DragonReign

A lightweight Paper plugin that enforces a server's special Dragon Egg rules on an SMP. There is one conceptual egg, and DragonReign makes sure it can't be hidden, duped, hoarded, or lost to an inactive player — while keeping a full record of everything that happens to it.

Built for Paper / Minecraft 26.1.2 (API level 1.21), Java 21+ bytecode.

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What it does

The protections apply to every dragon_egg item and block — not a single specially-marked "real" egg. That makes the rules impossible to dodge by crafting or duping a look-alike. The tracking (who owns it, where it sits) follows the conceptual single egg and is saved in data.yml.

The rules

1. No containers (default on) — the egg may only sit in a player's own inventory or be placed as a block. Any attempt to move it into a chest, barrel, shulker, dropper/dispenser, furnace, hopper, the ender chest, or a bundle (the sneaky one — bundles live in your own inventory) is cancelled. Covers cursor placement, shift-click, number-key / hotbar / offhand swaps, double-click collect, click-drag, and hopper transport. The non-inventory hiding spots are blocked the same way: decorated pots (right-clicking one stuffs the held item inside), item frames, armor stand hands, and item-collecting mobs — an allay handed the egg would otherwise fly away with it.
2. No drop (default on) — you can't drop the egg on the ground.
3. Ender-chest sweep (default on) — a periodic safety net that pulls any dragon egg out of online players' ender chests and hands it back.
4. Respawn on inactivity (default on) — if the egg's owner is gone for inactivity-days (default 14), the egg is erased and a fresh one spawns on top of the End exit-portal fountain, exactly as if the dragon had just been killed. The old owner's eggs are stripped on their next login.
5. Announce (default on) — when the egg respawns, everyone gets a configurable chat broadcast, a screen title, and a sound (lightning, the dragon's death roar, both, none, or a custom sound key).
6. Respawn countdown (default on) — the respawn from rule 4 isn't instant. When the keeper goes inactive, a single timed countdown begins (default 5 minutes) with warnings at configurable marks (chat + title + sound) so players can race to the End and fight over the egg. If the absent keeper logs back in during the countdown it's cancelled and the egg stays put.
7. Strict ownership + alt detection (optional, off by default) — when on, the plugin watches for the egg being handed to an inactive account or to an IP-linked alt of the previous keeper, and alerts staff. It also makes the inactivity clock group-aware: a ring of alts sharing one connection can't keep the egg alive while the real person is gone. IP matching is imperfect, so the default is to flag, not enforce. Only scrambled, one-way codes are saved — never real addresses. (See the FAQ.)
8. Staff inbox (default on) — a saved, in-game alert queue for admins: alt/IP flags, dupe cleanups, respawn countdowns starting/firing, eggs erased. Online admins are DM'd immediately; everything is queued for /dragonreign inbox.
9. History log (always on) — every meaningful event (placed, broken, picked up, blocked attempts, sweeps, respawns, countdowns, transfers, admin actions) is appended to a capped, persistent log you can browse in-game.
10. Egg compass (default on) — players standing near the placed egg see an action-bar arrow pointing toward it, so a hidden egg can always be hunted down. Far from the egg you get a faint "something's near"; closer you get a direction; right on top it says "right here". The arrow is only shown to players within range, and only in the egg's world. When someone clicks the placed egg and it does its vanilla blink-teleport, the tracker follows it — the compass and the admin teleport button always point at where it really is.
11. Hold rewards (default on) — the current owner earns a reward for every stretch of time they actively hold the egg (default every 60 minutes). Each reward is a tier of console commands you configure — give items, money (via CMI/Vault), xp, effects, or hand out vouchers from other plugins (e.g. a TempFly flight voucher). The owner climbs the ladder while they hold it; the ladder resets when the egg changes hands. Only the owner is told when they earn — there are no server-wide announcements. Rewards only build while the egg is actually on the keeper — in their inventory, offhand, or hand — and they're really playing. Placing the egg down pauses the reward clock: a trophy sitting safe in a vault shouldn't pay, carrying the weight and the risk should. (Standing near your placed egg keeps the egg fresh — it just doesn't pay. The Dragonlord week runs on ownership and is unaffected either way.) Players can read a configurable Dragon Egg Rewards book with /dr rewards to see exactly what holding the egg pays out.
12. Staleness respawn (default on) — if the egg sits untouched for staleness-days (default 10) it respawns even while the owner is online, so the egg can't be parked forever. Holding it idle does not count as touching it.
13. Away check (default on) — reward time and staleness freshness only build up while the owner is really playing (the Dragonlord week is wall-clock and ignores this). The owner counts as away if CMI or EssentialsX (when installed) says so, or if the built-in check sees no real travel for idle-seconds — and that built-in check always runs, so a stationary auto-clicker is caught even when another plugin reports them active. Small repeated motion (an AFK pool, a tiny loop) doesn't count.
14. Void safety (default on) — the one egg can never be lost for good, full stop. A loose egg shrugs off fire, lava, cactus, TNT and creeper blasts; explosions can't blow up the placed egg block either (the blast happens around it). If a dropped egg or a falling egg block ever slips into the void, it is rebuilt on the End fountain and staff get an alert. And if some unknown path ever deletes the egg outright, a watchdog notices the keeper's egg is gone within seconds, hands it back, and tells staff.
15. Dragonlord cosmetics (default on) — keep the egg for threshold-hours of real elapsed time (default 168 = 7 days) without ever losing it and the player permanently becomes a Dragonlord. The clock starts when you take the egg and restarts at zero whenever it changes hands or resets, so the title marks a week of defending it, not a week of playtime — grinding hours can't buy it, and logging off can't dodge it, because staleness still reclaims a parked egg. Being crowned unlocks two cosmetics: a sparkle aura and a chat/tab/nameplate title. The title is published through PlaceholderAPI (%dragonreign_title%), so any plugin that reads PlaceholderAPI (TAB, CMI, CustomNameplates, chat-format plugins) can show it. Players toggle their own cosmetics; admins grant or revoke Dragonlord status.

