ORDNIX — End User License Agreement and accompanying notices
LEGAL DOCUMENT VERSION 4 - 2026-09-13


Please read this notice before playing, and share it with anyone who plays
on your device. It is a safety notice. It does not replace professional
medical advice, and it does not describe every risk of playing video games.
If you have a medical condition that could be affected by playing, or you
are unsure, consult a doctor before you play.


A very small percentage of people may experience seizures when exposed to
certain visual patterns, including flashing lights or repetitive explosion
effects, such as those that can occur in this Game. Even people with no
history of seizures or epilepsy may have an undiagnosed condition that can
cause these "photosensitive epileptic seizures" while playing.

Symptoms can include lightheadedness, altered vision, eye or face twitching,
jerking or shaking of the arms or legs, disorientation, confusion, a
momentary loss of awareness, and convulsions or loss of consciousness.
Seizures can lead to injury from falling or striking nearby objects.

If you experience ANY of these symptoms, stop playing immediately and consult
a doctor. If you or anyone in your family has an epileptic condition, or has
ever had seizures of any kind, consult a doctor before playing. Children and
teenagers are more likely than adults to experience these seizures; parents
and guardians should watch for the symptoms above and supervise play.

You can reduce the risk of photosensitive seizures by sitting farther from
the screen, using a smaller screen, playing in a well-lit room, and not
playing when you are drowsy or tired. Flashing and high-contrast patterns
can also trigger migraines or vertigo in some people; the same precautions
apply.

This Game includes combat visual effects such as explosions, tracer fire,
muzzle flashes, lightning, and weapon flashes, including effects associated
with the tactical nuclear weapons mechanic described in the Content
Disclaimer. The Game also depicts graphic violence and injury; the Content
Disclaimer describes that content, and it is intended for adults.


The Game's brightest effect, the tactical nuclear detonation flash, is
REDUCED by default: a short, dimmed pulse rather than a full-screen
white-out. You do not need to change any setting to have this protection;
it is on from the first launch. Players who want the full-intensity
detonation flash can raise it under OPTIONS - REDUCED FLASH, and can lower
it again at any time. Raising it is your choice and at your own risk. If
you are sensitive to flashing light, leave the setting at its default.

The Game's heads-up display is designed to avoid flashing, blinking, or
strobing interface elements: status changes are shown through steady text
and color. Battlefield effects (fire, explosions, weapon flashes, lightning)
are part of the game world and are not covered by that design rule.


- Camera movement, zooming, riding along with a moving unit, and screen
shake can cause discomfort, dizziness, or nausea in some people (sometimes
called simulation sickness). If this happens, stop playing and rest. You
can leave a unit ride and return to the overhead view at any time with
Escape, and the brightest effects are dimmed by the REDUCED FLASH setting
under OPTIONS, which is on by default.
- Looking at a screen for long periods can cause eye strain, dry eyes, and
headaches. Blink often, look away from the screen regularly, and keep the
screen at a comfortable brightness and distance.
- Prolonged listening at high volume, especially through headphones, can
damage your hearing. Set the volume to a comfortable level before putting
on headphones; the Game's audio includes loud, sudden effects such as
explosions and gunfire.


Playing for long periods with a mouse and keyboard can cause discomfort or
injury to your hands, wrists, arms, neck, eyes, or back. Sit in a supportive
chair with your screen at eye level, keep your wrists neutral, and avoid
gripping the mouse tightly. If you feel tingling, numbness, tiredness,
stiffness, or pain in any part of your body while playing, stop and rest,
and consult a doctor if the symptoms persist or return.


- Play in a well-lit room and sit a comfortable distance from the screen.
- Take a break of at least 10 to 15 minutes every hour, even if you do not
feel you need one.
- Stop playing if you feel tired, dizzy, nauseous, or experience eye strain,
headaches, or any pain or discomfort.
- Do not play when you are too tired to concentrate, and never let the Game
distract you from real-world safety, responsibilities, or the people
around you. Never play while driving or operating machinery.
- If discomfort persists, consult a doctor.


The Game can place a sustained load on your computer's processor and
graphics card. Make sure your device is well ventilated, that its fans and
vents are not blocked, and that it is used on a stable, heat-tolerant
surface. Keep drinks and liquids away from your equipment. The Developer is
not responsible for damage to hardware that is faulty, overclocked, poorly
cooled, or operated outside its manufacturer's specifications, and the
Game's graphics settings are your responsibility: lower them if your device
runs hot or unstable.


The Game is entertainment. Nothing in it is military, tactical, safety,
medical, or civil-defense advice, and nothing in it should be imitated or
relied on in the real world.



PROJECT ORDNIX (working title "ORDNIX", the "Game") is developed and
published by a single independent developer, the publisher named on the
Game's Steam store page (the "Developer"). The Game is an Early Access
title: it is unfinished and will change. This Agreement is a legal contract
between you and the Developer. Please read it carefully; it contains
disclaimers of warranties, limitations of liability, and rules about
disputes that affect your legal rights.


By selecting "Accept" on this gate, or by installing, copying, accessing,
or using the Game in any way, you agree to be bound by this Agreement, the
Privacy Policy, the Code of Conduct, the Content Disclaimer, and the Health
and Safety Warning presented with it (together, the "Terms"). If you do not
agree, select "Decline" and the Game will close; do not install or use the
Game.

The Game contains graphic violence and is intended for adults. You must
be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority where you live) to accept
these Terms on your own behalf. If you are younger, a parent or legal
guardian must read and accept these Terms for you, and by doing so they
confirm that they are legally authorized to do so, that they take
responsibility for your use of the Game and its online features, that they
have reviewed the Content Disclaimer and consider the Game's content
appropriate and lawful for you where you live, and that you are at least 13
years old (or the minimum age of digital consent where you live, which is
16 in some countries, if higher), below which the Game and its Online
Service may not be used at all. The Game has not yet been assigned an age
rating by any rating body and is not directed at children.

