Frequently Asked Questions

Translations : Français

As there are only so many things we can put on the signs in the Rules login area or Spawn, here is an ongoing compilation of answers to questions players often ask on MCO.

Having issues joining the server? See here.

Basics

What do I do?

MinecraftOnline is a Survival Multiplayer (SMP) server. You are expected to mine and craft just like you would in singleplayer survival with the exception of leaving other players' builds alone unless you have permission. It's as simple as that.

If you would like help getting started, see: A Beginner's Guide To MinecraftOnline.

What can't I do?

There are only a few rules you need to learn to prevent yourself from being banned. You can read them in-game in the Rules Hall (/rules), or in much more detail on the wiki under Category:Rules.

Is {mod name} allowed?

See the Modifications page for questions about game mods. When in doubt, ask in the game chat.

Building

Where can I build?

You can build anywhere that another player has not. If your build blocks another build that is already in progress, staff may move or remove your build so the other build can continue.

Please do not attempt to build inside or under other player's builds. You wouldn't want some total stranger moving into your house and living under your stairs. Don't do it.

If you are not great at building, please do not attempt to build within Spawn walls, as builds not qualified good by the admins may be moved away, or even destroyed in a worse-case scenario.

Can I have free food/tools/armor/diamonds?

This is a survival multiplayer server. You're expected to play survival-style, and to mine and craft your own materials. It's possible that you might be able to trade with other players or buy from player-maintained stalls at /warp DiamondMall or other shops, but generally, the process is to find an open area and start punching trees.

How do I claim/protect my builds?

On MinecraftOnline, it is unnecessary to use plugins to claim or protect your builds. Protection of builds is enforced by the staff team instead, who will permanently ban anyone who tries to grief/modify your build without your permission.

We chose this approach to enable greater build creativity (builds will not have to be limited to neat boxes), as well as to foster a good community that would rather not break the rules, instead of being forced not to.

Why can't I break blocks?

The vast majority of the MCO map is unprotected by plugins. That's not to say that the map isn't protected. The rules, our staff, and our logfiles protect the blocks that belong to other players.

However, certain areas are protected to allow players time to get used to the server and its rules before breaking them accidentally or on purpose.

• The Rules Hall is permanently protected from modification by players.
• The center of Spawn around the Visitor Center and Spawn Pond is permanently protected and a safe area from PvP.
• On the entire map, everything above y:128 is protected from modification by players with less than 100 hours of online time. This is a holdover from before the build height was raised, and gives established players a safe place to build that is protected from those less experienced with our Rules.
• The entire area inside the Spawn Wall, a 701x701-block square centered around the spawn point, is protected from modification by unregistered players. Once players /register or have 100 hours or more of time online, they are granted the ability to modify available areas inside the Wall. However, high build standards exist within the area, and low-quality builds may be removed by admins.
• The entire underground below the Spawn Wall from y:60 to bedrock is protected from modification by players with less than 100 hours of time online. This is to minimize the extensive tunneling by new players. Once a player has over 100 hours, they can build below Spawn, but by then it is hoped they'll have decided on their own not to.

Okay, so how can I go to somewhere where I can break blocks?

• The easiest method is to use the /wilderness command, which will teleport you far from most player builds. There may still be builds nearby, do not grief them.
• There is the Nexus teleportation system, a network of teleporters that branches across the map.
• There are numerous Warps that can take you to many cities and towns and places of interest, from which you can adventure out looking for open areas.
  • Use the /listwarps command to get a list of available warps, then use the /warp command to teleport to a specific destination.
• There are a number of roads that lead out of Spawn in every direction, both at ground level and elevated. Most are marked with a white quartz line you can follow to make sure you're on the correct road.
• There is the Freedonia Railway System, which charges a few cobble for a minecart ride along the map-spanning FRS system.

I found an old base that looks abandoned. Can I just move in here?

Not unless you have permission from the owner of the base.

Even if the base is years old and the owner has not logged in for a very long time or is banned, the Rules prohibit you from modifying it. However, you may ask an admin to relocate an abandoned building.

Someone who was building a thing got banned. Can I continue it on behalf of them?

Absolutely not. Unless explicitly specified by the owner prior to their ban, all of them belong to admins and are likely to be deleted at zero cost. Being built in a town is an obsolete excuse.

How can I lock my chests?

• You can place any non-transparent block above them. This prevents players from opening the chest without removing the block. If they remove the block or break the chest without your permission, staff can catch them in the logs and permanently ban them. The threat of a permanent ban keeps most players from touching your stuff.
  • Wool is best for this as it is easily farmed, relatively easy to break and customary for this purpose.
  • Transparent blocks do not block players from opening chests. These include:
    • Other chests
    • Stairs and slabs
    • Glass and stained glass
    • Redstone blocks
    • Leaves
• Registered players can use the /lwc command to protect two chests. Kits bought with vote tokens can let you lock more. LWC protections prevent the chest from being broken or accessed by unauthorized players.
• Ender chests are extremely safe, as no players can access your ender chest inventory, even if they grief it. You can also store several shulker boxes, which each store a chest's worth of items, in them. You can access stored items at any ender chest on the server.

Someone stole items from my chests! Can I get it back?

That depends.

• Did you lock your chests, but someone broke in or looted with hoppers? If so, the player griefed. They'll get banned and staff will recover your items for you.
• If you did not lock your chests... well, you've been looted fairly under the rules. They own the items now, not you.

Survival

Can I take stuff from other people's chests?

That depends. See the question above.

Can I take crops from farms?

First: Have you tried /warp farm? This will give you access to easy and free food without any uncertainty. But if you still want to break that crop...

It depends. This is one of the rare exceptions to the rule that you should not break another player's block.

