What's so bad about Essentials?

I keep seeing people complaining about the Essentials plugin but giving very vague explanations like how "it's poorly designed" or how it "breaks everything". I have been using it for as long as my server has been running and I have never had a single issue with it. I love it. TheWorldEdit webpage has a little block of text warning people off from Essentials, saying that it could "result in your server burning down and your world crashing"... I've been using both Essentials and WorldEdit all this time, however.

So, what's your beef with Essentials?

 

I've been using Essentials since i started using CraftBukkit. And i have not had a single problem. Also used with WorldEdit.

 

Well, in my opinion, it just does too much for one plugin. It takes over EVERYTHING and if you try to install another plugin to handle one part, you get plugin conflicts and errors. Sure you can edit the plugin.yml file, but I prefer to use a more customizable solution. Essentials is great for a brand new server owner, but offers little flexibility without editing the plugin. I prefer, for example, to use Tele++ for teleportation because it can do everything that I want and more while using a single command. I also like Warpz0r for /warp and /home because of it's simplicity (and when I started using Warpz0r, you couldn't have multiworld /home for Essentials). Then I use a customized CommandBook to fill in all the gaps.

 

I use it because it has a lot of features and it's updated frequently/quickly. If I had multiple plugins providing the same, updates would be a nightmare.

But yes, I do run into the occasional command conflict. Over all though, it has made my life much easier I think

 

/i itemid -1 for unlimited is disabled, and i hate the new system

 

i've been using several "essentials / general" plugin "collections" since i started with bukkit.
I haven't had a problem so far.
Yes, the current essentials suite has too many options and functions in the main plugin, it's like windows coming with 200 pre-installed programs you don't need... but if you don't need them you may just ignore them. They're not causing huge server-loads
I just use essentials, MyHome, MyWarp, Permissions and LockChest.
Everything running fine, no plugin errors etc.
Personally, I think other plugin devs / enthusiasts of other plugins rage too much about it because many server admins use the essentials suite and the other plugins don't get enough attention. Essentials doesn't break anything and it doesnt set your world on fire and steal your diamonds and set lava in your base.

There are lots of work in this plugin, so it's not fair to spread weird rumors about it crashing your server or something else. These people spent their time doing something for us, so appreciate it or shut up.

NoMad

edit: if there were basic ingame commands like /i /time /weather and /tp in craftbukkit itself, i wouldn't use essentials at all.

 

I heard that it CAN lag your server, which is when i swapped it out for commandbook + home plugin + warp plugin, and i must say im actually happier with it this way

 

It doesn't lag your server. Either your server has the resources to run the plugin or it doesn't. Simple as that.

 

Essentials are fine. I use General and essentials edition of GroupManager with Tele++, Jail, WorldEdit, MultiGod and many other plugins. You can disable commands in essentials config file so it's easy to avoid conflits.

 

I don't know. I just disliked Essentials. Its not as customizable and does EVERYTHING. Its great for servers that don't run too many plugins but I just dislike it. I don't remember what problems I had back a few months ago when I used to host but it literally annoyed me. I'm more fond of the CommandBook way and adding plugins MADE for /warps and teleporting instead of Essentials compilation of them.

 

I have been using essentials for like a week now, I just took permissions off. I really like the group manager over permissions, permissions gave me so many problems. Essentials has too, but they were easy to fix. I recommend just making copies of your groups and users whenever you change something, because Like outta nowhere I would change 1 thing and it would screw up everything, So i just deleted all the files, and intalled them again and dragged my saved groups and users text files in, fixed itself.

 

It's trying to do "everything." For a server I play on, it got to the point where any teleporting caused extreme lag, which was caused by Essentials (the server isn't run on a 2 dollar VPS, or a VPS at all.) We only used the main Essentials plugin.

We phased it out with other plugins and now everything is fine now (I didn't find exactly what in Essentials it was.) I've also had issues with stupid conflicts (that shouldn't otherwise conflict) because of it.

I found that other solutions you can get (Tele++, etc) are also even better, and while some things that replace functions are still dated, they work just as good.

