I’ve made quite a few changes to the server over the past few days. The main change is that I’ve switched from using the Minecraft Vanilla binary to Paper MC. This was mainly for performance improvements, and to enable add-in plugins from Spigot, Bukkit, etc.
I also switched to using Aikar’s optimized flags for starting Minecraft via Java. This is again done for a performance improvement, to reduce RAM usage.
I enabled the whitelist on the server, and only approved members will be able to join. This is to reduce the risk of random players or griefers causing havoc on the server. To join the server, see the Contact page for instructions.
I added a few trusted players as server operators, so if there are problems, they will be able to assist in the event I am unavailable.
I also enabled the following plugins for quality of life:
- CoreProtect was added mainly to be able to roll back changes from a user, time, or area perspective, rather than requiring rolling back of the entire server from a backup. This is being added to protect against griefers, and also to be able to hold players accountable if someone’s stuff goes missing. The videos on CoreProtect are pretty interesting, and there is lots of functionality to play around with.
- Graves was added for convenience, so if a user dies, they can reclaim their items within 3 hours, and not have to risk it falling into lava. There is some flexibility in the config.yml to be able to adjust, but I found the default worked well for us.
- Sleep-Most was added to make it possible for players to sleep without having to get the entire server to stop what they are doing to sleep, in order to complete the day. I configured the plugin to make it so only one player needs to sleep for the server to go back to day time. Phantoms can still be annoying and will attack insomniacs, so players will still need to find a bed at some point.
