ChatColor

ChatColor2 v1.16.2

Bug-fix release focused on gradient, rainbow, and hex custom colours not appearing in chat on modern Paper/Folia servers.

Verified on: Folia 1.21.2 (Build 26.1.2)

Fixed

Modern chat compatibility

• Fixed gradient, rainbow, and hex colours disappearing from chat on modern Paper/Folia servers.
• ChatColor now uses Paper's AsyncChatEvent instead of the legacy chat event.
• Prevents other chat plugins (such as EssentialsX) from stripping modern colour formatting before ChatColor processes it.

Colour restoration

• Added a final chat renderer that restores colours if another plugin removes all formatting.
• Messages that already contain formatting are left untouched to avoid double-colouring.

Synchronous chat handling

• Fixed colours being skipped when chat was fired synchronously.
• "ChatColorEvent" now correctly matches the actual thread context instead of always being marked asynchronous.
• Event dispatch failures no longer prevent colours from being applied.

Reload stability

• Fixed a "NullPointerException" after "/chatcolor reload" when selecting colours in the GUI.
• Player configuration files are now managed separately from plugin configuration.
• Player data survives reloads and is reloaded lazily when needed.

Data loading

• Fixed several crash paths caused by player data not being fully loaded.
• Saving player data, opening the GUI, and reading or writing colours now safely handle unloaded data.
• Applies to both YAML and SQL storage backends.

Storage failures

• Storage errors can no longer prevent chat colours from being applied.
• Default-colour and inaccessible-colour checks are isolated.
• Console warnings are shown only once instead of repeatedly printing stack traces.

Deleted colours

• Fixed deleted custom colours causing chat messages to be prefixed with the literal text "null".

Added

"/chatcolor debug"

Requires OP or the "chatcolor.admin" permission.

Provides a diagnostic report including:

• Stored player colour
• Resolved colour
• Colourised preview
• Legacy hex mode status
• Active chat event type
• Every plugin listening to both chat events and their priorities

Also enables per-message console logging showing:

• The colour ChatColor applies
• The final rendered chat message

Use this command first if colours are not appearing, as it identifies conflicting plugins directly.

"use-modern-chat-event"

New configuration option:

use-modern-chat-event: true

• Default: "true"
• Set to "false" to use the legacy chat event.
• Requires a server restart.
• Servers without Paper's modern chat API (such as Spigot) automatically fall back to the legacy event.

API Changes

• "ChatColorEvent#getChatEvent()" now returns "null" when the modern chat event is enabled, since there is no legacy "AsyncPlayerChatEvent".
• Plugins using "ChatColorEvent" should either:
  • Null-check "getChatEvent()", or
  • Set "use-modern-chat-event: false".

Notes

• No manual configuration changes are required.
• The new "use-modern-chat-event" option is automatically added to existing "config.yml" files when updating.