PvP System

Status: Design Date: 2026-04-02

Player-versus-player combat through two mechanisms: PvP zones (open combat in designated areas) and duels (consensual 1v1 anywhere). PvP is for bragging rights only — no loot, no gold, no XP. Players earn a visible kill counter.

PvP Zones

Room Flag

A new room flag pvp marks a room as a PvP zone. Any player in a pvp-flagged room can attack any other player. Designers place these intentionally — arenas, contested territories, lawless frontier areas.

{
  "id": 50,
  "name": "The Bloodpit",
  "description": "A sunken arena ringed by iron spikes. The sand is stained dark.",
  "sector": "arena",
  "flags": ["pvp"],
  "exits": {"north": 49},
  "hooks": []
}

The safe flag takes precedence over pvp — a room cannot be both. If both are present, safe wins.

Zone Entry

When a player enters a pvp-flagged room, they receive a warning message:

You have entered a PvP zone. Other players can attack you here.

The player receives 60 seconds of PvP immunity on entry. During immunity:

• They cannot be attacked by other players
• They cannot attack other players
• A visible indicator shows they are immune (e.g., “Player is protected by a ward of light”)
• Immunity is cleared early if the player initiates any combat action (attacking a mob is fine — only attacking a player clears it)

This prevents spawn camping and gives players time to orient or leave.

Zone Combat

• Any player can attack <player> or kill <player> to initiate combat with another player in the same pvp room
• No level restrictions. The zone is the zone.
• Standard combat mechanics apply — same formulas, same tick-based rounds, same skills
• Players can flee PvP combat using the flee command (same flee mechanics as PvE)
• Multiple players can attack the same target (no 1v1 restriction in zones)

Zone Death

When a player dies in PvP zone combat:

• Normal death flow: player is teleported home
• A corpse is created in the room — but it is empty (no items, no gold)
• The corpse exists for flavor and as a visible record of what happened
• The killer gains +1 to their PvP kill counter
• The dead player loses nothing from inventory or gold (standard PvE death penalties like XP loss still apply if you have them, but currently death has no XP penalty)
• No loot. No gold transfer. No reward beyond the counter.

Duels

Challenge Flow

1. Player A types challenge <player> in the same room as Player B
2. Player B sees: “Player A has challenged you to a duel! Type accept or decline.”
3. Player B types accept — the duel begins. Or decline — the challenge is dismissed.
4. If Player B doesn’t respond within 60 seconds, the challenge expires.

Only one pending challenge per player at a time. A player already in combat cannot issue or accept challenges.

Duel Rules

• Duels work in any room except safe rooms. Including non-PvP rooms.
• Full death rules apply. The loser dies, creates a corpse, and is teleported home. Accepting a duel is accepting the risk of death.
• The corpse is empty — same as PvP zone deaths, no loot.
• The winner gains +1 to their PvP kill counter.
• During a duel, other players cannot interfere — no one else can attack either participant. The duel is isolated combat.
• Either duelist can flee. If they succeed, the duel ends with no winner.
• If either player leaves the room (moves to an exit), the duel ends with no winner.
• Standard combat mechanics apply.

Duel Restrictions

• Both players must be in the same room
• Cannot duel in safe rooms
• Cannot duel while already in combat
• Cannot duel while PvP immune (in a PvP zone during the 60s window)
• Guests can duel citizens and vice versa — no tier restriction

PvP Kill Counter

Every player has a pvp-kills counter, tracked per-world. This is visible when inspecting a player:

Grendel the Warrior — Level 12 PvP Kills: 7

The counter increments on:

• Killing a player in a PvP zone
• Winning a duel (opponent dies)

The counter does not increment on:

• Duel ending by flee or room exit
• Mob kills
• Any non-PvP combat

The counter is per-world and stored on the player session. For citizens, it persists in their %mud-character state. For guests, it resets on disconnect.

Commands

The existing attack and kill commands gain player-targeting logic. Currently they only resolve against mobs. The resolver checks:

1. Is the target name a player in the room?
2. If yes, is the room pvp-flagged or is there an active duel?
3. If neither, reject: “You can’t attack players here.”

Combat Mechanics

PvP combat uses the same formulas as PvE with no modifications:

• Same damage calculation (weapon damage + stat bonus, variance roll)
• Same armor/defense reduction
• Same skill usage (spells, abilities)
• Same tick-based rounds
• Same flee mechanics

No balance changes for PvP. If the PvE formulas produce degenerate PvP (e.g., healers are unkillable, rogues one-shot everyone), that’s a future tuning pass — not a system design problem.

State Changes

Player Session

pvp-kills: @ud                    :: per-world kill counter
pvp-immune-until: (unit @da)      :: immunity expiry timestamp
duel-challenge: (unit session-id) :: pending incoming challenge
duel-opponent: (unit session-id)  :: active duel partner

Room Flags

Add pvp to the set of valid room flags alongside dark, safe, no-mob, no-magic, restricted, etc.

Combat State

The existing combat system tracks who is fighting whom via fighting on mob instances. PvP combat needs a parallel tracker:

pvp-combat: (map session-id session-id)  :: attacker → defender

Both players are added to the map (A→B, B→A) when PvP combat starts. Combat ticks process PvP pairs the same as PvE pairs. On death or flee, both entries are removed.

Duels use the same pvp-combat map. The duel-opponent field on the session distinguishes duels from zone PvP (duels block interference from others).

Impact on Existing Systems

Not Included

• No global opt-in flag. PvP happens in zones or by duel consent. No always-on PvP mode.
• No level restrictions. If you’re in a PvP zone, you accept the risk regardless of level.
• No PvP-specific rewards. No loot, no gold, no XP. The kill counter is the only record.
• No ranking system. Kill counter is flat, not ELO. Leaderboards (if added) could sort by pvp-kills.
• No PvP-specific balance. Same formulas as PvE. Tuning is separate work.
• No cross-world PvP stats. Counter is per-world. A future leaderboard system could aggregate.