fredhq

Update, 3/1 @ 8:47am — Need some advice getting from v1.2 to v1.3? Check out these instructions on how I did it.

Update, 2/28 @ 11:14pm — An update to the server that plays nicely with v1.3 has been posted. I’ve loaded it and it works. Look for a new post tomorrow morning on how to update your v1.2 server into the new version. (It’s easy, I promise.)

Update, 2/24 @ 8:53pm — And then a couple days after I write all of this up, Minecraft updates to v1.3 and breaks the current hMod implementation. There are posts in the forum saying an update is coming in early March or so. I’ll post any necessary updates I find here.

I recently started a Minecraft server for me and a couple of friends to play on. The basic server was working fine, but then I started looking into server mods. It’s an interesting world out there. People have taken the time to create some incredible things (and for free!).

However, it took a bit of work to figure out how to get all of this working. I’m far from a genius when it comes to working with other people’s stuff normally, but in this instance the information felt more spread out than usual.

So if you’re looking to host your own Minecraft server (at least on a Mac or *nix), here’s how I got my server running using hMod (yes, it’s still in development) followed by a small tutorial on how to use plugins.

hMod

hMod is a server modification framework that was created by hey0.net. If you do a bit of searching, you’ll find many messages that says that he’s no longer working on this project anymore and that you should now follow a project called Bukkit instead. Checking that out, it seems like a work in progress but isn’t ready yet.

And then after much searching I found a forum post with exciting news. Someone else has picked up development on it! They’ve been doing great work since.

I’m not a Java guy, so I grabbed the precompiled version (listed at the top of the first post in the link above).

The First Run

What you get with the precompiled version is a folder with a bunch of Minecraft files within. This server comes fresh; no world files are in place. To generate them, you need to start your server for the first time. Get to a command line!

Navigate to your hMod directory and then run your appropriate server_nogui file. For me, it went a little something like this:

You should see a bunch of spawn area preparation, a couple of warnings about files not existing (this is the system creating the files you’ll need), and then your server should be running. Do a Control-C to stop the server (because we need to get in and make modifications).

Setting Your… Settings

Kits

Kits are small packages of materials that your users can summon. A kit exists of a name, a list of materials to supply, a delay period (to prevent people from getting a bunch of kits too quickly) and an optional group that can access the kit.

I didn’t use kits because it doesn’t seem like accessing everything you need is that hard as it is, but they can be interesting if used with a plugin like Achievements that can actually promote users to new groups based on things they do in-game. As users gain “experience” and reach new groups, they can have access to new kits. This becomes a reward of convenience.

Groups

In your hMod directory, you should see a bunch of new files that were created when you started up your world for the first time. Open up groups.txt. In here, you can set the different groups that players can be. (Of course!) Follow the instructions in the file to make the groups that you’d like, or simply leave the ones that come by default.

I went with two levels for my world: an “admin” level for me and a “human” level for everyone else. In this newly modified server, admins can do a lot of stuff by default. No need in giving everyone that power, it ruins the fun of the game.

When you’re all set in here, save and quit this file.

Users

Next you’ll want to add users to your groups. At least add yourself as an admin. I’ve manually gone in and added all of my friends as humans, but it seems like it’s going to select the lowest (last) group you’ve added by default. (If that’s the case, it may be worth having a pretty restricted level by default just in case someone gets into your server.)

Now when your players log in, their help screens will only show them commands that they have access to. That means that it’s pretty important that you gave them access to the /help command or else you’re going to have a lot of questions to answer.

Again, when you’re all set, save and quit this file.

Server Properties

Take a look in server.properties. You’ll see a lot more options in here than in the normal file that comes with the Minecraft server. Most of these options seem pretty well-named so I won’t go into details of each property. There’s nothing more for you to do in here unless you want to make some tweaks on your own. Close this file.

You should now be able to fire up your server_nogui file as you did before with all of your new settings in place. Hooray! Time to play!

Adding Plugins

There is quite a long list of plugins available for you to add onto your newly-modded server. Installation is simple.

Let’s set up CuboidPlugin, a plugin that lets you define regions in-game and set properties to them like protection, healing, sanctuary and no-PVP. Grab the latest version from section II.

Drop this .jar file into your hMod/plugins folder. Don’t change the name of this file, as that’s been known to mess things up. Next, open up your server.properties file. On the first line you’ll see something that looks like this:

Immediately after the equal sign (no spaces), add the name of your plugin without the .jar after it. (Do caps matter? I’d recommend not messing with it and typing it in exactly as it’s named.) Your line should now look like this:

Save and quit this file, then start your server. (If your server is still running from before, Control-C to shut it down, then start it again.) You should see in the hubbub that flies by that one plugin has been installed. But you’re not done yet!

Granting Permissions

If your plugin comes with any commands, you’ll need to give the appropriate groups permission to use this new plugin when it’s enabled. To do so, open up your groups.txt file again. See the list of available commands you gave people earlier? If you want your users to be able to type commands to the plugin, you need to add those commands in here.

In section III, you can see bullet three has a list of commands you need to enable to let players add, edit and delete regions. If you don’t add anything to anyone, your admin level already has “*” for available commands, meaning that admins can do anything.

When you’re all set, save and quit this file.

Enabling the Plugin

Fire up Minecraft and connect to your server. As an admin, you’ll have many pages of help with all of the commands you can use. The one you’ll want here is /enableplugin. To enable your CuboidPlugin, type this into the chat prompt:

You should get a message saying that your plugin is enabled. Yippee!

Configuring the Plugin

Some plugins come with a folder of other information it needs by default. Follow the instructions on where to put those folders per each plugin, plugin authors are generally pretty good about telling you this. In CuboidPlugin’s case, it will generate its own properties file (located in a cuboids folder, both of which will be created) the first time you launch the server with it. This works the same as when you were editing server.properties above.

If you update the plugin configuration, shut down and start up your server again for the new settings to take hold. You’re now free to make regions and protect them however you’d like!

Keep Your Eyes Open

I haven’t tried most of the plugins listed, but keep in mind that a lot of people are doing this in their spare time. Be cautious with what you install because some of these things are beta or even alpha.

That’s All For Now

That’s about as far as I got. Our world (Macminia) is up and running and people seem to really enjoy the new abilities they have. It seems that /sethome to set a home point and then /home to teleport there is a really popular combination. It allows folks to explore further without the fear of being stranded if they have to hop off quickly.