Ely-sky

Ely-sky

The world is the course.
Build polished Elytra time trials through the terrain and builds your server already has — without permanently filling the world with checkpoint structures.

Version: 1.0.0
Platform: Paper 26.2
Java: 25
Optional integrations: PlaceholderAPI, MiniPlaceholders, Vault, LuckPerms

About Ely-sky

Ely-sky is a Paper plugin for creating virtual Elytra time trials around an existing Minecraft world.

Traditional Elytra courses often need large physical rings, arrows, barriers, or a dedicated minigame area. Ely-sky takes a different approach: course rings, route guidance, Boost Portals, and race ghosts are shown privately to the player flying the course. To everyone else, the world stays the way it was built.

That means a course can dive through a ravine, follow a mountain pass, weave between builds, circle spawn, or turn almost any interesting part of a world into a flight challenge without permanently changing the scenery.

Players choose a course, fly it, improve their time, and optionally race recorded ghosts or compete on shared leaderboards. Multiple players can use the same course at the same time, but every run is its own independent time trial — Ely-sky does not require race lobbies, queues, teams, or synchronized starts.

What Ely-sky includes

• Private BlockDisplay checkpoint rings and particle route guidance.
• An in-world course editor with direct placement controls.
• Multiple configurable ring sizes.
• Boost Portals with adjustable size and strength.
• Precise checkpoint crossing, with race timing beginning at Ring 1.
• Missed-ring detection and quick course restarts.
• Personal bests, server bests, attempts, finishes, DNFs, averages, and time-racing statistics.
• Up to two comparison ghosts per racer.
• Personal Best, Server Best, Rival, and leaderboard-player ghost options where competition settings allow them.
• Casual and Competitive presentation modes.
• Revision-scoped records so changed course geometry does not mix old and new competitive times.
• Optional temporary loan Elytra and fireworks with crash-safe restoration.
• