Hi, this guide is to help with understanding the basics: Towny is a plugin that allows players to create and join towns, and claim land within those towns. Each town has a mayor who is responsible for managing the town and its members.
Starting a Town
Players can start towns using the command /town new townname. The townblock they are standing in will be the home block for the town, the exact spot/position will be the spawn point for the town every time you type /t spawn. You can view other towns by typing /t spawn townname. More townblocks can be claimed using /town claim. These townblocks need to be directly adjacent to an already claimed townblock.
It costs B1000 to start a town, and the daily upkeep/tax costs B10 per day and will remain that way no matter how big your town gets. If you wish to buy more plot claims you can use /t buy bonus amount and there is a 500 plot limit on that. They cost B100 each. Every townblock that you claim will cost B15 every time you use /t claim. Same rules apply to outposts.
Joining Towns
There are two ways to join towns, the first is by being invited by a Mayor or a Town assistant. The second is by joining an open town. Mayors and assistants can add players to their town with the command /town add playername, then the player will receive a prompt to either /accept or /deny the invitation.
Mayors can set their towns to open using /town toggle open. A player who isn't in a town already can use the command /town join townname to join open towns. When residents join towns they increase the number of townblocks accessible to the mayor for claiming. A new town starts out with 8 /t claims but gains 8 more for every person that joins.
Plot System of Land Ownership
Town Blocks
Block protection is broken down into plots of land, called townblocks, which by default are 16x16x256 (the full height of the world.) Townblocks are claimed by town mayors who can then sell or give individual plots to their town's residents.
Plot Type
Default Plots
These plots do not need any specific command to be designated. They are put up for sale with /plot forsale price. A plot which is not of default type can be reset to a default plot with /plot set reset.
Shop Plots
Shop plots are designated with /plot set shop. A mayor can use /town set shopprice price to set how much shop plots are sold at by default. This can be overridden when a mayor puts the actual plot up for sale with /plot forsale price. A mayor can also charge an additional shoptax with /town set shoptax price. This tax is charged in addition to the normal plottax.
Arena Plots
Arena plots are designated with /plot set arena. PVP is on all the time in arena plots as well as friendly-fire damage. Town health regen is also disabled in arena plots.
Embassy Plots
Embassy plots are designated with /plot set embassy. A mayor can use /town set embassyprice price to set how much embassy plots are sold at by default. This can be overridden when a mayor puts the actual plot up for sale with /plot forsale price. A mayor can also charge an additional embassytax with /town set embassytax price. This tax is charged in addition to the normal plottax.
An embassy plot can be bought by any player, whether they are in the town or not. The townblock remains owned by the host-town and a mayor from the host-town can take the plot from the owner at any time. Embassy plots can also be changed into shop plots, allowing for larger shop towns, where many different towns' players can set up shops. When a player leaves a town they do not lose ownership of their plots if those plots are set to be Embassy plots.
Wilds Plots
Wilds plots are designated with /plot set wilds. A wilds plot allows residents to destroy the blocks found on the wild ignore ID list. This includes ores, trees, flowers, mushrooms and other harvestable blocks by default. It does not include stone, dirt, grass and other terrain blocks. It is useful for creating tree farms, and protecting the terrain around a town, while still allowing residents to cut trees and explore caves. You can also set ally or outsider permissions if you want non-town-members to use the Wilds plots.
Inn Plots
Inn plots are designated with /plot set inn. An Inn plot allows anyone to use a bed to set their /res spawn and spawn on death. The Inn plot will still deny a player who is in a nation declared as an enemy by your nation.
Jail Plots
Jail plots are designated with /plot set jail. The player's mayor or sheriffs send them to jail. An attacker who attacks a town which considers him an Enemy (nation relationship) dies in that Town. He is sent to the first available Jail plot of the defending town.
Jailed players become unjailed if they leave their town and become a nomad, the mayor/sheriff unjails them, the player pays a bail amount to the town which jailed them using /resident jail paybail, or they manage to escape the jail plot and the town and get into Wilderness. Jailed players cannot teleport. Jailed players cannot use Ender Pearls. Jailed players who die are sent back to their prescribed jail plot. Jailed players do not give monetary payouts when they are killed. Jailed players show their jailed status in the /res playername screen, along with the town they are jailed in.
Farm Plots
Farm plots are designated with /plot set farm. A Farm plot allows players to build or destroy only the following blocks: LONG_GRASS, DOUBLE_PLANT, YELLOW_FLOWER, RED_ROSE, PUMPKIN_STEM, MELON_STEM, BEETROOT_BLOCK, CARROT, POTATO, CROPS, MELON_BLOCK, PUMPKIN.
Who can build or destroy these blocks is still determined by the plot's perm line seen in the /plot perm screen. This means that if B=rao, anyone can plant or place the allowed blocks in the plot. If the line is B=r-- then only town residents can plant or place the allowed blocks. Towny already protects soil from being stomped into grass, so soil will only return to dirt if it is not irrigated. Farm plots also allow town residents to kill animals in the plot. The list of animals is PIG, COW, CHICKEN, SHEEP, MOOSHROOM.
Outposts
Normally townblocks are claimed around the home block, always connected to the town. To claim a townblock out in the wilderness or anywhere far away from your town, a mayor or assistant must claim an outpost with /t claim outpost. The outpost list can be viewed by using the /town outpost list command.
