Steel Maelstrom considers an alliance to be a serious affair and does not enter into them lightly since it is our belief that such an arrangement carries with it a series of obligations which must be kept. This section outlines those obligations that our allies are expected to fulfill, and those which they should expect SMS to filfill. These standards to not apply to any alliances established prior to January 1, 2001.

Please be aware that an Alliance is not the same thing as an Associate relationship; there are several differences.

Steel Maelstrom will consider alliances with only those online gaming teams which meet the following conditions:

• Ethics - The team has a set of rules, regulations, guidelines and/or codes which compliment those of SMS.
• Longevity - The team must be continuous operation for at least one year, preferably two or more.
• Maturity - The team's senior leadership must be 18 years old, preferably older.
• Strategic Interest - The team participates in the same online games which SMS participates in, or plans on participating in within the next 6-8 months.

Both parties in an alliance are expected to meet the following requirements and obligations of such an agreement:

• Communication - Both parties shall communicate with each other frequently, especially at the higher levels of command; no less than once a month.
• Confidentiality - Neither party shall discuss the plans, tactics, capabilities or operations of their ally with any third party.
• Intelligence Sharing - Both parties shall share all knowledge of a common opponent, battlefield or situation with the other.
• Jurisdiction - Neither party will attempt to commandeer the other party's members without prior explicit approval from the other party. Members of a party are subject to that party's rules, regulations and disciplinary guidelines only.
• Military Aid - If requested in a reasonable amount of time, one team shall provide military support to the other in a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) if the resulting goal is for the benefit of both parties, or is in the defense of one party under attack by non-allies.
• Non-Aggression - Both parties agree to never conduct operations against each other or each other's members but to rather settle their agreements rationally and peacefully. Neither team shall attempt to recruit members from its ally.
• Resource Sharing - If one team requires the use of one of the other team's resources, the owning team shall take all reasonable steps to make that resource available provided that it has not already been allocated. The requesting team shall provide as much notice as possible for the use of the resource, and (if applicable) shall return such a resource in the condition it was loaned, or make arrangements for a replacement of identical capabilities. This not only applies to physical items such as game servers, but virtual items which may exist in a MMOG.
• Respect - Members of both teams shall afford the other the highest degree of courtesy and will familiarize themselves with the rank structure and senior staff of the other team.
• Treatment of Allies-by-Proxy - By default, allies of one team shall be treated respectfully by the other. Unless both parties in an alliance are likewise allied with this third party, no other concessions are to be given to this third team. Both parties acknowledge that hostile actions between non-allied members in such a situation run the risk of straining all alliances involved, and shall take steps to resolve the situation quickly and peacefully.

All alliances with Steel Maelstrom must be approved by MAJ Rantage. Approval is not automatic, nor may it (or should it) be granted quickly. Responses for alliance requests, however, shall be quick and probably will consist of little more than an acknowledgement that the request has been received. Multiple meetings between high-level staff of both teams should be expected. If an alliance is to be established, the leader(s) of both teams must agree fully to the conditions of the agreement.

Steel Maelstrom reserves the right to refuse to ally with any team which it feels does not meet the aforementioned criteria, may not adhere to the obligations of an alliance, would bring discredit to SMS by its association, or is not 100% committed to the agreement.

An alliance may be broken at any time by either party, but the ramifications of cancelling such an agreement will differ depending upon the situation. Notification of the alliance's termination must be sent via e-mail to the other team's leader(s).

Parties which break an alliance with SMS by willfully and blatantly ignoring the aforementioned obligations (e.g. attacking the other team) shall be considered by SMS to be a hostile entity and may be subject to attacks within the context of a MMOG or on public gaming servers. SMS will never conduct hacking or denial-of-service attacks in such a situation.

Parties which voluntarily end an alliance under friendly conditions shall be treated in a respectful manner by SMS.

SMS reserves the right to end an alliance with any party which chronically (but unintentionally) fails to fulfill the obligations of an alliance. SMS may cancel an alliance with any party which undergoes an entire command staff change (that is, new leadership had nothing to do with arranging the alliance) but will afford the other party an opportunity to renew the alliance if they wish.