TickGuard | In-Game Performance, Exploit Prevention & Lag Management [1.20-1.21+]

# TickGuard | In-Game Performance, Exploit Prevention & Lag Management Suite

TickGuard is an enterprise-grade, all-in-one server optimization suite designed to protect your server's performance directly from within the game engine, maintaining a stable 20.0 TPS.

Unlike traditional lag-clearing plugins, TickGuard does not blindly wipe ground items or disrupt legitimate player setups. It relies on an intelligent heuristic weighting system to identify actual lag sources and address them safely. The entire architecture runs seamlessly within a single, highly optimized, thread-safe framework without requiring external databases or background web servers.

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## Key Features

* **Master Inventory Dashboard**
Access a comprehensive 54-slot visual command center directly in-game. Monitor live system metrics and toggle performance modules without leaving the game client.
* **Rolling TPS History Graph**
The top row of the dashboard features a live, real-time timeline of server performance using color-coded glass panes to indicate system stability (Green for stable, Orange for minor strain, Red for processing dips).
* **Click-to-Teleport Hotspot Radar**
TickGuard automatically calculates an impact score for every loaded chunk based on entities and tile blocks (such as hoppers). Clicking a problematic sector in the GUI instantly teleports administrators to the exact block coordinates for investigation.
* **Packet Rate Limiter & Exploit Shield**
Actively monitors incoming network packets to intercept server-crashing clients. TickGuard instantly kicks malicious users attempting to flood the main server thread via book or movement exploits.
* **AI Chunk Freeze**
When a complex redstone circuit or massive mob farm causes a critical server load, administrators can use the GUI to freeze the entire chunk. All redstone events and mob pathfinding in that specific area are temporarily halted until un-frozen.
* **Smart Mob Stacking**
Reduces entity processing overhead by automatically merging identical mobs spawned within a specific radius into a single entity (e.g., Zombie x5). Stacked mobs retain their pooled health and drop multiplied loot upon death.
* **Dynamic View Distance**
Automatically and invisibly scales the world view distance down during peak traffic or low TPS, and restores it to default values once server performance stabilizes.
* **Low-Level OS Thread Isolation**
Utilizes Java Native Access (JNA) to lock Minecraft's main server thread directly onto the host machine's primary CPU core, preventing processor starvation from external OS background tasks.

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## Commands & Permissions

All administrative modules require the **`tickguard.admin`** permission.

* `/tickguard` (Aliases: `/tg`, `/tguard`) — Opens the main visual GUI dashboard.
* `/tg clear` — Instantly purges dropped items on the ground across all active worlds.
* `/tg reload` — Safely reloads the config.yml file on the fly without needing a server restart.

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## Default Configuration (`config.yml`)

```yaml
# TickGuard Premium In-Game Performance Setup
settings:
scan-interval-seconds: 30
auto-optimize-tps-threshold: 18.5
max-packets-per-second: 300
dynamic-view-distance: true
min-view-distance: 4
max-view-distance: 10
entity-culling-range: 32
max-fluid-updates-per-chunk: 500
os-optimization:
isolate-main-thread-cpu-core: true
mob-stacking:
enabled: true
max-stack-size: 50
merge-radius: 4.0
thresholds:
warning-score: 80
critical-score: 150
messages:
prefix: "<dark_gray>[<dark_aqua>TickGuard</dark_aqua>]</dark_gray> "
player-warning: "<red>Warning!</red> Your current area is emitting a heavy processing load. Please optimize your setups."
whitelisted-chunks: []
frozen-chunks: []
```

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## Technical Specifications

TickGuard is built natively using the modern PaperMC API and utilizes MiniMessage components for clean, efficient text formatting. Thanks to its asynchronous processing architecture, the background scans run entirely separate from the main server thread, guaranteeing zero background lag or micro-stuttering.