Frequently Asked Questions

This page contains frequently asked questions regarding the Citizens project. You should always check here before submitting an issue, asking on Discord, or posting on the forum thread. Your queries could very well have already been answered here.

Why isn't Citizens working on my server?

Citizens is an advanced plugin and requires a current build of Spigot to work.

If you are getting NoClassDefFound, ClassNotFoundException, or FieldNotFound errors, ensure that you have the correct sub-version of Spigot. (That is the latest version, within a minecraft version, like 1.15.2 instead of 1.15 or 1.15.1). And that you have a relatively recent primary version of Spigot/Minecraft (that is, a version that came out within the past few years).

Otherwise, ask on Discord here, or submit an issue here.

Can I change what skin an NPC has, separately from its name?

Yes, via /npc skin. For a detailed explanation, see the Skins page.

Why can't my users hear my NPCs?

Make sure you give them the proper permissions. Users will need citizens.npc.talk to hear NPCs by clicking or talk-close. See Permissions.

I can't right-click to select an NPC

By default you must be holding a stick to right-click-select a NPC. The item can be changed in the Configuration. Use '*' to not require any item.

How do I make an NPC run a command when a player clicks it?

Via /npc command Refer to NPC_Commands for details.

NPC names are capped at only 16 characters! Or, '/npc name' won't work!

One of the most common plugin conflicts with Citizens is caused by scoreboard plugins.

This can cause problems such as: NPC names being capped at 16 characters (rather than the normal 48), /npc name not toggling nameplate visibility properly, or other scoreboard-related functionality failing.

This can by caused by any form of scoreboard-related plugin, such as those that add a sidebar (like Featherboard does), edit player nametags, add custom below_name lines, or similar.

This is not an unavoidable problem, it's instead caused by a mistake many scoreboard plugins make. If interested, you can read the technical details of this mistake at Plugin_Conflict.

The fix for users, however, is simple: Either report the issue to the developer of your scoreboard plugin, or switch to a non-broken scoreboard plugin (if you want a sidebar, consider the Magic Sidebar script).

There's a "0 health" line below my NPC's names

This is a "below_name" scoreboard. It was not created by Citizens. It was most likely created by another plugin (such as "TAB"). Contact that plugin's support for details on how to avoid this problem. These scoreboards are also sometimes created by staff using vanilla /scoreboard commands. If so, simply remove the below_name scoreboard using that command.

Historical

How do I upgrade from old versions to Citizens 2.0?

See the Installation page.

How do I get more NPC types?

NPC types are now called "traits". These are no longer built-in JARs that you place in the /plugins/Citizens/types directory. You must download each individual character and place it in the /plugins folder.

You can find out more about traits on the Characters page, or learn how to make your own on the API page.

See Also

Configuration
Commands
Permissions