TERMS OF SERVICE

Echoes Beyond is free to play, and you can play all of it without ever spending anything. Credits buy pictures from the forge — emblems, ship portraits, art for your own empire — and nothing else. They are never earned by playing, they make no fleet stronger, and nobody you meet in the galaxy is ahead of you for having bought some. The rest of this page is the fine print, and it is short on purpose.

These terms govern the use of playechoesbeyond.com and the game behind it. Your counterparty is the operator named in the imprint, a private individual in Germany. They take effect when you create an account, and the version in force is the one on this page, dated under the heading.

One account per person. The commander name and the empire name are yours for as long as the account lives. Keep the password to yourself: anything done from a signed-in session is done as you. We may suspend or close an account that cheats, that is one of several run by the same person for an advantage, that harasses other players, or that attacks the service itself — and if such an account holds credits, write to support and the balance will be dealt with fairly. Ask at the address in the imprint and your account is deleted.

The game is unfinished and says so on every page. There is no promised uptime, features may change or be withdrawn, balance will be rewritten more than once, and the galaxy may be reset — a wipe is an ordinary event in an alpha, not a failure. Two things a reset does not touch: the credits in your wallet and the pictures you have forged. Those belong to the account, not to the galaxy.

A credit is a cosmetic voucher for the forge, not money. It has no cash value, cannot be paid out, cannot be moved to another account, and does not expire. Credits are bought in packs, granted by us, or handed over as the small allowance every new commander starts with; they are never earned by play. Nothing bought with them touches the game: no resources, no combat strength, no speed, no position on the board. They land in your wallet the moment Stripe confirms the payment.

An emblem sheet has a fixed price, printed on the button before you press it. A picture, a revision and a turn with the Prompt Designer are metered: they are charged by what the model call actually used. Before the call runs, a few whole credits are held — the most that one action may charge — and the moment it answers, the difference between the hold and the real charge comes back to the wallet, down to a thousandth of a credit. The charge itself is the model provider’s own list price for that call, converted to euro, multiplied by a fixed factor that covers the payment fee and the running of the service, and divided by the price of a credit. The factor and the price of a credit are the same for everybody. What each call charged is shown on the picture it made and on the designer’s reply, every time. If a call fails, the whole hold comes back and nothing is charged.

A pack you have not spent can be refunded: write to the support address in the imprint with the account and the purchase, and the money goes back the way it came, the credits leaving the wallet with it. Credits already spent on a picture are not refundable — the picture was made, and making it cost what it cost. A picture that failed was never charged for in the first place. If something goes wrong that is our fault, say so and it will be put right.

As a consumer you normally have fourteen days to withdraw from a distance contract. Credits are digital content delivered immediately, so before it takes the payment the checkout asks you to agree to two things: that delivery begins at once, and that on delivery you therefore lose the right of withdrawal (§ 356 Abs. 5 BGB, Art. 16 lit. m of Directive 2011/83/EU). The checkbox in Stripe Checkout is that agreement. Unspent credits are refunded anyway under Refunds above — the waiver is about the statutory right, not about our goodwill.

A picture is made by an AI model from what you asked it for, and you are responsible for the asking. Do not ask for someone else’s trademark, logo, character or photograph; nothing hateful; nothing sexual involving minors; nothing illegal. Everything the forge makes is subject to moderation and may be rejected, or removed later — the credits for a removed picture are not returned unless the removal was our mistake. An emblem you put in game is shown to other players, so by putting it there you allow us to display it inside the game and in material about the game. You may use your own pictures elsewhere. What rights a machine-made image carries is an unsettled question in most countries, and we promise nothing about it.

We are liable without limitation for injury to life, body or health, for intent and gross negligence, and wherever the Produkthaftungsgesetz imposes liability. For simple negligence we are liable only where an obligation has been breached whose fulfilment makes performance of this contract possible at all and on which you may routinely rely, and then only for the damage typically foreseeable in a contract of this kind. The game is free to play and is provided as it is. Nothing written here limits a liability that the law does not allow to be limited.

We may change these terms — the game changes, and a document that describes it has to follow. A change that materially affects you is announced in the game and by mail to the address on your account at least four weeks before it takes effect. If you do not accept it, stop using the service and ask for any unspent credits back. Playing on after it takes effect is acceptance.

German law applies, to the exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If you are a consumer resident in the EU, this choice does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory provisions of your own country. We are neither willing nor obliged to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.