Setting the world spawn
Players arriving in an empty field means the server never learned where the build is.
What you are looking at
The map is installed and correct, but joining puts everyone in random terrain somewhere else, sometimes hundreds of blocks away. New players in particular arrive nowhere near the build.
Why it happens
The spawn point is stored in the world, but a server can override it, and a freshly configured server usually does — it picks a point of its own before anyone thinks to check. Pasted schematics have no spawn point at all, because a schematic stores blocks and nothing else.
What to do
- 1Stand exactly where players should arrive, facing the direction they should face.
- 2Run /setworldspawn. With no coordinates it uses where you are standing, which is why standing in the right place first matters.
- 3Set spawn-protection in server.properties to 0 if players need to build near spawn, or leave it if you want the area protected.
- 4Test by joining on a fresh account, or by running /kill on yourself and letting the respawn happen.
Everyone spawning on the exact same block gets crowded on a busy server. spawn-radius in server.properties spreads arrivals over an area around the point you set.