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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.

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 2Move backup storage off-site from day one; local-only archives are a single hardware failure away from a full season loss.
  3. 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.

16 — Claude Code Implementation Contract

"

Read ALL spec files before generating anything. Order matters.

#Pre-Generation Checklist

Before writing a single file:

  • Read 00_project_overview.md — understand the philosophy
  • Read 01_system_architecture.md — understand the directory structure
  • Read 02_plugin_architecture.md — understand plugin dependencies
  • Read all remaining files 03–15
"

⚠️ CRITICAL: Vault must be configured before ShopGUI+. LuckPerms must be configured before any permission-dependent plugin.


#Complete Deliverables — 23 Files

#FileSpec SourceAcceptance Criteria
01docker-compose.yml01_system_architecture.mdValid YAML, healthcheck present, ports 8123+25575 NOT exposed publicly
02.env.example01_system_architecture.mdAll variables present with Romanian comments
03.gitignore12_security.md.env and data/ in gitignore
04server.properties01_system_architecture.mdview-distance=8, online-mode=true, spawn-protection=16
05config/paper-global.yml13_performance.mdAnti-xray engine-mode=2, Aikar flags referenced
06config/paper-world-defaults.yml13_performance.mdVanilla-compatible spawn limits
07config/spigot.yml13_performance.mdmob-spawn-range aligned with paper settings
08plugin-configs/luckperms/groups.yml11_permissions_staff.md4 groups: jucator/helper/moderator/admin with correct weights
09plugin-configs/essentialsx/config.yml02_plugin_architecture.mdEconomy disabled, /kit disabled, max-homes=3, locale=ro
10plugin-configs/towny/townyconfig.yml04_towny_nations.mdwar_enabled=false, taxes=0, Romanian titles
11plugin-configs/aureliumskills/config.yml05_skills_progression.mdactive-abilities=false, alchemy+enchanting disabled
12plugin-configs/shopgui/shops.yml03_economy_design.md5 categories, sell prices ≤40% of buy prices
13plugin-configs/quests/06_quests_storyline.mdQ1+Q2+Q3 + 2 daily quests, rewards within spec
14plugin-configs/mythicmobs/BossFinal.yml07_boss_events.md3000 HP, 3 phases, loot within economy spec
15plugin-configs/discordsrv/config.yml10_discord_integration.mdChat sync + deaths + join/leave. No console channel.
16plugin-configs/dynmap/configuration.txt10_discord_integration.mdPort 8123, never opened in firewall
17scripts/setup.sh01_system_architecture.mdInstalls Docker + UFW, creates mcserver user, idempotent
18scripts/backup.sh14_backup_recovery.mdsave-off before backup, 7-day retention, excludes resurse world
19scripts/reset-resurse.sh08_world_management.md10-min warning, Discord webhook, recreates world
20scripts/update-paper.sh01_system_architecture.mdCompares current vs latest via api.papermc.io
21scripts/setup-luckperms.sh11_permissions_staff.mdAll 4 groups, weights, prefixes, permissions
22plugins/DOWNLOAD_LIST.md02_plugin_architecture.mdAll official URLs from plugin spec, with checksum instructions
23CHECKLIST.md12_security.md + 15_season_lifecycle.mdPre-launch security checklist + season start steps

#Code Quality Rules

✅ Every YAML file: valid yaml-lint output
✅ Every bash script: starts with #!/bin/bash and set -euo pipefail
✅ Every config file: Romanian comment above each non-trivial setting
✅ No hardcoded passwords, tokens, IPs, or Discord IDs
✅ Placeholder format: PLACEHOLDER_DESCRIPTIVE_NAME (uppercase + underscore)
✅ docker-compose.yml: Ports 8123 and 25575 NOT in the ports section
✅ .env.example: every variable has an inline comment explaining it
✅ All shell scripts: executable permissions (chmod +x)

#Generation Order

Step 1: docker-compose.yml + .env.example + .gitignore
Step 2: server.properties + config/*.yml
Step 3: plugin-configs/ — in dependency order:
         luckperms → essentialsx → towny → aureliumskills
         → shopgui → quests → mythicmobs → discordsrv → dynmap
Step 4: scripts/ — setup.sh first, then others
Step 5: plugins/DOWNLOAD_LIST.md
Step 6: CHECKLIST.md
Step 7: Validate with commands below

#Validation Commands (run after generation)

# 1. Docker Compose syntax
docker compose config

# 2. Dry run
docker compose up --dry-run

# 3. File count
ls -R plugin-configs/ | wc -l   # must be ≥ 23

# 4. Security check — must return nothing
grep -r 'RCON_PASSWORD\|TOKEN\|SECRET' docker-compose.yml

# 5. Gitignore check
grep '.env' .gitignore

# 6. Scripts executable
ls -la scripts/*.sh   # must show -rwxr-xr-x

#Key References

TopicFile
Architecture diagram01_system_architecture.md
Plugin dependencies02_plugin_architecture.md
Economy prices03_economy_design.md
Towny config values04_towny_nations.md
Skills to enable/disable05_skills_progression.md
Quest YAML structure06_quests_storyline.md
Boss HP and phases07_boss_events.md
World reset script08_world_management.md
NPC commands09_spawn_design.md
Discord channel IDs10_discord_integration.md
LuckPerms commands11_permissions_staff.md
Security checklist12_security.md
JVM flags13_performance.md
Backup script14_backup_recovery.md
Season procedures15_season_lifecycle.md

SMP-ARCH-001 v1.0.0 — Implementation Contract

~ End of Document ~
Kiwi