One central plugin is nice, yes, and makes updating and keeping track easier, but "Essentials" is not just the essentials, it's bloated and more than it should be (Essentials.jar, the main plugin, is 700 KB.)

But for those that it works good for, you have no reason to switch, unless you really want to. Just for many of us that have beef with it, well, we've moved on

 

It's good for people who don't want to spend time working on their server. it does EVERYTHING. If you look on the bukkit hompage, half of the advice by EvilSeph on errors is "outdated essentials, remove"(from the 1.4 or 1.5 update, don't remember). There are other plugins that do what it does and more, and doesn't bloat the server. It is confirmed to use more memory that a bunch of little plugins. It conflicts with everything...
tl;dr its not good

 

For those who have servers with lots of little plugins, it causes conflicts. So, if a server administrator goes: "Oooh, I can just drop in Essentials and now I can plug the holes!" Now, they have a broken server because they didn't do the research.

Really, the people that complain about it are those who just didn't plan to drop Essentials in the middle of a bunch of other plugins that do the same thing. It does take a little bit more RAM than other plugins with the same purpose, but I've found that essentials does have a lot of features that these other little ones do. Not to mention that Essentials is updated quite often with multiple developers, and they have "modulized" their packages. I wanted custom Chat (HeroChat), but EssentialsChat was conflicting with it, so I just didn't include the EssentialsChat.jar and everything is running just fine.

To be honest, go with what you feel is better. If you feel that you don't use AT LEAST 50% of the Essentials features, DO NOT install the full Essentials. Either drop the .jars you don't use, or use the smaller other plugins.

 

From my own experience, running a fairly packed server for the last few months, my main issue is the same as what most people are saying here.
Why have one plugin that does everything ? It drove me mental and I ended up dropping it for CommandBook.

Why should I have to edit Essential's plugin.yml so that iConomy, any simple /warp or sign-using plugin works ? That's my issue. It has too many functions, and most of them are not necessary.
And that's where CommandBook steps in, it just offers BASIC and NECESSARY functionnality, and doesn't shoot all your other plugins in the face. It is light, fast, and easily customizable. Seriously, why would you want to use EssentialsEco when there's iConomy ?

It's supposed to be Essentials, not EverythingYouCouldPossiblyNeedAndManyMoreFeatures.jar. I think the Essentials devs should stick to what is, indeed, essential, and not all the overflow.
I'd rather have 20 different plugins I can independently manage and configure, than a massive one where I get lost and confused. That and using independent plugins means you get more features most of time, Essentials as a team can only do so much, and working on sustaining every aspect of one plugin is slower than one guy working on his own plugin.

It may have changed, I don't know, I migrated to CommandBook when 2.0-2.1 came out, but I'm happy and stable now.

 

Yeah. I don't use it because it just added so much.
I want to be able to really customize everything myself.

I'd rather get together a list of what I want plugins to do and find plugins for each of that.. rather then use essentials and get a ton of things thrown on my server.

I've installed 50+ (not using all at once) plugins ranging from small to large, a majority of them having nodes.
Never had even the tiniest issue with Permissions.

 

Im running essentials and this list of plugins
Backup
BigBrother
Castlemania
Clothcolor
Craftbook
" " Circuits
" " Mech
" " Vehiles
Dungeon
Dynmap
iConomy
mcMMO
Mobarena
Mobboutny
RaveBlox
Residence
Wolrdedit
XcraftGte

Essentials gives priority to other plugins first, which I find great. I find no lag and my Dedicated server is on the other side of the world from were I am. Yes it is good for a first time server admin, I have had 1 0r 2 conflicts I admit but after reading the coding I found it was outdated OTHER plugins causing the issue once they were updated all was mickey again. I tried permissions out at first but in the end Im an Essential kinda 'o guy. But what works for me might not work for you, just thought Id share my thoughts on the subject

~Tel~

 

I don't see anything wrong this essentials it's a real help on my server.

 

I never had a problem with it before either , I just switched to command book because I feel that essentials had a lot for things I really didn't need.