Nexal Towers

A survival-friendly tower defense system with 10 tower types. Offensive towers attack enemies, support towers heal and feed you and your team, and utility towers farm, collect items and XP, and warn you about intruders. Each tower has its own upgrades bought with Vault money, uses themed ammo that server owners can switch off per tower, and drops as an item with its ammo, upgrades and stored items when it is broken.

Features

10 Tower Types - Arrow, Tesla, Laser, Slow, Regen, Food, Alert, Crop, Collector and XP
Per-Tower Upgrades - Two or three upgrades per tower, bought with Vault money at prices set in config or in game
Toggleable Ammo - Arrows, redstone, glowstone dust, soul sand, golden apples, bread and bone meal; switch ammo off per tower
Owner-Only Towers - Only the owner opens a tower's menu or breaks it (nexaltowers.bypass.break for staff)
State Preservation - Breaking a tower drops it as an item that keeps its ammo, upgrades and stored items
Explosion Protection - TNT, creepers and other explosions leave towers standing; pistons, fire, water and endermen cannot move or remove them either
Collector That Keeps Items Intact - Collected items keep their names, enchantments and contents; shop display items are left alone
Alert Tower - Warns the owner (and optionally their team) in game when an enemy comes near, and posts to a Discord webhook
Team Integration - Factions, Towny and BetterTeams: towers never attack allies, support towers only help them
Safe Targeting - Creative, spectator and vanished players are never targeted
Craftable Towers - Shaped recipes for every tower, toggled and edited in game with a 3x3 editor
Admin Hub - Settings, ranges, upgrade prices, giving towers, recipes and data export in one GUI
Tower Limit - Cap the towers per player
Holograms - Live stats above each tower, text set in messages.yml
Dual JSON/SQL Storage - data.json or MySQL/MariaDB, with export and import to move between them
Chunk-Based Activation - Only towers in loaded chunks run; towers in worlds that load later are kept and placed when the world loads

Technologies

Paper API 1.20.1+ (Spigot compatible) - Minecraft server API
Utilizer - Configuration, messages, GUIs, tasks, holograms
ACF - Command framework
nexal-core - JSON and SQL persistence (MariaDB/MySQL), help menu
Vault - Economy for upgrades (optional)
Factions, Towny, BetterTeams - Team detection (optional)

Tower Types

Offensive Towers

Tower	Block	Range	Ammo	Upgrades (default price)
Arrow	Dispenser	20	Arrows	Fire Rate ($1,000), Flaming Arrows ($2,000), Homing Arrows ($3,000)
Tesla	Lightning Rod	20	Redstone	Chain Lightning ($1,500), Damage Boost ($2,500)
Laser	Redstone Lamp	25	Glowstone Dust	Target Count ($2,000), Piercing ($3,000)
Slow	Soul Sand	15	Soul Sand	Effect Duration ($1,000), Weakness ($2,000)

Support Towers

Tower	Block	Range	Ammo	Upgrades (default price)
Regen	Beacon	15	Golden Apples	Heal Boost ($1,500), Cleanse ($2,500)
Food	Hay Block	15	Bread	Feed Boost ($1,000), Saturation Boost ($2,000)

Utility Towers

Tower	Block	Range	Ammo	Upgrades (default price)
Alert	Bell	25	None	Health Scanner ($1,500), Gear Scanner ($2,500), Visual Tracker ($3,500)
Crop	Composter	10	Bone Meal (off by default)	Harvest Speed ($1,000), Auto Bone Meal ($2,000)
Collector	Hopper	10	None	Pickup Speed ($1,500), Auto Sort ($3,000)
XP	Enchanting Table	15	None	XP Multiplier ($2,000), Mending Aura ($4,000)

Arrow and Slow towers can target players, hostile mobs or both (set in their menu). Tesla and Laser towers target players only.

Ranges and prices are the defaults; both can be changed in game or in config.yml.

Commands

Player Commands

Command	Description	Permission
`/towers`	Show the help menu	None
`/towers help [page]`	Show the help menu	None
`/towers list`	List all tower types	`nexaltowers.list`
`/towers info`	Info about the tower you are looking at	`nexaltowers.info`

Admin Commands

Command	Description	Permission
`/towers admin`	Open the admin hub (console: list the admin commands)	`nexaltowers.admin`
`/towers admin help [page]`	List the admin commands in chat	`nexaltowers.admin`
`/towers admin give`	Open the tower give menu	`nexaltowers.admin`
`/towers admin give \<player> \<type>`	Give a tower to a player	`nexaltowers.admin`
`/towers admin recipes`	Manage crafting recipes	`nexaltowers.admin`
`/towers admin export`	Export every tower to `export/towers_placed.json`	`nexaltowers.admin`
`/towers admin import`	Import towers from `export/towers_placed.json`	`nexaltowers.admin`
`/towers admin reload`	Reload config, messages and recipes	`nexaltowers.admin`