Players with dragonreign.bypass ignore all protections.

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Commands

Command	Description
/dragonreign gui	Open the live config GUI (admin).
/dragonreign log (alias history)	Open the paginated history GUI (admin).
/dragonreign inbox	Open the staff inbox GUI (admin).
/dragonreign respawn	Start the respawn countdown for the current keeper now (admin).
/dragonreign respawn force	Skip the countdown and respawn the egg immediately (admin).
/dragonreign cancel	Cancel the active respawn countdown — the egg stays (admin).
/dragonreign reload	Reload config.yml and reschedule tasks (admin).
/dragonreign victor <grant|revoke> <player>	Grant or revoke Dragonlord status (admin).
/dragonreign cosmetics	Open the Dragonlord cosmetics menu (Dragonlords only).
/dragonreign particle	Turn your own Dragonlord aura on or off (Dragonlords only).
/dragonreign title	Turn your own Dragonlord title on or off (Dragonlords only).
/dragonreign rewards (alias reward)	Give yourself the in-game "Dragon Egg Rewards" book — a colored written book explaining what holding the egg pays out.
/dragonreign info	Public: owner, rule states, countdown status. Admins additionally see the egg's exact location, last-activity, strict-ownership posture, and unread inbox count.
/giveegg <player>	Hand the egg you're holding to another online player (transfers ownership).

Short alias: /dr (also /dreign, /degg) — e.g. /dr gui, /dr respawn force. Tab-complete only suggests the subcommands you have permission for, and running one without its permission does nothing: no error, no reply.

