Orebfuscation

Part of a series on
Mechanics and Plugins
Core Mechanics
Citadel NameLayer Bastion Snitch Exile Pearl
Common Mechanics
Orebfuscation HiddenOre Chat Factory Enchanting Realistic Biomes Item Exchange Brewery Essence Kira
Minor Mechanics
Spawning Chunk Limits RailSwitch Arthropod Egg Combat Tag Elevator CastleGate One Time Teleport Commands

Orebfuscation (from ore and obfuscation) is a common mechanic on Civ servers which visually replaces certain blocks with others until a player comes within a certain distance, as a protection against x-ray. Usually, blocks obscured in this way include chests, snitches, and obsidian, and are rendered as stone. This replacement prevents x-ray from being able to find hidden infrastructure such as bunkers, as all they will see from a distance is natural blocks.

Orebfuscation is applied by the Orebfuscator plugin. Orebfuscator is one of the few plugins commonly used on civ servers that was not written specifically for civ as a genre.

Mechanics

Proximity Rendering

Until a player comes within a certain distance (see below), Orebfuscator visually replaces certain blocks with others. Blocks obscured in this way usually include blocks that are used in defensive infrastructure, farms, bases, or anything else a player may want to keep hidden.

Proximity Rendering Distance (blocks)
16

Proximity Rendering Distance (blocks)
16

Random Blocks

Although only a small portion of blocks are visible to a player at a time, Minecraft send players block data about all nearby blocks, even those completely occluded from view. As further obfuscation, Orebfuscator will visually replace these hidden blocks with random other blocks. Since the blocks visually replaced in this way are hidden from view, a normal player will not see this mechanic at play.