Outposts can be teleported to, and mayors set the spawn point of the outpost when they claim it or by using /town set outpost. Players teleport to the outpost using /town outpost x with x being a number from 1 up to however many outposts the town has.
Selling Land
Land is sold by Mayors to Residents that are a part of their town. Mayors have a command used in-game to set the cost of all the plots that are set for sale going forward: /town set plotprice price. This sets the cost of newly-set-for-sale plots. Already set-for-sale plots keep their existing costs. If it is not set, the plots will cost B0 by default.
To put a plot up for sale a mayor, while standing in the plot, types /plot forsale price. The resident then types /plot claim while standing in the plot to buy it.
Using the Maps
The map in Towny displays the grid system of plots. The map can be viewed once using /towny map one time, or you can set the map to show every time you move from one block to another. Use /resident set mode map to turn it on and use /resident set mode reset to turn it off. A large version of the map can be seen using /towny map big.
Protect Your Blocks
Towny lets players protect themselves. An admin does not need to go around protecting land for players, and players cannot run rampant claiming massive amounts of land without working for it and building their towns. The first concepts you need to digest are the 4 perm-types and 3 groups.
There are 4 permission-type values, which can be set for personal plots and for town plots as well. Town permissions can be set by the mayor and affect plots which are not owned by any player. The basic command for this is either /resident set perm or /town set perm followed by the proper flags for each permission.
Plots start with the default settings for plot perms, whether they are resident-owned or town-owned, but the owner of the plots can set different perms for different plots. To view a plot's perm type use /plot perm and to set a plot's perms use /plot set perm. Default permissions are viewable by typing either /resident for personal plot perms or /town for town permissions.
Perm-Types
The 4 permission-types available are Build, Destroy, Switch and Itemuse. Build allows players to place blocks in your town or plot. Destroy allows players to remove blocks in your town or plot.
Perm-Groups
Each permission-type has 3 perm-groups to which the permission can be set. These are displayed on your /resident perm line as FAO and stand for Friend, Ally, Outsider. For residents, the Friend group consists of a player's friend list. For towns the perm line reads RAO, with R representing Residents. Mayors need to use /t set perm resident ... instead of /t set perm friend ....
The Other Groups Are:
#### Ally
- Players from your town, other towns in your nation, and nations your nation is allied with.
#### Outsiders
- Players who are not part of your town or nation or nation's allies.
Setting Perms In-Game With Commands
Setting perms for your town's public land or your personal plots is easy. There are two distinct levels of protection provided by towns. First are the town blocks, protected because they are part of a town and not owned by anyone. When you enter one of these plots from the wilderness or an owned plot the notification will show ~ Unowned.
#### Mayors are able to set the permission for unowned plots using the /town set perm command. Here are some examples:
/town set perm on/off— Turns on or off all permissions for all perm-types and all perm-groups./town set perm ally on/off— Turns on or off all perm-types for the town's allies./town set perm resident build on/off— Turns on or off build permissions for town residents.
#### Second, are the town blocks owned personally by a resident of a town. A resident is able to set the permission for owned plots using the /resident set perm command. Here are some examples:
/resident set perm on/off— Turns on or off all permissions for all perm-types and all perm-groups./resident set perm friend on/off— Turns on or off all permissions for the resident's friend list./resident set perm ally on/off— Turns on or off all perm-types for the resident's ally list./resident set perm outsider switch on/off— Turns on or off switch permissions for outsiders.
#### Lastly, don't forget those are just the defaults for plots. Any owned plot can be set with its own individual perms:
/plot set perm on/off— Turns on or off all permissions for all perm-types and all perm-groups on the plot you are standing in./plot set perm friend on/off— Turns on or off all permissions for the resident's friend list on the plot you are standing in./plot set perm ally on/off— Turns on or off all perm-types to the resident's ally list for that plot./plot set perm outsider switch on/off— Turns on or off switch permissions for outsiders on the plot you are standing in.
#### Mayors can change the protection of their town with the following commands:
/town toggle explosion/town toggle fire/town toggle pvp/town toggle mobs
#### Mayors and residents can change each of their plots individually using these commands:
/plot toggle explosion/plot toggle fire/plot toggle pvp/plot toggle mobs
#### Per-plot toggles are overridden by a mayor's town toggles.
The preceding commands by themselves will change the perm line seen from /town or /res. They will also change any plots that were using the previously-set default perm line, whether town-owned or player-owned plots. They will not change plots which were not set to the default perm line seen in /town or /res.
In order to change all plots a mayor or resident must use the following command, which will propagate the current perm line seen in /town or /res to all plots owned by the town or resident:
/res set perm reset— Propagates the perm line in/resto all plots owned by that resident./town set perm reset— Propagates the perm line in/townto all town-owned plots owned by that town.
These commands also affect the /town toggle and /plot toggle settings.
Protection Additions Found in Towny Advanced
New in Towny Advanced are three additional protection types: anti-explosion, anti-firespread and piston-protection.
On the town level, a mayor can set these flags using:
/town toggle explosion/town toggle fire
Explosion protection stops all explosions. This stops TNT, TNT cannons and creeper explosions. Firespread protection stops all fires from spreading, including lava, lightning, and lighters. Piston-protection allows pistons to operate between similarly owned townblocks or wild areas.