HyAnnouncer Plugin Tutorial: Automated Announcements for Your Hytale Server

HyAnnouncer lets you set up automated announcements on your Hytale server. You can display messages in chat, as center-screen titles, or as popup notifications. It also handles welcome messages and custom join/leave broadcasts.

Installation

1. Download HyAnnouncer from CurseForge
2. Drop the JAR file into your server's mods folder
3. Restart the server
4. Configuration files appear in the tins_HyAnnouncer directory

How It Works

The plugin uses rotation mode by default. You set one global interval (say, 60 seconds), and it cycles through your announcements one at a time. No overlapping messages, no complicated timing setup.

There are seven config files:

File	Purpose
config.json	Debug toggle
chat-announcements.json	Chat messages
title-announcements.json	Center-screen titles
notify-announcements.json	Popup notifications
welcome-message.json	Messages for joining players
join-leave-announcements.json	Join/leave broadcasts
scheduled-actions.json	Cron-based or timed triggers

Basic Chat Announcement Setup

Open chat-announcements.json. Here is a working example:

{
  "Enabled": true,
  "Interval": 60,
  "RandomOrder": true,
  "Prefix": "&6[Server] &r",
  "RequirePlayers": false,
  "Announcements": [
    {
      "Id": "welcome",
      "Priority": 0,
      "Enabled": true,
      "Worlds": [],
      "Permission": "",
      "Lines": [
        "&aThere are &e%total_players% &aplayers online."
      ],
      "Link": "",
      "Sound": ""
    },
    {
      "Id": "discord",
      "Priority": 0,
      "Enabled": true,
      "Worlds": [],
      "Permission": "",
      "Lines": [
        "&9Join our Discord for updates!"
      ],
      "Link": "https://discord.gg/yourserver",
      "Sound": ""
    }
  ]
}

The Interval is in seconds. With RandomOrder set to true, announcements display in random order. Set it to false if you want them sequential, in which case higher Priority numbers go first.

Leave Worlds empty to broadcast everywhere, or specify world names like ["spawn", "hub"] to limit where the message appears. The Permission field works the same way for restricting who sees the message.

Title Announcements

Title announcements show text in the center of the screen. The setup is similar to chat announcements, but you get subtitle options:

{
  "Id": "event",
  "Priority": 0,
  "Enabled": true,
  "Worlds": [],
  "Permission": "",
  "Lines": [
    "&a&lDouble XP Weekend!"
  ],
  "Subtitle": "&eEnds Sunday at midnight",
  "ShowSubtitle": true,
  "Animate": false,
  "Sound": "SFX_Rope_Break"
}

If you skip the Subtitle field, the second line in Lines becomes the subtitle automatically.

Welcome Messages

Edit welcome-message.json to greet players when they join:

{
  "Enabled": true,
  "Worlds": [],
  "Permission": "",
  "Target": "CHAT",
  "Link": "https://discord.gg/yourserver",
  "Lines": [
    "&aWelcome &e%player% &ato the server!",
    "&7Type /help to get started."
  ]
}

Target can be CHAT, TITLE, or BOTH. When you set a Link, the entire message becomes clickable.

Custom Join and Leave Messages

The join-leave-announcements.json file lets you replace the default server messages:

{
  "Enabled": true,
  "JoinEnabled": true,
  "LeaveEnabled": true,
  "JoinTarget": "CHAT",
  "LeaveTarget": "CHAT",
  "JoinScope": "SERVER",
  "JoinMessage": [
    "&a+ &7%joiner% joined &8(&e%total_players% online&8)"
  ],
  "LeaveMessage": [
    "&c- &7%leaver% left &8(&e%total_players% online&8)"
  ]
}

JoinScope can be SERVER (everyone sees it) or PLAYER (only the joining player sees it).

Scheduled Actions

For announcements at specific times, use scheduled-actions.json. You can use cron expressions or simple duration strings:

{
  "Enabled": true,
  "UseUtc": false,
  "Actions": [
    {
      "Id": "daily_reminder",
      "Type": "chat",
      "Schedule": "0 12 * * *",
      "Enabled": true,
      "Sound": ""
    },
    {
      "Id": "frequent_tip",
      "Type": "title",
      "Schedule": "5m",
      "Enabled": true,
      "Sound": "SFX_Rope_Break"
    }
  ]
}

The first example runs daily at noon. The second runs every 5 minutes. Duration options: 10s (seconds), 5m (minutes), 1h (hours), 2d (days).

Any announcement ID listed here gets pulled out of normal rotation and only triggers at its scheduled time.

Useful Placeholders

Placeholder	Description
%player%	Recipient's name
%joiner%	Joining player (join messages only)
%leaver%	Leaving player (leave messages only)
%total_players% / %online%	Players online
%world%	Current world name
%server_uptime%	Formatted uptime
%random_int:1:100%	Random number between 1 and 100
%random_choice:Yes|No|Maybe%	Picks one option randomly

Colour Codes

Standard Minecraft colour codes work with the & symbol:

• &a green, &b aqua, &c red, &d pink, &e yellow, &f white
• &0-&9 for darker shades
• &l bold, &o italic, &r reset

For hex colours, use &#FF5500 or {#FF5500} format.

Essential Commands

Command	Description
/ha reload	Apply config changes without restarting
/ha list	See all announcements and their status
/ha test	Send all announcements immediately
/ha broadcast [id]	Manually trigger one announcement
/ha gui	Open the web-based management interface
/ha startsys [chat|title|notify|all]	Start announcement systems
/ha stopsys [chat|title|notify|all]	Stop announcement systems

Quick Tips

Set RequirePlayers to true if you do not want announcements firing on an empty server.

Use the Priority field when RandomOrder is false. Higher numbers display first.

Multi-line messages work by adding more entries to the Lines array. Each entry becomes a separate line.

The Sound field defaults to SFX_Rope_Break for titles and notifications. Set it to an empty string to disable sounds, or check the plugin's sound list for alternatives.

After any config edit, run /ha reload. No server restart needed.