Spawn Zones, Drop Physics, and Landing Behavior

This page is about how crates choose a landing area and how they behave from sky spawn to touchdown.

Spawn zones live in the crate entry

Each crate defines its own spawn.areas list inside crateTypes.yml.

That is deliberate. Airdrops is built so a medical crate, a vehicle crate, and a high-tier combat crate can use different parts of the map even when the scheduler is shared.

Supported area shapes

The current source supports at least:

• circle
• rect

Circle areas commonly use:

• centerX
• centerZ
• radius

Rect areas commonly use:

• minX
• maxX
• minZ
• maxZ

Both shapes can use:

• world
• minY
• maxY

Keep altitude bounds realistic

minY and maxY are not filler fields. They are part of what stops bad landings on cliffs, roofs, void-adjacent terrain, or invalid ground bands.

If a zone feels unreliable, check the zone data before you blame the plane or parachute logic.

Global sky-spawn and descent behavior

The global descent pipeline lives in config.yml under dropPhysics.

Important keys:

• defaultDropY
• minGroundY
• descentBlocksPerSecond
• parachuteAttachDelaySeconds
• minClearanceAbove

These decide whether the crate gets enough visual runway to feel like a real airdrop.

Glide and wind

The modernized build also supports horizontal drift through dropPhysics.glide.*.

That includes:

• a randomized sky-start offset from the landing point
• wind drift
• oscillation while descending

This is part of what makes the new build feel more cinematic than a pure vertical fall.

Player interaction during descent

The interaction layer is global and lives under interactions.crate.

Important behavior:

• players can open nearby crates by right-clicking in range
• fast projectiles can overlap the hitbox with a configurable buffer
• projectile hits can either open the crate or shoot it down

The main mode switch is:

projectileMode: "SHOOTDOWN"

Shot-down crates

When shot-down behavior is enabled, the crate can:

• fall faster
• reduce wind drift
• keep the crash aligned to the selected landing spot
• optionally auto-open on impact
• use a different open animation on impact

That is why the shot-down path deserves its own testing pass. It is not just the normal drop sped up.

Landing behavior

The landing experience is a mix of:

• effects.crate.landingSound*
• effects.crate.landingParticles*
• effects.crate.landing.settleTicks

Those settings matter more than most admins expect. If landing feels weak or sloppy, players read the whole event as cheap even if the rewards are good.

Nearby announcement behavior

The broader drop presence is also shaped by:

• general.nearbyAnnouncementRadius
• messages.announce.*

That decides who notices a drop and how early they notice it.

Good zone-testing workflow

1. spawn the crate with /airdrop spawnhere <crateType>
2. test the fall in the actual target world
3. test an interaction attempt through foliage and nearby blocks
4. test a projectile shot-down case if that mode is enabled
5. repeat in bad terrain, not only on flat ground

Next pages

• models, Displays, Panels, and Open Animations
• scheduler, Call-Ins, and Smoke Plumes
• cleanup, Crash Recovery, and Troubleshooting