Courier
Courier
A player to player mail system for Bukkit Minecraft servers
by defxor
Allows creation of text note items and sending of letters to players no matter if they're online or offline. The letters are delivered by postmen at intervals specified in the config file, and letters can be stored and handled as any other item for later reading. We wanted something that not only allowed us to pass notes to each other, but also felt like it was part of the regular Minecraft environment.
We believe we succeeded.
- - -=< Latest version >=-=< Videos >=-=< Tickets >=-=< Forum >=-=< Source >=- - -
Usage
- /letter [text]
- Creates a Courier Letter with the supplied text. Hold the Letter in your hands and write /letter [text] again to add more text to the Letter. Use &nl or \n to insert newlines. Multiple page Letters are supported, use right-click and left-click to turn the page.
- /post [playername]
- Sends the Letter held in your hands to another player, name verified to be a player on the server. Depending on the config, the received Letter will be privacy-locked to that player (can be unlocked by simply adding text to it with /letter).
- /courier fees
- Lists the fees, if any, that apply for sending mail or creating letters
- /courier unread
- Requests re-delivery of all unread mail, even if they have been delivered to you before. Courier knows the difference between a mail having been delivered and actually read, and this is meant to be used in the cases where you've managed to misplace the Letter without having read it first.
- /postman
- Intended for OPs only, if postman delivery happens seldom and you want to force one to appear. NOT NEEDED in actual gameplay.
To receive messages, simply poke the friendly postman when he appears or right-click him to receive the message directly into your hands or inventory.
The strings "%loc" and "%pos" will be replaced with the current X,Y,Z position in any Letters written, if surrounded by spaces.
Permissions
Quick version: Give your players courier.write, courier.send and courier.list
Long version:
- courier.write
- Allows players to create Letters (default: op)
- courier.send
- Allows players to send Letters to other players (default: op)
- courier.list
- Allow players to see name suggestions if there's more than one match when sending (default: op)
- courier.info
- Allows seeing command help, fee structure and requesting of re-delivery (default: true)
- courier.theonepercent
- Allows posting of mail even if you have no credits and Economy support has been activated (default: false)
- courier.privacyoverride
- Allows the player to read privacy locked Letters (default: false)
- courier.useitemframes
- Allows the player to put Letters into ItemFrames (default: true)
(For anything but the defaults a Superperms compatible permissions plugin needs to be installed)
Configuration options
- Privacy.SealedEnvelope
- Whether Letters that have been Posted to another player should only be possible to read by that player. If you want to change this option, please read this forum thread. (default: true)
- UseFees
- Whether Courier should activate and require Economy support through Vault. (default: false)
- Fee.Send
- The postal fee withdrawn from the player if UseFees is set to true (default: 10)
- Fee.BankAccount
- The Bank or Player account fees will be deposited into (default: none)
- UpdateInterval
- The interval between checks towards dev.bukkit.org to see if there's a new version of Courier available. A value of 0 disables. (default: 18000 seconds)
- Route.InitialWait
- How long will Courier wait until sending out the first postman after players have started joining the server (default: 10 seconds)
- Route.NextRoute
- How long between rounds. This is the maximum amount of time a delivery can take between two online players (default: 60 seconds)
- Route.WalkToPlayer
- Currently not functioning due to changes in Minecraft.
If friendly postmen (Villager) should walk up to players or not. Unfriendly mobs (Enderman) ignore this setting and never do. (default: true)
- Postman.Type
- Which Minecraft Creature to use as Postman. Courier will accept all valid Creatures but only 'Enderman' and 'Villager' are supported. (default: 'Enderman'). Note: This setting is case sensitive! 'villager' does not work, 'Villager' does.
- Postman.QuickDespawn
- How quickly will a postman despawn after having taken damage or delivered the mail (default: 3 seconds)
- Postman.Despawn
- For how long will a postman stay around each round waiting for the player to take his mail (default: 20 seconds)
- Postman.SpawnDistance
- What's the maximum line of sight distance a postman will spawn in front of a player (default: 10 blocks)
- Postman.BreakSpawnProtection
- Whether Courier should try to override mobspawn protection in order to spawn its Postman (default: true)
- Postman.VanishDistance
- The distance a Postman will check to see if a vanished player would be betrayed by appearing within (default: 20 blocks square)
- Postman.CreativeDelivery
- Whether Postmen should deliver mail to Players who are in Creative mode (default: true)
- Letter.ShowDate
- Whether to display the date a Letter was sent or not (default: true)
- Letter.FreeLetter
- If players should receive free Letters or if they need to have the necessary resources (default: true)
- Letter.Resources
- List of resources needed if FreeLetter is set to false. Example: [CobbleStone, Paper, CobbleStone] (default: [Coal, Paper])
- Letter.RequiresCrafting
- Whether Courier should just deduct the resources or if players need to manually craft letters (default: false)
- Letter.Frameable
- Should it be possible to put Courier Letters into ItemFrames - in effect creating posters/flyers (default: true)
In addition to the above all user visible strings can be edited. Some translated configs are available in the translations folder as well in the plugin data folder. Move and rename them to 'config.yml' to use.
Trivia
As you've understood (and seen if you've looked at the in-game images) I use Maps to render Courier Letters. If you're a plugin developer and your plugin handles maps and you either want to make sure your map system isn't screwed up by Courier Letters, or maybe if you want to handle Courier Letters in a special way, you can easily identify them:
The actual Maps used by Courier to render Letters ALWAYS have their X coordinate set to 2147087904 (or INT_MAX - 395743, if you want).
