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Survival Mechanics

The survival module is a grab-bag of opt-in gameplay conveniences — tree-feller, veinminer, auto-pickup, one-player sleep and more — that most servers reach for a separate plugin (or three) to get. Each mechanic is an independent switch, so you turn on only the ones your server wants and leave the rest dark. It's driven by a single HOCON file, modules/survival/config.conf.

The module ships enabled. Turn the whole feature off with enabled = false at the top of the file, or leave it on and switch individual mechanics off under their own blocks.

How a mechanic is controlled

Most mechanics answer to up to three layers, and it helps to keep them straight:

  1. The config switch (<mechanic> { enabled = ... }) — the server operator's master on/off for that mechanic. Off here and the mechanic does nothing for anyone.
  2. A personal /command toggle — seven of the mechanics let each player opt themselves out with a command (for example /treefeller). These default on, so a player who never touches the command has the mechanic active; running it once turns it off, again on. The choice is remembered per player.
  3. A permission node — uxmessentials.survival.<mechanic> decides whether the mechanic acts for a player at all, and .toggle decides whether they may flip their personal switch. Everything is self-service (default: true), so the mechanics work out of the box and a player (or a group) opts out.

One panel for every toggle

/survival opens a settings panel that gathers all seven personal toggles in one place — the same switches as the individual commands, laid out as a GUI. It's gated by uxmessentials.survival.gui.

Not every mechanic has all three layers. Fast leaf decay, the anvil unlocker, one-player sleep and head drops are world-side effects with no per-player toggle; farm assist has a permission but no toggle command. Each section below spells out what it carries.

Tree-Feller

Break one log of a tree and the whole connected trunk of the same wood comes down with it, up to max-blocks. Optionally replants a sapling at the base.

tree-feller {
  enabled = true
  require-axe = true
  durability-drain = true
  durability-multiplier = 1
  max-blocks = 64
  hunger-cost = 0.0
  sneak-required = false
  replant-saplings = true
}
Key What it does
enabled Master switch for the mechanic. Default true.
require-axe Require an axe in hand to fell. With this off, breaking a log by any means fells the tree.
durability-drain Drain the axe's durability as the tree comes down.
durability-multiplier Durability points spent per extra log felled (the log you broke by hand isn't counted). 1 mirrors mining each log normally; raise it to wear the axe faster.
max-blocks The most logs a single fell brings down, counting the one you broke. A safety cap so an enormous custom tree can't lag the server.
hunger-cost Food exhaustion added per extra log felled. 0.0 disables the hunger cost.
sneak-required Doubles as the "shift to fell" switch. On: a normal break chops one log and a shift-break fells the tree. Off (default): any log break fells.
replant-saplings Replant a matching sapling at the base when the block below is soil. Species without a plantable sapling (the nether stems) replant nothing.

Command: /treefeller — flip your personal tree-feller on or off.

Permissions: uxmessentials.survival.treefeller (the mechanic acts for you), uxmessentials.survival.treefeller.toggle (you may switch it). Both default: true.

Veinminer

Break one of the listed blocks and the whole connected vein of that same material breaks with it, up to max-blocks.

veinminer {
  enabled = true
  blocks = [
    "COAL_ORE", "DEEPSLATE_COAL_ORE",
    "IRON_ORE", "DEEPSLATE_IRON_ORE",
    "COPPER_ORE", "DEEPSLATE_COPPER_ORE",
    "GOLD_ORE", "DEEPSLATE_GOLD_ORE",
    "REDSTONE_ORE", "DEEPSLATE_REDSTONE_ORE",
    "LAPIS_ORE", "DEEPSLATE_LAPIS_ORE",
    "DIAMOND_ORE", "DEEPSLATE_DIAMOND_ORE",
    "EMERALD_ORE", "DEEPSLATE_EMERALD_ORE",
    "NETHER_GOLD_ORE", "NETHER_QUARTZ_ORE",
    "ANCIENT_DEBRIS"
  ]
  max-blocks = 64
  tool-durability = true
  hunger-cost = 0.0
  sneak-required = true
}
Key What it does
enabled Master switch for the mechanic. Default true.
blocks The blocks a vein-break triggers on, by Bukkit material name. Breaking any of these mines the connected run of the same block. Unknown names are skipped with a warning at startup.
max-blocks The most blocks a single vein-break mines, counting the one you broke. A safety cap for very large veins.
tool-durability Drain the mining tool's durability as the vein breaks.
hunger-cost Food exhaustion added per extra block mined. 0.0 disables the hunger cost.
sneak-required The "shift to vein" switch. On (default): a plain break takes one ore and a shift-break takes the vein. Off: any break of a listed block veins it.

Command: /veinminer — flip your personal veinminer on or off.

Permissions: uxmessentials.survival.veinminer, uxmessentials.survival.veinminer.toggle. Both default: true.

