NPCs and holograms on a Minecraft server: Citizens and DecentHolograms step by step

A spawn with no NPCs and no signs looks like an empty lot: players don't know where to go or what the server even offers. Citizens plus DecentHolograms fixes that for free. Step by step below: an NPC with a skin and a click command, a hologram above it, and a jump into a menu. How to fit all of it into one visual style is covered in our server design guide.

What to install

• Citizens, a build for your server version.
• DecentHolograms for floating text.
• PlaceholderAPI if holograms should show live data: online count, balance, time. The expansion for the online count is /papi ecloud download Server, then /papi reload.

After installing, do a full restart, not /reload.

An NPC in Citizens, step by step

1. Stand where the NPC should be and face the right way. /npc create &eTrader spawns it at your position. Color codes in the name work.
2. The new NPC is selected automatically. To select another, look at it and type /npc select, or use /npc select id. IDs are listed in /npc list.
3. Skin from a premium account name: /npc skin Notch.
4. To make the NPC turn its head toward players: /npc lookclose.
5. Command on click: /npc command add -p warp shop. The -p flag means "run as the player". Without it the command runs from the console, and the player name goes in as <p>: /npc command add give <p> bread 1.
6. Move the NPC to you: /npc tphere. Rename it: /npc rename new_name.
7. Delete the selected NPC: /npc remove.

There are two ways to open a DeluxeMenus menu on click: as the player with the menu's open command, /npc command add -p menu, or from the console, /npc command add dm open shop_menu <p>. Building the menu itself is covered in our DeluxeMenus guide.

All NPCs live in one file, plugins/Citizens/saves.yml.

Don't edit saves.yml while the server is running. On shutdown Citizens writes its own copy over yours and your edit is gone. Stop first, edit, then start.

Holograms in DecentHolograms

1. Stand where the text should float. /dh create spawn_info &6Welcome creates a hologram with its first line.
2. Add a line to page one: /dh line add spawn_info 1 &7Online: &f%server_online%.
3. Replace line two: /dh line set spawn_info 1 2 &aNew text.
4. A line that shows an item instead of text: use #ICON: DIAMOND as the line content.
5. Move the hologram to you: /dh movehere spawn_info.
6. List and delete: /dh list, /dh delete spawn_info.

Each hologram is its own file in plugins/DecentHolograms/holograms/, with all lines, the display range and the update interval. After editing files by hand, run /dh reload.

DecentHolograms also has pages and click actions per page: a message, a command, a jump to the next page. That's how you build a guide hologram players flip through by clicking. /dh help shows the full syntax.

Text above an NPC: two options

Place the hologram above the NPC's name tag, or the lines will overlap. If you don't need the name above the head, give the NPC a short name and put everything into the hologram.

Common mistakes

• The skin didn't load. Skins come from Mojang by the name of a premium account. If no such account exists, you get the default skin.
• Clicking does nothing. The command was added as console but needs a player, like warp shop. Add -p or pass the name with <p>.
• "No permission" for the player. With -p the command runs with the player's own permissions. Grant the permission to the players' group instead of running the command as an operator.
• The hologram is left floating. You moved the NPC, but the DecentHolograms hologram stayed where it was. Move both.
• A placeholder shows as text. PlaceholderAPI or the expansion is missing.
• Lag around spawn. Dozens of holograms with placeholders refreshing too often. Raise the update interval where data rarely changes.
• Editing saves.yml on a live server, as above.

The faster way

In Cloud Panel a character lives in one card: a skin from a player name or a picture, a colored name, a hologram and a menu on click. The left side shows how players will see it in game. No IDs, flags or command order to remember.

Holograms are edited in a builder: lines, colors, a command on click. The panel knows the Citizens and DecentHolograms config keys and shows them as forms. Every edit is logged, and a rollback restores the file byte for byte. You can try the hologram builder without installing anything: it runs in the browser on the panel page, and you take the finished DecentHolograms config for free.

It helps to sketch hologram lines first in the free hologram generator: you see how the text will look in game and get a DecentHolograms config right away.

Checklist

1. Citizens, DecentHolograms and PlaceholderAPI are installed, the console is clean after start.
2. Every NPC has a clear name and one click action.
3. Commands that need a player are added with -p or <p>.
4. Permissions for those commands are granted to the players' group.
5. Holograms sit above name tags without overlapping them.
6. Placeholders show data, not text with percent signs.
7. Tested by a regular player, not an operator.
8. saves.yml and the holograms folder are backed up.

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