Population Density
Automatically places new players where they can find wood, animals, ore, and space to build. Also priority-based login queue, reserved slots for admins, idle boot ONLY when nearly full, entity thinning for lag reduction, and optional limited teleportation. Never again will your players experience a marathon run, spawn room full of portals, or maze of abandoned builds. This is a zero maintenance solution for administrators, and players don't need to learn any commands!
"This is THE plugin for large servers." – Mumblerit of muttsworldmine.com
Looking for a 1.12.2 or earlier-compatible version? Check here.
Got a question, suggestion, or problem? Post it on the issue tracker.
This video explains the region post system to new players.
See below for information on administrative features.
Feature Summary
- Assigns starting points for new players so that they can ALWAYS find space to build and beginner resources nearby. Players may be spawned directly there, or you can tell them about a slash command which will take them there.
- Respawns animals, regrows grass, and replants trees in the new player area to guarantee important new player resources.
- Removes idle players ONLY when the server is nearly full.
- Login queue to ensure fairness when your server is full, can prioritize some players over others if you like.
- Reserved slots for administrators.
- Optional teleportation posts which help players socialize and trade, but aren't abuse-able to escape combat or save a lost or hungry player.
- "Thins" extremely-dense crowds of monsters and animals, preventing ridiculous levels of farming or monster grinding from lagging your server.
Overview
Server owners often underestimate the badness in starting a player in a crowded area. Sure seeing builds makes your server look legitimate, but having to explore a long time just to find space to build and beginner resources is a major turn off for players who want to start playing right away. Even when players do find a place to start playing, they're often alone because other new players wandered into different areas.
PopulationDensity is the low-maintenance, easy-for-players answer to all these problems.
It works by automatically locating a region with lots of wood and ore, and then dropping new players in that region until they collect most of the easily accessible ore, cut down most of the trees, or crowd it with builds. Then PopulationDensity finds a new resource-wealthy region for future newbies and starts dropping new players there. If you have a great spawn area built up, you can instead spawn players there, and later tell them to use /HomeRegion when they're ready to start adventuring (or another command you define in commands.yml).
Additionally, optional teleportation commands help players move around quickly to admire builds and socialize while not compromising the game's integrity - players can only teleport from automatically-placed teleportation posts, so teleportation can't be used as an "easy-out" for players who mine or adventure themselves into trouble. That way, players keep the challenge of single player without the "players are too far apart" multiplayer issue.
Finally, if you have a "my server is always full" problem, then congratulations on your successful server! :) With PopulationDensity, you may optionally boot players who are idling so more players can log in and have fun, increasing your feel-good factor (or fattening your wallet, for some). when the server IS full, a login queue guarantees fairness, and administrative slots are set aside to guarantee administrators can always get in.
You can also assign players a queue priority to help them get on the server faster during peak times, to reward them for contributing to the server monetarily or through your community.
Requirements
- v6.0 and higher require Java 21
Setup, Configuration, and Commands documentation
Metrics: Like most other plugins this plugin collects anonymous metrics to see who's actually using this plugin, and this information is used to determine popularity as well as what features matter or not in the grand scheme of things.
Sponsors:

Got a question, suggestion, or problem? Post it on the issue tracker.

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Posted Dec 25, 2012@bunnyhop100
Make the time very big? So it doesn't do it (alot).
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Posted Dec 25, 2012Hello,
Can you make it so this plugin activates on two worlds? Not all worlds, two worlds ;)
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Posted Dec 24, 2012Do you have any suggestions for configuring the plugin to avoid creating regions in the middle of oceans? It doesn't happen frequently but when it does the sheer rage of new players can be overwhelming lol.
Also, the HoursBetweenScans option...is there a way to actually disable the automated scans and leave it to manual or on restart?
I understand the concept between regularly checking the resources and opening a new area if needed but quite often on my server the scans lag the server significantly while it's hunting for a new spot and would prefer to have control over when this lagging occurs.
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Posted Dec 24, 2012@bigscary
https://bukkit.atlassian.net/browse/BUKKIT-3226?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:all-tabpanel seems to be fixed, don't know though...
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Posted Dec 23, 2012Alas contrary to a previous post the messages aren't just noise, things are actually broken. You can't set home region and users start at spawn point instead of the newest region. Probably other stuff.
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Posted Dec 23, 2012@bigscary
If Bukkit fixes it, are you able to fix the existing region post? They all got fucked-up.
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Posted Dec 23, 2012@Calenria
the sign market will never be the same.
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Posted Dec 23, 2012@mumblerit
sign generators! It's not a bug, it's a feature! :)
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Posted Dec 22, 2012Still using this on a 1.4.6 server, its buggy for sure, but functional, posts give off signs, players are calling them sign generators, and many errors on console, but its functional.
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Posted Dec 22, 2012@Pixiyo
A plugin generating an error shouldn't cause your server to restart. Please file a ticket with your hosting provider to find out why you're having the restarting problem.
