UHC Meetups

⚡ What are UHC Meetups?

Meetups are lightning-fast PvP matches on Purpur 26.2 (accepts Minecraft 1.21.11 clients via ViaVersion) with predefined kits. No mining or preparation: you join the lobby, get a full kit, and fight until one team remains. When a round ends, the autohost opens voting and launches the next match by itself.

The mode runs on Purpur 26.2 with Java 25. The plugin is EspectralMeetups 4.2.0-B.

There is a dedicated 24/7 server (24h.espectral.es): it is always in Meetups mode, with no rotation, and is the main destination because it runs continuous matches with an auto-start threshold of just 2 players.

⚙️ How a round works

1. Lobby: wait on the surface of the next arena grid cell (border 48), adventure mode, cannot deal damage.
2. Start: teams form, spread separates players grouping teammates, and the kit is applied.
3. Pacto de caballeros: 30 seconds without PvP with Resistance V; after that, PvP turns on.
4. Border: starts at 200 blocks, begins shrinking at minute 5 (300 s), fixes at 48 at minute 10 (600 s).
5. Resolution: last team alive wins; in 10 s everyone returns to the lobby and the arena advances to the next cell.

In detail, the round orchestration (values from the config.yml deployed on the 24h server):

• Lobby: players wait on the cell surface with Resistance V + Weakness V (cannot deal damage), time set 0, quiet weather, natural regeneration off, keep_inventory on and PvP off. Hosts receive the Host Tool (Nether star). The lobby countdown defaults to 180 s (lobby-countdown-default).
• Arena prep: the cell fill is generated during the lobby in asynchronous center-out batches (getChunkAtAsync), so the platform under the players forms first and nothing blocks the main thread.
• Start: spread with a minimum distance of 8 and a maximum radius of 95 (never over liquid), time set day, keep_inventory off, 5→1 countdown and an "STARTED" title.
• During the match: a scoreboard with time and health auto-flips between the main page (10 s) and the stats page (25 s).
• Resolution: with 1 team alive there is a win (title + fireworks); with 0 teams alive, a draw. "Alive" means online, in survival mode, on a team that is not the spectator team.

Dying spawns a pedestal (Nether brick fence + your head + a random valuable block: gold 60 %, emerald 25 %, redstone 5 %, lapis 5 %, iron 5 %) and you respawn as a spectator at your death point.

👥 Team modes

• FFA (Free For All): everyone vs everyone, each player is a team.
• Random 2–10: random teams of the chosen size.
• Dynamic (default): team size is rolled each round based on online players, per the weights in dynamic_teams.yml. It is decided before round start. Also, with dynamic, an FFA with more than 4 players is upgraded to To2 pairs with a 30 % chance (dynamic-to2-chance 0.30) to vary rounds.

On the 24h server and in any match you can change the mode with /meetups teams <ffa|dynamic|random_2..random_10> (requires meetups.host permission).

🗃️ Available scenarios

Meetups have 21 scenarios the host can toggle with /meetups scen <name>:

• extra_hp: extra life at start (40 HP + Regen). Host-only; never appears in votes.
• anonymous: forced invisibility — you don't know who you're fighting.
• death_coords: broadcast the coordinates of the dead.
• strength2: allows Strength II (the plugin strips it by default).
• invi8: allows long/infinite invisibility during play. Host-only; never appears in votes.
• friendly_fire: teammates can hurt each other. Host-only; never appears in votes.
• web_cage: cobweb cage on death.
• uhc_clases: UHC classes.
• superheroes: random superpowers.
• safe_loot, do_not_disturb, grave_robbers, time_bomb: death & loot variants (disable the pedestal).
• fast_getaway: fast escape after a kill.
• switcheroo, shield_less, fire_less, siphon: combat modifiers.
• health_to_size: health affects player size.
• absorption_partner: shared absorption with a teammate.
• golden_retriever: gold heals.

There is also a separate meetup_effects (0/1/2) mode that is not part of the scenario enum: it controls final-border effects (0 = none, 1 = refresh extra HP, 2 = infinite Resistance I). Set it with /meetups scen meetup_effects.