You may not use the Game if you are barred from doing so under the laws of
the country where you live or from which you access the Game, or if you are
a person or entity with whom the Developer is prohibited from dealing under
applicable sanctions or export laws.


Subject to your continued compliance with these Terms, the Developer grants
you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable,
revocable, limited license to install and run one copy of the Game, on
devices you own or control, for your own private, non-commercial
entertainment. The Game is licensed to you, not sold. Nothing in these
Terms transfers any title or ownership interest to you. All rights not
expressly granted are reserved by the Developer and its licensors.

The license extends to updates, patches, and additional content the
Developer makes available for the Game, unless such content comes with its
own terms. Keys or copies provided free of charge for review, testing,
promotion, or as a gift are subject to these Terms and may be revoked.

The Game provides no modification tools and no official support for
modifications. Any modification of the Game's files or behavior is
unsupported, is at your own risk, and may be treated as cheating in online
play (section 3).


Except as expressly permitted by these Terms or by a law that cannot be
waived by agreement, you agree that you will not, and will not allow or help
anyone else to:

- Copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, transmit, rent, lease, lend, sell,
resell, sublicense, or otherwise transfer the Game, any part of it, or
your license, except as the distribution platform's own terms expressly
allow;
- Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, decrypt, or otherwise attempt to
derive the source code, protocols, save formats, network formats, or
anti-cheat mechanisms of the Game, except and only to the extent that
applicable law expressly permits this despite this limitation;
- Modify, adapt, translate, or create derivative works of the Game or any of
its assets, or use its code, art, audio, writing, or interface outside the
Game, including to train, fine-tune, or evaluate machine-learning models;
- Remove, obscure, or alter any copyright, trademark, or proprietary notice,
digital signature, or integrity mechanism;
- Use cheats, hacks, trainers, bots, automation, macros, scripts, memory or
packet editors, modified clients, edited save or record files, or any
other software, hardware, or method to gain an unfair advantage, bypass
game mechanics, see information the Game does not show you, or manipulate
matchmaking, ratings, records, or match outcomes;
- Exploit bugs, defects, or unintended behavior for advantage in online play
instead of reporting them to the Developer;
- Interfere with, disrupt, overload, probe, or attempt to gain unauthorized
access to the matchmaking, relay, ranking, or other online components of
the Game (the "Online Service"), any other player's device, or the Steam
platform, including through denial-of-service activity, packet
manipulation, spoofing, or unauthorized access attempts;
- Scrape, harvest, or collect data about other players or the Online
Service, or use the Game or its Online Service to distribute malware,
unsolicited advertising, or unlawful content;
- Use the Game for any commercial purpose, including paid boosting,
wagering, gambling, or tournaments run for profit, without the
Developer's prior written permission (non-commercial community events and
streaming are welcome, see section 8);
- Share, sell, buy, or transfer accounts, ratings, or records, or let anyone
else play under your identity;
- Use the Game to harass, threaten, defame, stalk, or abuse anyone, or to
violate any applicable law or the rights of any person (see also the Code
of Conduct).

The Game may verify the integrity of its own files and code while it runs
and may decline to take part in online play from a modified copy. Any use of
the Game that these Terms do not expressly permit is a breach of this
Agreement and may also violate copyright and other laws.


The Game, including all software, code, engines, tools, artwork, models,
animations, audio, music, text, names, story, characters, user interface,
compilations, and all related materials, and all copies of them, are the
intellectual property of the Developer and its licensors and are protected
by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual-property laws and treaties.
"ORDNIX" and the Game's logos are trademarks or trade names of the
Developer. Third-party components remain the property of their respective
owners and are used under the licenses described in the Third-Party Software
notice. Nothing in these Terms grants you any right to use the Developer's
names, logos, or trademarks except to identify the Game in reviews, videos,
and commentary as described in section 8.

If you believe that anything in the Game infringes your intellectual
property or other rights, contact the Developer through the support channel
in section 20 with enough detail to identify the material and your rights;
good-faith notices are reviewed promptly.


Multiplayer, matchmaking, ranked play, quick play, custom lobbies, chat
relay, leaderboards, and related features (the "Online Service") are provided
at the Developer's discretion and depend on the distribution platform and
on other players' machines. Your identity for the Online Service is derived
from your platform account: when you play through Steam, the Game presents
your Steam account id and a Steam authentication ticket to the match host
so the host can confirm with Steam that you are the account you claim
(Privacy Policy, section 2). You are responsible for keeping that account
secure and for everything done through it. There is no separate Developer
account, password, or customer database.

The Online Service has no dedicated servers: each match is hosted by one
participating player's machine, and the player-record store of a ladder
lives on the host's machine. The Developer does not operate, monitor, or
control any host's machine or connection and is not responsible for the
conduct, availability, latency, or reliability of any host or participant.

The Game includes built-in anti-cheat checks that run only inside the Game's
own process, only while the Game runs, as described plainly in section 13 of
the Privacy Policy. By using the Online Service you acknowledge those checks
and the one-byte platform-posture summary sent to the match host when you
join, and you agree that ranked queues may be closed to systems whose
posture the Game cannot verify.

