This is both the forum and game FAQ.
Here are some answers to some common questions floating around the forum...

Forum FAQ:
- Q: How can I change my forum avatar?

A:Avatars in this forum are linked to a global site called gravatar.
By creating an account on Gravatar (making sure that you use the same email address as that you use on the forums), and uploading your custom avatar to their site, it should automatically synchronise the two accounts within a few seconds.

- Q: How does the text formatting work here?

A: The basic formatting information is displayed to the right of the text box you use to create a post, but here are the tags again:
Create a link: <a href="">Create a link</a>
Write some code: enclose your code within ` (commonly used for quoting other users also)
<strong>Write in bold</strong>: <strong>Write in bold</strong>
<em>Write in italics</em>: <em>Write in italics</em>
And lastly:<blockquote>Write inside a blockquote</blockquote> (this entire paragraph is in a blockquote)

- Q: My threads are being closed/posts being deleted - why?

A: Likelihood is you are breaking the forum guidelines.
These are the guidelines that both users and administrators should follow. At the end of the day, it is the admin team's discretion on whether a thread/post stays or goes (based on the guidelines).
Excessive arguing about the discretion in thread will likely provoke an admin to punish, so all complaints about such matters need to be presented and dealt with in an official manner through posting an aptly named thread in the Support forum.

- Q: How can I be a good user on the forum?

A: In one sentence: follow the forum guidelines.
In more than one sentence: keep thinking whether what you say is related to the topic and is not some junk and/or designed to provoke anyone. Keep threads as 'clean' as possible and make sure than any links to external websites are not advertising products or hacks of any kind.

- Q: How can I edit the title of my own thread?

A: Click on the 'edit' button by the original/first post you made, and change the title from there.

Game FAQ:
- Q: How can I change my ingame name?

A: Your ingame name is defined in the 'config.ini' file in your Ace of Spades installation folder.
So to change it, simply go to your Ace of Spades folder (often 'C:\Program Files\Ace of Spades'), then open the file 'config.ini'.
Inside there is the line 'name Deuce' - simply change 'Deuce' to the name that you want (remembering to keep a space between 'name' and the name you choose).

If you get permission errors, then you shall need to: copy all the contents out of 'config.ini', paste it into notepad, delete the original 'config.ini', now change your name in notepad as described above, save it onto the desktop as config.ini (remembering to make sure it's saved using 'All Files' option rather than '.txt' if using notepad), then copy/paste that desktop 'config.ini' back into your Ace of Spades folder.
Step-by-step video of this process can be found here (Thanks to Andrea for the video).

- Q: What is the purpose/goal of this game?

A: Ace of Spades is an FPS (First Person Shooter) with sandbox terrain. The goal is to capture, and return to your Command Post (marked as a team-coloured '+' on the map), the enemy Intel (marked as a square in the opposition colour).
By capturing, you increase your team's score and you receive the ability, for one minute, to see all enemy movements (as red circles on the map). You have limited ammunition on your player, but you can restock your supplies at your own Command Post.
You have two digging tools, a rifle and some grenades. The pick-axe is used to gather blocks, destroying one block at a time; the spade is used to destroy three blocks at a time (destroys the block you point at, plus the blocks immediately above and below it - useful for making tunnels).

- Q: How can I play the game on linux?

A: using WINE. Details on how to do this can be found on the Wiki.

- Q: How can I play the game on mac?

A: Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?8zhioibefcxb0ak
Unzip then right-click on the app and select "view contents" to access the config.ini file.
(Thanks goes to knottycorpse for creating the original app, and Pwaa for highlighting and updating it)

- Q: How can I remove the fog?

A: You can't, and it is considered a hack if you do so..

- Q: How can I change my controls?

A: Unforunately control-changing functionality has not been programmed into the game, however Ben Aksoy (the developer) has said that custom key bindings are on the agenda for future updates.

- Q: I cannot load client.exe, what is wrong?

A: Ace of Spades works by webpage sending information to 'client.exe' to load it automatically with the correct settings. This means that you can't just load 'client.exe', you must choose a server from the play page and let it load itself.
Currently there is no GUI (Graphical User Interface), however some members of the community have created their own alternative server browsers with nifty extra features, more notable ones being listed here.

We should be able to choose a new gun every time you die instead of just exiting it then having to just exit and then choose the gun you wanted.

I mean, why haven't we had this already, for us lazy people like me which can just choose our gun every time right after we die, it's way much more easier.

Well, anyone agree?

I will first start off that THE SUB MACHINE GUN SHOULDN'T HAVE RECOIL!
2: Snipers. Sometimes I just cant get that aim on that guy, so I get killed. It should zoom in but not change the fog.
3. Secondary. Pistol.
4. Melee. Pickaxe/Bowie Knife.
5: Stealing from other CP. Ammo/blocks, not health.
6: Slow Health Regenaration. 'Nuff said.
7: Water=Less fall damage/none. 'Nuff said
8: Classes. (Scout: Faster, less health, shotgun, 25 blocks, only pickaxe. Sniper: Snipe Rifle, 25 blocks, normal speed, both deleting items, Normal Health. Solider: Rifle, 50 blocks, Spade, normal speed. Almost like TF2, but with something like the Builder: 75 Blocks, Both tools, Rifle or Pistol..? Normal speed, Normal health.

That's all... I had alot.

By title I mean where it says "Member" or "moderator" and such at first I thought It just showed your rank but I've seen A lot of people who have made custom titles.

can someone explain this to me?

Can anybody tell me how to change my name when playing AoS, If u can thanks!!!

I can change my sight, but how do i change my guns look?

I found a post under the General Gameplay section called "Notch broked it." Recognizing Notch's name, I clicked on the post and found out that Notch linked the download of the game in his Twitter. My opinion is that this has some pros and some cons. I wanna talk about the problem, but first I'll mention a good aspect to keep spirits up. This will increase the AoS population by thousands, boosting this game in fame and also more people will donate making this an awesomer game than it is already (really hard to beat :D).

Now the problem. In the post "Notch broked it", commenters said minecrafters will interpret it and either join the game's servers and build like it's candyland, or rip on the game calling it a rip-off. Neither of those concern me much, although I know that some minecrafters will do this and have already done that. My concern is that many minecrafters who want to build freely will notice three things:
1. Green spawn/territory is in a relatively flatland, which is nice and easy to build on.
2. Green team promotes building much more than blue team. They are in lowlands and need as much cover as possible from the sniping blues on top of mountains.
3. Green team usually has better defenses and can better defend the builds minecrafters make than the blue team, minimizing chances of it being tore down by a sneaky ninja on the other team.
You've probably inferred by now that I implied most minecrafters will probably prefer the green team and will overpopulate the green team. Many starters at this game will be too scared to join blue team since it will have much less players, and the beginners will join green too, overpowering the green team even more.

The bottom line is that the preference for green team will sky rocket and the teams will unbalanced, making unfair games on most servers. On a vote taken on the unofficial Ace of Spades Blog in early April, 284 people preferred blue team, 297 people preferred green team, and 183 people couldn't decide. There was also a system that allowed you to only vote once to make the poll accurate. This was pretty balanced and made it about a fair match. Now in late April, when the world of Minecraft learned about this game from Notch, the polls could take a drastic turn.