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Permissions

Permission	Default	Grants
dragonreign.bypass	op	Ignores all protections.
dragonreign.giveegg	everyone	/giveegg.
dragonreign.command.info	everyone	/dr info (the public readout).
dragonreign.command.rewards	everyone	/dr rewards (the Dragon Egg Rewards book).
dragonreign.command.gui	op	Open the config GUI.
dragonreign.command.history	op	Open the history GUI (/dr log).
dragonreign.command.inbox	op	Open the staff inbox GUI.
dragonreign.command.respawn	op	/dr respawn [force].
dragonreign.command.cancel	op	/dr cancel.
dragonreign.command.reload	op	/dr reload.
dragonreign.gui.teleport	op	Use the teleport-to-egg button in the config GUI.
dragonreign.command.victor	op	Grant/revoke Dragonlord status (/dr victor).
dragonreign.command.cosmetics	everyone	Player cosmetic toggles (/dr cosmetics, particle, title).
dragonreign.victor	false	Marks a player as a Dragonlord. Granted automatically once the tenure threshold is served; admins can also grant it directly.
dragonreign.admin	op	Parent node — grants every command.* and gui.* node above.

Every capability is its own node, so you can hand a helper exactly one (e.g. only dragonreign.command.history) via LuckPerms; dragonreign.admin rolls them all up. Anyone missing the relevant node gets no response at all — the subcommand is hidden from tab-complete and silently does nothing.

/dr info stays public by default (dragonreign.command.info is on for everyone) but only shows a lightweight view — owner, which rules are on, countdown status. The egg's exact coordinates and staff detail stay gated behind dragonreign.admin so the keeper's base can't be looked up on demand. Revoke dragonreign.command.info to hide the readout too.

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GUIs

• Config GUI — one wool toggle per rule (lime = on, red = off, click to flip and persist), including the Respawn Countdown and Strict Ownership toggles; a clock to bump inactivity-days (left +1 / right −1, shift = ±7); a button to cycle the sound mode; Open Inbox and Open History buttons; a Teleport to Egg button that warps you to the egg when it's placed (greyed out while it's carried or unclaimed); and a Close button. Every button carries explanatory hover lore, the empty slots are framed with panes, and the whole GUI reflects live config on every click.
• History GUI — newest-first, paginated. Each entry's icon hints at the event type; the name shows the type, who, and a relative time; the lore carries the full detail, exact world x,y,z, the absolute timestamp, and the actor's UUID. Like the Inbox GUI, it has « Back to menu and Close buttons in the footer.
• Inbox GUI — newest-first, paginated, severity-coloured (green INFO / gold WARN / red CRITICAL). Unread alerts glow. Left-click marks an alert read; shift-click dismisses it. Reachable from /dragonreign inbox or the Config GUI button.

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Configuration

config.yml (all of it is editable live from the GUI, or by hand + /dragonreign reload):

no-containers: true        # block chests/ender chest/bundles/hoppers/etc.
no-drop: true              # cancel dropping the egg

enderchest-sweep:
  enabled: true
  interval-minutes: 5

respawn-on-inactivity:
  enabled: true
  inactivity-days: 14
  check-interval-minutes: 5
  staleness-days: 10         # 0 = off; respawn an untouched egg even with the owner online

compass:
  enabled: true
  radius: 16
  update-ticks: 10
  show-to-owner: false

rewards:
  enabled: true
  interval-minutes: 60
  reset-on-loss: true
  carried-only: true         # rewards only build while the egg is in your inventory (placed = paused)
  tiers:                     # each line is one reward = a list of console commands
    - ["give %player% diamond 4"]
    - ["give %player% diamond 8", "xp add %player% 30 levels"]
    - ["effect give %player% strength 600 1"]
  book:                      # the /dr rewards book players can read
    enabled: true
    title: "<gold>Dragon Egg Rewards</gold>"     # MiniMessage
    author: "<dark_purple>DragonReign</dark_purple>"
    pages:                   # each entry is one book page (MiniMessage); remove the list for a built-in default
      - "<bold><gradient:#3D1466:#7B2FB5>Dragon Egg Rewards</gradient></bold>\n\n<black>Hold the Dragon Egg and get paid.</black>"

