Soul Link Challenge Runs

By
qwasdf

Cooperative challenge runs for a Fabric dedicated server, inspired by the Soul Link format and similar co-op challenges. Players share health, hunger, and saturation; any participant's death ends the run, and defeating the Ender Dragon wins.

Cooperative challenge runs for Fabric dedicated servers and integrated single-player/LAN worlds, inspired by the Soul Link format and similar co-op challenges. Shared health, hunger, and saturation are enabled by default and can be disabled for future runs; defeating the Ender Dragon wins.

Each run uses fresh, seeded Overworld, Nether, and End worlds while players stay connected in a persistent lobby. Terra Rasa handles world preparation and replacement and is bundled in Soul Link's mod jar. Its README explains how canonical replacement keeps vanilla's world behavior intact.

Features

Shared vitality: all active participants share one health, food, and saturation pool. Damage and food changes add together; simultaneous healing only applies the largest individual heal, so the team cannot multiply regeneration.
Optional unlinked vitality: operators can use /soullink rules sharedVitality false to let players keep their own health, food, and saturation in the next run. This leaves world preparation and swaps active.
Run outcomes: with shared vitality enabled, any participant death or an empty shared health pool ends the run in defeat. With it off, normal worlds allow vanilla respawns; vanilla hardcore ends after every participant is eliminated. Operators can enable Soul Link Hardcore to end on the first death regardless of shared vitality. Killing the Ender Dragon wins. After victory, players remain in the world and can use vanilla's exit portal and credits.
Fresh worlds without reconnecting: a persistent lobby holds players during the swap. Runs use new seeds and vanilla dimension identities; world generation and modded biomes work through the normal registries.
Background preparation: the next run's spawn area and optional pregeneration work are prepared while the current run is played. /soullink start and /soullink reset do not wait for the full pregeneration radius.
Run timer and records: the timer counts only while a participant is online. Run count, victories, and best victory time persist with the world.
Late join and restart recovery: by default, a new player joining a live run is reset to its baseline and enters that run. Existing participants resume their run after a disconnect or server restart.
Optional shared potions: when enabled, ongoing effect gains, upgrades, removals, and expirations are mirrored to teammates. Instant healing and damage already flow through shared vitality.
Optional half-heart runs: limit participants and the shared health pool to one health point, with player max health restored when they return to the lobby.
Operator controls: pause the run timer without pausing gameplay, toggle vanilla natural regeneration, and configure optional pregeneration.
Server-owned gameplay: the host needs Soul Link installed for dedicated or integrated servers. LAN guests can connect with vanilla clients.

Playing

Command	Access	What it does
`/soullink help`	Everyone	Show command help and permissions.
`/soullink start`	Everyone	Start the prepared run, or prepare one and start automatically when it is ready. The first run on a new server starts automatically.
`/soullink reset`	Everyone	Abandon the current run and start a fresh one.
`/soullink info`	Everyone	Show run state, time, shared vitality, and next-world phase.
`/soullink status`	Operators	Show readable lifecycle, preparation, and failure details.
`/soullink stop`	Operators	End the run and return everyone to the lobby.
`/soullink pause` / `/soullink resume`	Operators	Pause or resume only the run timer; gameplay continues.
`/soullink setup`	Operators	View pregeneration and the future-run pool. `/soullink setup pool <futureRuns>` sets a pool of 1–3; `/soullink setup pregen <dimension> <radiusBlocks>` sets that dimension's radius.
`/soullink prepare [seed\\|random] [preloadRadius]`	Operators	Replace queued ready runs with a new preparation. Wait for any current preparation to finish first. Omitting the seed chooses one randomly; omitting the radius uses the configured default.
`/soullink rules sharedVitality <true\\|false>`	Operators	Link or separate health, food, and saturation starting next run.
`/soullink rules soulLinkHardcore <true\\|false>`	Operators	End the next run on any participant's first death, even with shared vitality off.
`/soullink rules sharedPotions <true\\|false>`	Operators	Set whether shared potions are enabled for the next run and save the setting.
`/soullink rules naturalRegeneration <true\\|false>`	Operators	Change vanilla's `naturalRegeneration` game rule immediately.
`/soullink rules halfHeart <true\\|false>`	Operators	Set max health and shared health to 1 HP starting next run.

All mod commands are grouped under /soullink. Machine-readable status is available through /soullink debug lifecycle when debugCommands is enabled. Players can read the gameplay guide for the lobby, run states, shared-pool rules, joining, and end conditions.

Configuration

config/soullink.json is created on first start. These are its default settings:

Setting	Default	Purpose
`resettableDimensions`	Overworld, Nether, End	Dimensions replaced for each run; add registered mod or datapack dimensions that belong to the run.
`persistentDimensions`	`soullink:lobby`	Dimensions that activation must keep loaded and never replace. Must include the lobby.
`preloadRadius`	`6` chunks	Spawn area loaded before a run can start.
`pregeneration`	Overworld `500`, Nether `96`, End `160` blocks	Background area generated around the run spawn or End island. Use `{}` to disable it.
`preparedRunPoolSize`	`1`	Number of prepared future runs, from `1` to `3`, excluding the active run. Change it with `/soullink setup pool <futureRuns>`.
`preparationTimeoutSeconds`	`900`	Limit for preparation up to a usable spawn.
`drainTimeoutSeconds`	`60`	Time allowed to drain and close old levels during activation.
`autoPrepare`	`true`	Fill the configured prepared-run pool. The first run starts automatically once its spawn is ready; later runs wait for `/soullink start`.
`allowLateJoin`	`true`	Admit new players into an active run; otherwise they wait in the lobby.
`sharedVitality`	`true`	Share or separate health, food, and saturation. The operator command saves the next-run value.
`soulLinkHardcore`	`false`	End a run on the first participant death, independent of shared vitality. Applies to the next run.
`sharedPotions`	`false`	Mirror ongoing status effects between participants. Applies to the next run.
`halfHeart`	`false`	Give each participant and the shared pool 1 HP starting next run.
`debugCommands`	`true`	Register operator-only `/soullink debug` diagnostics.

See the configuration guide for valid ranges, custom dimensions, and which settings can change while the server is running.