Civilization Sonar

Sonar is Civillis’s shared name for scans that sample civilization data and visualize it — expanding particle rings, optional aura walls at civilization and monster-pocket boundaries, and matching audio. The server computes boundaries; the client renders the effect.

Overview

Two variants:

Variant	How you trigger it	Role
Handheld sonar	Portable tab — Civilization Detector, right-click	Portable scouting; configurable pulse toggle and sonar radius
Static sonar	Static tab — ring a bell placed on top of a lodestone	Stationary “detection station”; longer range, stronger presentation, per-player cooldown

Both use the same underlying idea: a BFS-style scan out to a sonar radius (in voxel-chunk units) that is independent from the much larger spawn detection radius used for civilization scoring. Colors along the wave indicate protected ground, wilderness, and monster-pocket zones (see the Portable tab for the particle legend).

See also

• How It Works — what the score means
• Podium of Spawning — purple/orange head zones in sonar

Portable and static detail

Portable (handheld)Static (bell on lodestone)

Civilization Detector

The Civilization Detector is the handheld form of civilization sonar. It scans and visualizes your civilization level. Recent releases refreshed the item art toward a clearer crystal-ball look — the mechanics below are unchanged.

Crafting

Surround a compass with 8 emeralds in a crafting table:

E E E
E C E
E E E

Where E = Emerald, C = Compass.

Basic use

Right-click to scan. The detector reads the civilization score at your position and gives immediate feedback:

Color	Meaning	What it tells you
🟢 Green	HIGH	Fully protected — hostile spawns are blocked here
🟡 Yellow	MID	Partially protected — some spawns may get through
🔴 Red	LOW	Unprotected wilderness — spawns proceed normally
🟣 Purple	MONSTER	Inside a monster head zone — skulls are active here

Each reading plays a distinct sound cue, so you can tell the result without looking at the item.

The detector has a brief enchantment glint while the reading is active (~2 seconds).

Sonar pulse

When the aura effect is enabled (on by default), right-clicking also fires a sonar pulse (see Overview above for how this relates to static sonar):

Charge-up

A vertical column of particles appears at your position for ~0.4 seconds, accompanied by a charge-up tone. The particle color reflects your current zone:

• White sparks (End Rod) — you're in a protected area
• Blue flames (Soul Fire) — you're in wilderness
• Orange flames (Fire) — you're in a monster pocket

Expanding shockwave

After the charge-up, a ring of particles expands outward from your position over ~1.5 seconds, reaching up to 120 blocks. Each particle is colored by the zone it passes through, painting the landscape with civilization data.

A boom sound (breeze shoot) plays as the wave launches.

Boundary walls

~1.2 seconds after the scan, glowing translucent walls rise at the boundaries of your civilization:

• Gold/amber walls — civilization boundaries (where protection ends and wilderness begins)
• Amethyst/purple walls — monster-pocket boundaries

Walls appear with a fade-in, hold steady for ~2.5 seconds, then gently fade out over ~2 seconds. Firing the detector again while walls are visible extends their duration — and if you've moved toward a boundary, newly discovered faces appear while existing ones hold steady.

Wall height spans ±48 blocks from the scan center.

Bell on lodestone

Static sonar is the stationary variant: a bell must be placed on top of a lodestone (bell block directly above lodestone). When a player rings the bell with a proper hit (the same geometry that would make a vanilla bell ring), Civillis fires a sonar pulse centered on the bell — no detector item required.

Why use it

• Base perimeter — Bells contribute to civilization score (Blocks & Scoring); placed on lodestones they double as heavy detection stations.
• Vanilla-first — Uses only vanilla blocks; good for survival builds and “alarm” aesthetics.

Behavior vs handheld sonar

Aspect	Handheld (Portable tab)	Static (this tab)
Trigger	Right-click detector	Ring bell (proper hit) on bell-over-lodestone
Sonar radius (default)	Smaller BFS radius (sonar.detectorRadius, voxel chunks)	Larger (sonar.staticRadius)
Audio / particles	Lighter	Louder boom, denser ring, golden accent particles
Cooldown	Short detector cooldown	Longer per-player bell sonar cooldown (sonar.staticCooldownTicks)
Toggle	Detector Sonar can disable only the detector’s pulse while aura stays on	Bell requires global aura (aura.enabled); no per-bell GUI toggle

Improper hits (e.g. directions that would not ring the bell in vanilla) do not trigger sonar.

In-game configuration

Sonar has a dedicated collapsible subcategory on the config screen (not mixed into decay or heads).

Open Civillis Settings → Civilization → expand Sonar Visualization (requires Mod Menu + Cloth Config on Fabric; NeoForge/Forge use the loader’s Civillis config entry).

Setting (in-game label)	Type	Range	Default	What it controls
Detector Sonar	Toggle	on / off	on	Shockwave, boundary walls, and extra sounds for the Civilization Detector. Off still leaves instant color + sound readout. Does not turn off bell sonar.
Detector Sonar Range	Slider	3–7 voxel chunks	5	Handheld BFS radius (UI shows blocks = VC × 16).
Bell Sonar Range	Slider	8–12 voxel chunks	10	Static bell-on-lodestone BFS radius (UI shows blocks).

Not on this screen: global aura.enabled (master switch for all sonar visuals, including bell), per-player sonar.staticCooldownTicks, and detector timing keys ui.detectorCooldownTicks / ui.detectorAnimationTicks — those live in civil.properties. See the aura/sonar group in Configuration.

Advanced: civil.properties

Raw keys override the GUI for matching parameters. If pulses or bells misbehave, compare aura.enabled, sonar.detectorEnabled, sonar.detectorRadius, sonar.staticRadius, and sonar.staticCooldownTicks against the commented template, or delete civil.properties to regenerate defaults.