afk:
  enabled: true
  idle-seconds: 300

void-safety:
  enabled: true
  check-ticks: 20

victor:
  threshold-hours: 168       # real hours of unbroken holding to become a Dragonlord
  title: "&6Dragonlord"
  title-enabled: true
  particle-enabled: true
  particle: HAPPY_VILLAGER
  particle-density: 12
  particle-interval-ticks: 40
  luckperms-meta: false      # also write the title as a LuckPerms meta value

hold-time:
  accrual-ticks: 100         # advanced: how often active hold-time is sampled
  require-presence: true     # only earn time while carrying the egg or near the placed egg
  presence-radius: 16        # blocks from the placed egg that count as "with it"

announce:
  enabled: true
  chat:                    # MiniMessage lines
    - "<dark_purple>The Dragon Egg has returned to the End!</dark_purple>"
  title:
    title: "<gradient:#5e2b97:#b388ff>The Egg Reigns Again</gradient>"
    subtitle: "<gray>A new keeper is needed</gray>"
    fade-in-ticks: 10
    stay-ticks: 70
    fade-out-ticks: 20
  sound:
    mode: BOTH             # LIGHTNING | DRAGON_DEATH | BOTH | NONE | CUSTOM
    custom-key: "minecraft:entity.ender_dragon.growl"

respawn-countdown:
  enabled: true
  duration-seconds: 300
  warn-at-seconds: [300, 60, 30, 10, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]
  abort-on-owner-return: true
  tick-sound: "minecraft:block.note_block.pling"

strict-ownership:
  enabled: false
  min-receiver-active-days: 7
  check-ip-alts: true
  auto-enforce-ip-links: false
  max-ip-group: 8            # ignore connection codes shared by more than N accounts (shared/public connections); 0 = no cap
  ip-hash-salt: ""           # auto-generated on first run; never change or share it

inbox:
  enabled: true
  notify-on-join: true
  max-entries: 200

history:
  max-entries: 1000

messages:
  prefix: "<dark_purple>[DragonReign]</dark_purple> "
  blocked-container: "<red>The Dragon Egg can't go in there.</red>"
  blocked-bundle: "<red>The Dragon Egg can't go in a bundle.</red>"
  blocked-drop: "<red>You can't drop the Dragon Egg.</red>"
  countdown-started: "<gold>The egg's keeper has vanished — it returns to the End in <seconds>s unless they return!</gold>"
  countdown-warn: "<yellow>The Dragon Egg respawns in <white><seconds>s</white> — get to the End!</yellow>"
  countdown-title: "<gradient:#b388ff:#5e2b97>Egg Respawn</gradient>"
  countdown-subtitle: "<yellow><seconds>s</yellow> <gray>until it returns to the End</gray>"
  keeper-returned: "<green><player> returned in time — the Dragon Egg stays where it is.</green>"
  reward-earned: "<gold>You held the Dragon Egg long enough to earn a reward! (reward <tier>)</gold>"
  victor-earned: "<gold>You are now a Dragonlord — your prestige cosmetics are unlocked.</gold>"

log-blocks-to-history: true   # false = keep nudges, skip logging blocked attempts
end-world-name: ""            # blank = auto-detect the first THE_END world

All message fields use MiniMessage formatting. <seconds> (countdown messages) and <player> (keeper-returned) are substituted at send time.