Use of the Online Service is subject to the Code of Conduct. The Developer
may, on a reasonable, good-faith basis and with or without notice:

- Warn, restrict, suspend, or permanently revoke access to the Online
Service, in whole or in part, for cheating, exploiting, automation,
tampering, harassment, abandonment, or any other conduct that violates
these Terms;
- Reset, adjust, remove, or void ratings, records, XP, streaks, cosmetic
unlocks, or match results that were obtained through cheating,
exploitation, collusion, or a technical fault;
- Restrict or remove chat access for abusive content; and
- Refuse, void, or replay any match affected by a desynchronization,
disconnection, or technical fault, without any award to any participant.

Leaving a live ranked match, staying idle, or disconnecting has documented
in-game consequences: an AI stand-in commands an absent player's forces,
the absence is scored against the player at the end of the match, and
repeated or deliberate abandonment leads to temporary ranked locks of
increasing length. Because the Game cannot distinguish a deliberate
abandonment from a network failure, these consequences apply regardless of
cause, and the Developer is not liable for any rating, reward, or record
lost through a disconnection, whatever its reason.

Cheating, tampering with match results, or interfering with the Online
Service may also result in a ban applied at the platform level (for example
a Steam Game Ban) or in referral to law enforcement where the conduct is
unlawful. Given a solo-developed service, there is no guaranteed formal
appeals process, though you may contact the Developer through the published
support channel to raise a dispute, and the Developer will review it in good
faith as capacity allows.


Ranked progression may unlock cosmetic rewards (for example unit paint,
pennants, and victory-screen flourishes). Cosmetic rewards are visual only.
They do not affect unit statistics, vision, hitboxes, matchmaking, or any
other gameplay-relevant property. Every match is intended to be an equal
contest regardless of a player's rank, level, or cosmetics.

Ratings, XP, streaks, cosmetic unlocks, and records have no monetary value,
cannot be redeemed, sold, or transferred, and are not your property. They are
a license-limited feature of the Game that may be adjusted, reset (for
example at a season reset), or removed. The Game contains no virtual
currency, no loot boxes, no paid random items, and no in-game purchases.


- The Game is distributed in Steam Early Access. It is unfinished. Features,
balance, content, mechanics, and interface may change substantially
between updates; announced or available features may be altered, reworked,
delayed, or removed; and saved data, records, and progress may not carry
over between versions. Statements about planned content describe
intentions, not commitments, and no purchase is made in reliance on them.
- The Developer may release updates at any time and may require you to
install them to continue playing, particularly for online play, where all
participants must run compatible versions for lockstep synchronization to
work. Updates may install automatically through the distribution platform.
The Developer is under no obligation to provide any particular update,
feature, or amount of future content.
- The Online Service is provided on a best-effort basis and may be modified,
suspended, or discontinued, in whole or in part, at any time. Where
practical, the Developer will give reasonable advance notice of a
permanent shutdown through the Game's normal channels (a patch note, a
main-menu notice, or the Steam page). You have no claim to compensation
for a change or discontinuation of the Online Service.
- Single-player and local play do not depend on the Online Service and are
intended to keep working if the Online Service is modified or
discontinued, but this is not guaranteed for any specific length of time.


Call signs, chat messages, lobby names, and other material you create or
transmit through the Game ("User Content") are yours, and you are solely
responsible for them. You grant the Developer a worldwide, non-exclusive,
royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable license to store, relay, display,
reproduce, and use your User Content as needed to operate, secure, moderate,
and improve the Game and the Online Service, and to investigate and enforce
these Terms. You represent that your User Content does not infringe anyone's
rights, does not contain another person's private information, and complies
with the Code of Conduct. The Developer may remove or refuse any User
Content at any time without notice.

You may record, stream, and publish videos, screenshots, and commentary of
the Game, including for monetized channels on video and streaming services,
provided that you do not present the content as endorsed by the Developer,
do not sell the Game's assets on their own, and do not use it to promote
cheating or to harass others. The Developer may withdraw this permission for
any content that violates these Terms. By playing online you understand that
your call sign, actions, and chat messages may appear in other players'
recordings and streams.

If you send the Developer suggestions, ideas, bug reports, or other feedback
("Feedback"), you agree that the Developer may use it freely and without
restriction or compensation, and that Feedback is not confidential.


The Game is distributed through Valve's Steam platform and may use Steam
services (for example friends, lobbies, achievements, cloud saves, and
networking) where available. Your use of Steam, including your Steam
account, is separately governed by Valve's Steam Subscriber Agreement and
Valve's Privacy Policy. Those documents apply in addition to these Terms
wherever the Steam platform layer is involved, and nothing here limits
rights or obligations you have under Valve's terms. The Developer is not
responsible for Steam, for any other third-party service, or for any content
or service the Game links to.

The Game includes open-source and other third-party software used under
their own licenses, listed in the Third-Party Software notice and in the
THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES file installed with the Game. Those licenses govern
those components, and where they grant you rights, nothing in these Terms
takes them away.


The Game is purchased through the distribution platform. Pricing,
availability, payment, taxes, and refunds are handled by the platform under
its own policies (for Steam, the Steam Refund Policy). The Developer does
not process payments, does not hold your payment details, and cannot issue
refunds directly. Regional pricing, sales, and bundles may change at any
time without notice and without any adjustment of prior purchases.


These Terms are effective until terminated. Your license terminates
automatically, without notice, if you breach any of these Terms. The
Developer may also terminate or suspend your license or your access to the
Online Service at any time for any breach, for suspected cheating or abuse,
or if the Game is withdrawn from distribution. You may terminate at any time
by uninstalling the Game. On termination you must stop using the Game and
destroy any copies in your possession, subject to any separate rights you
have through the distribution platform. Sections 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 19 survive termination.


TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE GAME, ITS CONTENT,
AND ANY ASSOCIATED ONLINE SERVICE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS", "WITH ALL FAULTS",
AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER
EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND THOSE ARISING FROM COURSE
OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. THE DEVELOPER DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE GAME
WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, RUN ON ANY PARTICULAR HARDWARE, OPERATING
SYSTEM, OR DRIVER, BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, THAT
DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, THAT ANY ONLINE SERVICE, MATCHMAKING RESULT,
RATING, REWARD, OR SAVED DATA WILL BE ACCURATE OR PRESERVED, OR THAT THE
GAME IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. THIS IS PARTICULARLY
TRUE DURING EARLY ACCESS. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE FROM THE
DEVELOPER CREATES ANY WARRANTY. Some jurisdictions do not allow the
exclusion of certain warranties or conditions, so some of the above may not
apply to you; in that case any implied warranty is limited to the minimum
scope and duration the law allows. If you are a consumer in the European
Union or the United Kingdom, you have statutory rights regarding the
conformity of digital content, and nothing in this section limits them.


TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL THE
DEVELOPER OR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA,
PROFITS, REVENUE, GOODWILL, SAVES, PROGRESS, RATINGS, OR REWARDS, DAMAGE TO
OR FAILURE OF HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, OR NETWORKS, COST OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES, PERSONAL INJURY, OR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED
TO THE GAME, ITS CONTENT, ANY ONLINE SERVICE, ANY OTHER PLAYER'S CONDUCT, OR
THESE TERMS, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT
LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER THEORY, EVEN IF THE DEVELOPER HAS BEEN ADVISED OF
THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THE DEVELOPER'S TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY
FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE GAME OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT
EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU ACTUALLY PAID FOR THE GAME IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS
PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR, IF YOU PAID NOTHING, TEN
(10) US DOLLARS OR THE EQUIVALENT IN YOUR CURRENCY. THESE LIMITATIONS ARE AN
ESSENTIAL BASIS OF THE BARGAIN AND APPLY EVEN IF A REMEDY FAILS OF ITS
ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that
cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law, including liability for
death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent
misrepresentation, or for gross negligence or willful misconduct where such
exclusion is not permitted, and nothing here removes any consumer
protection you cannot waive under the law of the country where you live.


To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify,
and hold harmless the Developer and its licensors from and against any
claims, demands, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, and expenses
(including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to your User
Content, your use or misuse of the Game or the Online Service, your breach
of these Terms, or your violation of any law or of the rights of any third
party. The Developer may assume the exclusive defense of any matter subject
to indemnification, in which case you agree to cooperate. This section does
not apply to consumers to the extent the law of the country where they live
does not permit it.


The Game is entertainment software. It is not a simulator, trainer, or
source of real-world military, tactical, safety, medical, or civil-defense
information, and nothing in it may be relied on as such. You agree to read
the Health and Safety Warning presented with these Terms, to follow its
guidance, and to stop playing if you experience any discomfort. To the
extent permitted by law, you assume the risks inherent in playing video
games, including eye strain, repetitive-strain discomfort, and the effects
of prolonged play, and you are responsible for your own hardware, its
settings, its ventilation, and the volume at which you play.


The Game may be subject to export-control and sanctions laws. You agree to
comply with them and represent that you are not located in, or a national or
resident of, a country or territory to which the delivery of the Game is
prohibited, and that you are not a person on any government denied-party
list. You will not export, re-export, or transfer the Game in violation of
those laws.


These Terms are governed by the laws of Canada and of the Canadian province
in which the Developer resides (stated on request through the support
channel), without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and excluding the United
Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Before
starting any formal proceeding, you agree to contact the Developer through
the published support channel and to try in good faith to resolve the
dispute informally for at least thirty (30) days. Any dispute that cannot be
resolved informally will be brought exclusively in the courts of that
province, and you consent to their jurisdiction, except that the Developer
may seek injunctive or other urgent relief in any court of competent
jurisdiction to protect its intellectual property or the integrity of the
Online Service. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, YOU AND THE
DEVELOPER EACH WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND AGREE THAT DISPUTES WILL
BE BROUGHT ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS
MEMBER IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. Any claim
must be brought within one (1) year after it arises, where the law allows
such a limit.

If you are a consumer, nothing in this section removes any consumer
protection, mandatory forum, limitation period, or non-waivable right you
have under the law of the country or province where you live, and where
that law gives you the right to bring proceedings in your local courts, you
keep it.


The Developer may revise these Terms from time to time, especially during
Early Access. Material changes will be presented for re-acceptance before
you next play, under an increased legal document version number; the gate
that presents them shows the date of the change. If you do not accept the
revised Terms, you may not continue to use the Game, and your remedy is to
stop using it and seek any refund available under the distribution
platform's policy.


- Entire agreement: these Terms (with the documents they reference) are the
entire agreement between you and the Developer about the Game and replace
any prior agreements or communications on the subject.
- Severability: if any provision is found unenforceable or invalid, it will
be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining
provisions will remain in full force and effect.
- No waiver: the Developer's failure to enforce any provision is not a
waiver of it or of any other provision.
- Assignment: you may not assign or transfer these Terms or your license;
any attempt to do so is void. The Developer may assign these Terms to any
successor or acquirer of the Game.
- No third-party beneficiaries: except for the Developer's licensors as to
their own rights, these Terms create no rights in anyone else.
- Force majeure: the Developer is not responsible for any failure or delay
caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including outages of the
distribution platform, network providers, or hosting players, natural
events, or government action.
- Notices and electronic communications: you agree that the Developer may
give you notices by patch note, main-menu notice, the Game's Steam store
page or community hub, or this gate, and that agreements made through
this gate are electronic records with the same force as a signed writing.
- Language: these Terms are written in English. Any translation is for
convenience only; the English text controls to the extent the law allows.
- Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.


