to get back on as quickly as possible. First wait for oncoming cars to pass and make sure you re-enter the track without getting in someone's way. If you cause an accident when coming back on the track you must again wait for the person you hit.

3) Blue Flags
3.1) Blue flags are present in all races. If you're about to go a lap down and the leaders are coming up behind you, safely move over to the side of the road and let them past without losing too much time. Do not under any circumstances actively block or defend from those who are trying to lap you.

3.2) If you cause an accident with a car you are lapping, you must still wait for them to get back physically in front of you. Even though it does not gain them back a position, it is still punishment and deterrent for you to overtake lapped cars cleanly.

4) Overtaking
4.1) Remember that there will be people in a race who are both better and worse than you, and that it will vary from track to track and car to car. If you are stuck behind someone who is racing cleanly but is slower than you and you can't get past then that is on you, not them. It is not an excuse to rage at them or knock them off - get better at overtaking.

4.2) If someone makes an overtaking move on the inside of you and they are more than half way alongside your car as you go to turn into the corner you must give them room on the inside. You cannot simply turn into them anyway. Conversely if you're not far enough up the inside of someone when attempting to overtake you should back out of the move as they are within their rights to turn into the corner and any resulting crash will be your fault.

4.3) If you are on the outside of someone going around a corner and you aren't at least fully alongside their car you should back out, as they are well within their rights to take the racing line and run you out of room on the outside with any resulting crash being your fault. Conversely if you're on the inside and someone is fully alongside you on the outside you must give them a car's width of space.

5) Defending
5.1) You can only make one move on a straight to defend your position. You can't weave from side to side to keep someone behind you.

6) Extra Information
6.1) We use this website as a basis for racing guidelines and to settle disputes. If you want to learn more about the correct way of doing things read that page.


GTA Specific Racing Guidelines

1) Car choice and modifications
In NoDo you are free to use any car you want and any combination of modifications you have. In regular racing lobbies no cars/setups are banned. Whilst we suggest you'll get more fun out of mixing it up and you'll often see a lot of our members use different cars with various modifications, if you want to use your Vagner with Off-Road tyres you're more than welcome.

2) Track selection and boundaries
If you're hosting a lobby, you're free to choose any track you like and as a member you're free to not accept an invite if the track doesn't suit you. We aren't going to stop you from hosting "Ramps, Ramps, Ramps", although given the focus is more on proper racing you may be more successful with more well known regular race tracks. The boundaries of a track are set by the creator using props and checkpoints. You are free to go anywhere on the track within the confines of those aspects, including off to the side of the road hunting for kerbs or taking advantage of bad (or sometimes intended) track design with corner cuts and shortcuts. As long as you're racing cleanly then go wherever you want.

3) Stunt Races
On 'fun' style races, there's a little more leniency towards the rules, since these tracks often can cause crashes and mid-air collisions by design, and with all the jumps it's of course harder to control your vehicle and avoid contact. Should you take out someone by accident in these races, there's no need to wait for each other because (1) it's sometimes unavoidable and (2) the track is sometimes not suitable for pulling over without being in the way of other racers. However, regardless of what type of race it is, intentional takeouts are NOT allowed. Even if CU and SS are switched on, and even on a fun stunt track, we do not allow dirty driving.

Nonchalant Dominance was originally a GTA online racing crew but has since expanded into a general racing and gaming community. However GTA racing is still a large focus and that is somewhat managed via our official Rockstar Social Club crews. These crews can be joined and used to connect with fellow community members in GTA, as well as rep the crew emblem, gain access to the crew colour, and have the NoDo tag next to your name in game.

All of these crews are invite-only and can be joined on completion of the steps required to become a Verified NoDo Member. Find the procedure for doing that here: nodo.freeforums.net/thread/1945/verified-nodo-member

Every so often it may be required to wipe everyone from the crews and start over (usually when we reach the max) to keep the most active players in at all times, but procedures for doing that will be communicated at the relevant time.

Verified Members
For those who are a member of these forums and have done the steps required to become a verified NoDo member there are four stages to go through if anyone continually goes against the guidelines set out:
Stage 1 - A short message is sent as basically a reminder of the rules and a request not to do it again.
Stage 2 - A 24 hour ban is applied across the Discord server and/or the forums.
Stage 3 - A 1 week ban is applied across the Discord server and forums, with any loyal member status being lost.
Stage 4 - A permanent ban is applied across the Discord server, forums, and GTA social club crew.

During any banning period members will not be able to use any official NoDo channels to communicate with other members and in general will not be able to sign up to community events.

Each stage lasts for 3 months. If someone received a 24 hour ban (stage 2) and doesn't have another issue for 3 months then they drop back down to stage 1, meaning another issue at that point would result in another 24 hour ban. If they don't have another issue for 6 months then their slate is clean and a following problem would result in a reminder message once again. However if they were to have another issue within 3 months of receiving a 24 hour ban they would receive a 1 week ban (stage 3).

Examples of things that will result in going up one stage:
Examples of things that will result in going up two stages
Examples of things that will result in going up three stages or being permanently banned straight away
NOTE: These are just examples but common sense should allow you to realise how the severity of such acts is determined. In most mature circles it's pretty obvious that these things are not the sort of thing respectable human beings do, but it seems there is a need to point this out.


New/Unverified Members
As mentioned, all of the above applies to people who are at least a member of these forums and have done the steps necessary to be a verified NoDo member. Those who haven't are held to much stricter rules as there is no indication in the first place to get involved in the community. In this instance most of the time initial reports for minor issues will result in a reminder message being sent, followed by being permanently banned for repeated reports. More serious issues will result in simply being banned straight away without any communication at all. We don't need people like that in here.


Discord Moderation
Gross overuse of offensive words or inciting/participating in/fuelling arguments that erupt will be met with an initial request to stop, and if unheeded punished by a discord-only 1 hour "cooldown" ban. This would not impact on the overall "problem players" system detailed here, though repeated offenses would. Hateful/abusive messages towards another member would be followed up or need to be reported but not punished automatically, and not at all if no offense was taken. A chat going off topic enough to derail what's meant to be going on in game would be directed to another chat or a temporary room after 5-10 minutes.

Ban Evasion/Alternate Accounts
The use of alternate accounts to evade bans on the forums and/or in-game is prohibited, and will be banned from the crews when discovered they are in existence. If you for some reason wish to use a second account, or share it with another non-banned member such as in an event, you must make it known, even if by only sending it to at least one community moderator, who will keep it private. Accounts being shared between people without prior notice will be removed from the crews.

Event Eligibility For Banned Members
As a final note, it is not possible for banned members to sign up to events on our forums (for obvious reasons), but if an event host wishes to have a player who is banned from NODO join an event hosted on our forums then they must discuss the attendance with the community moderators via PM beforehand. When someone is banned from NODO, it is because they have proven themselves to be a detriment to the community as a whole. It defeats the purpose of if, for example, a user was banned for harassing/crashing other members and then was allowed back into events to interact with those members anyway. If a banned member ends up being allowed and still causes issues, the host will be held accountable for those actions and may have their event hosting privileges revoked or restricted.