Build a Minecraft server network with a lobby

A network makes sense when you want different kinds of play with their own rules and worlds: a survival world next to a creative plot world, or a hub with minigames. It also spreads the load, because each world runs on its own server.

For a group of friends on one survival world, it is overhead you do not need. One server with Multiverse, or simply one world, is simpler.

Players never connect to your servers directly any more. They connect to the proxy, and the proxy decides where they go:

• The network address leads to the lobby. If the lobby is off, the proxy tries the next server of the network.
• The old address of each server still leads to that same server, through the proxy. Nobody has to change a saved server.
• `/server survival` moves a player to another server without leaving the game. The proxy keeps the connection to the player open and swaps the server behind it.

The proxy also checks every account with Mojang. It then tells each server who the player is, signed with a secret that only the proxy and your servers know. That is called modern forwarding, and it is why your servers can switch off their own account check without letting strangers in.

Start with Multiverse when the worlds share the same rules and plugins. Move to a network when a world needs plugins the others should not have, or when one server can no longer carry everything.

• Two or more servers in your account. A lobby can be small: 2 to 4 GB is plenty for a hub without farms.
• Paper, Purpur or another server that supports Velocity on each of them. Fabric servers can join a network too with a forwarding mod.
• The same Minecraft version on all of them makes life easiest.

Servers that cannot join are listed under Not counted on the card, each with the reason. Not sure what your server runs? Paper, Purpur or Spigot shows how to check and how to switch.

Size each server like a normal server for the players it holds at the same moment, using how much RAM a Minecraft server needs. Players are only ever on one server at a time, so a network of four servers does not need four times the memory of one.

1. Open the server that should be the lobby and go to Settings, then Server network.
2. Pick the other servers that should be part of the network.
3. Click Build the network. The panel creates the Velocity proxy, installs its settings, connects your servers to it and restarts them.
4. When it is done, the panel shows the address players use. Your server addresses now lead into the network.

Behind a proxy, the servers only accept players that come through the proxy. That is on purpose: nobody can skip the lobby or pretend to be someone else by connecting to a server directly.

Leave these settings as they are while the network runs. The field Address players will use on the card is the front door of the network, such as yournetwork: it is added next to your current addresses, not instead of them.

The proxy runs on a container we look after, so it does not appear among your servers and does not use their memory. Its files are not in your Files tab, which is why the panel writes them for you.

Once your servers sit in a network, the server list shows the message of the network instead of the MOTD of each server. You set it on the network card.

1. Open Settings on any server of the network and find the network card.
2. Type one or two lines in Server list message (MOTD). &6 gives gold, &b aqua and &l bold, and MiniMessage tags such as <gold> work as well.
3. Click Save message. The proxy reloads its settings without kicking anyone.
4. Refresh the server list in Minecraft to see it. Leave both lines empty to go back to the default message.

Ideas for the two lines, colour codes and the server icon are in the server icon and MOTD guide.

Changed your mind, or want to add a server? Click Take the network apart on the network card. Every server gets its own address back, together with the account check it had before the network, and only the proxy is removed. Worlds, plugins and all addresses stay.

To add or remove a server, take the network apart and build it again with the new choice ticked.

Out of the box, players switch with a command: /server survival sends them to the server called survival, and /server alone lists all servers. Most networks add something friendlier in the lobby:

• An NPC or a sign that players click, from a plugin such as a server selector or a portal plugin.
• A compass in the hotbar that opens a menu with the servers.

In these commands a server is called by its name in lower case, without spaces or symbols: a server named Survival World becomes survivalworld.

Being op on a server gives no rights on the proxy, because Velocity has no op list of its own. Commands of a server itself, such as /tp, /msg or /home, only reach players on that same server.

• Came in through the network address: when the server they are on stops or crashes, the proxy moves them to the next server of the network, normally the lobby, with a short message in chat.
• Came in through the own address of that server: they are disconnected, because that address only leads to that one server. They join again once it is back.
• The rest of the network keeps running, so players on other servers notice nothing.

Tell your players to save the network address. Then a restart of survival sends them to the lobby for a minute instead of to the title screen.

Plugins now live in two places. Most stay on the individual servers: claims on survival, WorldEdit on creative. A few belong on the proxy, because they need to see the whole network: a network chat, a global ban list, or a server selector.

Permissions deserve thought. LuckPerms runs on Velocity and on each server; connect them to one shared database from the Databases tab and a rank given once applies everywhere.

• Chat stays on the server a player is on. For one chat across the network, pick a plugin that runs on every server and passes messages between them. Since Minecraft 1.19.1 chat messages are signed, and a plugin that cancels or rewrites them on the proxy gets players kicked.
• Bans on one server only keep a player off that server. For a ban that covers the whole network, use a ban plugin that keeps its list in one database, installed on every server.
• Inventories, ender chests, money and homes belong to the server where they were made. Sharing them takes a sync plugin with one database.
• The whitelist is per server too: add a player on every server they may enter, as in whitelist and operators.

Plugins for the proxy itself cannot be added from the Plugins tab of a server, because the proxy is not one of your servers. Open a ticket from the support page if you need one there.

A player who cannot reach the network at all is usually not a network problem; work through can't connect to your Minecraft server first.