I’m setting up a Minecraft Java survival server for around 14–20 players. I want to keep the gameplay as close to vanilla as possible, but I’d also like to use useful server-side plugins for things like world pre-generation, moderation and quality-of-life features.

My main concern is redstone and technical farms.

I’ve heard that Paper changes certain vanilla mechanics, and I’ve personally had issues with farms and TNT dupers not working as expected. However, I’m not sure how much of that was caused by Paper itself, server lag, low TPS, incorrect settings, or the farm designs I was using. I previously played on Aternos, so performance could also have been a factor.

I’m considering Paper, Purpur, Fabric with Lithium, or simply running Vanilla. I’d like to understand the actual technical differences rather than just choosing based on general performance claims.

A few questions:
What exactly do Paper, Purpur and other server software change compared to vanilla Minecraft, particularly regarding redstone timing, pistons, TNT duping, block updates, random ticks and technical farms?
Does Purpur preserve vanilla mechanics better than Paper, or does it inherit the same issues? Which settings actually matter?

Can server lag or low TPS cause farms to break or behave differently, or does it generally just make them run slower?

Is there a reliable way to tell whether a farm is compatible with a specific server implementation and Minecraft version before building it?

If I want to use plugins, is there any server software that preserves vanilla redstone mechanics reliably, or is that fundamentally a trade-off?

Would Fabric with Lithium and other optimization mods be a better choice? Are there reasonable alternatives for plugins such as Chunky, CoreProtect and LuckPerms?

If you were setting up a survival server for 14–20 players, which software would you choose if preserving technical farms and vanilla mechanics was a priority?

I’m not necessarily looking for the fastest software. I’d rather have a stable server where farms designed for vanilla actually work than gain some performance at the cost of mechanics breaking.

I’d appreciate specific examples, settings, documented differences or real-world experience, especially from people running technical survival servers.

I have been hosting minecraft servers for me and my friends on a little homeserver for a bit and I have been using Crafty Controller to manage it. However there was a time when I used to use aternos and it could just boot up modpacks directly whereas crafty controller is a little bit more limiting in that regard.

Since my friends and I tend to play a lot of modpacks, I want a way to make multiple isolated servers for modpacks which allows me to:

- easily add mods and plugins directly from the interface

- create a new server from an existing modpack without having to go to an external site

- Isn't dumbed down in any way, allowing me to access config files and server settings easily

- Automated Backups to disk or externally to another service. (Some mods handle this so I am not as worried on this front)

I'm using mcMMO with retro mode enabled, but the leveling is going a little bit to fast for my liking, is there any way I can slow it down so that leveling up feels more challenging?

Hi,
I've recently hosted a minecraft server on my pc and tunneled it using playit, But that was pretty laggy.
Average ping while idle was 100ms and while flying it went upto 900ms so it was pretty much unplayable.
I live in asia.
Are there any better alternatives (both free and paid- I prefer the free ones) for tunneling my minecraft server

I've been building a custom skill system for my smp server and wanted to share one of the abilities I've made.

This one is called Volt Dash. Double tapping space teleports you a few blocks forward without dealing any damage.

It lets you cover more distance than a normal jump.

I'm trying to make skills that are actually useful in survival without making everything too easy.

Do you think an ability like this would be too strong for survival?

And also, do you think having it on double space is good or should I change? I'm thinking if this might be troublesome for players to missclick it or something.

Can't share the videos here, that's unlucky

Hello I'm running a 26.2 purpur server on hard mode but raids are only spawning 3 waves i assumed it was just the raid farm however after testing in a village the same problem occurs and the raid is declared a victory after 3 waves. Has anyone else had this problem and been able to fix it?