Why Some SMPs Ban Certain Mods and Plugins, and What They Pick Instead
Why SMP admins ban x-ray, autoclickers, some minimap features, freecam and economy-breaking plugins, and the lighter options communities usually settle on instead, from Paper's anti-xray to fair-play minimaps and allow-lists.
ChunkPod Team · · 8 min read
Why Some SMPs Ban Certain Mods and Plugins, and What They Pick Instead
Most SMP rule lists have a section on mods, and it usually names the same few things: x-ray, autoclickers, hacked clients and some minimap features. Admins don't ban these just to be in control. Each one breaks the deal players make when they join a shared survival world, which is that everyone gathers, builds and trades under roughly the same limits.
Below are the categories admins push back on most, why they do it, and the lighter options communities usually settle on instead.
The social contract behind a mod list
An SMP works because effort means something. Diamonds are worth trading because finding them takes time. A hidden base is worth building because nobody can see it from across the map. A shop makes sense because resources are scarce.
When a mod removes that effort for one player, it doesn't only help them. It also makes what everyone else did worth less. Most admins apply the same test, even if they never say it out loud: does this mod give one player information or actions that everyone else had to earn the slow way?
Sodium passes easily. It makes the game run better and gives nobody an edge. X-ray fails right away.
X-ray: the one almost every server bans
X-ray comes in a few forms: resource packs that make stone see-through, client mods that highlight ores, and the x-ray modules built into hacked clients. They all do the same job. They let a player see ores through solid stone and dig straight to them.
On an SMP this does two kinds of damage. It wrecks the economy, because diamonds and ancient debris stop being scarce. It also breaks privacy, since many x-ray tools show chests, spawners and other blocks that give away hidden bases.
What servers use instead
Writing "no x-ray" in the rules is easy. Catching it is harder, so most servers lean on the server side:
- Paper's built-in anti-xray. Paper can hide ores from clients, either by covering ores that aren't exposed to air or by sending fake ore data that makes x-ray views useless. It's set per world in paper-world-defaults.yml, and the different engine modes trade how well ores are hidden against how much work the server does. The free Paper Config Generator can build that file for you.
- Orebfuscator. A separate plugin that does a similar job, for servers that want different options from Paper's version.
- Block logging. CoreProtect records who broke which block and when. Staff can look at a suspicious mining trail and see whether someone tunnelled in a straight line from one diamond vein to the next.
Players still mine normally, and the server stops relying on the client to be honest.
Autoclickers and macros
An autoclicker presses a mouse button for you, either very fast or on a timer. A macro goes further and repeats a whole sequence of inputs. Admins have a few reasons to dislike both.
In PvP, a fast autoclicker is a plain advantage. In survival, the bigger problem is unattended play. A player who leaves an autoclicker running at a mob farm overnight pulls in far more loot than someone playing normally, and keeps those chunks loaded the whole time, which costs the server performance for everyone.
The middle ground
Plenty of SMPs don't ban everything here. Common compromises:
- Allow AFK, ban input automation. Standing at a farm while you're away is fine. Software that clicks for you isn't.
- Use an AFK setting. EssentialsX can mark idle players as AFK and, if the admin turns it on, kick them after a set time. That deals with the load problem without arguing about which tool someone used.
- Server-side anticheat. Plugins like Grim check movement and combat for things a normal client can't do. On a PvP-heavy server, that does more than a written rule.
Minimaps: banned for features, not for the map
Minimaps are a good example of a mod that's mostly fine, with a couple of features that aren't. A basic map of terrain you've already explored doesn't do much more than a vanilla map item. The trouble is elsewhere:
- Cave mode can show the layout of caves and underground spaces around you, including other players' hidden builds.
- Entity radar shows nearby players and mobs, even through walls. In PvP that works a lot like a wallhack.
- Coordinates and waypoints matter on servers that play without coordinates. Some SMPs turn on the reducedDebugInfo game rule to hide coordinates on the F3 screen, and a minimap that shows them anyway defeats the point.
What communities pick instead
Instead of banning minimaps outright, many servers allow specific versions or settings:
- Xaero's Minimap Fair-Play Edition. Xaero publishes a separate version of the mod without cave mode and the entity radar. Lots of SMP rule lists name it as the allowed version.
- Server-side restrictions. Some minimap mods, Xaero's among them, let a server switch off features like the radar or cave mode for players who join. That's more reliable than asking everyone to change their own settings.
- Shared web maps. Plugins like BlueMap, Dynmap and squaremap render the world as a map in a browser. The admin chooses what it shows and can hide areas, and everyone sees the same thing, so nobody gets extra information.
Freecam and the mods that see too much
Freecam detaches the camera from your player so you can fly it around. Builders like it for checking a build from different angles. The problem is that most freecam mods let the camera pass through blocks, which means looking inside bases, storage rooms and hidden farms.
Tweakeroo, a quality-of-life mod popular with technical players, includes a free camera toggle alongside lots of harmless tweaks. Servers that allow Tweakeroo often list the specific features that are off-limits instead of banning the whole mod.
Litematica gets similar treatment. Showing a schematic as a ghost overlay to build from is widely accepted. The printer, an add-on found in some forks that places blocks for you automatically, is where many servers draw the line.
Hacked clients such as Wurst and Meteor Client are the extreme case. They bundle x-ray, tracers, fly, kill aura and freecam in one package, and most SMPs ban them by name.
Plugins that break the economy
It isn't only player mods. Admins also turn down server plugins that tilt the economy or skip the survival loop, often after trying them for a while.
- Unlimited admin shops. A shop that buys any amount of any item at a fixed price turns every farm into a money printer. Prices fall apart, and player trade dies because the server is always the best buyer.
- Free /fly, /heal and kits on survival. They take away the reasons to build infrastructure or work together.
- Easy teleporting. /tpa and unlimited /home commands are popular, but they shrink the world. Nether highways, rail lines and living near your friends matter less when anyone can jump anywhere instantly.
- keepInventory. Turning this game rule on removes most of the risk of dying. Some communities like that, and others feel it makes survival flat.
The usual compromises
- Player-run shops. Plugins like ChestShop or QuickShop let players sell to each other, so prices come from what players actually have and want.
- Limits instead of bans. EssentialsX lets admins cap the number of homes per permission group and add teleport cooldowns or costs, so travel gets easier without becoming free.
- Graves instead of keepInventory. A grave holds your items where you died, so dying still costs you a trip back but doesn't wipe hours of work. Vanilla Tweaks has a graves datapack, and plugins like AngelChest do the same job on Paper servers.
Why allow-lists tend to work better
One thing many admins learn the hard way: a server can't reliably see which client mods a player has installed. Mod lists can be hidden or faked, and a Paper or Spigot server doesn't get one from a normal client in the first place. Any rule about client mods is partly on the honor system.
That's why many SMPs have moved from long ban-lists to short allow-lists. A typical one covers performance mods like Sodium, shaders through Iris, a fair-play minimap and small inventory tweaks like Mouse Tweaks. Anything else needs a staff member's okay first. Players know where they stand, and staff spend less time arguing about edge cases.
The written list only goes so far, though. The servers that hold up best back it with checks that don't depend on trust, such as anti-xray, block logging and an anticheat.
If you're setting up Paper's anti-xray, ChunkPod's free Paper Config Generator builds paper-global.yml and paper-world-defaults.yml with the anti-xray options included. ChunkPod itself is a Minecraft host in early access. Join the waitlist at chunkpod.com to get notified when hosting opens.