CartDebuffer

CartDebuffer

Tested on Purpur 1.21.11. Expected to work on Paper/Purpur 1.21–1.21.11.

That plugin modifies the damage players receive from TNT Minecart explosions. It allows you to test different damage balancing approaches live and choose the best one without restarting the server.

1. How It Works

The plugin listens for EntityDamageEvent events with the cause ENTITY_EXPLOSION or BLOCK_EXPLOSION. To ensure that the damage comes specifically from a TNT Minecart, rather than regular TNT or a Creeper explosion, it checks the damage source through event.getDamageSource().

If you want to disable the plugin completely and restore vanilla behavior, simply set entity-damage.enabled: false in the configuration or run /cartdebuff toggle.

2. Damage Modes

Switch modes with:

/cartdebuff mode <mode>

multiplier - Simple Multiplier

final_damage = incoming_damage × multiplier

The simplest mode. It takes the vanilla damage value and scales it by multiplier. For example, multiplier: 0.5 halves the damage. min-damage and max-damage act as safety limits.

Best for: situations where you like the vanilla damage behavior (distance scaling, explosion strength, etc.) but simply want to make it stronger or weaker proportionally.

fixed - Fixed Damage

Every TNT Minecart explosion always deals exactly damage HP, regardless of distance, the number of minecarts, obstacles, or any other factors.

Best for: highly predictable gameplay, such as PvP arenas where damage should always remain the same.

distance-falloff - Fixed Damage with Distance Falloff

The most advanced and accurate mode. Damage is calculated as follows:

1. base-damage is used as the maximum damage at the explosion center.
2. Damage decreases with the player's distance from the explosion using the selected falloff-curve:
   • linear - constant decrease;
   • quadratic - falls off more rapidly at medium distances (default);
   • exponential - drops very quickly immediately outside the close range.
3. Damage is further reduced if solid (opaque) blocks are located between the player and the explosion. Each blocking block reduces the damage by damage-reduction-per-block (percentage). This is calculated using ray tracing (ExplosionMath.countObstructingBlocks).
4. Damage will never drop below min-damage.

Best for: the most realistic and flexible model. Players behind walls or farther away receive significantly less damage than those standing nearby.

stepped-zones - Stepped Distance Zones

Instead of a smooth curve, damage is divided into fixed distance ranges. If the player is within max-distance, they receive the corresponding damage. Zones are checked in order, and the first matching zone is used.

zones:
  - max-distance: 2.0   # up to 2 blocks
    damage: 12.0
  - max-distance: 4.0   # from 2 to 4 blocks
    damage: 7.0
  - max-distance: 6.0   # from 4 to 6 blocks
    damage: 3.0
  - max-distance: 999.0 # everything beyond
    damage: 0.0

Best for: simple, predictable balancing without complex calculations.

3. General Settings (settings)

4. Commands

All commands require the cartdebuffer.admin permission (by default, only server operators have it). Tab completion is supported for mode names.

Important: the mode command immediately saves the selected mode both in memory and in config.yml (plugin.saveConfig()), so the selected mode persists across server restarts.

5. Finding the Best Mode (Practical Guide)

1. Join the server with op permissions.

2. Try each mode one by one:

   /cartdebuff mode multiplier
   /cartdebuff mode fixed
   /cartdebuff mode distance-falloff
   /cartdebuff mode stepped-zones
   

3. After manually changing values in the configuration (damage, multiplier, etc.), run /cartdebuff reload to apply the changes without switching modes.

4. Enable settings.debug: true and run /cartdebuff reload to see every damage recalculation in the console (old value, new value, distance).

5. Once you've found the mode you like, simply leave it as active-mode in config.yml (or use the mode command, which saves it automatically).