Full key reference

Key	Default	Meaning
no-containers	true	Block the egg from any non-player inventory, ender chest, and bundles.
no-drop	true	Cancel dropping the egg.
enderchest-sweep.enabled	true	Periodic safety-net sweep of online ender chests.
enderchest-sweep.interval-minutes	5	How often the sweep runs.
respawn-on-inactivity.enabled	true	Respawn the egg when the keeper goes inactive.
respawn-on-inactivity.inactivity-days	14	Days of keeper absence before respawn.
respawn-on-inactivity.check-interval-minutes	5	How often inactivity is checked.
respawn-on-inactivity.staleness-days	10	Respawn an untouched egg after this many days even with the owner online. 0 = off; must be less than inactivity-days.
compass.enabled	true	Show nearby players an arrow toward the placed egg.
compass.radius	16	Only players within this many blocks see the arrow.
compass.update-ticks	10	How often the arrow refreshes (20 ticks = 1 second).
compass.show-to-owner	false	Also show the arrow to the egg's owner.
rewards.enabled	true	Reward the owner for active holding time.
rewards.interval-minutes	60	Active holding time needed for each reward.
rewards.reset-on-loss	true	Losing the egg resets the owner back to the first reward tier.
rewards.carried-only	true	Rewards only build while the egg is in the keeper's inventory; a placed egg pauses the reward clock. Set false to also pay near-the-placed-egg time (the old behaviour). The Dragonlord week is unaffected either way.
rewards.tiers	(see above)	The reward ladder; each entry is a list of console commands run with %player% / %tier% substituted. Because they're plain console commands you can pay out money (e.g. cmi money give %player% 25000 via CMI/Vault), items, XP, effects, or hand out vouchers from other plugins (e.g. a TempFly flight voucher via tempfly give %player% 5m).
rewards.book.enabled	true	Enable the /dr rewards written book.
rewards.book.title	Dragon Egg Rewards	Book title (MiniMessage).
rewards.book.author	DragonReign	Book author (MiniMessage).
rewards.book.pages	(built-in default)	A list where each entry is one book page (MiniMessage). Remove the list entirely to use the built-in default pages. Pages render on cream parchment, so use dark colours.
afk.enabled	true	Pause reward time and staleness freshness while the owner is away.
afk.idle-seconds	300	No real travel for this long counts as away (built-in check; small repeated motion doesn't count).
void-safety.enabled	true	Rescue the egg to the End if it falls into the void.
void-safety.fireproof	true	The egg can't be destroyed: a loose egg is immune to fire, lava, cactus and explosions (and floats out of liquids), and explosions can't break the placed egg block.
void-safety.check-ticks	4	How often the loose egg's height/buoyancy is checked.
victor.threshold-hours	168	Real elapsed hours of unbroken holding to become a Dragonlord. Losing the egg restarts the clock.
victor.title	&6Dragonlord	The Dragonlord title (legacy & colour codes).
victor.title-enabled	true	Master switch for the title.
victor.particle-enabled	true	Master switch for the aura.
victor.particle	HAPPY_VILLAGER	Particle type for the aura.
victor.particle-density	12	Particles per puff.
victor.particle-interval-ticks	40	How often the aura shows.
victor.luckperms-meta	false	Also write the title as a LuckPerms meta value (dragonreign-title).
hold-time.accrual-ticks	100	Advanced: how often active hold-time is sampled.
hold-time.require-presence	true	Only accrue hold-time while the owner is carrying the egg or near the placed egg. (With rewards.carried-only on, near-placed time feeds the staleness refresh but not rewards.)
hold-time.presence-radius	16	Blocks from the placed egg that count as the owner being "with it".
respawn-countdown.enabled	true	Use a timed contest window instead of an instant respawn.
respawn-countdown.duration-seconds	300	Length of the countdown.
respawn-countdown.warn-at-seconds	[300,60,30,10,5,4,3,2,1]	Seconds-remaining marks that broadcast a warning.
respawn-countdown.abort-on-owner-return	true	Keeper logging in cancels the countdown.
respawn-countdown.tick-sound	minecraft:block.note_block.pling	Sound played at each warn mark.
strict-ownership.enabled	false	Master switch for transfer alt/inactivity checks.
strict-ownership.min-receiver-active-days	7	Receiver idle longer than this → flagged on transfer.
strict-ownership.check-ip-alts	true	Use IP-link checks and group-aware last-seen.
strict-ownership.auto-enforce-ip-links	false	If true, an alt hand-off won't reset the respawn timer (pins the inactivity clock to the previous keeper's last activity).
strict-ownership.max-ip-group	8	Ignore connection codes shared by more than this many accounts (shared/public connections like phone networks or VPNs). 0 = no cap.
strict-ownership.ip-hash-salt	auto	Auto-generated secret used to scramble IPs into codes. Never change or share.
inbox.enabled	true	Enable the staff alert queue.
inbox.notify-on-join	true	Tell admins their unread count on join.
inbox.max-entries	200	Cap on stored alerts (oldest evicted).
history.max-entries	1000	Cap on stored history entries.
announce.*	—	Respawn chat/title/sound (see block above).
messages.*	—	All player/staff strings (MiniMessage, prefixed).
log-blocks-to-history	true	If false, blocked attempts are not logged (nudges remain).
end-world-name	""	Force a specific End world; blank auto-detects.

