As much as we invest in great server hardware (Yes, we own the hardware) – and even custom server software to improve the server’s performance – at the end of the day, minecraft’s performance is a mess. It’s not optimized in any capacity whatsoever, and the more entities that are on the server – the worse performance gets across the board. That’s where our mob limit system comes into play. We’ve experienced the plethora of other tools out there that handle this, but they usually cause you to lose items and mobs without warning – or they stop you from being able to do things like mob grinds/farms. We did a deep dive and determined the best tool for the job.

Farm Limiter

This plugin has served us very well, because it solves the issue of “too many mobs” on the server, but without disrupting most vanilla play.

The plugin works based on “mobs within distance of another”, rather than total numbers (With exceptions for global rules, which are listed later in this documentation). It also has a priority system when it chooses what mobs to remove. As the basis for understanding how this plugin works – here is an image that explains how the plugin “sees” and defines groups of mobs (based on our own defined rules):

This is a unique (and vitally important) approach to culling mobs in a server – because you can configure it to only affect “abnormal” groups of mobs – while leaving most vanilla spawns untouched. This plugin does not “prevent” spawning of mobs at any time – rather it periodically runs the check for any groups that break the rules defined in it’s configuration and then culls extras. It has a built-in priority system that will hopefully prevent most players from ever noticing it. The following list will give you a run down of the plugin’s priority system and how it operates:

We’ve worked on our rules over time, and have tried our best to get them to a reasonable amount that shouldn’t affect anyone unless you have a massive and extensive across-flat-land farm. That being said, we’ve made some noticeable mistakes in the past (Like when no one could find slimes , because we didn’t realize they counted as hostile – and were included in a global hostile mob rule that basically made them de-spawn before anyone could find them).

That is why we are including most of our current config for farm limiter below. You are free to dissect it and pick it apart. You’re also free to point out any mistakes we’ve made, or concerns you might have about the fairness or effect of a particular rule on the server. However, We have final say – regardless of how you feel. Remember, we are trying to balance the server performance with the demands of many players who play the game in completely different ways (Please note that code comments may not accurately reflect what each section is doing – we know, bad practice).

Finally, you can review the official plugin documentation to check our work. Find out if we’ve made a grave mistake – or missed (or misinterpreted) something within the docs. Click either of the buttons below to be linked to external sources.