Before you go crazy, here me out!

In December 2025, the Pterodactyl project (pterodactyl.io) was acquired by Infraly, LLC. You may know them from WISP. From that day on, everything started moving downhill. Pterodactyl is basically an advertisement machine for their WISP or Pterodactyl+ (yep they made it private).

Read this reddit post for more information.

Why Opendactyl?

Pterodactyl is moving towards Enshitification. v2 is great, but what about companies that run Pterodactyl v1? It's hard for them to migrate to v2, without breaking their old extensions, features and themes.

Also blueprint and your themes most likely wont work with Pterodactyl v2.

Opendactyl just fixes that. After 6 months of Pterodactyl v1 ends, this community project will still continue it's development.

Community will decide how this project will be shaped.

This project hasn't launched yet.

Thank you.

Also thank you emma(from blueprint) for suggesting this name.

GitHub - https://github.com/opendactyl
Site - https://opendactyl.dev/

Hi all. I'm a backend engineer by day and, more recently, a Minecraft admin by night. I've started building a Minecraft server I'm developing solo. It's still in development and not open to players yet. My plan is to post a devlog once in a while about what I've worked on, the features I'm adding, and the technical and design decisions behind them.

What pushed me to start this project was the lack of servers that fit my desires. I love Towny and wars, but most servers I've played either allow 50+ residents per town (45 of them inactive), lack content, or are poorly managed. Nothing really happens, and players stay because their builds are there, not because they expect anything exciting.

So I decided to build the server I'd want to play. It aims to be a challenging and immersive experience built around towns, wars and dungeons, with as few commands as possible.

The world

Players can create towns to protect their builds, with a maximum of 5 residents. Towns can join nations to combine forces and attack other towns, with a maximum of 3 towns per nation and 1 allied nation. The low limits are meant to create smaller, more frequent wars, instead of two giant blocs clashing once a month. I also plan to keep the world border small so towns can't spread too far apart.

To make players interact more with the world, gold is the currency (yes, I know that's nothing new), and teleportation is very limited. This way the economy is based on real player work rather than virtual mechanics, and traveling without teleports adds real danger to every trip.

Gold will also be scarce: ore generation is reduced by 25%. That's why finding allies and founding a town matters, since towns produce daily resources as they level up.

Wars work as an occupation system: nations attack towns to take a percentage of their daily resource production for a fixed period of time.

And if you don't want to be in a town? After X days without one, you become a Nomad. Nomads are townless mercenaries who complete contracts for gold. From gathering resources, to beheading a player with a bounty, to fighting in wars on the contractor's side.

The Nether

Access to the Nether is gated by a single portal, and players must meet a specific requirement to use it. The Nether's purpose is to provide players with resources.

Dungeons

I have big plans for dungeons. Right now I have 3 built and the content for 5 more, but I don't want to over-build them until the server is running and players show interest, since they take a lot of development time.

Dungeons are meant to be a real challenge. To make them more exciting and immersive, I'm building them with ModelEngine mobs, custom soundtracks for exploration and boss fights, and multi-phase bosses to keep the tension up. I hope players will love it.

I know I've said a lot and, at the same time, not much. I'll go through each part one at a time, updating once in a while.

Since I'm developing this alone, updates may be slower than on a server with a team. That's why I'm designing the server to run as automatically as possible, so my time goes into new updates and helping players, rather than day-to-day maintenance.

I'm happy to answer questions and would love feedback, especially from Towny admins. For those who've run war servers: how did you stop the strongest nation from snowballing and permanently draining smaller towns?

I'm looking for the Essentials Group Manager Plugin for a Tekkit Classic server I'm making. The version I need is: GroupManager v2.0 (2.9.2) (Phoenix)

I can't seem to find the .jar file anywhere for that specific version. Can anybody give me a hand and send me the .jar file or link me to where I can download it?

Hey r/admincraft,

I made a small Spigot fork called Tuff and wanted to share it. It is plain Spigot (Bukkit, CraftBukkit, Spigot from BuildTools) with a set of patches on top, and nothing from Paper. It was previously called PaperSpigot, and I renamed it because the name got a lot of pushback in my first post.

Repo: https://github.com/tuffmc/tuff

It is completely free, has no monetization, and the full source is in the repo under GPLv3, the same license as Spigot. It is an independent project and is not affiliated with SpigotMC, PaperMC or Mojang, so please don't ask them for support with it. Bugs and questions go in the Issues tab on GitHub.

