Per-biome PvP rules and the countdowns players get before PvP switches on.
PvP Zones & Timers
You decide where players can fight and how long they get to think about it.
A map has always had one PvP rule for the whole thing. Now a biome can override it, so a single map can hold a safe village, an ordinary wilderness and a lawless marsh without being split into three zones. And crossing the border between them isn't instant: walking into hostile ground starts a countdown, and walking back out starts another one. A player always gets a window to turn around, and can never end a fight by stepping over a line.
Where to author it#
There are two places, and they answer two different questions.
| Question | Where |
|---|---|
| Which ground is hostile? | Maps → open a map → Biomes → pick a biome → PvP Rule (and the map's own PvP Rule as the fallback) |
| How long are the countdowns? | World → PvP |
The countdowns are deliberately world-wide, not per biome. A player has to be able to learn "how long do I have to get out?" once and then trust it at every border in your game.
Setting a biome's PvP rule#
- Open Maps and load any map.
- Open the Biomes panel and select the biome you want to change.
- Under Settings, set PvP Rule.
- Save, then Publish so the running server picks it up.
| PvP Rule | What it does |
|---|---|
| Inherit from zone | The default. The biome expresses no opinion and the map's PvP rule applies. Every biome you authored before this field existed is set to this. |
| Safe | No player-vs-player damage on these tiles, even on a PvP map. Use it to carve a sanctuary — a village, a bank district — out of hostile territory. |
| PvP | Players may fight. Nothing extra is dropped on death. |
| Full Loot | Players may fight, and a player killed by another player drops their gear. |
| Full Loot (any killer) | As Full Loot, but dying to a monster drops gear too. |
| Arena | Players may fight and nothing is ever dropped. For duelling grounds. |
The rule that wins on any given tile is resolved most-specific-first: an instance's own ruleset, then the biome's rule, then the map's rule. A biome set to Inherit is invisible to this — it never changes anything.
The countdowns (World → PvP)#
| Field | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Use entry and exit countdowns | On | The master switch. Off = PvP snaps on and off the moment a player crosses a border, with no grace window either way. Biome rules still apply. |
| Entry countdown | 10s | How long a player stands on hostile ground before their PvP flag goes live. They cannot be attacked, and cannot attack, during it — and walking back out cancels it outright. 0 = flag immediately. |
| Exit countdown | 30s | How long a flagged player stays open to PvP after reaching safe ground. 0 = the flag drops the instant they cross the line. |
| Warn at | 5s | When the HUD countdown switches to its alert styling. Capped at the entry countdown. |
| Hold the flag until the fight ends | On | A player still trading blows with another player keeps their flag past the exit countdown, so backing over a border can't end a fight. Off = leaving always just runs the countdown and switches PvP off, fight or no fight. |
| Fight is over after | 10s | Seconds of quiet — no blows traded with another player — before that hold releases and the exit countdown is allowed to finish. |
What the player sees#
The PvP chip in the top bar stops being a label and becomes a status:
| Chip | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Safe | Not flagged, standing on safe ground. |
| PvP in 8s | On hostile ground, counting down. Still protected. Goes to alert styling at your Warn at mark. |
| PvP / Full Loot | Flagged. Open to combat, and other flagged players show as attackable. |
| Safe in 24s | Flagged but on safe ground, counting down to safe. |
| PvP — in combat | The exit countdown is being held open because the fight isn't over. |
A chat line marks each change of state, not each tick, so the channel stays readable.
Gotchas#
- The flag belongs to the player, not the tile. A flagged player who runs into a village is still attackable until their exit countdown ends. That's the point — otherwise every fight ends at the nearest border.
- The flag remembers the rule it was granted under. Getting flagged in a Full Loot marsh means a death still costs gear even if it happens two steps outside it. Players can't dodge full loot by retreating.
- Both sides must be flagged for damage to land. A player still inside their entry countdown can't be hit and can't hit. That symmetry is what makes the window a real chance to leave instead of a head start for whoever was already standing there.
- Set the exit countdown longer than the entry countdown. If leaving is faster than arriving, running away is free.
- Monster fights never hold the flag. Only blows traded with another player count, so grinding mobs near a border won't pin you in PvP forever.
- Duels ignore all of this. An accepted duel is attackable anywhere, including safe zones, exactly as before.
- Publish after editing. Biome rules and the PvP config both ride a publish; the running server re-evaluates everyone standing in the world when it lands, so players don't need to relog.
- Feature flag. All of the above is gated behind Biome PvP Rules in Feature Flags. Turn it off and zones decide alone, with no countdowns.