The ItemStacks(Material.MAP) that point to those Maps are Enchanted with DURABILITY and the enchantment level is used as a database key to find the matching text.
Release history
- 2015-05-14: v1.2.1 uploaded
- 2015-05-09: v1.2.0 uploaded
- 2013-01-16: v1.1.9 uploaded
- 2012-12-30: v1.1.8 uploaded
- 2012-12-20: v1.1.7 uploaded
- 2012-03-04: v1.1.6 uploaded
- 2012-02-25: v1.1.5 uploaded
- 2012-02-13: v1.1.1 uploaded
- 2012-01-31: v1.1.0 uploaded
- 2012-01-15: v1.0.0 uploaded
- 2012-01-02: v0.9.6 uploaded
- 2011-12-30: v0.9.5 uploaded
- 2011-12-27: v0.9.2 uploaded
- 2011-12-26: v0.9.1 uploaded
- 2011-12-23: v0.9.0 uploaded. This page created.
(see the Changelog for detailed information)
Known issues
- Moving Letters between slots in creative mode (/gamemode 1) causes them to become empty later (eg. after logout/login)
- This seems to be a Bukkit issue, please do not handle Courier Letters in creative mode until this is better understood.
- Courier does not support extended character sets, it will skip such input when writing Letters.
- This is due to Bukkit Maps only supporting the 'old' standard Minecraft Font. If support is extended in Bukkit I will implement it into Courier as well.
- ... and all open tickets and issues, of course.
Future development
This plugin is looking for a new maintainer. The original author does not play Minecraft any longer. The update to Minecraft v1.8 could only be made thanks to a pull request having been made at Github. Do not expect any future development until a new maintainer can be found.
@Beaupedia
I'm not actually doing any new development myself - it's purely thanks to others submitting patches at Github. I'm also hoping that Courier will get a new maintainer so that I can leave the release-process to others as well :)
Holy crap, I had just about given up hope and was going to remove it. Thank you so much for not abandoning this.
:-) :-) :-) thank you very much, dexfor! :-) :-) :-)
Courier v1.2.0 - compatible with Minecraft v1.8, has just been released.
regards, defxor
Thanks to wwwiniew I now have a beta build of a v1.8 compatible version of Courier available for testing. Since I have lost my previous build&test environment I've just briefly tested it on a brand new Bukkit setup. Before I can even think of releasing this version to you all I will need someone else to do a proper beta test. Please PM me here and I'll send you a link.
(This version included a previous beta which was never released which renders to a different item frame than the default, and where you can change that graphics yourselves)
regards, defxor
Hi everyone,
Yesterday I was notified of a pull request on Github, making Courier compatible with 1.8. I'm hoping to have time this weekend to merge the request and create a new build.
I still want someone else to take over the plugin. I do not play Minecraft anymore, I don't even have a build system set up ;)
regards, defxor
@sleite
I wish so too! :( Crazy sad that there isn't a 1.8 update; it truly is the best around.
This is the best mail plug-in ever. I've tried finding anything similar, but the rest are overly complex. I also like that it deliver's the letter as a letter, not a book, etc. Great for leaving message for people off-line.
So sad it is not being updated anymore. I wish someone could take it over. I'm a newby programmer, so I doubt I would be able to do it.
@DracoZaroff
I would love it if some other author took over the maintenance and development of Courier. I supported it for almost two years after I had already stopped playing Minecraft myself.
The code is and always has been completely open, well documented etc.
regards, defxor
@nullschritt
The problem with Mailbox is there's no way to just send a plain old text message. With this plugin you can make the letters and if you want use Mailbox to send them.
I wish I could script this to have the postman deliver a message to all new players who join the server. It would be a great way to deliver helpful tips and server rules.
@koatheraiser
Try mailbox. It requires the player to set up his mailbox, but he can receive any item/book/etc to his mail chest.
I really liked this plugin, but sadly, it does not work on craftbukkit 1.8. We can create the letters but not send them. Any alternatives to this one with actual physical letters?
@AlteOgre
The author hasn't played Minecraft for almost 3 years now ;) I've made fixes for slightly longer but I've been hoping that someone else would continue by forking the source (which has always been open).
It's much better if someone who actively follows Minecraft takes care of any updates. I don't even know what's new in v1.8 :/
@VergilPrime
On our Spigot 1.7.10 server it's still working okay, but glitchy at times. Author hasn't been on since september. We may assume the project has been abandoned I guess. :(
Seems to be broken in 1.8+ servers.
./courier unread seems to allow the bypass of the delevery delay so there is no wait time. Would you be able to fix this or make /courier unread a configurable perm so I can not allow people to use it?
@defxor
Um, well, there are the issues I pmed you about, with the letters being hard to read and all.
would it be possible to make it where people can decode messages?
@thequestingbeast
To delete a letter just drop it on the ground - it will disappear when despawning. You can also burn it in a furnace if you want to be extra sure no one is able to pick it up.
There's not support for delays. If mass-spamming is a problem I'd suggest requiring users to either have to hold resources for creating a letter, or even requiring having them crafted.
@MGbeenieboy
Courier is a Bukkit plugin - I don't test on Spigot (it seems to be much more error prone).
@PrimSilver
Does it need to? :) Courier uses regular Bukkit APIs and only seldom needs updating.