To promote polite behavior and good sportsmanship, we’ve decided to elaborate on what most people consider those two terms to entail in regards to combat.

What is considered proper etiquette in combat?

Be courteous. Nobody likes people who are rude. If you get shot at and/or shot down, don’t start freaking out at people. You’re playing in a combat zone, defeat is part of the game, no matter how you feel about it. If you feel upset, it’s best to take a break.

Respawn your vehicles at proper locations. There’s an abundance of harbours and airports to start your combat experience. Don’t take off underwater and don’t rez new vehicles right where you died. Spawn at a reasonable distance away from your enemy.

Don’t camp harbours and airports. Give people space to properly get started on their perilous journey through the gulf. Ports are also safe zones. Sitting outside of a harbour and waiting on ships to come out to attack them is rude, and subtracts from the experience of others. This includes the drone ships.

Don’t engage vehicles from lesser eras. Modern times have brought a great amount of technological progress in weaponry, this means that vehicles from historic eras are at a disadvantage. It is considered poor sportsmanship to engage people who don’t really have the means to defend themselves against modern weaponry. However, if they engage you first, they forfeit this courtesy and you are welcome to engage them. Do not use this as an excuse to jump into battles that are a specific other era unless they all started firing at you first.

What happens if I display poor sportsmanship?

If you decide to behave poorly people will consider you to be rude. Amongst other things, this means you might be the target of more overpowered weapons, forfeit being treated according to this etiquette, get barred from one or more airports/harbours around the gulf or depending on if you were using the LANCE freight system during your transgressions, lose a sum of your accumulated LANCE cargo points.

So in short: 
Be kind and you will be treated kindly.