Orebfuscation
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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, 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.
When a player comes within a certain radius (varies by server, but usually around 8 blocks) of these blocks, they are rendered as their normal block. Even if the player moves outside of the radius, they will keep their normal appearance until the player unloads the chunk.
Random Blocks
Even with block hiding, there can be tell-tale signs of civilization or defensive infrastructure, such as long dug-out tunnels or a box of (what appears to be) stone. To guard against this, Orebfuscator also fills the world with fake random valuable blocks underneath the surface, to make it more difficult for x-rayers to see through these blocks.
Blocks that are rendered underground in this fashion typically include every kind of ore, air, cobblestone, mossy cobblestone, stone, obsidian, tnt, and clay.
Unless you're x-raying, you should never see these hidden fake blocks. The one exception is if you mine while the server is lagging - sometimes the server can't send you the true value of a block before you break a block next to it and expose it, resulting in the display of random hidden blocks.
Effectiveness
Orebfuscator is generally considered effective against players who x-ray. However, it is not completely effective, as x-ray may still allow players to see nearby blocks that would otherwise be blocked from sight.