FAQ & Troubleshooting

A competitive ranked battle system for Cobblemon servers with:

• ELO-based matchmaking (Pokemon Showdown or Glicko-2)
• Singles/Doubles/Triples battle formats
• Season system with automatic rewards
• Pokemon/move/ability/item blacklists
• Label limits (e.g., max 1 legendary per team)
• Cross-server support via Redis (optional)
• Battle music and camera system

Cross-server requires MySQL or MongoDB (not SQLite).

Edit config/cobbleranked/config.yaml:

language: ja-jp  # en-us or ja-jp

Then run /rankedadmin reload.

Note: Triples is disabled by default in the preset. Enable it in your season preset if needed.

All formats have 60s team selection and 30s lead selection timers.

Use these commands in-game:

/rankedadmin setArena <name> pos1      # First player spawn
/rankedadmin setArena <name> pos2      # Second player spawn
/rankedadmin setArena <name> exit      # Exit teleport location
/rankedadmin setArena <name> spectator # Optional spectator position

Check arena status with /rankedadmin arena status.

Solutions:

1. Verify arena exists: /rankedadmin arena status
2. Enable the arena: /rankedadmin arena enable <name>
3. Ensure all positions are set (pos1, pos2, exit)
4. Check world name matches exactly (case-sensitive)

Use hyphen (-) as the separator, not colon (:):

blacklist:
  pokemon:
    - "Mewtwo"           # Bans all Mewtwo forms
    - "Kyurem-Black"     # Only Black Kyurem
    - "Zygarde-Complete" # Only Complete form
    - "Necrozma-Ultra"   # Only Ultra Necrozma

v2.0.21+ Behavior:

• Species-only entries (e.g., Landorus) ban ALL forms
• Form-specific entries (e.g., Landorus-Therian) ban ONLY that form

Direct items or item tags:

blacklist:
  items:
    - "cobblemon:choice_band"     # Specific item
    - "minecraft:diamond"         # Vanilla item
    - "#cobblemon:mega_stones"    # Item tag (starts with #)
    - "#cobblemon:berries"        # All berries

Common causes:

Solutions:

1. Check blacklist in season preset
2. Verify label limits (default: max 1 legendary)
3. No duplicate Pokemon species (Species Clause)
4. No duplicate held items (Item Clause)

1. Player joins queue with /ranked
2. System searches within ELO range (default ±200)
3. If no match found, range expands every 30s (+50 ELO)
4. Last 3 recent opponents avoided (expires after 5 minutes)
5. When matched, ready check begins (17s to accept)
6. Team selection begins (60s)
7. Lead selection (30s), then battle starts

Solutions:

1. ELO range expands over time - wait longer
2. Recent opponent avoidance may delay matches
3. With 4+ players in queue, avoidance relaxes after 2 minutes
4. Check if ELO enforcement is too strict in config

Pokemon Showdown System (Default):

• Starting ELO: 1000
• Floor ELO: 0 (no minimum)
• New players get K-factor 35 for first 10 games (industry standard)

Higher K-factor = bigger rating changes per match.

Win Streak Bonus: Players on 3+ win streaks get +3 K-factor, 5+ wins get +5 K-factor.

Possible causes:

1. Daily ELO gain limit reached (default: 200)
2. Battle didn’t complete (timeout/disconnect)
3. Casual battle (no ELO change)
4. Very small change due to large ELO difference

1. Final rankings calculated
2. Rewards distributed via MailLib
3. Leaderboard archived (top 100 by default)
4. ELO reset (hard or soft reset, configurable)
5. New season begins automatically

Solutions:

1. Check season schedule timezone (IANA format)
2. Verify end date/time in season.yaml
3. Manual rotation: /rankedadmin season rotate
4. Check server logs for errors

/mailbox

Rewards are sent via MailLib when the season ends.

Solutions:

1. Check config/cobbleranked/ directory exists
2. Verify file permissions on data.db
3. Ensure disk space is available
4. Backup and delete corrupt DB to regenerate

Solutions:

1. Verify MySQL is running
2. Check host, port, database, username, password
3. Test connection: mysql -h host -u user -p database
4. Verify firewall allows port 3306
5. Check character set: utf8mb4_unicode_ci
6. Increase pool size if “max pool reached” error

Solutions:

1. Verify connection string format
2. Check MongoDB daemon is running
3. Verify auth credentials if using authentication
4. MongoDB driver is shaded - no conflicts with other mods

Solutions:

1. Verify Redis is running: redis-cli ping
2. Check host, port, password in config.yaml
3. Verify firewall allows port 6379
4. Test with password: redis-cli -h host -p port -a password ping

Checklist:

1. All servers use same database (MySQL/MongoDB)
2. crossServer.enabled: true on all servers
3. Redis connected on all servers
4. Each server has unique serverId
5. One server has empty battleServer (handles battles)

This issue was fixed in v2.0.21. Players are now correctly teleported back to their original position after ranked battles (single-server mode).

If still experiencing issues:

1. Verify exitPosition is set in your arena config
2. Run /rankedadmin arena status to check arena configuration
3. Ensure no other plugins are interfering with teleportation
4. Check server logs for teleport-related errors

Arena Management:

• /rankedadmin setArena <name> <pos1|pos2|exit|spectator>
• /rankedadmin arena status - View all arenas
• /rankedadmin arena enable/disable <name>
• /rankedadmin setArena <name> setcenter [radius] - Set arena center with radius
• /rankedadmin arena reset - Clear all positions
• /rankedadmin teleportArena <name> - Teleport to arena
• /rankedadmin setexit - Set global exit location

ELO Management:

• /rankedadmin setelo <player> <format> <elo>
• /rankedadmin addelo <amount> <player> <format>
• /rankedadmin removeelo <amount> <player> <format>

Season Management:

• /rankedadmin season info - Current season details
• /rankedadmin season rotate - End season manually
• /rankedadmin queue clear - Clear all queues

Data Management:

• /rankedadmin reload - Reload all configs
• /rankedadmin usage export [season] - Export Pokemon usage
• /rankedadmin leaderboard export [season] [limit]
• /rankedadmin migrate ... - v1 to v2 migration

Solutions:

1. Disable debug logging: debug.enabled: false
2. Reduce battle music complexity
3. Check server TPS
4. Increase MySQL connection pool if needed
5. Archive old seasons to reduce database size