Estate Break-ins

Requirements

Module Dependencies:

• House module (version 1.75+) - REQUIRED
• Alignment module (optional) - enables alignment penalties for break-ins

Access:

• Navigate to Estate Housing (House module location)
• "Breakin" navigation section appears
• Two options: "Attack Residents" and/or "Plunder Estates" (configurable which are enabled)

Two Break-in Types

Attack Residents (PvP):

• Engage in player-vs-player combat while target is offline/sleeping
• Uses your playerfights (normal PvP attacks)
• Daily limit: timespv setting (default: 2 attempts/day)
• Victory = normal PvP rewards (gold, experience, PK count)
• Defeat = lose 10% EXP and all gold on hand
• Requires target meet PvP criteria (level range, offline, not immune)
• Setting: attack (bool, default: 1/enabled)

Plunder Estates (Theft):

• Steal gold/gems from estate treasure chests
• Does NOT use playerfights (separate daily limit)
• Daily limit: times setting (default: 2 attempts/day)
• Theft amount based on your level × multiplier (gold setting: 100×level, gems setting: 1×level)
• Random theft within range (level to multiplier×level)
• Requires target estate have sufficient treasure stored
• Victim receives system mail notification
• Setting: plunder (bool, default: 1/enabled)

Guardian System

Estate Guardian NPC:

• Name: "`$Guardian of the Estates`0"
• Weapon: "Lochaber Axe" (Scottish polearm)
• Level: Your level + 5
• Stats scaled to YOUR stats (adapts to each attacker):

Guardian Stats Formula:

• Attack: Your attack × atk multiplier (default: 1.7)
• Defense: Your defense × def multiplier (default: 1.7)
• Hitpoints: round(Your max HP × hp multiplier) (default: 2.0)
• Guardian scales dynamically—weak players fight weak guardian, strong players fight strong guardian

Guardian Encounter:

• Before attacking/plundering, hear "shapening of a blade nearby"
• "You know that if you proceed, you may very well die."
• Choice: "Peek Closer" (fight guardian) or "Return to the Estates" (abort)
• Mount buff suspended during guardian combat (runs away scared)
• Defeat guardian → proceed to attack/plunder
• Lose to guardian → 10% EXP loss, all gold lost, sent to Detention (if not PvP)
• Setting: guardian (bool, default: 1/enabled)

Post-Guardian Healing:

• If heal setting enabled (default: 1) AND you're below healing threshold:
• Healing amount: hpheal setting (default: 75%) of your max HP
• "A wandering bard appears beside you and rubs a healing salve upon your skin."
• "You are healed for `$[X] Damage`3!"
• Prevents guardian from crippling your subsequent break-in attempt

Attack Residents (PvP Mechanics)

Target Selection:

• Navigate to "Attack Residents" → fight guardian → "Advance to the Window"
• List of eligible targets displayed (same city, level ±1, offline, non-immune)
• Target criteria:
  • Level range: Your level - 1 to Your level + 2
  • Offline: laston < LOGINTIMEOUT OR loggedin=0
  • Not you (acctid ≠ yours)
  • Alive (alive=1)
  • Not slaying dragon (slaydragon=0)
  • Not PvP immune (see immunity section below)
  • Located in same city (location match)
• Click target name → PvP combat begins

PvP Combat:

• Standard PvP rules apply (same as forest.php PvP)
• One playerfight consumed per attempt
• countpv pref increments (tracks attack break-ins today)
• Alignment penalty is intended to apply if the alignment module is active (alatk setting, default: -5), but currently doesn't — see Alignment System Integration below

Victory Outcome:

• Standard PvP rewards (gold, EXP from pvpvictory() function)
• News post: "`4[Your Name]`3 defeated `4[Target]`3 while they were sleeping in their Estate."
• Return to alleyway (estate housing navigation)

Defeat Outcome:

• Standard PvP penalties (pvpdefeat() function)
• News post: "`4[Your Name]`3 was defeated while attacking `4[Target]`3 as they were sleeping in their Estate.`n[Taunt]"
• "You are sure that someone, sooner or later, will stumble over your corpse and return it to [your city] for you."
• Sent to Detention (death)

Daily Limit:

• timespv setting (default: 2) - attacks per day
• countpv pref tracks attempts (resets at newday)
• If exceeded: "You are too weary to look any closer. You don't feel that today is a good time to go back."
• Also blocked if you have 0 playerfights remaining (standard PvP limit)

Plunder Estates (Theft Mechanics)

Plunder Sequence:

1. Navigate to "Plunder Estates" → fight guardian → "Sneak Closer"
2. Map displays: list of estates in your city with owner names and house sizes
3. Click estate owner name → "You sneak into [Name]'s `3Estate and hear the creaking of the floorboards."
4. "You step on one, and a alarm goes off!"
5. "Realizing you only have a few minutes before the Owner is woken up, you have to decide.`n`n"
6. Choice: "Gold Storage" or "Gem Storage" (or flee)