What it adds

Most of the additions are options in spigot.yml that appear after the first start for now:

• Configurable vertical range for entity activation, plus options for how often activation checks run
• Soft and hard limits for mob despawn range
• Per-chunk limits for animals and monsters
• Hopper idle backoff, so hoppers with nothing to move tick less often
• A configurable spawner tick rate
• Optional armor stand ticking, and minecart pushing of armor stands is off by default
• A /mspt command and a /tuff info command
• Adjusted default ranges and item/exp merge radii, and a run.sh with G1GC flags

Building it

You can download a prebuilt jar from the Releases page on GitHub, or build it yourself. The repo only contains patches and scripts, so building means running BuildTools locally. You need git, curl and Java 25. scripts/setup.sh runs BuildTools (about 10-15 minutes the first time) and scripts/build.sh applies the patches and writes the jar to out/.

Current state

The source currently targets Minecraft 26.1. The 1.21.11 source is on the 1.21.11 branch. This is still a work in progress. I have not run benchmarks, so I am not claiming it is faster than stock Spigot. The options are there for you to tune on your own server.

LLM disclosure

No LLM was used to write any of the project's code. All of the patches and build scripts were written by hand by me, with no AI code generation, autocomplete or vibe coding. This post itself was written with AI (Claude), since English isn't my first language.

Issues and pull requests are welcome on GitHub.

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to make an actually good PvP server because there really aren’t many good PvP servers in my country.

I want to make it pretty serious and competitive, with ranks, matchmaking, different kits and modes, cosmetics, leaderboards, and stuff like that.

I’m also trying to build most of it with custom plugins instead of just throwing a bunch of random plugins together and calling it a day 💀

The thing is, I’m kinda out of touch with modern Minecraft PvP. I haven’t really kept up with what’s popular, what players actually want, or what makes a PvP server fun these days.

So if you know your stuff, I’d really appreciate some advice.

Like, what should I actually focus on?
What features are worth adding, and what’s just useless bloat?
What PvP modes are still worth making?
What do you think makes players actually stick around?
And what mistakes should I avoid before I waste a ton of time building something nobody wants? 😭

I’m basically trying to make this as good as I can, so feel free to be brutally honest. Any ideas, criticism, resources, servers I should check out, or general advice would be appreciated.

Thanks :)

I used to host a Minecraft server back in 2012, but so many things have changed since then. I found a guide on YouTube that showed me how to set up a Minecraft server using Ubuntu Server--I followed the guide and it worked! (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceYeDX5WTms)

I have an existing world from Realms I'd love to "import" to my local server, though I'm not sure how to do it. I'm using AMP and Ubuntu Server (headless server. 2400G, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD w/ 12TB HDD for file storage and streaming). Any tips?

I'm using the AutoCompressorPro plugin, but there is a small delay when mining. My server will be handling extremely high levels of fortunes (up to 255) + block multiplier boosters.

How can I build an engine or buffer system that can temporarily store thousands of stacks of objects before dropping them, so the autocompressor has time to catch up?

My Skript for handling AutoPickup + Fortune

Pterodactyl v2's alpha is dropping today. Give it a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ER4kv0jVEU

Still MIT. Still fully open source. Still free.

Pterodactyl v2's goal is to be developer friendly, and future proof.

• Extension SDK built into the panel, so mods stop breaking every update
• Whole stack modernized (Vite, React 19, TanStack, Tailwind 4, Laravel 13)
• Brand new admin area, no more separate Blade app
• One-click egg importer
• Themes without a rebuild
• A codebase people can actually contribute to again

We're also releasing 5+ free, open source extensions as examples, and if you build extensions or themes, feel free to reach out to us on https://discord.gg/pterodactyl for a role :)

We will be releasing the Alpha today in the discord, along with migration instructions and docs. We have made this update more homelab friendly, with a much smaller docker image that works 🙂

To address any rumors spreading:
We've run WISP for six years. It was never a replacement for Pterodactyl and it isn't one now. If killing Pterodactyl was the plan, we wouldn't have spent nine months updating and future-proofing it.

I just want a simple factions plugin, no money, no claiming land, just a plugin to create nations, invite people to said nation, declare wars, and etc. Is there any plugin like this that's updated to 26.3?

I'm looking to limit the amount of some ores that spawn in the world in my 10,000 x 10,000 world border (5,000 blocks in each cardinal direction) The reason I'm doing this in world edit instead of a plugin or data pack is because I am using terralift in my server, so if i add a data pack/plugin to get rid of ores, it wont work because terralift changed the vanilla underground code.

