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Safety & compatibility

What changes when you install Storia and what does not, covering how your data is handled, the effect on players, and compatibility with vanilla and plugins.

This page collects what you may want to know before installing Storia. In short: Storia's own features are built to give the same results as vanilla, and your world stays in the normal Minecraft format. You can go back to Paper or Folia at any time.

At a glance#

Question Answer
Is the world stored in a custom format? No. It stays in the normal Anvil format (region files).
Can I go back to Paper, Folia or vanilla? Yes. Use the world folder as it is.
Does terrain change? No. The same seed gives exactly the same terrain as vanilla.
What about redstone and mobs? Storia's own changes keep vanilla results. Differences come from Folia, which Storia is based on.
Is player data sent anywhere? No. Only anonymous statistics such as the server count are sent (bStats), and you can turn them off.
Do my plugins work? Only Folia-compatible plugins work.

How your data is handled#

World and player data#

  • The world, player data, advancements and statistics are saved in the normal Minecraft format and places. If you stop using Storia, take the world folder to Paper or any other server as it is.
  • In a Storia Cluster the world lives in the relay's cluster-world/, also in the normal format. To leave the cluster, put that folder on a single Storia server.
  • Files are written to a temporary file first and then swapped in, so a crash never leaves a half-written file.

What is sent to the internet#

Player names, IP addresses, chat and world contents are never sent anywhere. Only these two are sent:

What Contents How to turn it off
bStats statistics Server and player counts, Storia, Minecraft and Java versions, OS, CPU core count, single server or cluster, and whether the RAM world is on. All anonymous, sent every 30 minutes Server: enabled: false in plugins/bStats/config.yml. Proxy: enabled=false in plugins/bStats/config.txt
Version check Only when you run /version, asks GitHub whether a newer release exists Nothing is sent unless you run it

The statistics are public: Storia and Storia Proxy. Up to 26.2-4 they were reported as Folia and Velocity. Storia Relay sends nothing.

Cluster traffic#

  • All traffic between workers, the relay and the proxy is encrypted and authenticated with your secret (AES-256-GCM). The secret itself is never sent. See Encryption & security.
  • This traffic carries the whole world, including chunks, inventories and positions. Run the relay and the workers on machines you control.

Shared plugin data#

Data shared through the plugin API is stored as plain files on the relay (or in storia-shared/ on a single server), not encrypted. Plugins should encrypt secrets such as passwords themselves.

When something fails#

What happened What you get
The server process crashed Changes since the last autosave are lost, as on any server. A RAM world is recovered from the copy in RAM on the next start.
The machine lost power (with RAM world) RAM is cleared and changes since the last sync are lost. The sync interval is ram-world.sync-interval-seconds (5 minutes by default).
The relay stopped (cluster) Workers keep running, keep their writes in cluster-spool/ and send them when the relay is back. New players cannot log in meanwhile.
One worker stopped (cluster) Its players are disconnected. The world is on the relay, so they can rejoin on another worker. /stop moves players to other workers first, so they are not disconnected.
Player data could not be read from the relay (cluster) The login is refused. Storia never overwrites the player with empty data and loses their items.

In every case you still need regular backups. Back up the world on disk (the relay's cluster-world/ in a cluster).

Effect on players#

What does not change#

  • No client mods are needed. Players join with a normal Minecraft 26.2 client.
  • Terrain, blocks, items, combat and crafting are the same as vanilla. The faster world generation has been checked to give bit-for-bit the same results as vanilla.
  • In a cluster, players close to each other always run on the same server. People playing together are never split between servers.

What changes (only when busy)#

Feature When What players notice To turn it off
Tick guard One place is too busy Crowded mobs (16 or more in a chunk) react a little later. Mobs within 8 blocks of a player are unchanged. tick-guard.enabled: false
Per-player budget Moving fast (elytra and so on) in a busy place That player's view distance gets shorter and comes back when they slow down. player-budget.enabled: false
Memory guard (Per-player budget) Java heap above 85% Everyone's view distance goes down one step at a time. player-budget.enabled: false
Cluster moves Moving between workers Nothing on 26.1 and 26.2 clients. Older clients through ViaVersion may see a short loading screen. Do not use the cluster

When the server has room to spare, none of these do anything.

Compatibility with vanilla#

Storia's own changes#

Every change Storia adds is built to keep vanilla results:

  • Faster world generation: the same seed gives the same terrain and structures.
  • Faster entity pushing: pushing gives the same results.
  • Tick Guard: never touches blocks (redstone, pistons, hoppers, crops). When a place is too busy it only makes crowded mobs rethink their next action less often. Movement, gravity, water flow and collisions run every tick.

Differences inherited from Folia#

Storia is a fork of Folia, so it keeps Folia's differences from vanilla. The main ones:

  • The world is split into "regions" that run in parallel, so the order of work in distant places may differ from vanilla. You will rarely notice this in normal play, but very long contraptions that span distant places may behave differently.
  • Some commands, such as /scoreboard and /team, are not available.
  • See Folia's README for details.

Differences in a cluster#

  • Plugins run separately on each worker. Use the plugin API to share their data.
  • Time, weather, game rules, the scoreboard and maps are shared by all workers. See One world on several servers.

Compatibility with plugins#

  • Only Folia-compatible plugins (folia-supported: true in plugin.yml) work. Paper-only plugins do not.
  • A Folia-compatible plugin needs no changes for Storia.
  • See Plugin compatibility.

Trying Storia safely#

  1. Back up your current world.
  2. Start Storia on a copy of the world and check that your plugins and contraptions work.
  3. If all is well, move to production. If not, take the world back to your old server as it is.

If you find anything odd, please tell us on GitHub.