Added

• Vault economy rewards (#15): battle winners now receive configurable currency payouts via the Vault API. Fully configured through vault-rewards.yml with per-game-mode base amounts and an optional win streak multiplier. Vault is a soft dependency: if not installed, rewards are silently disabled. Closes #15.
• New vault-rewards.yml configuration file. All settings live under a top-level economy: key with enabled, rewards (per-mode amounts), and streak_multiplier (enabled, increment, max, min_streak) sections. The bundled default ships with economy.enabled: false so a fresh install does not pay out until opted in.
• New VaultRewardService in platform-paper that hooks into Vault, listens for PvPIndexBattleFinishEvent, and deposits rewards.
• New VaultRewardConfig record for parsing and validating reward configuration from the economy section.
• New PlaceholderAPI placeholders: %pvpindex_reward_last% (last reward received) and %pvpindex_streak% (current win streak).
• New lang keys reward.received and reward.received_streak in all 6 bundled locale files (en, de, nl, es, pl, zh).
• Vault status line in the startup summary showing whether economy rewards are active.

Changed

• Console banner redesign: startup banner now displays a large ASCII art "PVP INDEX" with a Green-Yellow-Red gradient. Info line shows version, platform, and author (PVP Index).
• Shutdown message: updated to display "PVP INDEX has been disabled. Goodbye!" in red/grey styling.
• Paper 26.1.x adapter build: the paper.26.1.x version module now compiles against the stable Paper API 26.1.2.build.57-stable using the Java 25 toolchain, so the adapter builds cleanly across the supported 1.21.x to 26.1.x range.
• Upgraded maven-shade-plugin to 3.6.2 (bundles ASM 9.8+) so the relocated bStats and Jackson dependencies shade correctly against Java 25 bytecode.

Fixed

• Cross-server challenges from a lobby: challenging a player who was on a backend server (or behind another proxy) from a lobby silently timed out. Lobby servers relied on a player-location cache that went stale once a player moved to a non-lobby backend, so the challenge was routed to a node where the target was not present. The lobby now only uses the direct lobby-to-lobby Redis path when the cache confirms the target is on a live lobby node; otherwise it broadcasts the challenge over Redis to the proxies, which authoritatively resolve the target's current server and forward it. Challenges now work from any server to any server.
• Proxy challenge routing over Redis: Velocity proxies now handle inbound CHALLENGE_SEND messages over Redis (not only plugin messaging), resolving the target across all connected backends and forwarding the challenge. This removes the dependency on plugin messaging channels, which could break after a backend restarted independently of the proxy.
• SMP challenge confirmation: accepting an SMP-mode challenge through the risk-confirmation dialog did nothing because closing the inventory cleared the pending GUI state before it was read. The mode and challenge target are now captured before the inventory closes.
• Return-to-origin after a cross-server battle: players transferred to another server for a battle were left waiting on the host server for two seconds before being returned, which looked like a double teleport. They are now sent straight back to the server they came from once the battle ends.

---

Added

• Vault economy rewards (#15): battle winners now receive configurable currency payouts via the Vault API. Fully configured through vault-rewards.yml with per-game-mode base amounts and an optional win streak multiplier. Vault is a soft dependency: if not installed, rewards are silently disabled. Closes #15.
• New vault-rewards.yml configuration file. All settings live under a top-level economy: key with enabled, rewards (per-mode amounts), and streak_multiplier (enabled, increment, max, min_streak) sections. The bundled default ships with economy.enabled: false so a fresh install does not pay out until opted in.
• New VaultRewardService in platform-paper that hooks into Vault, listens for PvPIndexBattleFinishEvent, and deposits rewards.
• New VaultRewardConfig record for parsing and validating reward configuration from the economy section.
• New PlaceholderAPI placeholders: %pvpindex_reward_last% (last reward received) and %pvpindex_streak% (current win streak).
• New lang keys reward.received and reward.received_streak in all 6 bundled locale files (en, de, nl, es, pl, zh).
• Vault status line in the startup summary showing whether economy rewards are active.

Changed

• Console banner redesign: startup banner now displays a large ASCII art "PVP INDEX" with a Green-Yellow-Red gradient. Info line shows version, platform, and author (PVP Index).
• Shutdown message: updated to display "PVP INDEX has been disabled. Goodbye!" in red/grey styling.
• Paper 26.1.x adapter build: the paper.26.1.x version module now compiles against the stable Paper API 26.1.2.build.57-stable using the Java 25 toolchain, so the adapter builds cleanly across the supported 1.21.x to 26.1.x range.
• Upgraded maven-shade-plugin to 3.6.2 (bundles ASM 9.8+) so the relocated bStats and Jackson dependencies shade correctly against Java 25 bytecode.

