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.
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
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
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.
10 — Discord Integration
"DiscordSRV channels, Dynmap, observability platform
#Discord as Observability Platform
Discord is the primary monitoring tool. All significant server events surface in Discord channels without requiring SSH access from the Admin.
#Required Discord Channels
| Channel | Events | Source | Audience |
|---|---|---|---|
#chat-minecraft | All in-game chat (bidirectional) | DiscordSRV | Players + Staff |
#decese | Player death messages with cause | DiscordSRV | Players + Staff |
#events | Boss fights, world resets, season news | Manual + scripts | Players + Staff |
#staff-log | Bans, kicks, grief rollbacks, config changes | Staff (manual) | Staff only |
#alerts | Server start, stop, crash | DiscordSRV + scripts | Staff only |
#regulament | Server rules (static, manually edited) | Manual | Players |
#DiscordSRV Config
# plugin-configs/discordsrv/config.yml
BotToken: "PLACEHOLDER_DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN"
Channels:
global: "PLACEHOLDER_CHANNEL_ID_CHAT"
DiscordConsoleChannelId: "" # EMPTY — never expose console
DiscordGameDeathMessageChannelId: "PLACEHOLDER_CHANNEL_ID_DECESE"
DiscordJoinLeaveInSameChannel: true
# Romanian message formats
MinecraftPlayerJoinMessage: "**{USERNAME}** s-a conectat la server! 👋"
MinecraftPlayerLeaveMessage: "**{USERNAME}** a ieșit de pe server."
MinecraftPlayerDeathMessage: ":skull: **{USERNAME}** {DEATHMESSAGE}"
# Server lifecycle alerts
DiscordChatChannelServerStartupMessage: "✅ Serverul a pornit!"
DiscordChatChannelServerShutdownMessage: "🔴 Serverul s-a oprit."
#Dynmap — Live Web Map
# plugin-configs/dynmap/configuration.txt
webserver-port: 8123 # Internal only — exposed via Cloudflare Tunnel
defaultzoom: 2
maximumzoom: 6
# Privacy — don't show offline player positions
hideifshadowlost: true
# Cloudflare Tunnel routes map.serverultau.ro → container:8123
# Port 8123 is NEVER opened in UFW
##Cloudflare Tunnel Setup
# In docker-compose.yml (cloudflared service)
# CLOUDFLARE_TUNNEL_TOKEN is set in .env
# In Cloudflare Zero Trust Dashboard:
# Tunnels → Create tunnel → Docker
# Public hostname: map.serverultau.ro
# Service: http://mc:8123
#Discord Bot Setup
1. Go to discord.com/developers/applications
2. New Application → name it "SMP Bot"
3. Bot → Add Bot → copy token → paste in .env as DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN
4. OAuth2 → URL Generator → bot scope → send messages + read history
5. Invite bot to your Discord server
6. Copy channel IDs (right-click channel → Copy ID)
7. Paste IDs in discordsrv/config.yml
#Towny War Alerts
DiscordSRV can capture Towny war announcements via the global chat bridge.
War declarations appear in #chat-minecraft automatically.
For dedicated war alerts, configure DiscordSRV's channels.yml:
# channels.yml — add a wars channel
wars:
discord: "PLACEHOLDER_CHANNEL_ID_WARS"
minecraft: "" # no minecraft channel — Discord only
#Related Documents
- System architecture (Cloudflare Tunnel) →
01_system_architecture.md - Boss event announcements →
07_boss_events.md - Staff monitoring →
11_permissions_staff.md