Case Study

IceLegends SMP

A vanilla-first Romanian Minecraft SMP built for clean 3–4 month seasons.

The Problem

Running a community SMP means balancing plugin depth against vanilla feel, managing a world-reset cycle, and keeping operations simple enough for a solo admin. IceLegends SMP solves this with 11 carefully chosen plugins, strict feature gating per a "vanilla-first" principle, and fully automated backups and world resets.

My Role

Designed, configured, and deployed solo — server architecture, 11-plugin selection and configuration, LuckPerms permission model, economy and nation design, Docker infrastructure, and Cloudflare Tunnel ingress for Dynmap.

Join the Server ↗

Highlights

PaperMC 1.21 on Docker with a hard 11-plugin cap — every plugin is justified and none are redundant
Towny nations with seasonal quests (Quests + Citizens NPCs) and a single manually-spawned MythicMobs boss per season
AureliumSkills passive bonuses only — active abilities disabled to preserve vanilla combat (P-01)
DiscordSRV bridge logs every death, join, and chat event to dedicated Discord channels in real time
Daily automated backups with 7-day retention; resource world resets every Monday at 05:00 via cron

Stack

PaperMC 1.21DockerCloudflare TunnelLuckPermsTownyAureliumSkillsMythicMobsDiscordSRVDynmap

Constraints

Solo admin — every operation must complete in under 10 minutes (P-02).
Vanilla-first (P-01): if any plugin disappeared tomorrow, the game must continue unchanged.
11-plugin hard cap — every addition must displace something or prove unique, irreplaceable value.

System Architecture

Edge

Cloudflare Tunnel (Dynmap web map)

TCP :25565 open (Minecraft clients)

Runtime

Docker + docker-compose

itzg/minecraft-server image

Core

PaperMC 1.21

Vault

LuckPerms

EssentialsX

CoreProtect

Gameplay

Towny

AureliumSkills

ShopGUI+

Quests + Citizens

MythicMobs

Multiverse-Core

Ops

DiscordSRV bridge

Daily backup cron (04:00)

Weekly world reset cron (Mon 05:00)

Key Trade-offs

The decisions worth defending — what I chose, what I turned down, and why.

Plugin count cap

Chose

Hard cap at 11 plugins

Rejected

Unlimited plugin stack

Each plugin is a maintenance surface and a potential conflict point. The cap forces prioritisation and keeps the dependency graph legible for a solo admin.

Public ingress for Dynmap

Chose

Cloudflare Tunnel (no open ports)

Rejected

Expose :8123 directly via UFW

No origin IP exposure, free DDoS protection, and zero firewall rule maintenance — the same pattern used by the IceLegends portfolio site.

AureliumSkills scope

Chose

Passive bonuses only, active abilities disabled

Rejected

Full AureliumSkills feature set including active combat abilities

Active abilities alter vanilla combat — a direct violation of P-01. Passive bonuses reward playtime additively without changing the combat model.

Season lifecycle

Chose

Full world reset every 3–4 months

Rejected

Incremental map expansion with no reset

Resets keep the world fresh, prevent terrain exhaustion, and give every new player an equal start — critical for community health in a small SMP.

What I'd Do Differently

An honest retrospective — the stuff I'd change with more time, more users, or a second pass.

1Add a staging compose stack so plugin updates can be tested before touching the live season — one bad update cost several hours of rollback work.
2Move backup storage off-site from day one; local-only archives are a single hardware failure away from a full season loss.
3Wire Dynmap as a named Docker service rather than relying on the host port, so the Cloudflare Tunnel config survives container IP reassignment on restart.

Technical Deep-Dive

Architecture, specifications, and implementation details.

02 — Plugin Architecture

"

11 plugins, 3 layers, zero compromise on vanilla gameplay

#Dependency Graph

                   ┌──────────────────┐
                   │   PaperMC API    │  ← all plugins depend on this
                   └────────┬─────────┘
          ┌─────────────────┼──────────────────┐
          ▼                 ▼                  ▼
   ┌────────────┐    ┌───────────┐    ┌──────────────┐
   │   Vault    │    │ LuckPerms │    │ EssentialsX  │
   │ (Economy   │    │(Permissions    │ (Commands)   │
   │  Bridge)   │    │  Engine)  │    └──────────────┘
   └─────┬──────┘    └─────┬─────┘
         │                 │
   ┌─────┴──────┐          └──── (all plugins inherit permissions)
   │            │
   ▼            ▼
┌────────┐  ┌────────┐
│ShopGUI+│  │ Towny  │──── Dynmap (nation borders on map)
└────────┘  └────────┘

