Getting Started

Before continuing, ensure that you are in our Discord server and that you have read and understood the rules, which apply to both the Discord server and Minecraft server.

To join our server, you must first install the official modpack which can be found on our repo. It is recommended to use either Prism Launcher (tutorial) or the Modrinth desktop app (tutorial). Once installed, Billabong SMP can be found in the included server list.

First join

Welcome to Billabong SMP! On your first join, you will find yourself at world spawn inside a large building. You are not able to place blocks, destroy blocks or interact with most blocks inside the building and within its vicinity due to claim protection (claims will be covered a little later in this guide).

It's a good idea to go through your keybinds and reconfigure them to your preferences. Ensure you have set and remember the keybinds for the "Voice Chat Menu" (which you can access settings from, so you can clear the "Voice Chat Settings" keybind), "Mute", "Disable Voice Chat" (deafen) and "Open Map".

Open the voice chat menu through the keybind you just configured, head to settings, and ensure you have the correct speaker and microphone configured, that you are not deafened, and that you have selected voice activity or push-to-talk depending on your preference. For more information on voice chat, see the page on Simple Voice Chat.

Note that the server chat in Minecraft is linked with the #mc-chat channel in the Discord server. This means messages in Discord will be visible in Minecraft, and messages sent from within Minecraft will be shown in the Discord channel.

You can leave this building in any direction and you should walk for some distance until you find an area and biome you like that is suitable to setup your base at. Try not to go near others' bases since it may limit the area you have to work with if you need more space later on. Don't spend too long on this though, you can always go somewhere else later, and be careful of travel at night since you are unprotected.

Claiming your base

This server uses the Open Parties and Claims mod, which allows "claiming" areas of land for yourself. Inside your claim, only you and players you have explicitly allowed will be able to do anything inside your claim, including but not limited to placing, destroying, and interacting with blocks within the claim. Claims are chunk-based, which means that claims cover from bedrock to the sky limit. There is a limit to the amount of chunks each player can claim.

When you enter a claim, a small toast will appear above your hotbar announcing the claim you have entered, such as "Server Claim". The current claim is also shown below the minimap. Claims can be viewed on the minimap, and you can see nearby claims by looking at the world map.

You will notice that areas such as the Spawn Building are under a "Server Claim". This is put in place by server administrators for communal structures such as the Spawn Building.

Right click and drag to select an area on the map, then a context menu will appear.

Once you have found an area you like, you will want to claim the area. Open the world map, then right click and drag simultaneously to select an area. A context menu will appear, with one of the options being "Claim Selected". You will notice the area now become shaded, which means that it has now been claimed. Note that you can only claim chunks that you currently have loaded in, so you cannot claim chunks that are too far away from your current position.

To give another player access to your claim, use the command /openpac-party members invite <player>, which will add the player to your party permanently. This will allow them to do anything inside your claim, even if you are not in the server, so be careful who you give access. Party members can also see each other's locations, with player heads appearing on the map and as markers in the world.

You can remove a player from your party with the command /openpac-party members kick <player>.

For more information on the claims system, see the page on Open Parties and Claims.

Setting up roots

Now you should work on the standard Minecraft setup tasks, like acquiring a crafting table, furnace, bed, tools, armor, and a food source. It's a good idea to gather up a decent amount of resources as many recipes, especially ones introduced by mods like Create, will quickly consume them.

Mods

This section will briefly describe some of the prominent mods you will encounter as you play. For more information on any of these mods, see the pages linked.

Corpses

The Corpse mod causes your corpse to spawn whenever you die rather than dropping all your items. Only you can access your own corpses, and you will be able to recover your items from them. In this server, corpses do not despawn until the player empties the corpse's inventory.

Falling Trees

The FallingTree mod causes the whole tree to be cut down in one go when you use an axe, rather than having to break each block of wood one-by-one.

Faster transport

After some progression, it would be a great idea to setup a waystone at your base. This allows you to teleport to and from your base and any other waystones, such as the waystone located in the Spawn Building or waystones other players have placed. You can only go to waystones that you have activated yourself (which can be done by right-clicking a waystone) or ones that have been enabled globally by server administrators. This means that you will need to travel on foot first to a destination before you are able to utilize waystone teleportation.

Next steps

The great thing about Billabong SMP is that you can do absolutely anything! Here are some ideas:

• You can acquire a backpack for increased inventory space.
• You can create larger chests with the Iron Chests mod.
• You can create faster furnaces with the Iron Furnaces mod.
• You can develop machines with the Create mod.
• You can build to your heart's desire with the many custom block mods available.
• You can acquire new armor and weapons with the Armor of the Ages and Simply Swords mods.

Feel free to ask for help! Other players and the server staff team will be happy to assist.