Battle Standards is a new type of placeable that we think a lot of you are going to appreciate. Since Early Access we’ve had players ask us for ways to establish specific areas as PvP zones, specifically so they can set up arenas for dueling and gladiatorial combat on servers not specifically dedicated to PvP.

Battle Standards will do exactly that.

The Placeable

The Battle Standard is a tall, placeable flag with two crossed swords on the front. It’s intention is to establish a PvP “Zone” in an area around it. The intended functionality is to allow players to first build an arena structure and then establish the PvP Zone with the cunning use of a flag.

We’ve implemented several additional special functions and rules to the battle standard in order to prevent griefing and exploiting:

• Once crafted and placed, it can’t take damage
• Once placed it will prevent placing down other structures inside the PvP area (so make sure you’ve finished your arena before plonking down the flag)
• The Battle Standard doesn’t have land-claim
• It uses exclusive placement rules to prevent multiple arenas being placed too close to each other.
• PvP combat inside the Battle Standard’s area of influence is completely optional, so people can’t trick you into PvP combat when you don’t want to.

How it works:

In an area around the Battle Standard, PvP is allowed, even outside normal PvP limits. When you enter the area you’ll get a warning message on the screen asking if you want to enable PvP combat. This message will only appear if you’re not eligible for PvP, e.g. if you’re on a PvE server or outside PvP combat hours on a PvP server.

The warning message will give you the option to opt in, opt out, always opt in, or always opt out.

• Opting in makes you instantly eligible for PvP combat while inside the Battle Standard’s area of effect. Leaving the area will turn off PvP combat.
  • If you opt out you can walk around in the Battle Standard’s zone of influence, but without being eligible for PvP combat
• Choosing to always opt in does not turn off PvP combat once you’ve left the area.
• Choosing to always opt out will opt out of all Battle Standards for that session.

Battle Standard choices will be saved on a per-session basis. Logging out, then back in, will reset whatever choice you made before you logged out.

Dying in the arena doesn’t drop any loot. The exception to this is if the server already has the option to drop loot enabled. Then loot will drop as normal.

FAQ:

• What is the point of having Battle Standards on PvP servers?
  • On full PvP servers the Battle Standards will be useless, but can be used to mark arenas or areas of interest
  • On timed PvP servers the Battle Standard will let you organize PvP fights outside the PvP window
  • On PVE-C/PvE servers the Battle Standards will work as described above
• What about NPC damage?
  • The Battle Standard won’t change anything when it comes to NPCs. NPCs and wildlife will still be able to do damage within a PvP area. Death by animal in a PvP area will have the same effect as death by player (no loot drop).
• What if I enter with a thrall?
  • Thralls won’t be affected by the Battle Standard, only the player
• How do I know if a player is eligible for PvP combat?
  • There will be an icon on their health bar, similar to the buff/debuff icons
• What will PvP look like in clans?
  • PvP mode should override friendly fire setup for players in the same clan