┌──────────┐   ┌─────────┐   ┌────────────────┐
│ Citizens │──▶│ Quests  │   │ AureliumSkills │
│  (NPCs)  │   │         │   │ (Passive only) │
└──────────┘   └─────────┘   └────────────────┘

┌────────────┐  ┌────────────┐  ┌───────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐
│ MythicMobs │  │ DiscordSRV │  │  CoreProtect  │  │ Multiverse-Core  │
│ (Boss AI)  │  │  (Bridge)  │  │ (Anti-Grief)  │  │ (World Manager)  │
└────────────┘  └────────────┘  └───────────────┘  └──────────────────┘

#Plugin Specification

##Layer 1 — Invisible Foundation

Plugin	Role	Vanilla Impact	Priority
PaperMC 1.21.x	Server core — async chunks, anti-xray, performance patches	Zero	CRITICAL
Vault	Economy + permissions bridge. Required by ShopGUI+	Zero	CRITICAL
LuckPerms	Deny-by-default permission engine. 2 groups: Jucător + Staff	Zero	HIGH
CoreProtect	Block-level event logging + rollback per player/zone	Zero	HIGH
EssentialsX	`/home` `/tpa` `/spawn` only — everything else disabled	Minimal	HIGH

##Layer 2 — Vanilla+

Plugin	Role	Vanilla Impact	Priority
AureliumSkills	Passive skill XP from normal play. Active abilities DISABLED	Low	MEDIUM
DiscordSRV	Chat bridge + death/join events. No gameplay impact	Zero	LOW
Dynmap	Live web map via Cloudflare Tunnel	Zero	LOW

##Layer 3 — Uniqueness

Plugin	Role	Vanilla Impact	Priority
Towny Advanced	Land claiming, towns, optional nations, wars	Low	HIGH
ShopGUI+	Basic market — sell prices ≤ 40% of buy (promotes player trade)	Low	MEDIUM
Quests + Citizens	Optional seasonal storyline with physical NPCs	Low	MEDIUM
MythicMobs	Season boss — 1–2 events per season, manual spawn only	Low	MEDIUM
Multiverse-Core	Resource world management + weekly reset	Zero	MEDIUM

#Mandatory Configuration Constraints

##EssentialsX — DISABLED features

Feature	Status	Reason
Economy (pay, bal, eco)	DISABLED	Vault + ShopGUI+ handles economy
Kit system	DISABLED	Players must earn their gear
Mail system	DISABLED	Discord handles messaging
Warp management	DISABLED	Multiverse-Core handles warps
AFK kick	ENABLED	10 min timeout — frees slots
/home limit	ENABLED	Max 3 homes

##AureliumSkills — DISABLED features

Feature	Status	Reason
Active abilities	DISABLED	Changes vanilla combat — violates P-01
Alchemy skill	DISABLED	Replaces vanilla brewing
Enchanting skill	DISABLED	Replaces vanilla enchanting table
Leaderboard boss bar	DISABLED	Intrusive constant comparison
Passive skill bonuses	ENABLED	Mining speed, crop yield — additive only
Level-up notification	ENABLED	Boss bar, 3 second duration

#Skills Active (AureliumSkills)

Skill	Passive Bonus	Max Level
Mining	+drop rate, +speed	100
Farming	+crop yield, auto-replant	100
Foraging	+wood drop rate	100
Fishing	+rare drops, +treasure	100
Excavation	+gravel/sand drops	100
Fighting	+damage per level	100
Archery	+damage, arrow retrieval	100
Defense	+armor effectiveness	100

#Download Sources

Plugin	Official URL	Paid?
PaperMC	papermc.io/downloads	Free
Vault	dev.bukkit.org/projects/vault	Free
LuckPerms	luckperms.net	Free
CoreProtect	modrinth.com/plugin/coreprotect	Free
EssentialsX	essentialsx.net	Free
Towny Advanced	github.com/TownyAdvanced/Towny/releases	Free
AureliumSkills	aurelium.dev	Free
Quests	modrinth.com/plugin/quests	Free
Citizens	citizensnpcs.co	Free
MythicMobs	mythicmobs.net	Free (Premium ~$10)
ShopGUI+	SpigotMC resource page	~$20 USD
DiscordSRV	modrinth.com/plugin/discordsrv	Free
Dynmap	modrinth.com/plugin/dynmap	Free
Multiverse-Core	github.com/Multiverse/Multiverse-Core	Free

#Related Documents

Economy → 03_economy_design.md
Towny → 04_towny_nations.md
Skills → 05_skills_progression.md
Quests → 06_quests_storyline.md
Boss → 07_boss_events.md

~ End of Document ~