Gold Storage Choice:

• Check if estate has sufficient gold: treasure ≥ your_level × gold_multiplier
• If YES:
  • "You look into the Chest and see `^[X] Gold`3."
  • "At your current strength, you feel that you can steal `^[amount] gold`3."
  • "Do you want to go for it?"
  • Choice: "Go For It" (steal) or "Run For It" (abort)
• If NO: "You suddenly realize that the amount of gold that is in the chest, is not worth your time and energy." (abort automatically)

Gem Storage Choice:

• Check if estate has sufficient gems: gemtreasure ≥ your_level × gems_multiplier
• If YES: Same flow as gold (offer to steal gems)
• If NO: Same abort message (gems version)

Theft Execution (Gold):

• Amount stolen: e_rand(your_level, gold_multiplier × your_level)
• Example (level 10, gold=100): steal 10 to 1000 gold randomly
• "You reach for the treasure, but then hear alarms going off!"
• "The Guardian appears behind you and lifts you up off of your feet."
• "Holding you by the scruff of your neck, the Guardian brings you outside and throws you into the Garden's Lake."
• "You look into your hand, and see firmly clenched, a bunch of twinkling pieces of gold."
• "After counting, you see that you made off with `^[X] Gold`3."
• Gold added to your inventory, deducted from estate treasure
• Victim receives system mail: "Someone Has Broken In! [Your Name] `3has broken into your estate, and made off with `^[X] Gold`3."
• Thrown into Gardens (gardens.php), must "Climb Out"

Theft Execution (Gems):

• Amount stolen: e_rand(round(your_level/5), gems_multiplier × your_level)
• Example (level 10, gems=1): steal 2 to 10 gems randomly
• Same sequence as gold theft (Guardian throws you in lake)
• Gems added to your inventory, deducted from estate gemtreasure
• Victim mail: "[Your Name] `3has broken into your estate, and made off with `5[X] Gems`3."

Theft Limits:

• gold setting (default: 100) - multiplier for gold theft capacity
• gems setting (default: 1) - multiplier for gem theft capacity
• Higher multipliers = more lucrative theft
• Admins can adjust to balance economy

Daily Limit:

• times setting (default: 2) - plunder attempts per day
• count pref tracks attempts (resets at newday)
• If exceeded: "The dogs of the Estates have been sniffing around for a while. You don't feel that today is a good time to go back."
• Also blocked if guardian setting enabled and you can't defeat guardian

PvP Immunity System

New Player Protection:

• Two thresholds (either/or, whichever comes first):
  • days setting (default: 5) - days since account creation (age > days)
  • exp setting (default: 1500) - total experience earned (experience > exp)
• Additional immunity conditions (standard LoGD):
  • dragonkills > 0 (has completed VE)
  • pk > 0 (has killed another player)
• If ANY condition met → PvP immunity removed

Immunity Examples:

• Day 3, 500 EXP, 0 VE, 0 PK → IMMUNE (under 5 days AND under 1500 EXP)
• Day 6, 500 EXP, 0 VE, 0 PK → NOT IMMUNE (exceeded 5 days)
• Day 3, 2000 EXP, 0 VE, 0 PK → NOT IMMUNE (exceeded 1500 EXP)
• Day 1, 100 EXP, 1 VE, 0 PK → NOT IMMUNE (has VE)
• Day 1, 100 EXP, 0 VE, 1 PK → NOT IMMUNE (has PK)

Target List Filtering:

• SQL query automatically excludes immune players from attack list
• Immune players never appear as break-in targets
• Prevents griefing of brand-new players

Alignment System Integration

Alignment Module Dependency:

• If alignment module active: Breaking in is supposed to affect your alignment (good/evil scale)
• If alignment module NOT active: No alignment penalties (as intended)
• Setting: aliaff (bool, default: 1/enabled)

Alignment Penalties (currently broken — always zero):

• The module is designed to call align("-$alplun") on plunder and align("-$alatk") on attack, each defaulting to -5 alignment
• But $alplun and $alatk are read with get_module_pref(), which only knows about values declared under the module's "prefs" block — and alplun/alatk are declared under "settings" instead, never "prefs"
• As a result, get_module_pref("alplun") and get_module_pref("alatk") always resolve to nothing, so align("-") runs, and PHP treats that as align((int)"-") = align(0)
• Net effect: despite being intended to cost alignment, this configuration bug means no alignment penalty currently applies to break-ins, plunder or attack, regardless of the aliaff/alplun/alatk settings

Moral Consequences (as designed, not as currently implemented):

