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? | Zones → 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
1. Open Zones and load any map. 2. Open the Biomes panel and select the biome you want to change. 3. Under Settings, set PvP Rule. 4. 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.