This page explains how the plots server works

The Plots

This server will host creative plots that players are allowed to claim. The default world for this server will be one full of square plots with streets that divide them. The plot and street sizes are configurable, but once configured, cannot be changed.

This server uses the Plots Squared plugin to manage all the plots. Plots Squared is a payed plugin! IEEE has no money though and the plugin also happens to be open source, and we’re supposed to know how to code… So I just cloned the git and compiled the jar file and would you look at that I have a plugin jar file! Long story short, if you ever need to update this plugin, you’ll have to re-compile it (sorry ‘bout that… Eventually I’ll have a page on how to do that.)

Anyways, this plugin allows you to generate a world full of square plots, in our case, these plots are 128*128 blocks with a 9-block road that separates them. Once this world has been generated, world generation settings cannot be changed without deleting and re-generating the world, however, multiple plot worlds can be generated (although this will use more server resources!).

By default, plots cannot be modified by anyone other than the player who claimed them. Plot owners can ‘trust’ other players so that they can collaborate on a project. You can also merge multiple plots to form larger plots (I wouldn’t recommend doing this, please see below). Administrators that have the permission node plots.admin will be allowed to build and interact with plots they do not own as well as modify the road areas.

More information for the plots plugin can be found on the wiki for Plots Squared.

Plots Merging and why you shouldn’t do it!

You can run the command /plot merge while inside of a plot, facing the plot you want to merge. Note that both plots must be owned by the same player. Large plots that exceed the simulation/render distance will begin to experience issues if you have to delete them (note that the server determines these distances, not the client). Plot backups are also not possible with merged plots. In general, I would try to avoid using merged plots as much as possible and not inform players that they exist.

How to update this plugin

The PlotsSquared plugin is a “premium” (not free) plugin. I did not pay for it, instead, I downloaded and compiled the source code myself (go open source!). This will have to be done if any updates to the plugin are needed. Instructions on how to do this are as follows:

  1. Install JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA. You can get a free student license or use the free version. We just need this to build the thing so the free version should be just fine.

  2. Clone the GitHub repository. https://github.com/IntellectualSites/PlotSquared and open it in IntelliJ.

  3. Go ahead and hit the “Build” button. This may take some time depending on how long it takes for your computer to download and build the dependencies and then the final project.

  4. Make sure you have Gradle installed and working (Google this if you don’t know how, it should be easy to figure out.)

  5. Now open the terminal in the project directory using IntelliJ (There is a terminal button at the bottom of the screen). This will open up PowerShell (if you’re on Windows) or a bash terminal (if on a UNIX-like OS).

  6. Run the command ./gradlew build. This will build the project again using Gradle. You may see some errors, they can (probably) be safely ignored.

  7. Once the build completes, you can find the Jar files in the root project directory under Bukkit\build\libs. You want to use the file that does not have javadoc or sources at the end of it.