• The intent was: repeated break-ins → alignment drops → eventually becomes "Very Evil"
• In practice, right now, break-ins carry no alignment cost at all — a criminal lifestyle with none of the mechanical consequences
• Alignment still affects other modules (shops, NPCs, special events) through whatever alignment you already have — estate break-ins just don't move that needle

Hall of Fame (Largest Estates)

Access:

• Student Rankings → "Estate Sizes" link (if hof setting enabled, default: 1)
• Displays leaderboard of largest estates by housesize pref
• Paginated (pp setting, default: 10 per page)

Hall of Fame Columns:

• Rank: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. (sorted by housesize DESC)
• Owner of Estate: Account name (colored)
• Property Name: Custom estate name (from House module)
• Property Size: housesize value (larger = higher rank)

Purpose:

• Showcase wealthiest/most successful estate owners
• Competitive aspect: players compete for largest estate
• Potential targets: larger estates = more treasure? (not mechanically linked, but implied)

Settings:

• hof (bool, default: 1) - enable/disable Hall of Fame
• pp (int, default: 10) - estates per page

Guardian Defeat (Non-PvP)

If you lose to guardian during plunder attempt:

• "The titan strikes down one final blow and knocks you out cold."
• "You lose [10% EXP] experience and all of your gold on hand."
• EXP loss: 10% of current experience
• Gold loss: ALL gold in inventory (session['user']['gold']=0)
• News post: "[Your Name] fell before the mighty blade of the Estate Watcher."
• Sent to Detention (death, must navigate back to village)
• countpv pref still increments (attempt counted against daily limit)

Strategy Guide

For Attackers/Plunderers:

• Guardian Difficulty: Scales to YOUR stats. If you're weak, don't attempt break-ins (guardian will be too strong). If you're strong, guardian is manageable.
• Plunder vs Attack: Plunder has separate daily limit from attacks. You can do both (2 plunders + 2 attacks per day).
• Theft Efficiency: Higher level = more theft capacity (level × multiplier). Low-level players steal very little.
• Target Selection (Plunder): Look for estates with large house sizes (Hall of Fame) - might indicate more treasure stored.
• Target Selection (Attack): Standard PvP targeting (level range, offline players). Same rewards as forest PvP.
• Alignment Consideration: Break-ins are designed to cost -5 alignment each, but a live bug means that penalty currently never fires — so break in without alignment worry (for now).
• Risk/Reward: Guardian defeat = 10% EXP + all gold lost. High risk. Only break in if you can reliably beat guardian.
• Daily Limit Reset: Both count and countpv reset at newday. Max out daily attempts if you're a dedicated criminal.

For Estate Owners (Defense):

• Minimize Treasure Storage: Don't store excessive gold/gems in estate treasure chests. Thieves can only steal what's there.
• PvP Immunity: New players have 5-day/1500 EXP immunity. Don't complete VE or get PK if you want to maintain immunity longer.
• Guardian Protection: All estates have same guardian (scaled to attacker). You can't upgrade your guardian.
• System Mail Alerts: You'll receive mail if plundered. Check regularly to know when you've been robbed.
• Hall of Fame Risk: Being on Hall of Fame = advertising your estate = potential target. Weigh prestige vs security.

For Admins (Balancing):

• Guardian Multipliers: Increase atk/def/hp multipliers to make guardian harder (discourages break-ins). Decrease to encourage PvP activity.
• Theft Multipliers: Adjust gold/gems settings to control theft profitability. High values = lucrative crime. Low values = not worth the risk.
• Daily Limits: Increase times/timespv for more break-in attempts. Decrease to limit griefing.
• Alignment Penalties: alplun/alatk exist to let admins punish criminals harder or be more forgiving, but a settings-vs-prefs bug currently means neither setting is ever read — the penalty is always zero regardless of these values until that's fixed.
• PvP Immunity: Extend days/exp thresholds to protect newbies longer. Shorten to enable earlier PvP.

Limitations

• Requires House Module: Completely dependent on House module. Unusable without it.
• Daily Limit Rigidity: Can't exceed 2 attempts/day (default). No way to earn extra break-in attempts.
• Guardian Uniform: All estates have same guardian (scaled dynamically). No way to hire stronger/weaker guardian.
• Theft Visibility: Can't see estate treasure amounts before breaking in. Must guess based on house size.
• No Countermeasures: Estate owners can't install traps, alarms, or defenses beyond default guardian.
• Alignment Currently a No-Op: Break-ins are designed to always decrease alignment when the alignment module is active, but a bug in how the module reads its own settings means the penalty is always zero in practice. There's an accidental "honorable thief" option right now, and it isn't the one anyone intended.
• Hall of Fame Exposure: Large estate owners can't opt out of Hall of Fame. Listing is automatic.
• Same-City Only: Can only attack estates in your current city. Can't travel to target-rich cities.