Match Start¶

Quick Start: Run your first match.

How matches begin on their own: autostart, the pre-start window, headstarts, and start reminders.

Autostart¶

JManhunt begins a match on its own once enough players queue up, instead of waiting for /manhunt start:

settings:
  match:
    start:
      autostart:
        enabled: true
        timing:
          countdown-seconds: 30
          countdown-style: VERSUS
        minimums:
          hunter: 1
          speedrunner: 1
        maximums:
          hunter: -1
          speedrunner: -1
        broadcast-requirements:
          enabled: false
          interval-seconds: 60

Triggers once each role reaches its minimums (hard minimum 1 per role). Each lobby runs its own countdown and starts its own match; see Concurrent Matches.
Minimums and maximums (-1 disables a role) only gate autostart: manual /manhunt start keeps its own one-hunter-one-speedrunner check.
While a lobby sits below its minimums, broadcast-requirements tells queued players what is still missing every interval-seconds. When a role sits above its maximum, the nag names the excess instead. The timer restarts whenever someone new joins the teams.

Countdown¶

countdown-seconds (default 30) is the wait before JManhunt runs /manhunt start on its own. Set to 0 to start immediately with no countdown.
countdown-style (default VERSUS) picks the announcement style. SIMPLE uses the plain autostart messages, while VERSUS shows the runner-vs-hunter lineup instead (3v5 starts in 30s.). Both are customizable in the active lang file.

Start on Speedrunner Damage¶

The match opens with a pre-start window that lasts until a speedrunner hits a hunter, giving speedrunners a moment to get their bearings before hunters are let loose.

settings:
  match:
    start:
      start-on-speedrunner-damage:
        enabled: true
        delay-seconds: 45
        on-expire: FORCE_START
        start-in-adventure-mode: true
        reminder-interval: 30.0

Players in the pre-start window are invulnerable and deal no damage. The speedrunners' first hit on a hunter opens the match: it deals no damage itself, but its knockback registers. Hunter hits are cancelled outright.
Item use is locked down too: participants cannot throw, shoot, fish, or interact with blocks and entities, while eating and drinking stay allowed. Spectators and jmanhunt.admin holders are exempt.
Match clocks ignore the pre-start window and start when the game begins.
If a leave empties a side before the game begins, the match cancels. Disconnecting during pre-start removes you at once, with no grace period.
The final 3, 2, 1 of the wait show as titles; a hit starting the match mid-sequence cancels them at once.

Pre-Start Timeout¶

delay-seconds is how long JManhunt waits for that first hit before falling back to on-expire. Values below 5 clamp up to 5; set to -1 to wait indefinitely.

On Expire¶

CANCEL: abort the match without recording stats.
FORCE_START: start the match anyway, with the normal game-start announcement after the force-start line.

Adventure Mode Lock¶

start-in-adventure-mode puts every participant in adventure mode during the pre-start window so nobody breaks blocks while waiting. Everyone returns to survival the instant the game begins.

Headstarts¶

Either side can start ahead: a headstart configured for one side holds the other side in limbo while the configured side plays. Each side is configured independently.

settings:
  match:
    headstart:
      speedrunner:
        enabled: true
        delay-seconds: 25
      hunter:
        enabled: false
        delay-seconds: 25

Speedrunners start ahead out of the box (25 seconds, hunters held); the hunter side is disabled. delay-seconds accepts 0 and up; 0 releases the held side immediately.
If Start on Speedrunner Damage is also enabled, countdowns do not begin until that first hit lands.
Each held player's location is recorded when their countdown begins: held players may fly around inside their restriction sphere, then teleport back to their recorded spawnpoint when the delay expires.
Every countdown announces its full delay at once, skips ladder marks within 2 seconds of that opener, then runs the shared ladder (10h40m down to the final 3, 2, 1) with formatted times like 5m or 1h 2m.
Players who join mid-match while their side is held are held too.

Headstart Restrictions¶

Extra rules for held players. The master switch defaults on; when it is on, each sub-category applies per its own flag:

settings:
  match:
    headstart:
      restrictions:
        enabled: true
        traversal:
          enabled: true
          max-distance: 7.0
        effects:
          enabled: true
          effect: blindness
          amplifier: 0
        sphere:
          enabled: true
          style:
            type: DUST
            color: "#de7766"
            point-spacing: 0.75
          wave:
            pulse-mode: INTERVAL
            interval: 0.5
            wave-direction-angle: 0.0
            wave-length: 15.0
            wave-speed: 2.0

The sphere covers starters, late joiners, and respawners alike. Players who join while their side is held take the same hold as the starters. Players waiting out a respawn delay wait inside their own sphere centered on their validated respawn location.
traversal pins each held player inside a max-distance sphere around the hold anchor. Escape attempts rubberband back to the sphere surface with a No spying! warning and the angry sound, throttled to one warning per 2 seconds per player. Values at or below 0 disable the clamp; a new radius applies on the next check without a restart. Spectator gamemode ignores the clamp, and preparing matches passthrough untouched so the start film never rubberbands.
effects applies one potion effect for the whole hold (infinite duration, cleared at release, cancel, or teardown). Unknown ids warn and skip; the amplifier minimum is 0. Effect changes apply on the next hold, never mid-hold.
sphere draws the clamp as a wave sphere around each anchor, styled like the pseudoborder walls. At match start every held player shares one sphere centered on a random starter's spawn; respawn holds keep their own center. Each sphere shows to its held player only, so waiting positions never leak. Turning sphere.enabled off hides the visuals while the clamp keeps working.
Existing installs keep their current values when upgrading: only new installs start from the defaults above, and only missing keys are added. Radius and visual changes apply live; effect changes apply on the next hold.

Start Reminders¶

How often players are reminded while waiting for the first speedrunner hit:

settings:
  match:
    start:
      start-on-speedrunner-damage:
        reminder-interval: 30.0      # in seconds

Finite pre-start timeouts announce the full delay at once, then the shared countdown ladder (whatever marks fall inside the delay).
The value above is only the repeat interval when the pre-start window waits indefinitely (delay-seconds: -1). Set it to -1 to disable reminders while still waiting.

Start Broadcasts¶

When the match begins, members read the full status body, whose last section is the Mods roll call: one bullet line per active modifier, then an and n more by ... tail once the list passes the cap. Role announces ("You are a ...") always follow the status.
When show-on-start hides the status, the roll call still goes out once as a standalone broadcast, so matches never start mod-silent or mod-doubled.

settings:
  server:
    mod-broadcasts:
      enabled: true                  # announce active mods at match start
      max: 5                         # lines before the overflow tail
      show-authors: true             # name the authors after each mod

Set enabled: false to start matches quietly. The tail names the hidden authors (most mods first). Set show-authors: false to drop the authors everywhere: lines show the mod or preset name only, and the tail shortens to and n more.
Presets collapse the list: a preset whose members are all active prints as one line instead of its members, nested presets collapse into their outermost preset, and mods outside every preset still print on their own after the preset lines.
Hovering a line shows more: the whole line (bullet included) hovers, tinted the mod's or preset's color. A mod line previews its description, and a preset line lists its included mods in selection order (truncated past eight with an and n more tail).