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.
15 — Season Lifecycle
"Season start, timeline, end procedures — 3 to 4 months per season
#Season Timeline
| Phase | Weeks | Focus | Key Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch | 1–2 | Players establish bases | Q1+Q2 active, monitor TPS, wars OFF |
| Growth | 3–6 | Towns and nations form | Enable wars week 3, first Treasure Hunt |
| Climax | 7–10 | Nation conflicts peak | Monthly boss teaser, economy review |
| Final Arc | 11–13 | Boss event, story closes | Unlock Q3, run Boss Fight, announce end |
| Wind-down | 14+ | Awards, archive | Announce S2 date, reset world |
#Season Start Procedure (14 steps)
1. Provision VPS → run scripts/setup.sh
2. Configure .env with all production values
3. docker compose up -d → wait for "Done!" in logs
4. Run scripts/setup-luckperms.sh
5. Copy plugin-configs/ → data/plugins/ for each plugin
6. docker compose restart mc
7. Build spawn structure (creative mode Admin)
8. Place Citizens NPCs using commands from 09_spawn_design.md
9. /mvwarp create resurse (in resource world)
10. Verify CoreProtect: place/break block → /co inspect
11. Verify DiscordSRV: send chat message → check Discord
12. Verify Dynmap: load map.serverultau.ro in browser
13. Whitelist test with 2–3 trusted players for 24h
14. Announce launch in Discord with rules + IP
#Week 3 Action (Enable Wars)
# Announce in Discord #events 24h before:
# "⚔️ Wars se activează mâine! Pregătește-ți armata!"
# In-game admin command:
/ta toggle war
# Announce in-game:
docker exec mc rcon-cli "broadcast &cWars au fost activate! Luptați cu onoare."
#Season End Procedure (10 steps)
1. Announce end date 2 weeks in advance (Discord + in-game)
2. Unlock Q3 quest manually in Quests plugin
3. Run Boss Fight event (07_boss_events.md procedure)
4. Calculate winners:
- Top nation by territory: /towny top land
- Top wealth: /baltop
- Top kills: (PlayerStats plugin or manual tracking)
5. Award Discord roles: "Campion S1", "Legendă S1"
6. scripts/backup.sh → final manual backup
7. Screenshot Dynmap for archive
8. docker compose down
9. tar -czf /opt/mc-archives/season1.tar.gz /opt/minecraft/data/
10. Announce Season 2 date with teaser lore
#Season 2 Hook
At the end of Season 1, every participating player receives a custom item: Fragment de Memorie — stored in their inventory.
# Custom item (ItemsAdder or manual /give with NBT)
# item: written_book with custom lore
# "Acest fragment conține o amintire din Tăcere..."
# "Păstrează-l. Va conta în Sezonul 2."
- Cannot be dropped or destroyed
- Does nothing in Season 1
- In Season 2: ingredient for first quest chain
- Players who completed the Boss Fight: also get title &6Legendă S1
#Admin Calendar Template
Week 1: Server launch
Week 2: Economy review (check /baltop)
Week 3: Enable wars → /ta toggle war
Week 4: First Treasure Hunt event (announce in Discord)
Week 6: Economy health check (sell prices / inflation)
Week 8: Monthly Boss Fight teaser
Week 10: Unlock Q3 quest
Week 11: Boss Fight event (run BossFinal)
Week 12: Announce season end date
Week 13: Final events, awards
Week 14: Season reset
#Related Documents
- Boss fight procedure →
07_boss_events.md - Quests (Q3 trigger) →
06_quests_storyline.md - Backup / archive →
14_backup_recovery.md