Questions, support requests, bug reports, privacy requests, rights-holder
notices, and disputes go through the support channel published on the
Game's Steam store page and Steam community hub. That page always carries
the current contact. Security researchers who find a vulnerability in the
Game or its online components will find the disclosure contact in the
security.txt file installed beside the Game's executable.



This policy explains what the Game and its online features collect, why,
how it is handled, and what choices you have. It applies to the online
matchmaking, ranked, quick, and custom-lobby features (together, the
"Online Service") and to files the Game stores locally on your device. The
short version: the Game has no Developer server, no account database, no
advertising, no analytics, and no sale of data; online play sends a small
set of game records to the player who hosts your match, and offline play
sends nothing anywhere.


The Game is developed by a single independent developer, the publisher
named on the Game's Steam store page (the "Developer"), who is the party
responsible for the processing described here. Because the Online Service
is hosted by players on their own machines, the player who hosts a ladder
or match also holds the records described in section 2 for that ladder or
match, on their own device. Contact the Developer through the support
channel published on the Game's Steam store page and Steam community hub;
that page always carries the current contact.

The Developer has not appointed a data protection officer or a
representative in the European Union or the United Kingdom, relying on the
exemptions for occasional, low-risk processing without a server of its own.
This will be revisited if the Online Service changes in a way that requires
it.


Held by the Online Service (stored in the player-record store on the
machine of the player who hosts the ladder or match):

- A randomly generated player id (pid) that identifies you to the Online
Service without requiring your real name;
- Where you play through Steam: your Steam account id (a numeric SteamID)
and a single-use Steam authentication ticket, presented when you join a
host so the host can ask Steam to confirm you are the account you claim.
The host keeps only the verdict and the SteamID; the ticket is not stored.
The verified SteamID is bound to your player id so that ranked eligibility
and any enforcement action (for example a Steam Game Ban) apply to the
right account;
- Your chosen call sign;
- Your faction preference;
- Match outcomes (win/loss), matchmaking rating (MMR), experience points
(XP), win/loss streaks, season history, cosmetic unlocks, and the
presence records used to score absences (time away from a live match,
desertions, and any ranked lock that results);
- Chat messages sent through in-match chat, which are relayed by the Online
Service to other participants in the same match;
- Match records (the sequence of orders every seat gave, and integrity
hashes of the shared simulation), which every participant's Game keeps
locally and which the host relays so that a disconnected player can
rejoin;
- A one-byte summary of your system's security posture (section 13), sent
when you join, which sets the matchmaking tier you may enter; and
- Your IP address, transiently, as technically required to operate
matchmaking and match relay (to connect you to a match host). IP
addresses are used operationally and are not stored as part of your
long-term player record.

Stored locally on your device only (never uploaded except for the specific
fields above needed to run matchmaking, ranking, and leaderboards):

- profile.ron, containing your local identity, keys, and career statistics;
- Settings and calibration files, the legal-acceptance record, and
preferences, stored in your operating system's standard per-user
configuration directory;
- Match artifacts and replays of the battles you played, stored in the
Game's matches directory.

The Game writes no crash-report file and sends no crash report anywhere;
if it fails, its diagnostic output goes only to the console it was started
from. Your operating system or the Steam client may record a crash under
their own policies, outside the Game's control.

The Game does not include voice chat, does not access your microphone,
camera, contacts, location, or files outside its own directories, and does
not read the contents of other programs or your screen.


The Developer does not use cookies, trackers, third-party advertising,
third-party analytics, or telemetry services, does not sell, rent, or trade
your personal data, does not "sell" or "share" personal information as
those terms are defined in California law, does not use or disclose
sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you, and does
not build profiles of you for any purpose other than the ranking and
anti-abuse functions described here. If this ever changes, it will be
disclosed in an updated version of this policy and you will be asked to
re-accept.


Data is collected only for purposes necessary to operate the Game's online
features:

- Matchmaking: pairing you with other players for ranked, quick, and custom
lobbies, and connecting you through the match relay;
- Identity: confirming, through Steam, that a ranked seat belongs to the
account that claims it;
- Ranking integrity: computing and maintaining MMR, win/loss records, XP,
streaks, seasons, and cosmetic unlocks so competitive results are
meaningful and consistent;
- Presence and fairness: scoring absences from live matches and applying
the documented penalties for abandonment;
- Reconnection: relaying match records so a player who disconnects can
rejoin the same match;
- Anti-abuse and enforcement: identifying cheating, exploitation, or chat
abuse, keeping evidence of it, and applying enforcement actions; and
- Operating the relay: IP addresses are used only as required to route
matchmaking and relay traffic.


Where a legal basis is required (for example under the GDPR, the UK GDPR,
or Canada's PIPEDA), the Developer relies on: performance of the service you
request (matchmaking, ranked play, and reconnection); the Developer's
legitimate interests in operating a fair, functioning, abuse-resistant
competitive service and in protecting its rights; compliance with legal
obligations; and, where the law requires it for a specific use, your
consent, which you may withdraw at any time. You may object to processing
based on legitimate interests as described in section 9.


- Other players: your call sign, faction, rank, records, orders, and chat
messages are visible to the other participants of your match and, for
ladder entries, to anyone who views that ladder's leaderboard.
- The hosting player: the player who hosts your match or ladder holds the
records described in section 2 on their device and can see them.
- Valve (Steam): where you play through Steam, Valve processes your Steam
account data under its own policy (section 11), and validates the
authentication ticket described in section 2.
- Nobody else, except as required by law, a court order, or a lawful
request by a public authority, to protect the rights, property, or safety
of the Developer, players, or the public, or to a successor of the Game
if it is transferred, in which case this policy continues to apply.

