A guide to plot protections

Most people realize that buying a plot protects it from other players. But what exactly is protected and from whom? Its not as simple as it seems. There were quite a few changes to protections in the recent update, so everyone should read this.

Let's first look at the different types of plots, access levels, and protections.

Types of plots Unowned: Completely unprotected. Anyone can place or remove blocks, interact with anything, open chests, kill animals, etc. Explosions are enabled so creepers and other explosives will cause damage.

Server: Areas like spawn, the end grinder, the Netherrail, etc. They display "Welcome to Serenity" when you walk into them. Only mods and admins can add members or use plot commands on server plots. Server plots have a lighter set of restrictions for non-members than owned plots. You must be a member of a server plot to place or remove blocks.

Owned: A plot owned by a player. The owner will be displayed when you walk into the plot. These plots have the highest level of protection.

Types of access Owner: Owners have full access to the plot. Only the owner can issue plot commands to add members, change permissions, or sell the plot.

Member: A member is someone you've added to the plot with /plot member. They have full access to the plot, just like the owner, but can't issue plot commands.

Clan member: If a player is not a member of your plot, but is a clanmate, they get a limited set of access rights if plot clan permissions are enabled. Clan permissions are enabled by default when you purchase the plot, but can be turned off on each plot by using /plot clan. If disabled, clan members will have the same access rights as non-members.

If enabled, clan members can place and remove most blocks. They can't remove blocks they aren't allowed to interact with, like chests. It would be pointless to prevent them from opening a chest if they could just break it and take the items. They can interact with and kill some protected entities (see list below). They can place regular minecarts only.

Non-member: Non-members have the least access to your plot. They can't place or remove blocks. They can't kill any protected entities. They can't place or remove minecarts. They CAN access wooden buttons, but CANNOT access stone buttons or stone pressure plates. This allows you to give access to certain buttons for guests, but restrict others to members and clanmates. Wooden, iron and gold pressure plates are unprotected. Protecting them from players would be pointless anyway, because they can be triggered by dropping items on them.

Types of protections
Block: Prevents a player from placing and removing blocks.

Block Interaction: Prevents a player from performing right click interactions on blocks. This includes opening chests and doors, changing note blocks, flipping repeaters and comparators, using bonemeal to grow things, planting flowers in pots, etc.

Entity Interaction: Prevents a player from performing right click interactions on entities. This includes trading with villagers, breeding animals, renaming creatures, shearing sheep or mooshrooms, dyeing sheep, etc. Milking cows and getting stew from mooshrooms is always allowed, because it can be done infinitely for no cost.

Entity Damage: Prevents a player from damaging entities in any way. This includes swords, arrows, potions, etc. Minecraft also counts several non-living things as entities, such as item frames, painting, hanging leads, etc.

Vehicle: Technically vehicles are any entity that you can ride, but what we're talking about here are minecarts. Boats are not protected and can be used, placed, or broken by anyone, anywhere.

So how do all of these things relate? The following lists show protected blocks and entities, and who is allowed to access them. There is an exception for tamable animals (horses, ocelots, and wolves). If you tamed it, you are allowed to interact with it in any way on ANY plot. This prevents you from losing control of your horse if it wanders into someone else's plot. Again, this exception only applies if YOU tamed the animal.

Non-member: Accessible to anyone

Clan: Accessible to clan members

Server: Accessible to anyone on server plots

Members: Accessible to plot members only

Vehicle (interact)
One of the recent changes was not allowing non-members of an owned plot to place or remove regular minecarts. I added an exception to allow this in the Nether, to avoid problems if someone buys a plot on the Netherrail to make a stop for their portal.

Why do this? It may seem like this is preventing players from making rails on their plots for others to use, but it's actually helping them! Dispensers can now place minecarts on tracks, and you can use a cactus with hoppers to create a cart collection area at the end of the line. The cactus breaks the cart and the hopper grabs it before the player can pick it up. You can pipe these carts back to the dispenser to use again. This allows you to supply minecarts for your rail with no danger of a player stealing them!