Project
- Project
- Erethon / Papyrus
- Role
- Developer, game designer, and project lead
- Status
- Closed alpha
Configurable game systems
Erethon / Papyrus
The main technical work here is QuestsXL, a configurable scripting and content-authoring system for quests, events, world interactions, and instanced world state. Papyrus is the custom server foundation underneath it, including RPG systems and Paper fork work.
Details
- Timeframe
- 2021-present
- Team
- Around 10 volunteers
- Stack
- Java, Paper, custom plugins
- Role
- Developer, game designer, and project lead
Project note
The important part is the authoring model: much of Erethon is built as configurable systems first, so content can be changed by designers instead of requiring developer intervention for every quest, mob, event, interaction, or economy tweak.
Process timeline
Process
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Content systems
Designer-facing scripting
QuestsXL grew into a composable scripting system for quests and world events. Designers build content from actions, conditions, and objectives, with stages, callbacks, macros, runtime variables, math expressions, branching, and reusable snippets.
Quest and event content can be authored, adjusted, and extended through YAML while core behavior stays centralized and maintainable.
A compact YAML quest definition. -
QXL events
Events as scripted world systems
QXL events use the same stage/action/objective model as quests, but are bound to the world instead of one player. They can auto-start from conditions, update while active, track participation, give tiered rewards, chain into other events, and act as building blocks for larger meta-events.
Designers can build repeatable world activity without each event needing custom plugin code.
A scripted event encounter with combat objectives and world state. -
Authoring workflow
World content tools
QXL also covers the surrounding world-content workflow: world interactions, daily and weekly quest rotations, regions, points of interest, instanced areas, and client-side block-state changes through Instanced Block Collections.
The tooling is not only for individual quests; it gives designers a broader content-authoring layer for the live world.
QXL content can trigger dialogues, quests, events, world interactions, and staged world-state changes. -
QXL authoring
Reusable content patterns
The scripting layer supports macros, reusable reward snippets, runtime variables, score counters, optional objectives, manual stage progression, and command-triggered objectives. That makes it possible to build more complex content while keeping quest files readable.
QXL is less a quest plugin and more a small content scripting platform for the server.
Reusable YAML patterns keep complex content maintainable. -
Server engineering
Papyrus and the Paper fork
Papyrus is built on Paper, but maintaining a server fork is its own engineering problem: working with Git patch workflows, reading deobfuscated Minecraft and Paper source, understanding undocumented internals, and keeping custom behavior compatible with upstream changes.
This work built a better understanding of large unfamiliar codebases, Git patch maintenance, and server internals.
Papyrus and Spellbook required working across custom plugin code, Paper internals, and Minecraft server behavior. -
Server performance
NPC load testing
Papyrus also had to handle large numbers of custom NPCs without eating the server tick budget. The test here shows roughly 300 attacking NPCs while the server stayed around 3ms per tick in the measured window.
This kind of test is important because RPG systems only matter if the server can still run them under real encounter load.
NPC combat load test: around 300 attacking NPCs at roughly 3ms per tick. -
Runtime systems
Combat and skill scheduling
Spellbook schedules skill activations across server ticks to keep combat responsive while distributing load across many entities.
Combat remains understandable and fair even when many players and NPCs use abilities.
The Spellbook queue smooths skill execution under load. -
RPG systems
Item stats and RPG data
Items, stats, rarity, levels, and generated modifiers are part of the configurable RPG layer. The goal is the same as with quests and events: keep the game rules data-driven so balance changes do not require rewriting core code.
The item layer gives the RPG economy and progression systems more room to be tuned through data.
A basic generated item tooltip with RPG stats. -
Game design
Combat and economy design
Designed parts of the combat model, faction economy, progression structure, and PvP territory loop so the RPG systems had clear player-facing goals.
The design work connected custom systems to concrete reasons for players to build, fight, trade, and cooperate.
World and territory context for faction gameplay. -
Game design systems
Configurable world rules
Mobs, faction buildings, economy outputs, events, and balance values are exposed through configuration so designers can iterate on the world without rebuilding the server.
Designers can tune economy and world behavior through data while players still get the freedom of sandbox construction.
A building configuration that produces grain and affects nearby farmland.