The Developer does not use data processors, cloud services, or servers of
its own for the Online Service.


Your player-record data is retained by the host of a ladder for as long as
that ladder operates and your account remains active on it, so ranking and
matchmaking stay accurate. Match records are retained by each participant
for their own replays and are relayed only during the match they belong to.
Chat messages are relayed to support live matches and are not retained by
the Developer beyond operating the match and investigating abuse reports.
Transient IP addresses used for connections are not retained as part of your
long-term player record. Anti-cheat evidence, and the binding of a player id
to a SteamID that supports it, is retained as described in section 13.
Local files remain on your device until you delete them.


The Game is not directed at children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum
age in your jurisdiction), and the Developer does not knowingly collect
personal information from such children through the Online Service. If you
believe a child has provided information to the Online Service, contact the
Developer so it can be reviewed and removed.


Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct,
export, or request deletion of your data, to object to or restrict certain
processing, to withdraw consent, and to complain to a data-protection
authority (for example the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada,
your national or regional authority in the European Union, the Information
Commissioner's Office in the United Kingdom, or your state authority in the
United States). To exercise these rights, contact the Developer through the
published support channel. The Developer will make reasonable efforts to
respond to verified requests within the time the law requires, and in any
case within a reasonable period consistent with a solo-developed service.
Because ladder records live on hosting players' machines, the Developer may
need to ask the relevant host to act on a deletion request. You will not be
treated differently for exercising any of these rights.

You may request deletion of your player-record data at any time. Local
files (profile, settings, replays, logs) remain under your control and can
be deleted directly from your device. You can play entirely offline in
Skirmish, where nothing leaves your device, and you can avoid any particular
host by declining its lobby.


No automated decision that has a legal or similarly significant effect on
you is made by the Game. Automated signals (for example anti-cheat
observations, absence scoring, the matchmaking tier, and matchmaking) affect
in-game outcomes only, and consequential enforcement actions are decided by
a human reviewing the evidence (section 13).


Where you access the Game through Steam, Valve independently collects and
processes data under its own Steam Privacy Policy (for example your Steam
account information, friends, achievements, and cloud save data). That
processing is governed by Valve's policies, not this one. The practices
above apply to data collected by the Game itself, separately from the Steam
platform layer.


The Developer takes reasonable technical steps to protect data handled by
the Game and the Online Service: match traffic is signed and, over Steam's
networking relay, encrypted by that relay; the player-record store and
evidence log are tamper-evident; and the anti-cheat runs only inside the
Game's own process. No method of transmission or storage is completely
secure, and the Developer cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach
affecting your personal data comes to the Developer's attention, the
Developer will notify you and any authority as required by applicable law.


The Game includes built-in anti-cheat components. In the interest of
transparency, this section states plainly what they do.

What the Game checks, on your own device: whether a debugger is attached
to the Game; whether the Game's own code in memory has been altered;
whether the running Game executable carries a valid digital signature
(a build that carries no signature at all is not penalized; only a
signature that is present and invalid counts); the names of loaded
modules, running processes, and window titles, compared against a short
list of known cheat tools (names only; the Game never reads the contents
of other programs, files, documents, or your screen); and, once at
startup, your operating system's security posture (Secure Boot, TPM,
memory integrity, DMA protection, test-signing mode, kernel debugger),
which determines which matchmaking tier you may join. Ranked play may be
unavailable on systems with test-signing or a kernel debugger enabled;
the Game never blocks single-player play.

What is sent, and where: when you join a match, a one-byte summary of the
startup posture check (a tier, not the underlying details) is sent to the
host so it can place you in the right queue. During online matches only,
the Game may also send small numeric reports (a detection category, a
count, and a timestamp, for example "integrity check failed, twice, at
14:03") to the host of your match over the signed networking session, so
the host can verify they came from your Game. These reports contain no
chat, no names, and no text you can influence. If no check has triggered,
nothing else is sent: a clean session produces no telemetry beyond the
one-byte tier. The Game runs no Developer server: reports are stored in a
tamper-evident evidence log on the match host's own machine, and the
Developer sees them only if a host submits that log for review.

Retention: nothing is retained from a clean session because nothing
leaves your device. Flagged evidence is kept by the host for up to three
years (1095 days by default; the host's Game prunes it automatically after
that) to support enforcement review and appeals, then deleted.

No automated bans: no score or program ever bans you by itself. Any
enforcement action (for example a Steam Game Ban) is decided by a human
reviewing the collected evidence, normally requiring corroboration from
independent sources. You may contest any action through the support
channel in section 9, and the evidence will be re-reviewed.

What the Game does not do: it installs no kernel-level driver, no
system service, and no component that runs when the Game is closed. All
anti-cheat components run inside the Game's own process, only while the
Game runs.


The Online Service is not run from a central Developer server. Each match is
hosted on one participating player's machine, and the player-record store
for a ladder lives on the machine of the player who hosts it. The data
described in section 2 may therefore be processed in whatever country that
host plays from, which may differ from yours and may not provide the same
level of data protection. Where your local law requires a basis for such a
transfer, the Developer relies on the transfer being necessary to provide
the service you request: joining that host's match. You can avoid any
particular host by declining its lobby, and you can play entirely offline
in Skirmish, where nothing leaves your device.


This policy may be updated as the Game and Online Service evolve,
especially during Early Access. Material changes will be reflected in a new
legal document version number, and you will be asked to review and
re-accept the next time you launch the Game. The date of the current
version is shown on the gate that presents it.