Fixed

• Cross-server challenges from a lobby: challenging a player who was on a backend server (or behind another proxy) from a lobby silently timed out. Lobby servers relied on a player-location cache that went stale once a player moved to a non-lobby backend, so the challenge was routed to a node where the target was not present. The lobby now only uses the direct lobby-to-lobby Redis path when the cache confirms the target is on a live lobby node; otherwise it broadcasts the challenge over Redis to the proxies, which authoritatively resolve the target's current server and forward it. Challenges now work from any server to any server.
• Proxy challenge routing over Redis: Velocity proxies now handle inbound CHALLENGE_SEND messages over Redis (not only plugin messaging), resolving the target across all connected backends and forwarding the challenge. This removes the dependency on plugin messaging channels, which could break after a backend restarted independently of the proxy.
• SMP challenge confirmation: accepting an SMP-mode challenge through the risk-confirmation dialog did nothing because closing the inventory cleared the pending GUI state before it was read. The mode and challenge target are now captured before the inventory closes.
• Return-to-origin after a cross-server battle: players transferred to another server for a battle were left waiting on the host server for two seconds before being returned, which looked like a double teleport. They are now sent straight back to the server they came from once the battle ends.

---

Added

• Vault economy rewards (#15): battle winners now receive configurable currency payouts via the Vault API. Fully configured through vault-rewards.yml with per-game-mode base amounts and an optional win streak multiplier. Vault is a soft dependency: if not installed, rewards are silently disabled. Closes #15.
• New vault-rewards.yml configuration file. All settings live under a top-level economy: key with enabled, rewards (per-mode amounts), and streak_multiplier (enabled, increment, max, min_streak) sections. The bundled default ships with economy.enabled: false so a fresh install does not pay out until opted in.
• New VaultRewardService in platform-paper that hooks into Vault, listens for PvPIndexBattleFinishEvent, and deposits rewards.
• New VaultRewardConfig record for parsing and validating reward configuration from the economy section.
• New PlaceholderAPI placeholders: %pvpindex_reward_last% (last reward received) and %pvpindex_streak% (current win streak).
• New lang keys reward.received and reward.received_streak in all 6 bundled locale files (en, de, nl, es, pl, zh).
• Vault status line in the startup summary showing whether economy rewards are active.

Changed

• Console banner redesign: startup banner now displays a large ASCII art "PVP INDEX" with a Green-Yellow-Red gradient. Info line shows version, platform, and author (PVP Index).
• Shutdown message: updated to display "PVP INDEX has been disabled. Goodbye!" in red/grey styling.
• Paper 26.1.x adapter build: the paper.26.1.x version module now compiles against the stable Paper API 26.1.2.build.57-stable using the Java 25 toolchain, so the adapter builds cleanly across the supported 1.21.x to 26.1.x range.
• Upgraded maven-shade-plugin to 3.6.2 (bundles ASM 9.8+) so the relocated bStats and Jackson dependencies shade correctly against Java 25 bytecode.

Fixed

• Cross-server challenges from a lobby: challenging a player who was on a backend server (or behind another proxy) from a lobby silently timed out. Lobby servers relied on a player-location cache that went stale once a player moved to a non-lobby backend, so the challenge was routed to a node where the target was not present. The lobby now only uses the direct lobby-to-lobby Redis path when the cache confirms the target is on a live lobby node; otherwise it broadcasts the challenge over Redis to the proxies, which authoritatively resolve the target's current server and forward it. Challenges now work from any server to any server.
• Proxy challenge routing over Redis: Velocity proxies now handle inbound CHALLENGE_SEND messages over Redis (not only plugin messaging), resolving the target across all connected backends and forwarding the challenge. This removes the dependency on plugin messaging channels, which could break after a backend restarted independently of the proxy.
• SMP challenge confirmation: accepting an SMP-mode challenge through the risk-confirmation dialog did nothing because closing the inventory cleared the pending GUI state before it was read. The mode and challenge target are now captured before the inventory closes.
• Return-to-origin after a cross-server battle: players transferred to another server for a battle were left waiting on the host server for two seconds before being returned, which looked like a double teleport. They are now sent straight back to the server they came from once the battle ends.

---

Fixed

• Flight exploit before battle (#28): players who jumped while flying before a battle were launched above the arena, causing the battle to be rejected. Flight and velocity are now neutralised before teleport, and again when applying pre-battle state.
• Explosions destroying arena blocks (#29): crystal, TNT, and other explosions could break blocks in arena worlds even when allow_block_break was false in the game mode rules. Added EntityExplodeEvent and BlockExplodeEvent listeners that clear the block damage list when block breaking is disabled. Explosions still deal damage to players.

---

Fixed

• Flight exploit before battle (#28): players who jumped while flying before a battle were launched above the arena, causing the battle to be rejected. Flight and velocity are now neutralised before teleport, and again when applying pre-battle state.
• Explosions destroying arena blocks (#29): crystal, TNT, and other explosions could break blocks in arena worlds even when allow_block_break was false in the game mode rules. Added EntityExplodeEvent and BlockExplodeEvent listeners that clear the block damage list when block breaking is disabled. Explosions still deal damage to players.

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