Christmas Season

[2.4.0] - 2026-09-22

Reliability and feature release: major backup and biome-safety fixes, thread-safe biome tools, restart-safe tracking, a full English language pass, and several long-requested features.

Added

• Schedule (schedule.*) - the event activates and deactivates itself by date; windows may span New Year (12-01 → 01-06); acts on transitions only so a manual /xmas off is respected until the next transition
• Advent calendar - /advent opens one door per player and day (advent.*): default items, a weighted random pool, per-day overrides, console commands, optional catch-up of missed days; claims in data/advent.yml, reset each year; AdventClaimEvent
• Multiple snow worlds - snowWorlds list next to the legacy snowWorld; all managers, cleanup, adoption and the snowstorm honour every listed world
• Biome exclusion zones (biome.exclude.*) - rectangles, WorldGuard region IDs (id or world:id) or all GriefPrevention claims are skipped by the biome bubble and by convert-all
• /xmas biome convert-all [radius] [world] confirm - budgeted conversion of every generated chunk around spawn (for maps); cancel stops it; progress in /xmas status
• Weighted loot entries - every loot list accepts {material, amount: "1-3", weight, name, lore, enchantments, glow} besides MATERIAL:amount; chest item counts and rare chances configurable (gifts.contents.*)
• Gift opening - first opener is recorded (data/stats.yml), /xmas stats [player], optional gifts.broadcastOnOpen, sounds/particles on spawn and open (gifts.effects.*), GiftOpenEvent; GiftSpawnEvent is cancellable
• Runtime feature toggles - /xmas feature <biome|snowstorm|decoration|gifts|wichtel|elves|snowmen|advent> on|off (persisted)
• Per-player spawn caps - wichtel/elves/snowmen.maxNearPlayer within spawning.nearRadius (0 = off, world caps unchanged)
• Permissions - xmas.advent (default true), xmas.bypass.snowmen; snowmen also ignore spectators
• PlaceholderAPI expansion %xmas_...% (active, snowstorm, days_until_start, days_left, gifts_opened, gifts_opened_total, advent_claimed, advent_today, tracked_mobs, tracked_gifts)
• API events in de.boondocksulfur.christmas.api: XmasStateChangeEvent, GiftSpawnEvent, GiftOpenEvent, AdventClaimEvent
• Announcements on activation/deactivation (announcements.*), richer /xmas status (worlds, tracked objects, snapshot chunks, restore/conversion progress, schedule, gifts opened)
• Snowstorm mode none now really leaves the weather alone (was documented but not implemented)
• biome.changeMinY / biome.changeMaxY - the Y range of biome changes is configurable (was fixed to 50-200); the snow/ice clean-up on restore is limited to the same range plus an 8-block margin, so natural altitude snow above it is left alone
• /xmas biome info - shows current and original biome, snapshot state and exclusion for the spot you stand on
• elves.lifetimeSeconds / elves.world (default to the wichtel values)
• Custom or partial language files fall back to the bundled English texts instead of [Missing: key]

Fixed

• CRITICAL: Backups were incomplete. The snapshot database runs in WAL mode; timestamp backups (/xmas off), emergency backups (server stop) and SAFE backups taken while the event was running copied only the main file and silently lost every chunk still in the write-ahead log. All copies now force a WAL checkpoint first, and the emergency backup is written after the database has been closed.
• CRITICAL: Custom biomes restored as PLAINS. Snapshots stored biome keys without their namespace, so Terralith/data-pack biomes could not be resolved on restore. New snapshots (format 0x3F) store the full key; old snapshots are still read as minecraft: biomes.
• CRITICAL: /xmas biome compare and fix-diff accessed the world from an async thread (IllegalStateException: Asynchronous chunk load! on Paper, region violations on Folia). The backup database is still read asynchronously, but every chunk comparison/restore now runs on the chunk's owning thread with biome.restore.perTick chunks in flight.
• /xmas reload (and a second /xmas on) orphaned gift chests permanently - lifetime tasks were cancelled and the tracker cleared. Stopping a manager no longer drops its tracking.
• Event objects were lost after a server restart - mobs, decorations and gift chests had no cap, no lifetime and were not removed by /xmas off. They are now recognised by their tags/markers and adopted on startup and on chunk load; /xmas off additionally sweeps all loaded chunks.
• Emergency backups piled up - one full database copy per normal shutdown, never rotated. Only the newest three are kept.
• ChunkLoadEvent bypassed the per-tick budget - every loaded chunk was snapshotted and converted synchronously, including pre-generated chunks far from any player. Chunks are now only queued when a player is within the bubble radius (Folia: handled by the per-player timer).
• Wichtel and elves deleted every dropped item in reach, including player death drops. They now only collect the plugin's decoration items (wichtel.stealOnlyDecorations: true; false allows other items but never player drops). Random hops no longer teleport mobs into blocks or off ledges.
• Spawn helper no longer falls back to the player's own position; a candidate more than 24 blocks above the player is rejected instead of a fixed Y > 100 rule (worked badly on high worlds).
• Gift chests are never placed next to another chest (no accidental double chests with player storage).
• On Folia, region tasks still in flight after /xmas off could re-convert chunks the restore had just reset (leftover snow); chunk processing now stops as soon as the event is off or a restore runs
• Snow/ice removal on restore checks the surface of every column (WORLD_SURFACE heightmap) instead of every block between Y 50 and 200 - the whole world height is covered at a fraction of the cost; fix-diff cleans snow/ice as well
• Minecraft blurs biome borders by a few blocks, so snow also fell on the edges of chunks that were never converted and were therefore never cleaned; the restore now cleans a four-block strip of every untouched neighbouring chunk
• Snapshots are stored per 4x4 biome cell (format 0x41, 16 entries per layer instead of 256) - 16x less data to compress and write per chunk; all older formats are still read
• Snow layers and ice that already existed on the surface when a chunk was snapshotted (natural or player-placed) are recorded per column and kept on restore
• Snow layers and ice placed by players while the event is active are recorded in the database (placed_columns) and kept on restore - also inside the cleaned border strips
• Grass, podzol and mycelium under removed snow layers lost their white snowy top only after a block update - the state is reset explicitly now
• Folia: chunks around a fast-moving player no longer leave gaps - every chunk seen in the bubble radius stays in a per-player queue (nearest first) until it is converted, and chunks that were not loaded yet are retried instead of being marked as done
• /xmas storm off is a hard override: it pauses the auto phases and resends clear weather even if the server flag was already off
• Region plugins are now declared as softdepend, so the WorldGuard/GriefPrevention hook is available on the first start.
• /xmas storm pulse uses the manager's pulse instead of a duplicated implementation.

Changed

• api-version raised to 1.21.3 - servers below the real minimum now refuse the plugin with a clear message instead of crashing later
• Biome writes and samples work per 4x4x4 cell (16x fewer setBiome calls per chunk)
• Chunks set with /xmas biome set are protected from the automatic bubble until the next stop/restore
• Update checker: updateChecker.enabled/notifyOps config keys, only Modrinth release versions count, notifications with clickable Modrinth/GitHub links
• New config keys: biome.restore.removeSnowLayers, biome.restore.removeIce, wichtel.stealOnlyDecorations, snowmen.lifetimeSeconds (default 600, 0 = never)
• Default language is now en
• All source comments, Javadoc, debug output and hardcoded messages are English; every player/console message goes through the language files (both files reworked, unused keys removed)
• Database statistics report MB/KB with matching units

Removed

• Empty GiftOpenListener; OrphanedMobCleanupListener replaced by TrackedObjectListener (adopt or remove)