Data files

config.yml holds settings. State lives in separate files so a config reload never clobbers it: data.yml (egg owner/location + history + the current reward tier), players.yml (scrambled login-IP codes + last-login per player), inbox.yml (the alert queue), and victors.yml (lifetime hold-time, Dragonlord status, and per-player cosmetic toggles). All are written atomically (temp file then swap).

Optional plugin integrations

DragonReign runs fine on its own. These plugins, if present, are used automatically and are never required:

• PlaceholderAPI — registers a dragonreign expansion: %dragonreign_title% (a Dragonlord's title, or empty), %dragonreign_is_victor% (true/false), and %dragonreign_reward_tier% (the egg owner's current reward tier). This is how the title reaches nameplates, chat, and the tab list.
• LuckPerms — optional: when victor.luckperms-meta is on, a Dragonlord's title is also written as a LuckPerms meta value (dragonreign-title) for LuckPerms-based prefixes. Off by default so it won't touch existing prefixes.
• CMI / EssentialsX — if installed, their away (AFK) status is used so reward and Dragonlord time pause correctly. Without either, a built-in movement check is used.

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FAQ

Does this store my players' IP addresses? No. When strict ownership's IP checks are on, the plugin reads the login IP only to turn it into a scrambled, one-way code, and saves only that code in players.yml. The real address is never written to disk. The scrambling secret is made randomly on first run, so the codes can't be turned back into addresses and don't match across servers. If you find the feature unnecessary, leave strict-ownership.enabled: false (the default).

Why does strict ownership only flag alts instead of blocking them? Because IP matching is genuinely unreliable. People sharing a house, a dorm, school or office Wi-Fi, a phone network, or the same VPN will all look "linked" despite being different people. Auto-blocking those would punish innocent players. So the safe default is to post a staff-inbox alert and let a human judge. If you understand the trade-off you can set auto-enforce-ip-links: true, which stops an alt-to-alt hand-off from resetting the inactivity timer (it never deletes anyone's egg on its own). Even with enforcement off, the group-aware last-seen still quietly protects you: alts on one connection can't keep the egg alive once the real person stops logging in.

What are the limits of the IP/alt detection? Two big ones, both inherent to IP matching — know them before you rely on it:

• Off-network alts evade everything. An alt on a different connection (phone hotspot, a VPN, a second house) is not IP-linked, so handing it the egg is treated as a normal transfer and resets the inactivity clock. Strict ownership cannot catch this; it only sees same-IP relationships. DragonReign does add a couple of extra checks that don't rely on IP — it flags a transfer to an account that was dormant before the hand-off, and flags a rapid back-and-forth juggle (the egg bounced straight back between the same two accounts within 24h) — but a patient off-network juggle will still slip through. Treat strict ownership as a tripwire, not a wall.
• Shared IPs can extend egg life, not just shorten it. Because group-aware last-seen takes the newest login across an IP group, an inactive keeper who logs in once through a busy shared connection (phone network, VPN, or school/office Wi-Fi) would otherwise inherit strangers' recent logins forever and never lose the egg. max-ip-group (default 8) defends against this by ignoring any connection code shared by more than that many accounts — a sign of a public/shared connection rather than a real alt ring. Lower it on a server where players are mostly on unique connections; raise it (or set 0) only if you understand the immortality risk.

