Minecraft plugin ExcellentCrates

🔌 About ExcellentCrates

ExcellentCrates is a Minecraft plugin for Spigot/Paper servers that implements a full-featured crates (lootbox) system. It focuses on configurable crate types, key management (virtual and physical), and flexible reward definitions that server administrators can manage primarily through an in-game GUI editor.

🎯 Purpose

The plugin solves the problem of creating, configuring and presenting crate-based rewards on a server without requiring manual file edits. It is intended for server owners and administrators who want to run reward crates (for events, daily rewards, monetized features, or player progression) while keeping configuration and previews accessible in-game.

⚙️ Features

• In-game GUI editor to create and manage crates, keys and rewards.
• Support for physical and virtual keys (virtual keys prevent trading/sharing).
• Built-in holograms and particle effects for crate blocks (optional plugins may be required for some hologram features).
• Crate Blocks: link crates to physical blocks/zones for in-world crate interaction.
• Custom preview GUIs and custom opening GUIs per crate.
• Reward types: item rewards and command rewards.
• Bundle support: multiple item stacks per reward (documented limit up to 27 items per item reward) and unlimited commands per command reward.
• Rarities and weights for reward chance balancing.
• Milestones and mass-open functionality.
• Open cooldowns and per-player open cost (economy integration implied by open cost feature).
• Permission and key requirements for crates and rewards.
• Reward limits (global and per-player) and reward broadcast/logging.
• PlaceholderAPI support indicated by official sources.

🧩 Who It Is For

• Public and private Spigot/Paper servers that use crates for events, monetization, or player engagement.
• Server administrators who prefer an in-game editor over manual YAML editing.

🏗️ Example Use Cases

• Configure a crate with rarities and weighted rewards, place a crate block in spawn, and give players virtual keys to open it.
• Create crate previews and holograms so players can inspect crate rewards before spending keys.
• Use mass-open and milestones to run limited-time events or reward active players.

⚙️ Installation

📥 Setup

• Download the official plugin JAR and place it into your server's plugins/ directory on a confirmed supported server build (Spigot or Paper).
• Restart the server and check the server console to confirm the plugin loaded.
• If the plugin requires the companion engine dependency, install the required dependency plugin (nightcore) before or alongside ExcellentCrates.

📦 Dependencies

• Required: nightcore (plugin engine) as indicated by official sources.
• Optional: ProtocolLib or PacketEvents for advanced hologram functionality; PlaceholderAPI is supported for placeholders in texts.

🧠 Technical Notes

• Confirmed supported server software: Spigot and Paper.
• Confirmed minimum server version requirement: 1.21.8 or above (as stated by the project).
• Confirmed Java requirement: Java 21 or newer.
• Folia and Forge support are explicitly not supported.
• The project repository lists a GPL-3.0 license.

🤝 When This Plugin Is Useful

If you need an in-game configurable crate system with virtual/physical keys, holograms, and flexible reward definitions (items, commands, rarities and limits) for a Spigot/Paper server, ExcellentCrates provides those features and an editor workflow that keeps most configuration manageable without manual file edits.