NPC controls and editor

Open the editor and save

Hold an Arda NPC Wand and right-click an NPC. This requires OP level 2. You can also find the character through /ardanpcs manager and open its editor there. Confirm ordinary tab changes with Save. Separate panels, including appearance, scripts and shops, have their own save actions; check the confirmation in each panel.

If the server adjusts or rejects a value, the editor may keep your draft open. Read the result and correct the affected field. Switching tabs or closing a screen is not a substitute for saving.

Name, title and behavior

General contains a name of up to 64 characters and an optional title of up to 128 characters. Name and title have separate color and bold controls. Names are for players; commands and references use the NPC's UUID.

AI separately controls attacks on players, mobs and hostile mobs, line of sight, swimming, avoiding water, returning home and door interaction. Creative and spectator players are not a suitable test for ordinary aggressive targeting; also check behavior in survival.

Equipment and loot

1. Go to Inventory and open the NPC inventory.
2. Place items in the main hand, off hand, helmet, chest, legs and boots slots. Separate loot slots define additional death drops.
3. Set drop chances from 0 to 100% and the experience range awarded on death.
4. Use Save metadata for drop chances and XP. NPC inventory items are saved when its inventory screen closes.

A held weapon does not configure the entire combat system. Adjust damage, ranges, attack timing and ranged behavior in Stats. The inventory may be locked while another administrator is editing it, preventing overlapping changes.

Combat and respawn

Stats contains health, damage, speed and aggression range. Its Edit buttons open melee, ranged attacks, projectile, resistance and respawn settings. Additional options control regeneration while idle or fighting and responses to fire, falls, potions, drowning, sunlight and cobwebs.

To bring an NPC back after death, open Stats → Respawn, enable respawning, set the delay in seconds and choose whether the dead body remains visible until respawn. Then save. Use this panel for the active respawn system; the older numeric command set stat … respawn changes a different legacy field and does not enable this system by itself.

Movement, guarding and patrols

AI movement speed is a separate setting ranging from 0.2 to 2.0. Start with 1.0 and check that the terrain is navigable.

1. Get two Path Node blocks:

/give @s arda_npcs:path_node 2

2. Place them in creative mode at reachable positions in the NPC's dimension.
3. Right-click each node. Give both the same route ID, such as gate, and set their orders to 1 and 2. Optionally set waiting time in seconds, then save each node.
4. Open AI in the NPC editor, select Patrol and enter gate as the patrol route ID.
5. Choose Loop to return from the last point to the first, or Back and forth to reverse direction at the ends. Save the NPC.
6. Clear obstacles between the points and observe a full traversal. Combat interrupts the patrol; it can resume after the target is cleared.

An invalid route or one with too few points is changed to Standing when saved, and the server displays a warning. Ordinary patrol uses point order and waiting times; it is distinct from an escort quest.

Factions

In Factions, choose the NPC's membership and set whether it helps allies and attacks hostiles. Manage factions opens global definitions: IDs, names, relationships and reputation thresholds. Save the faction definition first, then the NPC's membership. Faction relationships, an individual player's reputation and ordinary aggressive mode are different settings; test their combined effect. For a town guard, start with one faction, Neutral mode and clearly defined enemies.

Manager and templates

/ardanpcs manager provides NPC details, copying IDs, opening the editor, teleporting to NPCs, summoning them and restoring NPCs. Use restoration when a character is genuinely missing. /ardanpcs reload deliberately does not create copies merely because an NPC's chunk is unloaded.

A safe template is a reusable base containing appearance, stats, AI and other persistent configuration. Dialogs and quests are omitted. A spawned instance receives a new UUID and home; player progress and live runtime state are not copied. A saved template is therefore not a complete backup of a story character.

/ardanpcs template save <npcUuid> City Guard
/ardanpcs template list
/ardanpcs template spawn <templateUuid>

Replace angle-bracket placeholders with actual UUIDs, without the brackets. preset is an alias for template.

Administrator command reference

All commands below require OP level 2. /ardanpc is an equivalent alias for /ardanpcs. Run creation, manager, template spawning and held-item copying commands as a player in game.

Legacy range keys: followrange and attackrange can be stored by command, but in 1.1.0 they do not control actual targeting or melee reach. Use aggrorange for target detection; set melee reach through Stats → Melee.

Demo pack: Both demo quests and demo clear first remove every NPC whose name starts with the exact prefix [DEMO] (including the space), even if you created that NPC manually.

Slot names are exact and case-sensitive: mainHand, offHand, head, chest, legs, feet. An empty main hand clears the selected NPC slot. Continue with quests, services or scripts for the other systems.