Worlds & PvP Types

Aetheria supports multiple game worlds, each with its own PvP rules. Players choose a world during registration and are locked to it for their character's lifetime.

World Types

Type	PvP	Skull System	Description
NoPvP	Disabled	No	Players cannot attack each other. All PvP attacks are blocked. Field items convert to safe variants.
PvP	Enabled	Yes	Full skull system. Unjustified kills give skulls. White/Yellow/Red/Black skull progression.
PvP-Enforced	Enabled	No	No skull tracking. All PvP is always justified. No penalties for killing players.

Seeded Worlds

World	Type	Port
Antica	PvP	8080
Secura	No-PvP	8081

Multi-Process Deployment

Each world runs as a separate server process with WORLD_ID env var.
Example: WORLD_ID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001 PORT=8080 cargo run
Players are locked to their world in multi-world mode. POST /api/select-world is disabled.
In single-world mode (no WORLD_ID), the server serves all players.

PvP Gating

NoPvP worlds — All player-vs-player attacks are blocked. PVP field items (fire, poison, energy, magic wall, wild growth) convert to safe variants that don't damage players.
PvP worlds — Full skull system: white skull (attacked first), yellow skull (attacked a skulled player), red skull (too many unjustified kills), black skull (extreme). PZ lock prevents teleport/travel while skulled.
PvP-Enforced worlds — No skull tracking. All kills are justified. No PZ lock from PvP.

World-Specific Features

Chat channels — World/Trade/Help/Advertising channels only broadcast to players in the same world.
Highscores — Portal highscores page has a world filter dropdown.
Client API switching — Client automatically switches REST and WebSocket endpoints to the world-specific server based on character's world assignment.
PvP indicator — Game UI top bar shows world name + type badge.

API Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
`GET /api/worlds`	List active worlds with host/port/ws_port
`POST /api/select-world`	Select a world (disabled in multi-world mode)