Permissions

Permission	Description	Default
`nexaltowers.list`	List all tower types	true
`nexaltowers.info`	View tower information	true
`nexaltowers.admin`	Admin hub and all `/towers admin` commands	op
`nexaltowers.bypass.break`	Break towers owned by other players	op
`nexaltowers.bypass.limit`	Place more towers than `towers.max_per_player`	op
`nexaltowers.*`	All permissions	op

Configuration

config.yml

storage:
  type: json            # json or sql
  sql:
    host: localhost
    port: 3306
    database: minecraft
    username: root
    password: ""

towers:
  max_per_player: 0              # 0 = unlimited
  auto_save_interval: 5          # minutes between saves of ammo use and statistics
  damage_owner: false            # offensive towers also attack their owner
  work_while_owner_offline: true # towers keep working while the owner is offline

ammo:                            # requires_ammo: false lets a tower work without ammo
  arrow:
    requires_ammo: true
  tesla:
    requires_ammo: true
  laser:
    requires_ammo: true
  slow:
    requires_ammo: true
  regen:
    requires_ammo: true
  food:
    requires_ammo: true
  crop:
    requires_ammo: false

ranges:                          # blocks each tower reaches
  arrow: 20
  tesla: 20
  laser: 25
  slow: 15
  regen: 15
  food: 15
  alert: 25
  crop: 10
  collector: 10
  xp: 15

upgrades:                        # upgrade prices, paid with Vault money
  arrow:
    fire_rate: 1000
    flaming_arrows: 2000
    homing_arrows: 3000
  # ... one section per tower, see the bundled config.yml

economy:
  price-format: "$%amount%"
  number-format: "#,##0.00"
  hide-zero-decimals: true       # $1,000 rather than $1,000.00

Purchases, deposits, withdrawals, placing and breaking are saved at once; ammo use and statistics every auto_save_interval minutes and on shutdown.

Settings GUI

/towers admin → Configuration sets ammo per tower, the tower limit, owner damage, offline owners, the auto-save interval, every tower range (Ranges) and every upgrade price (Upgrade Prices), without editing YAML.

messages.yml

Every message, the hologram text above each tower (holograms.\<type>) and the list output are customizable with MiniMessage gradients, & codes and &#RRGGBB hex, plus sounds and titles. Messages added in an update are used from the plugin's own copy until you add them to your file, so an older messages.yml keeps working.

recipes.yml

A shaped recipe per tower plus a master switch. Changes to the file apply without a restart.

Database Schema

With storage.type: sql the plugin creates one table. With JSON storage the same records live under towers_placed in data.json.

`towers_placed`

Column	Type	Key	Description
`id`	VARCHAR(36)	PK	Tower UUID
`world`	VARCHAR(64)		World name
`x`, `y`, `z`	DOUBLE		Block position
`yaw`, `pitch`	FLOAT		Stored rotation
`owner`	VARCHAR(36)		Owner UUID
`tower_type`	VARCHAR(32)		Tower type ID (`arrow`, `collector`, ...)
`placed_time`	BIGINT		When it was first placed (epoch ms)
`state`	MEDIUMTEXT		Ammo, upgrades, statistics and stored items as JSON

Key Legend: PK = Primary Key

Towers from versions up to 1.0.2 (towers.json) are moved into the configured storage on the first start, and the old file is renamed to towers.json.migrated.

Installation

Download the plugin JAR
Place it in the plugins folder (Vault and an economy plugin are needed for upgrades)
Start or restart the server
Adjust config.yml or use /towers admin → Configuration
Apply file changes with /towers admin reload

To move from JSON to SQL: /towers admin export, set storage.type: sql and the connection, restart, then /towers admin import.

How It Works

Obtaining and Placing Towers

Craft them (every tower has a recipe), or get them from /towers admin give
Place the tower block; it starts working at once
A protection plugin that blocks the placement also blocks the tower

Using a Tower

Right-click your tower to open its menu: deposit and withdraw ammo, switch it on or off, set its targets, and open its upgrades
Only plain items count as ammo; renamed or custom items of the same material are never taken
Withdrawing gives only what fits in your inventory; the rest stays in the tower

Breaking a Tower

Only the owner (or a player with nexaltowers.bypass.break) can break it
It drops as an item that keeps its ammo, upgrades and stored items; placing it restores them
An open menu on a broken tower closes, so nothing can be taken out twice
Explosions leave towers standing
Pistons, fire, flowing water or lava and endermen cannot move or remove a tower block
If a tower's block disappears some other way (WorldEdit, another plugin), the tower drops as its item within a second

Features​

Technologies​

Tower Types​

Offensive Towers​

Support Towers​

Utility Towers​

Commands​

Player Commands​

Admin Commands​

Permissions​

Configuration​

config.yml​

Settings GUI​

messages.yml​

recipes.yml​

Database Schema​

towers_placed​

Installation​

How It Works​

Obtaining and Placing Towers​

Using a Tower​

Breaking a Tower​