SpyDeathMessages

An advanced, fully customisable death messages plugin for Minecraft servers running Spigot / Paper 1.21+.

Replaces the vanilla death message with your own styled chat lines, action bar messages, titles, and subtitles — with full hex colour and Minecraft colour code support.

Features

• Two death message types: killed by player and died (any other cause)
• Four independent delivery channels per message: chat, action bar, title, subtitle
• Every channel can be turned on or off individually in the config
• Multiple messages per type — one is chosen at random each time
• Full hex colour support (#ff1313) alongside legacy & colour codes (&c)
• Per-player toggle — each player decides whether they want to see death messages
• Player preference persists across server restarts
• Three broadcast modes: global, world-only, or radius
• Configurable title animation timings
• Option to cancel the vanilla death message
• Tab-complete on all commands

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Installation

1. Download SpyDeathMessages.jar
2. Place it in your server's plugins/ folder
3. Start or restart the server
4. The plugin will generate plugins/SpyDeathMessages/config.yml automatically
5. Edit the config to your liking, then run /dm reload

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Commands

Command	Who can use it	What it does
/dm toggle	Every player	Turns death messages on or off for yourself only
/dm reload	Admins (op)	Reloads config.yml without restarting the server
/dm help	Everyone	Shows the help list in chat

Alias: /deathmessages works the same as /dm

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Permissions

Permission	Default	Description
spydm.admin	OP	Grants access to all admin commands (includes spydm.reload)
spydm.reload	OP	Allows reloading the config with /dm reload

/dm toggle requires no permission — it is available to every player by default.

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Per-Player Toggle

Any player can run /dm toggle to hide death messages from their own screen.

• Default state: messages are visible (opted in)
• After running /dm toggle: messages are hidden (opted out)
• Running /dm toggle again: messages become visible again (opted back in)
• The choice is saved to disk (opted_out.txt inside the plugin folder) so it survives server restarts

The player who died always appears in the message for others — the toggle only controls whether you see messages on your screen.

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Configuration (config.yml)

Settings

settings:
  # Prefix shown in plugin feedback messages
  prefix: "#a8a8a8[#00a4fcDeathMsg#a8a8a8] "

  # Hide the vanilla Minecraft death message?
  cancel_vanilla_message: true

  # Who receives death messages:
  #   global  - all online players
  #   world   - only players in the same world
  #   radius  - only players within broadcast_radius blocks
  broadcast_mode: global
  broadcast_radius: 100

  # Title animation (in ticks, 20 ticks = 1 second)
  title_fade_in: 10
  title_stay: 60
  title_fade_out: 10

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Message Types

There are two message types in the config:

Key	When it triggers
killed	A player is killed by another player (melee or projectile)
died	A player dies from any other cause (fall, fire, lava, void, mob, etc.)

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Message Structure

Each message type follows this structure:

messages:
  killed:              # or: died
    module:
      chat:
        enabled: true      # show in chat? true/false
        message:
          - "Line one"     # if multiple lines, one is picked at random
          - "Line two"
      actionbar:
        enabled: true      # show in action bar? true/false
        message:
          - "Action bar text"
      title:
        enabled: false     # show as big title? true/false
        message:
          - "Title text"
      subtitle:
        enabled: false     # show as subtitle below title? true/false
        message:
          - "Subtitle text"

Set enabled: false on any channel to completely disable it.
Set enabled: true to activate it.

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Placeholders

Use these inside any message string:

Placeholder	Replaced with
%victim%	Name of the player who died
%attacker%	Name of the player who killed them
%weapon%	Name of the item the killer was holding
%world%	Name of the world the death happened in

%attacker% and %weapon% are only filled for killed messages. They will be empty for died messages.

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Colour Codes

You can use both formats anywhere in messages:

Hex colours:

#ff1313   →  red
#00a4fc   →  blue
#a8a8a8   →  grey
#ffcc00   →  gold

Legacy & codes:

&a  →  green          &c  →  red
&b  →  aqua           &e  →  yellow
&d  →  light purple   &f  →  white
&0–&9  →  colours     &l  →  bold
&o  →  italic         &n  →  underline
&m  →  strikethrough  &k  →  obfuscated
&r  →  reset

Example combining both:

"#a8a8a8» #ff1313☠ #ff1313%victim% #a8a8a8was killed by #00a4fc%attacker%"

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Random Messages

If you provide more than one line in the message list, the plugin picks one at random each time a player dies:

chat:
  enabled: true
  message:
    - "#a8a8a8» #ff1313☠ #ff1313%victim% #a8a8a8was slain by #00a4fc%attacker%"
    - "#a8a8a8» #ff1313☠ #ff1313%victim% #a8a8a8was killed by #00a4fc%attacker%"
    - "#a8a8a8» #ff1313☠ #ff1313%victim% #a8a8a8didn't survive %attacker%"

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Default Config

settings:
  prefix: "#a8a8a8[#00a4fcDeathMsg#a8a8a8] "
  cancel_vanilla_message: true
  broadcast_mode: global
  broadcast_radius: 100
  title_fade_in: 10
  title_stay: 60
  title_fade_out: 10

messages:

  killed:
    module:
      chat:
        enabled: true
        message:
          - "#a8a8a8» #ff1313☠ #ff1313%victim% #a8a8a8was slain by #ff1313🗡 #00a4fc%attacker% #a8a8a8using #ffcc00%weapon%"
          - "#a8a8a8» #ff1313☠ #ff1313%victim% #a8a8a8was killed by #00a4fc%attacker%"
      actionbar:
        enabled: true
        message:
          - "#ff1313☠ %victim% was killed by %attacker%"
      title:
        enabled: false
        message:
          - "#ff1313☠ YOU DIED"
      subtitle:
        enabled: false
        message:
          - "#a8a8a8Killed by #00a4fc%attacker%"

  died:
    module:
      chat:
        enabled: true
        message:
          - "#a8a8a8» #ff1313☠ #ff1313%victim% #a8a8a8has died"
      actionbar:
        enabled: false
        message:
          - "#ff1313☠ %victim% has died"
      title:
        enabled: false
        message:
          - "#ff1313☠ YOU DIED"
      subtitle:
        enabled: false
        message:
          - ""

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Files Created by the Plugin

File	Location	Purpose
config.yml	plugins/SpyDeathMessages/	All message and settings configuration
opted_out.txt	plugins/SpyDeathMessages/	Saves UUIDs of players who turned off death messages

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Building from Source

Requires Java 8+ and Maven.

mvn package

Output: target/SpyDeathMessages.jar

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Compatibility

Item	Version
Minecraft	1.21+
Server software	Spigot, Paper
Java	8 or higher

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Author

Made by YourSenior