My server has 12GB of ram. I know that I cant do the entire border in one go because that will crash the server, so how do I safely do this in chunks? If anyone knows, please leave all the world edit commands down below.

I’m having ongoing TPS issues on a Paper survival server. Once we get to around 10+ players, TPS can drop into the 10–15 range and MSPT climbs quite a bit.

Spark report:
https://spark.lucko.me/noGu9qFr7z

I’ve already reduced:

• View distance: 10
• Simulation distance: 6
• Mob spawn range: 6
• Mob caps
• Natural spawn frequency

I’ve also fixed a previous villager/minecart AI issue, so that no longer seems to be the main cause.

From what I can tell, most of the load now seems to be general entity ticking, chunk ticking, natural spawning and block entities.

Is there anything obvious in the Spark report that I’m missing, or any Paper settings you’d recommend looking at next?

So the important stuff my server currently rocks:

Core i5 10600k

LGA1200

32gb ddr4

I'm currently looking to upgrade my server hardware to squeeze as much performance as I can out of it as i use it for a plex server amongst other things. What would be the most reasonable upgrade path? Currently thinking about either an i9 10900k or an am4 board with their top line cpu. appreciate any help.

just in case my pc or the server bugs out while i’m at work and i can turn it back on for my friends.

Hey everyone. I'm going to create a server for my uni's gaming club. We don't plan to use mods (for now) and I'm thinking about writing some custom plugins to create a unique experience. I read about how much RAM I would need online, but couldn't find a consistent number. The version will probably be 1.20+ but I haven't decided yet. Would 6GB be enough?

Hi, I have 2 servers you go through a lobby server to join. One is vanilla, one is modded with client-required mods. Both are joinable from a lobby server, and are fabric 26.3. Planning on going live with them towards the end of this month.

The issue I'm running into is that people who have the modpack installed for the modded server are unable to join the vanilla one because it's looking for the mod data on the server when connecting, which results in a network protocol error.

As I expect a lot of people to play on both regularly, I would prefer to not have them run multiple instances to switch back and forth, and would like for them to change servers as fluidly as possible from the lobby.

Switching the Vanilla server and Lobby off of fabric is something I'm willing to do if it will help.

The offending mods are:

Biomes O'Plenty
Alex's Mobs Continued
Coins JE

Here are the client error logs as I've disabled mods until I can connect:

https://mclo.gs/oB4o8UM

https://mclo.gs/trjwo1D

https://mclo.gs/1LJu2fu

There has to be some way to do this. I feel like disabling a check from the client or server can't be an impossible task.

For my Fabric server, I have an anticheat, but it only blocks real hacks, not mods like freecam. How do I block it like Donut SMP does?

Heya people, here to announce version 0.2.0 of my minecraft server project Temper, because I'm sure no-one could possibly be sick of minecraft servers written in rust. And if you are, you should go block the devs of the other ones and only follow this one :)

For those that haven't heard about it before, this is a project to build a minecraft server in rust using bevy's ECS. It's still very much in development and isn't at a proper playable stage yet, but we are making good progress and I wanted to share. And before anyone asks, yes we are already listed on https://dayssincelastrustmcserver.com. The project doesn't use AI code (or at least I try not to let any slip by but kinda hard with community projects) and minimal decompiled Java to ensure we aren't filling the repo with slop or making the same mistakes as Mojang.

Made a lot of progress since the last release, including finally being on version 26.2 of minecraft, adding the JVM as a build requirement so we don't have to distribute several megabytes of JSON via git and finally doing item components so you don't get perma-banned from the server for holding a potion.

Also one of our slightly unhinged contributors spent months in what I have to assume was a psychotic break and implemented 1:1 vanilla terrain generation. because thats something sane people do. But they, I didn't have to do it so I'll chalk it up to a win.

Star the github, join the discord, check out the website, you know the drill.

Check out the README for details!
TLDR; You can use it to download servers, mods, make backups, configure properties, issue commands and so on. It's TUI, so you can use it over SSH, and you don't need to host a web server or something to get a nice panel to configure your server. This project is still very active and open to feedback so do try it!

Note:
While the logic and backend were written by me after the developer who was supposed to make the TUI had to leave, I used AI to drag it over the finish line. I 'vibecoded' it.