Online play is a shared space. The short version: compete hard, do not be
cruel, do not cheat, do not walk out. This Code of Conduct applies whenever
you use the Online Service (matchmaking, ranked, quick, or custom lobbies,
and in-match chat) and is part of the End User License Agreement.


- Harassment, bullying, or targeted abuse of another player;
- Hate speech, slurs, or content attacking people based on race, ethnicity,
national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation,
disability, age, or any other protected characteristic;
- Threats of violence, intimidation, wishing harm on others, or encouraging
anyone to harm themselves or others;
- Sharing another person's private information without consent (doxxing);
- Sexual content directed at other players, or any content sexualizing
minors;
- Spam, flooding, phishing, scams, or advertising;
- Impersonating the Developer, staff, moderators, another player, or a real
person, or a call sign that infringes anyone's rights or misleads others;
- Content that is unlawful where you or the Developer live; and
- Promoting cheats, exploits, or account trading.


- Cheating: cheats, bots, automation, macros, memory editing, modified
clients, edited save or record files, or any tool that gives an unfair
advantage or reveals what the Game does not show you;
- Tampering with or manipulating match results, matchmaking, ratings,
records, or the relay;
- Deliberate exploitation of bugs instead of reporting them;
- Match sabotage, deliberate throwing, griefing teammates, or deliberately
feeding the enemy;
- Abandoning ranked matches, going absent, or disconnecting on purpose to
avoid a loss; and
- Win-trading, boosting, smurfing to abuse newer players, or account
sharing to manipulate ratings.


When a player in a live match disconnects, walks out, or stops giving
orders, the Game hands that player's forces to an AI stand-in so the other
players keep playing, and the absence is scored against the player at the
end of the match. The consequences scale with the absence, whatever its
cause, because the Game cannot tell a deliberate walk-out from a network
failure:

- A short network drop that you return from costs a share of the match's
experience reward and nothing else;
- A longer absence costs a larger share of the reward and the rating gain,
and locks Ranked for a short cooldown;
- Leaving a ranked match for good, never giving a single order, or being
absent for most of the match counts as a desertion: the match is recorded
as a loss, no experience is awarded, and Ranked is locked for a cooldown
that grows with every desertion inside a rolling window (currently ten
minutes, then one hour, then one day). Quick play and custom lobbies stay
open.

A seat under the AI stand-in remains yours until the match ends: the
RECONNECT button on the online screen returns you to it at any time.


The Developer may restrict or remove access to the Online Service for
violations. Depending on severity and history, actions may include: a
warning; chat restrictions; matchmaking cooldowns; removal or reset of
ratings, records, XP, streaks, or cosmetic unlocks obtained through
misconduct; a ranked-season ban; or a full Online Service ban. Confirmed
cheating or result-tampering may also lead to a platform-level ban (for
example a Steam Game Ban), and unlawful conduct may be referred to the
authorities.

Enforcement is carried out on a reasonable, good-faith basis. Automated
signals may flag accounts for review, but consequential penalties are
decided on human judgment where feasible.


You can report misconduct through the support channel published on the
Game's Steam store page (there is no in-game report button yet).
Report honestly: malicious or coordinated false reporting is itself a
violation. Given a solo-developed service, a formal appeals process is not
guaranteed, but you may contact the Developer to dispute a penalty and it
will be reviewed as capacity allows.


Recording, streaming, and publishing your matches is welcome, including on
monetized channels, as described in the End User License Agreement. Other
players may do the same, so your call sign, actions, and chat messages may
appear in their content. Non-commercial community events and tournaments
are welcome; commercial events need the Developer's written permission.


Cosmetic rewards and rank are for prestige only. They never change the
balance of a match. Every game is meant to be won on skill and decisions,
not status, so protect that by playing straight.




PROJECT ORDNIX depicts a fictional near-future conflict between
fictionalized coalitions. Nations, factions, commanders, orders of battle,
places, and events shown in the Game are invented for entertainment and are
not intended to represent, and do not represent, any real country,
government, organization, military unit, or individual, living or dead.

The Game deliberately does not depict any real, ongoing, or historical armed
conflict. Any resemblance between in-game events and real-world events is
either coincidental or the natural consequence of the Game's genre (a
near-future military strategy setting), not a depiction of specific real
events. The Game takes no position on any real-world political, military,
or territorial question.


For authenticity and commentary on modern military strategy, the Game
references real-world military equipment designations (for example vehicle,
aircraft, ship, and weapon system names), and uses national flags, colors,
and generic insignia to identify the fictional coalitions a player commands.
These references are used in a descriptive, editorial, nominative, and
fictional-narrative capacity only; the equipment's depicted performance is
a game abstraction and is not a statement of any real capability.

The Developer is not affiliated with, and this Game is not endorsed,
sponsored, licensed, or approved by, any government, armed force, military
organization, defense contractor, equipment manufacturer, or flag or emblem
authority. All trademarks, trade names, designations, and emblems referenced
in the Game are the property of their respective owners. Their use here
does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by those owners. Any
owner who objects to a reference may contact the Developer through the
published support channel, and the objection will be considered in good
faith.


The Game includes graphic depictions of modern warfare: combat between
military units; destruction of vehicles, aircraft, ships, and structures;
and realistic infantry casualties, including blood sprays on hits,
persistent blood on the ground, wounded and dead soldiers who remain on the
field, and dismemberment from heavy ordnance. Vehicle destruction is shown
as fire, spall, and wreckage without crew gore. The Game also contains a
tactical nuclear weapons mechanic presented as a strategic gameplay system
with escalation consequences and counterplay. All of this is presented for
its strategic and gameplay value, not as glorification, instruction, or
endorsement of violence or of the use of nuclear or any other weapons.
Depiction of a mechanic, tactic, or piece of equipment in the Game is not
an endorsement of its real-world use. The Game contains no depictions of
real people, no sexual content, no drug use, and no depiction of violence
against civilians as an objective.