🎒 Kits (full contents)

The voting pool is 14 kits (IDs 1–15, skipping 6), plus two special kits (id 200 and 201). Kits are defined in YAML (kits/kit_<id>.yml) and hot-reloaded with /meetups reload. This is the real list of kits available in matches.

Voting pool (14 kits)

Special kits

🗳️ Voting system

Between rounds, if the session was started by the population trigger (as on the 24h server), the plugin opens 3 consecutive voting phases (in 33 % of rounds an extra special-arena vote also appears between the team and scenario votes). The options are clickable in chat. The option with the most votes wins; ties are broken randomly. If nobody votes, a fallback applies.

Phase 1 — Team vote (/meetups teamvote <n>), 11 seconds. Votes for the team mode. The exact options depend on how many players are online:

• 2–3 players: no vote, defaults to FFA.
• 4: FFA, Teams of 2.
• 5: FFA only (no vote).
• 6: FFA, Teams of 2, Teams of 3.
• 7: FFA only.
• 8: FFA, Teams of 2.
• 9: FFA, Teams of 3.
• 10: FFA, Teams of 2.
• 11: FFA only.
• 12: FFA, Teams of 2, Teams of 3.
• 13–23: FFA, Teams of 2, Teams of 3 (regardless of odd/even).
• 24+: FFA, Teams of 2, Teams of 3, Teams of 4.

The vote only opens if there are at least 2 options. If there are 0 votes, the Dynamic system is used by default.

Special-arena vote (/meetups arenavote <n>), 11 seconds: only appears in 33 % of rounds, between the team vote and the scenario vote. It offers 4 special arenas (bastion, fortress, end city or trial chambers) plus a Normal zone option (stay in the Overworld). Each special arena lives in its own dimension: bastion and fortress in the Nether, end city in the End and trial chambers in the Overworld.

Phase 2 — Scenario vote (/meetups scenvote <n>), 11 seconds. Votes for an additional scenario on top of any the host pinned. 4 options are offered, chosen at random from the 18 votable scenarios (friendly_fire, extra_hp and invi8 are always excluded, plus absorption_partner if ≤4 players, and any scenario the host already pinned; ~half of the options are curated combos of 2 compatible scenarios), plus a 5th "No Scenario" option. If nobody votes, no extra scenario is added.

Phase 3 — Kit vote (/meetups vote <n>), 11 seconds. 5 options are offered:

• Option 1 is always Armamento Random.
• The other 4 are chosen at random from the 14-kit pool, where Kits Random competes like any other kit (not guaranteed, only appears if the shuffle picks it).
• If nobody votes, a random kit is chosen that never repeats the previous round's kit.

Important: these votes only run on the 24h server, which starts sessions automatically. If a host starts the matches manually (/meetups autohost start), only the kit vote runs; teams and scenarios use whatever the host configured.

🤖 Autohost & population trigger

Autohost chains N rounds without a host. From console or with meetups.host: /meetups autohost start <rounds> [minPlayers]. Stop with stop (finishes current round) or abort (cancels now). Status: /meetups autohost status.

The population trigger auto-starts an AutoHost when enough players are in the lobby — host present or not. On the 24h server it is enabled with a threshold of 2 players, 3 rounds per block, a 30 s countdown and a 60 s cooldown.

⌨️ Plugin commands

All mode control goes through /meetups (meetups.host permission unless noted):

• /meetups or /meetups host — opens the host menu and gives the Host Tool.
• /meetups start · /meetups reset — start the round or reset it (advance the cell).
• /meetups status — current round state.
• /meetups kit <1..201> — pick the kit (pool IDs or special 200/201).
• /meetups teams <ffa|dynamic|random_2..random_10> — team mode.
• /meetups scen <name> [0/1] — toggle a scenario; meetup_effects cycles 0→1→2.
• /meetups vote <1..9> · /meetups teamvote <1..9> · /meetups scenvote <1..9> — voting (meetups.vote permission).
• /meetups autohost start [rounds] [min] · stop · abort · status · auto on|off — AutoHost and population-trigger control.
• /meetups reload — hot-reloads config.yml, lang.yml and kits (JAR changes need a server restart).
• /meetups donator — donor menu (espectral.vip permission).