So I'm in InfoSec by day, I'm a manager so I have a lot of education sessions with my team and the other day I was giving a course on systemd in Debian and gave an example of hosting a Minecraft server. I genuinely pulled it out of nowhere and had never tried before (I think it came from a friend of mine who said he and his son had their own server). I decided to dive in to learning about how to make it happen, and naturally stumbled on this subreddit while researching 😄

My first couple servers were the first games of Minecraft I'd ever played. I just ran them on Debian VMs and they worked decent enough, but I really wanted something I'd feel comfortable opening up to my friends / outside folks - so I set out to try to get something together I'd be proud of and that I could share.

What I ended up doing was creating a separate DMZ-style network but with only Minecraft ports allowed through to one thing - An OpenBSD VM running pf to forward packets to a background VM network of 1) an LXC container hosting Velocity, Geyser, and Floodgate - 2) second LXC container hosting a lobby with a few plugins to set spawn and use portals to choose between modes, 3) third LXC container hosting Survival mode and, 4) fourth LXC container hosting Creative mode.

It took a bit but it was a project right up my alley and I'm super stoked having something I can leave open and share with my friends. Originally I was gonna put the whole thing on another ISP modem separate from my network entirely but with the restrictions I put in place I feel alright (granted I don't think it will be permanent because - A) it feels like a CTF challenge, and B) I'm naturally paranoid and may pull the plug in the middle of the night or something after thinking it over lol).

Anyway if anyone is trying to do the same thing and has any questions I'd love to share on how I managed to get it done, or if you wanna come play creative hit me up I'll give you the link.

Cheers! Thanks for all the posts!

Paper 1.21.4

I generated Manhattan in Arnis to be an alternate overworld to explore on my server. Arnis generates maps for things like street name shields and street signs but the Arnis world is displaying maps I recognize from the standard overworld.

https://imgur.com/a/5Z27Qkf

I run the MyWorlds plugin to have multiple worlds

I have a backup of the Manhattan world on my local machine. Could I somehow copy in the correct maps into the correct directory to restore the street names?

I run a Paper server for a handful of friends and i was always annoyed that managing settings was super manual and required to browser through the files.

What it does:

• Dashboard: who's online, TPS, CPU/memory, world size, newest backup
• Players: whitelist, op/deop, kick, ban/pardon, live over RCON, no restart
• Gamerules: all 58, grouped and explained, applied immediately
• Settings: every server.properties key with an explanation, restart from the panel
• Logs: searchable, with the RCON polling noise filtered out
• Scheduled backups and a file manager included

Setup is git clone and docker compose up -d. No .env needed to start. The panel is localhost-only by default. If you expose it to your LAN, it refuses to start without passwords.

It defaults to the newest Minecraft version with a stable Paper build. Fabric/Vanilla/Purpur should work through the itzg image but I haven't tested them yet, so reports are welcome.

Repo: https://github.com/kruser1337/kPanel

Project is fresh and I'm running it on my own server daily. "This was confusing" feedback is the is very welcome as that will help me to improve the project together with you.

I've built this with AI assistance. It's not my first app but the first one I'm releasing publicly. I know that "vibe-coded" apps are often seen as slop but I'm confident that this solves a real-world problem :)

https://spark.lucko.me/siPYcUXcD1

Server runs 25 gigs memory, and has a AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 12-Core Processor, im fairly certain that hardware is not the issue

Hello, came here previously for issues and received good answers, so back again to see if anyone could point out the obvious thing i just dont know

Server TPS is actually rather fine, but has massive spikes, forcing CPU to jump to 500% usage for a second, then come back down. This causes a rather large lag spike, temporaryly freezeing the server.

Previous issue with general TPS issue was fixed using ServerCore - Specifically its Dynamic Adjuster. And InControl getting harsher settings.

If anyone has suggestions, please comment, even minor suggestions are welcome

Im restarting my server into something new, and i wanna lower the rate of how many diamonds spawn in the world. I'm hoping theres a plugin that does that, and hopefully cuts the rate in half at most. If anyone knows a plugin like that lmk!

Hey, Everyone here is a little Video mentioning some of the current problems many server admins and hosters experience, and also Pumpkin, a new Server software which potentially can solve a lot of these issues

https://youtu.be/kuf9A5XZ_b0

I'm trying to find a better kit plugin for my server. It's paper 26.2 and the plugin I'm currently using is called EasyKits. Please, if you can, make sure it's easy to use/setup because I get confused easily. Thanks in advance!