Nothing in this Game is a source of real-world military, tactical, safety,
medical, or civil-defense guidance, and nothing in it should be imitated in
the real world.


Where the Game's text refers to "AI" (for example AI commanders, AI allies,
or the AI stand-in that takes over an absent player's forces), it means
computer-controlled opponents and allies driven by the Game's own
hand-written logic, not a generative or machine-learning system. See the
Third-Party Software notice for the Game's statement on AI-generated
content.


The Game contains realistic violence and gore and is intended for ADULTS.
It has not yet been assigned an age rating by any rating body; the
Developer expects a mature rating (in the range of ESRB Mature 17+ or PEGI
18) and answers the Steam mature-content survey accordingly, so the store
page carries a mature-content notice and an age gate. The Game is not
directed at children. A parent or guardian who allows a minor to play takes
responsibility for that decision after reviewing the content, and the
Health and Safety Warning applies to every player.


Player-selected call signs, lobby names, and chat messages are user content.
They represent the views of the players who create them, not the Developer,
and are subject to the Code of Conduct. The Developer does not pre-screen
user content and is not responsible for it, but may remove it and act on
reports as described in the Code of Conduct.


Unit statistics, ranges, prices, victory conditions, and other in-game
information are game-design values that may change between updates. The
Developer makes no representation that any in-game text, number, or
description is accurate, complete, or current, and none of it forms part of
any promise about the Game's future content.



The Game is built with open-source and third-party software, used under
their respective permissive licenses. Notable components include:

- Bevy (game engine) - MIT OR Apache-2.0
- wgpu (graphics) - MIT OR Apache-2.0
- winit (windowing) - Apache-2.0
- serde (serialization framework) - MIT OR Apache-2.0
- ron (Rusty Object Notation, save/config data) - MIT OR Apache-2.0
- postcard (binary serialization for netcode) - MIT OR Apache-2.0
- rand and rand_xoshiro (deterministic random number generation) -
MIT OR Apache-2.0
- fixed (fixed-point arithmetic for the deterministic simulation) -
MIT OR Apache-2.0
- xxhash-rust (hashing, used for determinism verification) - MIT OR Apache-2.0
- dirs (per-platform configuration directory resolution) - MIT OR Apache-2.0
- The Rust standard library and toolchain - MIT OR Apache-2.0
- Additional Rust crates, each used under their own MIT, Apache-2.0, or
similarly permissive open-source license.

The Steam build of the Game links Valve's Steamworks SDK (the steam_api64
library installed beside the Game's executable), which is Valve's
proprietary software used under the Steamworks SDK Access Agreement and is
not covered by the open-source licenses above.


Two different things are true, and both are stated here so that neither
is misread: the Game was made with AI coding tools, and the Game contains
no AI-generated media.

MADE WITH AI CODING TOOLS. AI coding assistants (large language models used
as development tools) were used throughout development, under the
Developer's direction: they wrote the Game's program code, the parameter
files that code reads, the Game's written text, and these documents. The
Developer set the requirements, reviewed and tested the results, decided
what shipped, and is responsible for everything the Game contains. Where a
distribution platform asks whether AI tools were used to create content
during development, the honest answer is yes, in exactly that sense, and
this is what the Game discloses.

NO AI-GENERATED MEDIA. No machine-learning model generated any image,
sound, or piece of music in the Game. Every image the Game shows is
rendered by the Game's own procedural code, and every sound is SYNTHESIZED:
computed by the Game's own signal-processing code from written parameter
files kept in the Game's source repository. The music is composed and
performed the same way, by the Game's own generative-orchestra code,
instrument by instrument. No sample library, soundfont, recording, or
third-party audio data of any kind was used to produce any of it, and none
is contained in or distributed with the Game.

The tools used to build the audio library are the Game's own Rust and
Python code together with FFmpeg, all invoked as external programs; none of
them is linked into or distributed with the Game. Their licenses are listed
with the other third-party components above and in THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt.

> CHANGED 2026-08-17. An earlier draft of this document disclosed that the
> Game's sound effects had been generated with ACE-Step, a machine-learning
> model. That is no longer true of any file in the Game: the entire audio
> library was re-created by synthesis and every generated file was removed
> from the build on that date. The Game's store page disclosure was changed
> at the same time. This note is kept so the change is on the record rather
> than silent.

A complete, machine-generated list of all third-party components and their
full license texts is distributed alongside the Game as
THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt, in the same folder as the Game's executable.
Nothing in the End User License Agreement restricts your rights under those
components' own open-source licenses.


This is LEGAL DOCUMENT VERSION 4, dated 2026-09-13.

By selecting "Accept", you confirm that you have read and agree to the
Health and Safety Warning, the End User License Agreement, the Privacy
Policy, the Code of Conduct, and the Content Disclaimer presented in this
gate; that you are old enough to accept them where you live, or that a
parent or legal guardian has accepted them for you; that you understand the
Game contains graphic violence intended for adults; that you understand the
Game is an Early Access title that is unfinished and may change
substantially; that you understand online play has no Developer server and
sends the data described in the Privacy Policy to the player who hosts your
match; and that you understand leaving or going absent from a live ranked
match carries the penalties described in the Code of Conduct.

If you select "Decline", the Game will close and you will not be able to
play it. If the Developer makes material changes to these documents, the
version number will increase and you will be asked to review and re-accept
before continuing.