🔄 The 24h session cycle

The 24h server runs in an unattended loop. The full cycle is:

1. Armed: the population trigger is armed and checks the lobby every 20 s.
2. Trigger: with 2 or more players (spectators don't count) it announces the 30 s countdown.
3. AutoHost block: starts a block of 3 rounds with a 2-player minimum.
4. Between rounds (15 s pause): 11 s votes each — teams → (33 % special arena) → scenarios → kit — plus 10 s before start.
5. Round: kits, teams, 30 s pact, border 200→48, pedestals and a winner; in 10 s everyone returns to the lobby and the arena advances to the next cell.
6. Repeat: the block chains its 3 rounds and, if players remain, re-arms after a 60 s cooldown.

If players are missing at round start, AutoHost waits 60 s and retries up to 2 times; if still empty it aborts the block and the trigger re-arms. Real example from August 2, 2026: round 548 (arena cell column 13, row 22), winner FELIPEPAPUS, kit 201 (Armamento Random), duration 69 s; the kit vote showed 5 options with 201 always in slot 1 and 200 (Kits Random) competing like any other kit.

🗺️ The world and the arena grid

Matches happen in uhcmundo with the meetups_worldgen datapack (custom Overworld generation parameters). Instead of a fresh map per match, the plugin uses an arena grid: 24 columns of 200 blocks advancing one cell per round, first along X, then jumping to the next row.

• Per-zone fill: the water in the center (down to y62, depth 6) is replaced by a random block from a 9-block palette (grass, stone, end stone, netherrack, mycelium, quartz, obsidian, black glazed terracotta or hay) — every cell plays on a different surface.
• Structures: with 10 % odds a structure is placed at the zone center (village_plains or pillager_outpost; trial_chambers stays excluded until its /place cost is measured in production).
• Pre-generation: during the lobby the plugin pre-generates terrain asynchronously (getChunkAtAsync, radius 128, off the main thread) so entering fresh terrain never causes hitches.
• Special arenas: each dimension has its own grid and fill rules: Nether (world_nether, 12 columns, platform at y34 with floor y32 and ceiling y100) and End (world_the_end, 12 columns starting at 1200,1200, dragon suppressed). The arena vote picks between bastion (Nether), fortress (Nether), end city (End) and trial chambers (Overworld), or Normal zone.
• Border: starts at 200 and fixes at 48, always aligned to multiples of 4 so it never stops mid-block; damage outside the zone is 0.3 HP/s effective (0.2 × 1.5) with a 5-block warning.

The grid exists to avoid restarting the world between matches: rounds advance deterministically cell by cell and the per-map generation cost disappears. Special-arena technical details: the platform is prepped by loading the target chunk asynchronously and running /place structure (the plugin times the placement and logs a WARN above 50 ms), and after a special round the venue always returns to the Overworld. The other dimensions use their own fill palettes: Nether (netherrack, blackstone, basalt, Nether bricks) and End (end stone). The meetups_worldgen datapack only touches the Overworld's noise_settings and dimension_type, with the vanilla values documented as reference.

❓ FAQ

• Do I need to do anything to play? No — the 24h starts by itself with 2 players: join 24h.espectral.es (version 1.21.11 or older, or Bedrock with the same IP), wait for the countdown and fight.
• How long does a match last? Usually 1 to 3 minutes (real example: 69 s in round 548); the border closes at 48 blocks after 10 minutes at most.
• When does the next round start? With 2+ players in the lobby a 30 s countdown is announced and the 3-round AutoHost block starts by itself, with 11 s votes between rounds.
• Can I host? If you have the meetups.host permission, yes: /meetups opens the menu and lets you force start, kits, scenarios or teams. On the 24h no host is needed.
• Where can I see my stats? On the public tracker: espectral.es/palanctral/meetups (kills, wins, K/D and matches per player).
• Are there other servers with Meetups? Meetups can also be enabled on Espectral's rotating-modes server, but the 24h is the main destination: it is always available and never rotates.