Justice, Law Enforcement & Bounties

1. Summary

Civilized zones are policed. Killing workers or neutral NPCs is allowed (including PvP on workers) but carries consequences:

Wild zones have no guard response; evil still accrues for NPC/worker kills.

2. Locked decisions

3. Zone security model

World segments tag security tiers (01 zone metadata):

GuardCoverage {
  tier: civilized | patrolled | wild
  emplacements: [guard_post, watchtower, town_gate, ...]
  response_radius_m: f(tier, emplacement_density)
  response_time_ticks: f(distance_to_nearest_guard)
}

Guard emplacements are authored fixtures + town spawns. Attacking a neutral NPC inside response_radius queues a crime event.

4. The evil attribute

Persistent character stat (11) — visible to self; optionally visible to others via Detect Evil skill or guard scan.

evil_rating ∈ [0, ∞) with soft cap — diminishing returns / plateau above ~1000

High evil may affect: NPC prices, guard aggro priority, temple refusal, faction gates. Soft cap prevents runaway numbers from dominating all systems.

4.1 Reducing evil

Prayer requires sanctuary fixture — not usable while wanted in that faction’s towns (config).

5. Worker & NPC protection

5.1 Worker flee

On first hostile action against a worker (damage or hostile intent):

worker.state = FLEE
worker.move_speed = flee_speed_base × flee_panic_multiplier   # very high
worker.flee_target = lodging | nearest_guard_post | employer_residence

• Job paused; resumes after reaching safe point + calm timer if attacker gone.
• Workers have HP — can die if caught (evil on killer).
• In civilized zones, crime event also dispatches guards (§6).

5.2 Neutral NPCs

Shopkeepers, quest givers, labor brokers: same flee optional; many are indoors or non-combat with guard escalation only.

6. Guard NPCs

6.1 Crime event

CrimeEvent {
  criminal_entity_id,
  victim_entity_id,
  crime_kind: AttackNeutral | KillNeutral | AttackWorker | KillWorker | ...,
  position,
  zone_security_tier,
  timestamp,
}

6.2 Response

1. Find guards within response_radius of crime (emplacements + town patrol pool).
2. Guards path toward criminal at high speed.
3. On range + LoS: engage combat (12) — guards are strong, co-op.
4. On first guard aggro against criminal → add/update wanted record (§7).

Guards do not follow criminals into wild unless border chase rules (optional, short leash).

6.3 Wanted in town

When a wanted player enters civilized tier with active warrant:

• Patrol guards path toward player when in extended radius.
• LoS + within engage range → attack (same as PvP, guards as faction).
• Player can flee town; warrant persists on regional boards (§7.1).

6.4 Guard lethality vs evil

Threshold configurable per ruleset (guard_lethal_evil_threshold).

7. Wanted board & bounties

7.1 Wanted record (central ledger)

wanted_entry:
  character_id: ...
  display_name: ...
  crimes: [kill_worker, assault_guard]
  evil_at_posting: 340
  bounty: { silver: 50 }
  posted_at: ...
  origin_region_id: northhold
  spread_regions: [northhold, millbrook]   # grows to nearby towns over time
  expires_at: ...                            # entries timeout — not forever
  status: active | captured | expired

Wanted boards are fixtures in towns. Listings are regional first (origin_region_id), spread to adjacent towns over configurable time, and expire after wanted_ttl unless renewed by new crimes.

TUI: flatland wanted list, flatland wanted accept <id>.

7.2 Player bounty hunters

Bounty reward: equal split among valid bounty party members on turn-in.

Invalid kill (wrong target, accomplice) — no payout; may increase hunter evil.

7.3 Funding

Bounty pool from: town tax (10), employer restitution on worker kill, crime fines on capture.

8. Unconscious, kill & capture (PvP)

Extends combat (12) and death (07).

8.1 Unconscious state

When player HP → 0 in PvP (and optional elite PvE):

state = UNCONSCIOUS
duration: until revived, killed, captured, or self-recovery
actions: none — stuck in place (minimal chat optional)

Not dead — no corpse yet; inventory remains on body.

No auto-death timer. If the winner ignores the body, the unconscious player eventually recovers and may leave. Another player may capture while down. High-skill targets may escape restraint before jail (chance vs captor skill).

8.2 Winner interaction

Standing adjacent, channel Finish intent:

Killing unconscious neutral/worker still applies evil + crime event.

8.3 Captured state

captured:
  restrained: true
  follow_captor: true
  inventory_locked: true
  skills_disabled: true
  escape_chance: f(DEX, relevant_skill, captor_skill)  # before jail booking

Captor escorts to jail fixture → TurnInPrisoner → prisoner enters JAILED (§9). Failed escape attempts extend restraint timer.

9. Jail

Logged-out prisoners remain jailed — cannot evade by disconnect.

10. Combat integration

11. Worker death (employer impact)

12. TUI / agent

flatland wanted list
flatland wanted accept bandit-42
flatland capture <player>              # on unconscious target
flatland jail status
flatland pray --sanctuary temple_northhold --duration 300
flatland evil                          # self rating + recent changes
flatland guard-zones map               # overlay security tier (debug)

13. Phasing

14. Open decisions

Resolved (2026-07-06):

15. Cross-references

Guards use same combat intents as players (12). Workers flee uses movement from 11.