Kill Aura

What this is for

kill-aura makes a bot look at and attack nearby targets within configured ranges.

This is useful for:

combat testing
PvP behavior experiments
checking entity targeting under load

It is not a general-purpose movement or navigation system. It only takes over the parts of control needed for targeting, looking, swinging, and attacking.

What the main settings mean

Setting	What it controls
`whitelisted-users`	Player names that must never be attacked
`look-range`	How close a target must be before the bot starts looking at it
`swing-range`	How close a target must be before the bot swings its arm
`hit-range`	How close a target must be before the bot actually attacks
`check-walls`	Ignores targets behind walls when enabled
`ignore-cooldown`	Whether to ignore the normal 1.9+ attack cooldown model
`attack-delay-ticks`	Extra randomized delay used for pre-1.9 behavior, or when cooldown is ignored

Set the ranges in this order:

Use the largest value for look-range
Use a smaller value for swing-range
Use the smallest value for hit-range

Enable and tune kill-aura

Enable the plugin

Open Plugins and enable Kill Aura.

Add any protected player names

Fill whitelisted-users first. If there are names the bot must never target, protect them before you test.

Start with conservative ranges

Use the default ranges first unless you have a strong reason to change them.

Keep wall checks on initially

Leave check-walls enabled until you know you need different behavior.

Test with one bot

Test targeting and attack timing with one bot before you add more bots.

How the range settings interact

Look range

This controls when the bot begins orienting toward a target.

If the value is too small, the bot can react late. If the value is too large, the bot can react to distant entities.

Swing range

This controls arm swing behavior. It can be larger than hit range so the bot visually starts reacting before an actual attack is possible.

If you set it to 0, swing-only behavior is disabled.

Hit range

This is the real attack threshold. Keep it conservative unless you are explicitly testing edge cases.

If your hit-range is too aggressive, you are more likely to create behavior that is unrealistic or inconsistent with the target environment.

Cooldown and version behavior

kill-aura respects normal attack strength behavior by default.

The plugin adds custom attack delay logic in two situations:

on protocol versions up to 1.8
when ignore-cooldown is enabled

That means attack-delay-ticks matters most when you want older-style or intentionally cooldown-ignoring behavior.

If you leave ignore-cooldown off on modern versions, normal attack readiness remains the safer default.

Wall checks and visibility

With check-walls enabled, the bot avoids targets that it cannot clearly see or reach.

That is the safer choice for realistic testing.

Turn it off only if:

you are testing a very specific environment
you understand the tradeoff
you do not care about natural-looking line-of-sight behavior

Safe tuning workflow

Use this order:

enable the plugin
fill whitelisted-users
leave check-walls enabled
test default ranges
adjust one range at a time
only then decide whether cooldown changes are necessary

That keeps your changes attributable. If you alter every range and timing value at once, it becomes much harder to understand what actually improved or broke the behavior.

Common failure patterns

The bot looks at targets but does not hit

look-range is large enough, but hit-range is too small or the cooldown timing is preventing an attack.

The bot swings too early

Your swing-range is larger than needed for the environment you are testing.

The bot attacks through unrealistic angles

Make sure that check-walls is enabled. Then decrease the attack ranges.

Friendly or protected players get targeted

Your whitelisted-users list is incomplete or misspelled.

Set whitelisted-users before testing around real players. The plugin does exactly what you configure, not what you intended.

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