I'm aware of the issue with the plugin, but due to a Bukkit bug, I have no way to fix it right now.
@LeeTheENTP
As far as I know yes, based on the lack of flood in my GP comments area. :) I have not tried it myself yet, because I'm waiting for this bug to clear so I can use PD as well on 1.4.6.
@Delocaz
Due to Bukkit bug here:
https://bukkit.atlassian.net/browse/BUKKIT-3226
And also you're using a bukkit build which is not compatible with the PD version you downloaded (there is no PD version yet for that bukkit version).
@Jadedwolfs
Sorry bro, you and me are both waiting for Bukkit to fix their bug, then. :(
https://bukkit.atlassian.net/browse/BUKKIT-3226
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Posted Dec 22, 2012I was going to update my server tonight, however once I got to this plugin, realized it has not been updated and about shit... So I had to hold off updating till this one last plugin is updated. :( My whole server setup has been made around this plugins concept, lol, so I'm stuck till it's updated. No pressure though @bigscary
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Posted Dec 22, 2012@Delocaz @Pixiyo
Same error as these, CB: #2565; PL version: 3.6.4.
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Posted Dec 22, 2012@bigscary
No, this plugin is crashing the server.
http://pastebin.com/71gZAc7M
It's restarting everytime after that error!
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Posted Dec 22, 2012@Delocaz
You're using a newer version of CraftBukkit than the version of the plugin you're using was designed for.
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Posted Dec 22, 2012Why do my region posts look like this? (the signs)
http://i.imgur.com/32BZh.jpg
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Posted Dec 22, 201222.12 13:48:47 [Server] WARNING [PopulationDensity] Task #111 for PopulationDensity v3.6.4 generated an exception 22.12 13:48:41 [Server] INFO PopDensity: Examining available resources in region "0 1"... 22.12 13:48:41 [Server] INFO PopDensity: Unexpected Exception: org.bukkit.craftbukkit.v1_4_6.block.CraftBlockState cannot be cast to org.bukkit.block.Sign 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO ... 15 more 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at org.bukkit.command.PluginCommand.execute(PluginCommand.java:44) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at me.ryanhamshire.PopulationDensity.PopulationDensity.onCommand(PopulationDensity.java:439) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at me.ryanhamshire.PopulationDensity.PopulationDensity.TeleportPlayer(PopulationDensity.java:708) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at me.ryanhamshire.PopulationDensity.PopulationDensity.getRegionCenter(PopulationDensity.java:824) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.ThreadServerApplication.run(SourceFile:849) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.MinecraftServer.run(MinecraftServer.java:427) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.MinecraftServer.q(MinecraftServer.java:494) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.DedicatedServer.r(DedicatedServer.java:224) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.MinecraftServer.r(MinecraftServer.java:598) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.DedicatedServerConnection.b(SourceFile:30) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.ServerConnection.b(SourceFile:39) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.PlayerConnection.d(PlayerConnection.java:112) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.NetworkManager.b(NetworkManager.java:290) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.Packet3Chat.handle(Packet3Chat.java:44) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.PlayerConnection.a(PlayerConnection.java:853) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.PlayerConnection.chat(PlayerConnection.java:898) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_6.PlayerConnection.handleCommand(PlayerConnection.java:980) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.v1_4_6.CraftServer.dispatchCommand(CraftServer.java:510) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at org.bukkit.command.SimpleCommandMap.dispatch(SimpleCommandMap.java:186) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO at org.bukkit.command.PluginCommand.execute(PluginCommand.java:46) 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] INFO org.bukkit.command.CommandException: Unhandled exception executing command 'homeregion' in plugin PopulationDensity v3.6.4 22.12 13:48:38 [Server] SEVERE null
Running 1.4.6 beta build.
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Posted Dec 22, 2012@bigscary
Is it possible to disable naming?
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Posted Dec 21, 2012@bigscary
Yeah, it can be quite demanding. Though only occasionally; only some of the new players use it.
Ah, well most players seem to use it to find a region with a biome they would enjoy building in. Some use it to look for other pretty builds, then build a cobblestone box beside it :P
So removing it would probably be a good plan. I get a request for a list of all named region fairly often, which I was planning on adding a /command to act as a guide for sightseeing as my answer to that. Though A short list of some recent previously opened regions might be an idea to replace /randomregion with.
EDIT:
Just had a bug brought to my attention, you can build within the post protection using water and lava. I use Grief Prevention also, so to do so players have to claim the post first. Then they'd just place water, then place lava above that and the water turns to stone. Remove lava, repeat. I don't know which plugin is at fault, as I have not tested this without Grief Prevention. But fairly sure this is not expected behaviour...
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Posted Dec 21, 2012@bigscary
Fantastic. By the way, does the latest GP build get along with the 1.4.6-R0.1 CB build?
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Posted Dec 21, 2012Kinda looks this is crashing my server:
http://pastebin.com/71gZAc7M
It's restarting everytime after that error!