Ultimate Wards

Better wards: circle, square or rectangle areas, size limits, permitted players, wards per player, protection of stations and crops, and sanctuaries.

⌨️ PRESS F3 IN THE GAME TO OPEN THE SETTINGS PANEL ⌨️

Every feature of this mod is turned on and tuned in the in-game panel.
Can't use F3? Open the console with F5 and type ultimateqol_config.

⌨️ How to use

1. Install and start the game.
2. Press F3 to open the settings panel.
3. Find the Wards options in the sidebar (or type in the search box at the top) and turn on what you want.

Everything is off by default, so the game stays vanilla until you turn something on.

🔑 To change settings you need admin access with devcommands: be listed in the server's adminlist.txt (on a dedicated server) or be the host of the world. Changes are synchronized to all players in real time.

Features

Wards (protection and sanctuary)

Off by default: vanilla wards. When the admin turns the ward system on:

• Shapes and sizes – the admin allows circle, square and/or rectangle and sets a minimum and maximum size (1–100 m sliders; vanilla is 32 m). The size is the reach from the ward to the edge. Each owner chooses shape and size in the ward panel; the area is always centered on the ward, and squares/rectangles turn with the ward when it is built. Lowering the maximum shrinks bigger wards at once.
• Show the area – on: the edge is drawn on the ground while looking at the ward (also for squares and rectangles) and the shield flashes; off: nothing is shown, the protection is the same.
• Ward panel (Alt + E on the ward) – same look as the admin panel: ON/OFF, shape and size, always visible (a line on the ground and/or a see-through dome – a box for squares and rectangles – shown to everyone within about 80 m while the ward is on; drawn once, not every frame), sanctuary state and the owner's sanctuary choices, the permitted players (Remove) and every player online on the server (Add). Only the owner (or an admin) changes the area and the list; nobody can add themselves any more. E on the ward turns it on/off for the owner and permitted players. The hover text shows the owner, the area and the sanctuary state.
• Protection of other players' items – besides what the game already protects (chests, doors, signs, item stands, portals, building), the ward also protects smelters and kilns, cooking stations, fires and torches, ballistas, shield generators, crops, items on the ground, carts and ships, and players without access cannot damage pieces inside. Beds and portals stay usable; tombstones are never blocked.
• Wards per player (default 1, 0 = no limit, admins have no limit) – counted by the server over the whole world; existing wards are kept, only new ones are refused.
• Never inside dungeons, and never overlapping the ward of another owner (wards of the same owner may overlap). Near altars, traders and forges the building rules of the mod apply.
• Admins remove any ward with the hammer (its materials drop as usual). Option Admins ignore wards (off by default) lets them use everything inside any ward.
• Sanctuary (option, off by default) – for real bases only: the area needs a bed and a workbench and the ward must exist for the time set by the admin (1–1440 min, default 60). The ward checks every 30 minutes (half of the set time when that is shorter; the panel and the hover text show the countdown to the next check); if a check finds no bed or no workbench, the ward loses the sanctuary and the time starts again from zero (if you take one away, put it back before the next check). In a sanctuary nobody gets hurt (no PvP; the PvP switch is locked), monsters do not enter, do not spawn and ignore the players and tamed animals inside, nobody inside can hurt anything outside, and players without permission cannot enter and are put outside if they arrive by portal, respawn or log in inside. Bosses ignore the sanctuary and attack as usual. Raids can still damage pieces (turn raids off if you do not want that). A ward without the sanctuary still protects pieces and items, so placing wards in the wild to hide from monsters gives nothing.
• Choices of the owner for the sanctuary (in the Sanctuary card of the ward panel, owner and admins only):
  • Keep monsters out (on = how a sanctuary always was). On: monsters cannot come in (the ones inside are moved out), ignore everyone inside, and nobody inside can hurt anything outside. Off: monsters work as in the normal game (vanilla): they can come in, see, attack and hurt, and the players inside can fight them. Players stay protected from other players (no PvP), a player inside never hurts a player or a tamed animal, nothing spawns inside, and tamed animals can always enter.
  • No plant pins on the map (needs the admin option NoPlantPinsInSanctuary, off by default; otherwise the switch is not shown): wild plants and plantations inside the area of this ward get no map pin (a base is full of berry bushes and flowers), and the pins that were already there are taken away. It works in any ward, sanctuary or not.
• Bosses break sanctuaries (always, cannot be turned off) – a living boss within 200 m of a sanctuary switches it off: no protection, no barrier, no ward line or dome, monsters and the boss's summons come in, and everybody hurts and gets hurt normally (the ward still protects buildings and chests). Players inside are told "The sanctuary fell: <boss> is nearby". It comes back by itself about 10 seconds after the boss dies or leaves, without losing its time. A player standing in a working sanctuary cannot hurt any creature (bosses excepted), so a sanctuary is never a safe spot to kill a boss from. Light: nothing runs while no boss is alive; a game that loads a boss tells the server, the server finds the living bosses once after a restart, and only while bosses exist it sends their positions to everyone every 3 s (positions that stop arriving expire, so a sanctuary never stays off by mistake).
• Light: the area of each ward is cached, the sanctuary check runs once every 30 minutes per ward, players are checked 4 times per second only near sanctuaries, and the edge is drawn only while someone looks at the ward.

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⚠️ Experimental

This mod is still experimental and may contain bugs. Back up your world and your character, and turn features on a few at a time.

💬 Bugs and suggestions

Join the Discord: discord.gg/aMkN89Cuas

_{Powered by Ultimate QOL, installed automatically as a dependency. The F3 panel also shows its other options, all off by default.}