Fast Leaf Decay

When a log is broken, the leaves it was holding up decay right away instead of lingering for vanilla's slow random-tick sweep. Only leaves that a standing trunk no longer supports come down, and player-placed (persistent) leaves are never touched.

leaf-decay {
  enabled = true
  radius = 4
  delay-ticks = 4
}
Key What it does
enabled Master switch for the mechanic. Default true.
radius How far from the broken log to look for leaves, as the half-width of a cube. Larger clears a bigger canopy but costs more to sweep — keep it modest.
delay-ticks Ticks to wait after the log breaks before decaying the leaves (20 ticks = 1 second). A small delay lets the cascade read as a gentle ripple rather than the whole canopy vanishing at once.

No player toggle

Fast leaf decay is a world-side effect — there is no /command toggle and no permission node. It's on or off for the whole server via enabled.

Farmland Protection

A personal toggle that stops you trampling farmland into dirt, whether by stepping on it or landing on it from a fall. Other players and mobs are unaffected.

farmprotect {
  enabled = true
}

Command: /farmprotect — switch your personal farmland protection on or off.

Permissions: uxmessentials.survival.farmprotect, uxmessentials.survival.farmprotect.toggle. Both default: true.

Farm Assist

Right-click a fully grown crop to harvest its drops and replant it in one motion. Replanting spends one matching seed from your inventory (wheat seeds for wheat, a carrot for carrots, and so on); with no matching seed the crop is harvested but not replanted.

farmassist {
  enabled = true
  crops = [
    "WHEAT", "CARROTS", "POTATOES", "BEETROOTS", "NETHER_WART"
  ]
}
Key What it does
enabled Master switch for the mechanic. Default true.
crops The crops farm assist acts on, by Bukkit material name. Only crops that grow through a block age and replant from a single seed item are supported; unknown or seedless crops are skipped with a warning at startup.

Permission-gated, no toggle command

Farm assist has no personal toggle command. It acts for any player holding uxmessentials.survival.farmassist (default: true) — negate that node to deny it to a player or group.

Anvil Unlocker

Lift vanilla's anvil caps so a costly combine is not rejected with "Too Expensive!". Purely a convenience tweak on the anvil screen.

anvilunlocker {
  enabled = true
  remove-level-limit = true
  remove-cost-limit = false
}
Key What it does
enabled Master switch for the mechanic. Default true.
remove-level-limit Lift the "Too Expensive!" ceiling (vanilla stops a survival combine once it costs 40 levels) so any combine, however many prior-work levels it has stacked up, produces a result.
remove-cost-limit Also zero the level price of the combine, so the unlocked repair is free rather than charging the full XP cost. Off by default, so an unlocked combine still costs its levels.

Applies to every anvil

There is no per-player toggle or permission — while enabled, the unlock applies to every anvil on the server.

One-Player Sleep

Skip the night as soon as enough of a world's players are sleeping, evaluated per world. AFK players (those the presence module marks sleep-ignored) and spectators neither count toward nor block the skip.

oneplayersleep {
  enabled = true
  required-percent = 50
  required-count = 1
}
Key What it does
enabled Master switch for the mechanic. Default true.
required-percent The percentage of eligible players that must be sleeping to skip the night, rounded up to a whole player. Only used when required-count is 0.
required-count A fixed number of sleeping players that skips the night. Above 0 this takes precedence over required-percent entirely — the default of 1 is the classic one-player sleep. Set to 0 to fall back to the percentage instead.

Head Drops

A slain entity may drop its head. A player killed by another player drops their own head; mobs drop their vanilla head at a chance.

headdrop {
  enabled = true
  player-head-on-pvp = true
  mob-chance = 0.0
  mobs {
    # WITHER_SKELETON = 100.0
    # ZOMBIE = 25.0
  }
}
Key What it does
enabled Master switch for the mechanic. Default true.
player-head-on-pvp A player killed by another player drops their player head at full odds. PvE and environmental deaths never drop a player head.
mob-chance The default chance (a percentage, 0–100) a slain mob drops its head. 0.0 means mobs drop no heads unless a per-mob override raises their chance.
mobs Per-mob chance overrides, keyed by Bukkit entity name. A listed mob uses its own chance instead of mob-chance; unknown names are skipped with a warning at startup.

Only mobs with a real head item

Chances only matter for the mobs that actually have a Minecraft head: zombie, skeleton, wither skeleton, creeper, piglin, and the ender dragon.

Auto-Pickup

A broken block's drops go straight into your inventory instead of scattering on the ground; only when the inventory is full do the extras spill out.

autopickup {
  enabled = true
  transfer-xp = false
}
Key What it does
enabled Master switch for the mechanic. Default true.
transfer-xp Grant the block's dropped experience straight to the player instead of spawning XP orbs. Off by default, so mining still drops the usual orbs.

Command: /autopickup — flip your personal auto-pickup on or off.

Permissions: uxmessentials.survival.autopickup, uxmessentials.survival.autopickup.toggle. Both default: true.