What's the "proxy hold" trade-off with the countdown? The countdown deliberately gives players a window to gather at the End and contest the egg, rather than respawning it the instant the keeper times out. The upside is dramatic, fair PvP over the egg; the downside is that the egg's fate is decided in a short live window — if nobody shows up, it simply respawns unclaimed on the fountain. If you'd rather it respawn instantly with no contest, set respawn-countdown.enabled: false.

Can someone abort another player's countdown by logging in? No. Only the absent keeper (or, when check-ip-alts is on, one of their IP-linked alts) aborts the countdown by returning. An unrelated player joining does nothing to it.

The countdown disappeared after a restart — is that a bug? No. The countdown is in-memory by design. After a restart the inactivity check simply re-evaluates on its next tick and starts a fresh countdown if the keeper is still gone. There's no saved countdown state to corrupt.

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Install

1. Drop DragonReign-1.3.5.jar into your server's plugins/ folder.
2. Start (or /reload) the server. config.yml is generated on first run (including a fresh random ip-hash-salt); data.yml, players.yml, and inbox.yml are created and maintained automatically.
3. Adjust rules live with /dragonreign gui, or edit config.yml and run /dragonreign reload.

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Building from source

You need JDK 21+ and a Paper (or Spigot) server jar for 1.21+ to compile against.

1. Drop a server jar into libs/ named paper-server-26.1.2.jar (or edit the path at the top of build.sh to match yours). It isn't bundled — Mojang/Paper licensing, and it's too big for the repo.
2. Run:

bash build.sh

It compiles with --release 21 and produces build/DragonReign-<version>.jar (the version comes from plugin.yml, so the jar name can never drift from what the plugin reports). A green build prints BUILD OK.

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How it stays correct

• Protection listeners run at HIGHEST and cancel; tracking listeners run at MONITOR and only observe — the two concerns never tangle.
• Bundle insertion is over-blocked on purpose: any click that would bring a dragon egg and a bundle into contact is cancelled. A false positive is a minor annoyance; a false negative would be a permanent dupe/hide exploit.
• Closing a menu with the egg on your cursor and a full inventory used to vaporize it (vanilla's overflow-drop met the no-drop cancel, and a cancelled cursor-drop restores to nowhere). The close is now intercepted and the egg handed straight back — and a watchdog on the hold-time ticker restores the egg and alerts staff if any deletion path we haven't met yet ever makes it vanish while "held".
• All world/inventory mutation happens on the main thread. The only off-thread work is the periodic save, which snapshots state on the main thread first and then writes the YAML asynchronously.
• Blocked-attempt logging and nudges are throttled per player so a hammering hopper or a spam-clicker can't flood the log or chat. The cancellation itself is never throttled.
• Ownership transfers (place / pickup / /giveegg) all funnel through a single data-store hook, so strict-ownership evaluation lives in exactly one place rather than being duplicated across listeners.
• Only one respawn countdown runs at a time; a firing guard makes the natural zero-tick and an admin respawn force mutually exclusive, so the egg can never respawn twice from the same countdown.
• The three saved files each save through one atomic temp-then-swap helper with per-file locking, so concurrent or crashing writers can't leave a half-written file. Snapshots are taken on the main thread and drained by a single-thread writer in submission order, so a slow earlier save can never be overtaken and persist stale state.
• On enable the plugin reconciles the tracked egg: if data.yml says an unowned egg should sit at a known block but the block is missing (e.g. a crash landed between the data save and the world's autosave), it re-places it so the unique egg can't be stranded.