If you do not have to break blocks to reach the farm, and there is no sign saying you cannot, then it is generally allowed to harvest crops from other players' farms, on the condition that you then replant those same crops, so the player's farm can keep working properly.

If you just wipe out all the crops on a player's farm without replanting, that is griefing, and you may well be banned.

Am I allowed to kill the animals/villagers?

Yes, you may attack and kill any and all mobs that you are able to.

Another player just hit me! They can't do that, can they?

Actually, they can attack you and you can attack them. PvP is another part of survival that you must defend against.

However, if you or another player targets someone for PvP over and over to deny them the ability to actually play the game, this is a behavior admins have termed "Bullying" for convenience. It is potentially bannable.

If you keep killing a player to stop them from being able to do anything, admins will likely give you a warning. If you continue it, the admins will ban you from the server. All bans are permanent.

Server-Specific Features

What does the colour of each player’s name mean?

These represent player’s ranks or kits.

• Unregistered players have grey names.
• Registered players have white names.
• Moderators have light blue names (Mod of the Month has a blue name).
• Admins have red or magenta names.
• God donors & kit holders may have any colour of their choice.

Why do you guys have those coloured stars before your name?

See Donation (giving money) and Store (by voting).

Is auto voting allowed?

It is not allowed per voting sites’ terms of services. (see the FAQ for Minecraft Server Top List in the PMC voting page and MSL ToU) While it is strictly not cheating in-game, it creates unfair advantages over kit purchases and results in consequences of removal of tokens and kits that target users have obtained throughout.

This not only risks YOUR right to vote, but also OTHER’s, followed by delisting from their server lists.

What are those messages starting with [DSC], [IRC]?

These are sent via relays from external chat media.

• [DSC] is Discord.
• [IRC] is Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
• [TG] is Telegram.
• [BOT] is from a bot (usually from IRC).

What are these weird floating Ender Pearls?

These are Teleport Trails.

Why did I get a random item?

Probably a hourly gift.

Does this server use custom textures?

The vanilla textures are unchanged, but there are additional custom textures; see MinecraftOnline Resource Pack.

Is keep inventory on?

No.

I want to travel to the Nether/End, where's the portal?

• Nether portal exists everywhere, but there is one right next to the Spawn Hall.
• Only a limited number of End gates exist. The easiest places to access to are Batugus Labs (Nexus Red 2 -> Batugus) or Emerald Mall (Nexus Lime 1).

All rules still apply in other dimensions, so don't grief unless exempt.

When are you guys updating?

Soon, hopefully. Currently, our server uses the Sponge API for its plugins, and as of writing, there are no stable builds of the API for the most recent versions of Minecraft. However, both MinecraftOnline and Sponge developers are working on porting their respective software to newer versions, so please be patient in the meantime.

Commands

From in-game, type /help for a list of server commands, or see Commands.

Where did I just die?

Use command /deathinfo to see the coordinates of the last place that you died.

Is there a /tpa or /rtp command?

No. This is survival. You walk around from place to place. There are some fast travel options like /warp or the FRS rails system or the Nexus teleport system, but you can't just teleport wherever you want, unless you vote for months to get higher rank kits. For those who have no clue: /tpa is teleport accept, an equivalent of /acceptteleport, and /rtp is random teleport, an equivalent of /wilderness.

Can someone teleport my friend to me? Or teleport me to my friend so we can build together?

Probably not*. You can use the /nearestnexus or /nearestwarp to find the closest fast-travel location to where you want to go. From there, you can use the coordinates of where you want to go to guide you. Have both you and your friend press F3 and use the XYZ coordinates displayed in the upper left corner of your screens to guide one of you the remaining distance to the other.

* Staff and players with certain kits can teleport other players, but they have no obligation to do so, and it is generally rude to ask without a very good reason.

How do I set my spawnpoint?

Each time you die, you'll respawn at your spawn point, which by default is the Pool at Spawn City.

If you sleep in a bed at night, your personal spawn point changes to the bed location. Don’t break it!

Is there any other way to get back to my home? I don't want to die!

You can save your home with the /sethome command. Then you can use the /home command to return to it at any time without needing to die first. It's very helpful if you're about to die from lava, monsters, players, or falling, but you might want to make your home point standing in water so if you're escaping fire, the water can put it out.

It is worth noting that, unlike other servers, we only allow players to set one /home at a time to preserve the survival multiplayer feel of the server.

History

I heard this was the oldest Minecraft server. Is that true?

It depends on your definition of Minecraft servers.

• Both MinecraftOnline.com and another server called Novylen were started on the 4th of August 2010, when Minecraft multiplayer was officially released.
  • MinecraftOnline is tied with Novylen on being the oldest SMP server on what is now known as Minecraft: Java Edition. They both released the same day, but it is known that MinecraftOnline was released within the first hour of SMP being public leading some to believe it is in fact older.
  • The world that Novylen hosts is slightly older than MinecraftOnline's world, as Novylen's map pre-multiplayer was the server owner's personal singleplayer world, while MinecraftOnline's map was made on the day multiplayer was released. In other words, MinecraftOnline is the SMP with the oldest truly survival public map.
• Nerd.NU is the oldest server, however, it was started in June 2009 in Creative mode, when SMP wasn't a thing.
  • They also reset their original world and many other worlds after. Eventually, they shut down their SMP world. Their current worlds are much newer than ours.

But I heard 2b2t was the oldest server. Isn't that true?

No.

• 2b2t is the oldest Anarchy server. They don't claim to be the oldest server ever.
• 2b2t is not an SMP server like MinecraftOnline.
• MinecraftOnline is about four months older than 2b2t which started in December 2010.