🌑ManticDarkzone

Mantic Development's Darkzone Minecraft Plugin

Get ManticDarkzone from the Mantic store

ManticDarkzone

Create mob-filled zones with custom rewards, a drop-currency shop, portals and player restrictions. This guide covers the updated plugin with the in-game zone builder.

Requirements and first setup

ManticDarkzone targets Minecraft 1.8–26.2. Install ManticLib 1.0.51.6 or a newer compatible release alongside ManticDarkzone. Use the Java version required by your Minecraft server. Features and mob types depend on your server version.

1. Back up your existing configuration, then start the server once to generate the plugin files.

2. Enter your license key in config.yml. Create or load your darkzone world with your usual world manager.

3. Set darkzone-world-name to its exact name. This setting controls player restrictions; spawning areas are defined separately in zones.yml.

4. Use /mdz zones to create your first zone. Include the ground and enough air above it for mobs.

5. Configure rewards in mobs/*.yml and purchases in menus/darkzoneshop.json, then restart.

6. Join the zone world and test spawning, kills, purchases and restrictions with an ordinary player account.

YAML uses spaces rather than tabs and hyphenated field names. Quote strings beginning with & or #. Use [] for an empty list and {} for an empty map. The shop uses JSON with camelCase field names. Generated YAML comments explain each setting; the bundled SETUP.md also contains this setup guidance.

Build and edit zones in game

Run /mdz zones and choose Create a zone. Enter a unique name using letters, numbers, underscores or hyphens. Click two opposite block corners, or stand at each corner and use /mdz zones pos1 and /mdz zones pos2.

• Spawn frequency: seconds between attempts to add mobs. Set 0 to inherit the interval in darkzone-mobs.yml.

• Mob limit: maximum tracked mobs for the zone. Set 0 to stop new spawns.

• Mob mix and settings: choose available mobs and their relative shares. In the menu, 1 means 1%; 0 removes a mob from the mix. Shares are balanced automatically.

• Name and health: names accept & colour codes. Health is measured in points: 20 points is ten hearts.

• Effects: enter names and human-readable levels, such as SPEED:2,STRENGTH:1. Use none for no effects or inherit for the mob-file defaults.

• Equipment: edit the hand, helmet, chestplate, leggings and boots independently. Use AIR for an empty slot or inherit for the mob-file item. Configure enchantments, leather colour, head textures and resource-pack models where supported.

• PvP and commands: choose whether this zone allows them. Global restrictions still apply.

Use Preview boundaries, then Save zone. Saving writes zones.yml, clears that zone's existing mobs and applies the new settings immediately. Closing the menu keeps your draft; /mdz zones resumes it. Use /mdz zones cancel to discard it. Drafts expire after ten minutes or on logout. Deleting a zone asks for confirmation.

How mob boundaries work

With mobs-bound-to-area: true, mobs can wander throughout the full zone while idle. They acquire players inside the same zone. If a mob leaves, it stops chasing and walks toward an individual nearby point inside the boundary. It is not sent to a shared centre point. Once it is back inside, the return path is released so its normal wandering and targeting can resume.

Return paths require reachable ground and loaded chunks. Walls, cliffs or a zone that does not include suitable standing space can prevent a mob from walking back. Boundary handling does not teleport mobs or force-load chunks. Set mobs-bound-to-area: false to allow them to roam outside the zone.

Editing zones.yml manually

Give every entry a unique zone-id and the exact world-name. The min-x/min-y/min-z and max-x/max-y/max-z values are inclusive block bounds. An all-zero example does not select the whole world. Keep minimums below maximums and Y values within the world height.

The mobs list accepts entries such as ZOMBIE:70 and WOLF:30. In YAML, 1 means 100%; use 0.01 for 1%. This differs from the builder's ordinary percentage input. spawn-frequency-seconds: 0 inherits the global interval.

mob-settings holds optional per-zone overrides. Each entry has a mob name, a name, health, potion effects and equipment fields. Each inherit-... flag chooses whether to use the mob file (true) or this zone's value (false). YAML effect levels start at 0: SPEED: 1 gives Speed II. Set inherit-potion-effects: false with potion-effects: {} for no effects. Equipment uses material, enchants, colour, skull and durability. The builder handles these details for you.

Manual edits to zone and individual mob files require a restart. In-game zone saves apply immediately.

Rewards: chances, weights and limits

Rewards are configured in each mob's file. With use-chances-instead-of-weights: true, each ordinary entry rolls independently: 0.5 means 50%, 1 means 100%, and values above 1 are divided by 100. With the setting false, positive weights represent relative chances and entries are selected without repetition.

max-drops limits ordinary reward entries in both modes. 0 disables ordinary rewards; -1 removes the limit. always-drop: true guarantees that entry in both modes, in addition to this limit. If more chance rolls succeed than the limit allows, successful entries are selected fairly up to the limit. Review existing drop rates and shop prices when upgrading because older releases handled these limits differently.

• id: the reward/currency ID. Use exactly the same spelling and material wherever mobs share a currency.

• display-name and display-lore: item name and description, with colour codes.

• material: item material, or AIR for a commands-only reward.

