A network of servers

Some parks are several Minecraft servers behind a proxy: a hub where everyone arrives, and a park per server — Disneyland Paris on one, Tokyo DisneySea on another. Ultimate Theme Park runs such a network on one UTP Connect: one address for your guests, one administration, one media library, one leaderboard. A guest walking through a portal keeps their page, and it tells them where they are going.

This guide is for networks behind Velocity. A park on a single server needs none of it.

What you need#

• A license, with a server added for each server past the first. Your license covers one server; each server you add has a key of its own and shares the license's updates, so your whole network always updates together. Add them when you buy — pick how many servers your network has above the payment form — or later, from your account: Add servers, €29.50 each.
• One UTP Connect, installed once, as in Install UTP Connect.
• Velocity 3.5 or later, with modern forwarding (below), and our free proxy plugin on it.

1. A key on each server#

In your account, your license shows its servers: its own, and every server you added, each with its key. Name each one — "Hub", "Disneyland Paris" — right there: your UTP Connect shows your servers by these names.

Install the plugin on every server that has rides or music, as in Install the plugin. Then, in each server's plugins/UltimateThemePark/config.yml:

• license-key: that server's own key — never the same key on two servers;
• url and secret: the same on every server, those of your one UTP Connect.

A server that only greets — a hub with no rides and no music — needs no key at all: the proxy plugin answers /connect there.

2. The proxy plugin#

Download UltimateThemePark Proxy (it is free, and also in your downloads), put it in Velocity's plugins/ folder, and start Velocity once. It writes plugins/ultimatethemepark-proxy/config.toml; fill in the same url and secret as your servers', then restart Velocity:

[connect]
url = "https://connect.your-park.com"
secret = "the-link-secret"

Velocity's console says Linked to UTP Connect. Without the proxy plugin, your guests' pages still work, but walking through a portal looks like leaving: the page counts down for the few seconds the crossing takes. Your administration reminds you as long as it is missing.

3. Velocity's forwarding#

In velocity.toml, set player-info-forwarding-mode = "modern", and give each Paper server Velocity's forwarding secret (config/paper-global.yml, under proxies.velocity). Without it, your servers see your players under made-up identities: their laps would count for strangers, and their skins would not show on the photos.

Keep bungee-plugin-message-channel = true, as Velocity has it: each server asks the proxy what it is called through it.

In your administration#

Settings → Servers lists your servers by their names, which are linked right now, what stands on each, and whether the proxy plugin is linked. The menu keeps it in sight: 3 of 4 servers linked.

Once you have two servers:

• a ride and a sequence have a Server field — the server whose world it stands in;
• Regions shows one server's WorldGuard zones at a time: pick the server at the top;
• Map offers each server's worlds: every server has a map of its own world.

Everything else is the network's: your settings, your media library, your guests, the leaderboards, your API keys and webhooks.

When you first update to this version, your existing park is given to the first server that links — update the server that has it first. If it lands on the wrong one, Settings → Servers → Give to… moves everything to another server.

What your guests see#

A guest types /connect on any server — the hub included — and their page lasts for their whole visit to your network:

• Walking through a portal, the page says On the way to Disneyland Paris… and picks up as they arrive, with the music of where they stand.
• Leaving the network, it counts down thirty seconds, as on a single server.
• A server restarting closes the pages of the players on it, and only theirs.

The map shows every park's map; a guest teleports only within the park they are in — another park is reached through its portal.

Updating a network#

Update every server together: replace the jar on each, then restart them. UTP Connect follows the first server updated, and the servers still on the old version wait — their console says why — until you update them too. Your servers share your license's updates, so all of them can.

The proxy plugin rarely changes: it only needs updating when its own page says so.