Better MOTD

Fixes

• Fixed PER_IP_STICKY animation (frames are now truly stable per IP)
• Fixed weightedRandom(...) seed behavior
• Fixed edge cases in sticky state cleanup
• Fixed single-line MOTD normalization

Improvements

• Removed reflection from Paper integration (faster and cleaner)
• Improved random generation using SplittableRandom
• Optimized MOTD rendering and placeholder handling
• Reduced allocations and unnecessary processing

Cleanup

• Removed unused code and constants
• Simplified internal logic across multiple services

Notes

• Fully compatible with Paper 1.21.x
• No config changes required

1.5.0 - Stability & Build Refinement Update

This release focuses on build stability, runtime efficiency, and internal code cleanup. BetterMOTD is now fully formatted, warning-free, and optimized for production environments.

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⚡ Performance Improvements

• Removed redundant operations in preset selection logic
• Optimized weighted random selection
• Improved sticky state maintenance efficiency
• Reduced allocations in the server list ping hot path
• Zero compiler warnings under -Xlint:all

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🧠 MOTD Rendering Enhancements

• Static MOTD frames without placeholders are fully cached as parsed Components
• Placeholder frames are only parsed when necessary
• Improved formatting fallback detection and safety
• Cleaner and more predictable frame resolution logic

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🧹 Codebase Cleanup

• Removed redundant (int) casts and minor inefficiencies
• Simplified preset cache rebuild logic
• Cleaned up legacy branches and deprecated patterns
• Fully spotless-compliant codebase (Palantir Java Format)
• Improved internal logging clarity

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🏗 Build & Tooling

• Java 21 enforced build
• Updated maven-compiler-plugin (3.13.0)
• Spotless formatting enforced (spotless:check)
• JUnit 5.11.3 test suite verified
• Clean mvn clean verify pipeline
• Production-ready JAR output

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🧪 Stability

• All unit tests passing
• Verified reload stability
• Improved exception reporting behavior
• More deterministic preset selection behavior

1.4.0 - Performance & Cleanup Update

This release focuses on performance, stability, and simplifying the plugin configuration. Several experimental features were removed to make BetterMOTD cleaner, faster, and easier to maintain.

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⚡ Performance

• Cached MOTD frame rendering for frames without placeholders
• Optimized placeholder replacement with a single-pass renderer
• Reduced server list ping overhead and allocations
• Improved stability under high ping load

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🧹 Cleanup & Simplification

• Removed all whitelist-related features and configuration
• Removed hostname / virtual host routing
• Simplified MOTD rendering and profile selection logic
• Reduced internal complexity and removed unused code paths

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🖼 Icon Handling

• Default icon is always created and loaded
• Missing or invalid preset icons safely fall back to icons/default.png
• Improved handling of icon-related warnings

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⚙️ Configuration Changes (Breaking)

• Removed the following config sections:

  • whitelist
  • routing

• Configuration is now smaller, clearer, and easier to manage

🩹 BetterMOTD 1.3.0 - Update

🛠 Improvements & Fixes

• Fixed MOTD color and gradient rendering on Paper servers
• Improved MiniMessage compatibility and legacy fallbacks
• Reworked player count handling to avoid unsupported API usage
• Increased stability of server list ping logic
• Added safer fallbacks and warning-based error handling

🩹 BetterMOTD 1.2.0 - Patch Update

🎨 Color & MOTD Fixes

• Fixed incorrect handling of HEX colors and gradients
• Full compatibility with Birdflop RGB presets
• Correct parsing of MiniMessage, legacy (§ / &), and JSON MOTD formats
• Removed broken and non-working animation logic

🛡 Stability & Safety

• Improved config validation with safe fallbacks
• Plugin no longer throws exceptions on invalid configs
• Warnings are logged instead of crashing the plugin
• Added reliable default preset fallback

🧹 Cleanup

• Removed experimental and unused configuration options
• Simplified MOTD processing pipeline
• Reduced internal complexity for better maintainability