Auto-Smelt

A broken block's smeltable drop is turned into its furnace result as you mine, so an iron ore yields an ingot rather than raw iron. It runs before auto-pickup, so what lands in your inventory is already smelted.

autosmelt {
  enabled = true
  smelt {
    RAW_IRON = IRON_INGOT
    RAW_GOLD = GOLD_INGOT
    RAW_COPPER = COPPER_INGOT
    ANCIENT_DEBRIS = NETHERITE_SCRAP
    # COBBLESTONE = STONE
    # COBBLED_DEEPSLATE = DEEPSLATE
    # SAND = GLASS
    # RED_SAND = GLASS
    # CLAY_BALL = BRICK
    # WET_SPONGE = SPONGE
    # KELP = DRIED_KELP
    # CHORUS_FRUIT = POPPED_CHORUS_FRUIT
  }
}
Key What it does
enabled Master switch for the mechanic. Ships true. Setting it to false removes the mechanic and the /autosmelt command from the server.
smelt The drop → smelted-result map, keyed by the drop material (raw iron, not the ore block) using Bukkit material names. Delete an entry to stop smelting that drop; add your own to smelt more. The shipped set is ores only.

Command: /autosmelt — flip your personal auto-smelt on or off.

Permissions: uxmessentials.survival.autosmelt, uxmessentials.survival.autosmelt.toggle. Both default: true.

Think twice before smelting cobblestone

The commented-out pairs above are a bigger change than they look. COBBLESTONE = STONE takes cobblestone off your server entirely: nobody can build with it, and a cobblestone generator stops producing anything usable. The same goes for sand to glass and clay to brick. Uncomment them only if that is genuinely the server you want.

Auto-Sell

A broken block's priced drops are sold into the server economy as you mine and the coins credited to your wallet. It runs after auto-smelt, so it prices the smelted result.

autosell {
  enabled = true
  prices {
    COAL = 2
    IRON_INGOT = 8
    COPPER_INGOT = 4
    GOLD_INGOT = 12
    REDSTONE = 1
    LAPIS_LAZULI = 2
    DIAMOND = 80
    EMERALD = 60
    QUARTZ = 3
    NETHERITE_SCRAP = 120
  }
}
Key What it does
enabled Master switch. Ships true, but nothing is sold until a player opts in: unlike pickup and smelt, the personal /autosell toggle defaults off.
prices Per-item sell prices, keyed by the (post-smelt) drop material using Bukkit material names. The value is the price for one item; a stack sells for that times its size. A drop with no listed price is never sold: it falls through to auto-pickup or the ground.

Command: /autosell — flip your personal auto-sell on or off.

Permissions: uxmessentials.survival.autosell, uxmessentials.survival.autosell.toggle. Both default: true.

Needs the economy module

Auto-sell does nothing unless the economy module is present: it needs a wallet to credit. Price the materials you want sellable, and tell players to run /autosell to switch it on for themselves.

Auto-Tool

As you start breaking a block, your held hotbar slot swaps to the strongest tool of the family that block needs — a pickaxe for stone, an axe for a log. It only ever swaps between hotbar slots you already carry.

autotool {
  enabled = true
}
Key What it does
enabled Master switch for the mechanic. Ships true. Setting it to false removes the mechanic and the /autotool command from the server.

Command: /autotool — flip your personal auto-tool on or off.

Permissions: uxmessentials.survival.autotool, uxmessentials.survival.autotool.toggle. Both default: true.

Commands and Permissions at a Glance

Mechanic Config block Command Use node Toggle node
Tree-feller tree-feller /treefeller uxmessentials.survival.treefeller .treefeller.toggle
Veinminer veinminer /veinminer uxmessentials.survival.veinminer .veinminer.toggle
Fast leaf decay leaf-decay — — —
Farmland protection farmprotect /farmprotect uxmessentials.survival.farmprotect .farmprotect.toggle
Farm assist farmassist — uxmessentials.survival.farmassist —
Anvil unlocker anvilunlocker — — —
One-player sleep oneplayersleep — — —
Head drops headdrop — — —
Auto-pickup autopickup /autopickup uxmessentials.survival.autopickup .autopickup.toggle
Auto-smelt autosmelt /autosmelt uxmessentials.survival.autosmelt .autosmelt.toggle
Auto-sell autosell /autosell uxmessentials.survival.autosell .autosell.toggle
Auto-tool autotool /autotool uxmessentials.survival.autotool .autotool.toggle

Turning a mechanic off also removes its command

Each enabled key above owns both the mechanic and its command. With autosmelt.enabled = false, /autosmelt is never registered at all, so a player who types it gets unknown command rather than a "this is off" reply. If a survival command seems to be missing, check that block's enabled first.

/survival opens the settings panel that gathers the seven personal toggles, gated by uxmessentials.survival.gui. All the nodes above default true (self-service). The administrative node uxmessentials.module.survival (op) governs who may hot-reload or inspect the module via /uxmess reload survival.

Next Steps