• lowest-amount and highest-amount: inclusive quantities from 1 to 64. Minimum must not exceed maximum.

• skull: optional Base64 head texture, not a website URL.

• durability: resource-pack model on 1.14+, legacy item data/damage on older servers.

• commands: console commands without a leading slash. give {player} diamond 1 gives the recipient one diamond. Commands run once per reward, regardless of the item quantity.

Set up the drop-currency shop

Edit menus/darkzoneshop.json. The layout contains 1–6 strings of exactly nine characters. A shop item's one-character key places it in matching slots; spaces leave slots empty.

Each shopItems entry can set displayName, lore, material, skull, glow, durability, customModalData, key, commands, dropIdToTrade and dropAmountToTrade. Keep the spelling customModalData. A positive model value overrides durability on supported versions. A zero/null price makes a decorative entry.

{
  "displayName": "&bDiamond",
  "lore": ["&7Cost: 5 Scrap"],
  "material": "DIAMOND",
  "key": "d",
  "commands": ["give {player} diamond 1"],
  "dropIdToTrade": "scrap",
  "dropAmountToTrade": 5
}

Put d in a layout row, for example four spaces, then d, then four spaces. Only tagged currency awarded by ManticDarkzone counts; renaming a normal item does not create currency. Currency must use an item material rather than AIR. Test with /mdz givedrop Player ZOMBIE scrap after configuring that drop.

Purchase commands run from the console after payment and replace {player} with the buyer's name. Use commands that already work in your server console. A failed command does not automatically refund payment.

Commands and default permissions

The /mdz commands require mantic.darkzone.basecommand plus the relevant permission below. Permissions and aliases are configurable.

• /mdz zones: mantic.darkzone.zones (player only).

• /mdz reload: mantic.darkzone.reload.

• /mdz forcespawn <mob>: mantic.darkzone.forcespawn (at your location).

• /mdz resettargets: mantic.darkzone.resettarget.

• /mdz clear: mantic.darkzone.mobclear.

• /mdz givedrop <player> <mob> <drop-id>: mantic.darkzone.givedrop.

• /mdz top: mantic.darkzone.top.

• /dzshop: manticdarkzone.shop. Opening it for another player also requires manticdarkzone.admin.

• /portal create/remove/list/setdestination/visualise: manticdarkzone.admin.

Portals and player restrictions

Run /portal create entrance, select two corners, then stand at the destination facing the intended direction and run /portal setdestination entrance. Use /portal visualise entrance to inspect it. Combat restrictions integrate with DeluxeCombat or CombatLogX when installed.

allow-commands: false restricts a zone to the global allowed-command list. If overlapping zones disagree, a blocking zone wins. allow-pvp: false blocks attributed player damage when either player is inside the zone, including projectiles, owned pets and attributed TNT/cloud damage. These are not a replacement for general land protection.

manticdarkzone.bypass bypasses command, pearl and flight restrictions. manticdarkzone.flightdisabler.bypass bypasses flight disabling only. Ignored regions bypass command restrictions, pearl throwing restrictions and flight disabling. Portal rules remain separate.

What are the PlaceholderAPI placeholders?

With PlaceholderAPI installed, use these in other plugins that support PAPI:

• %manticdarkzone_killed%: formatted kill count.

• %manticdarkzone_killed_raw%: plain integer.

• %manticdarkzone_killed_short%: abbreviated count such as 1.2k.

The expansion registers with ManticDarkzone. These placeholders are not automatically parsed in this plugin's own configuration.

Other placeholders and formatting

• Reward and purchase commands: {player} is the recipient/buyer.

• command-not-allowed: {0} is the full command.

• not-enough-to-purchase: {0} currency name; {1} shop item name.

• successfully-purchased: {0} shop item name; {1} amount paid; {2} currency name.

• msg-drop-given and msg-opening-shop: {player} is the target player.

• msg-mob-cleared: {size} is the number removed.

• Leaderboard darkzone-top-format: three %s values in order—rank, player name, formatted kills. Use %% for a literal percent sign.

Names, lore, mob kill messages and menu titles support colour codes such as &a. They do not automatically replace player or PlaceholderAPI placeholders.

Reloading and performance

/mdz reload reloads config.yml, messages.yml, darkzone-mobs.yml, the shop JSON and portals.yml, rebuilds caches and removes active darkzone mobs. Restart for manual zone or mob-file edits, leaderboard changes, aliases and base command permissions. Existing YAML values are preserved when comments are regenerated.

Keep zones bounded, use sensible mob limits, increase spawn intervals if needed and leave debug off during normal use. Spawning considers loaded chunks only. The per-chunk cap limits new spawning; mobs walking between chunks can exceed it. The legacy min-y-level-spawn-location setting is unused—use zone Y bounds.

Before opening the darkzone to players

Test creating and saving zones, spawning limits, equipment and effects, both reward modes, purchases with split/insufficient stacks, PvP, pearls, flight, portals, PlaceholderAPI and saved kills after restart. Check mobs can wander near zone edges, return from outside to varied points and acquire players again inside. Keep entrances walkable and test your actual terrain and server integrations.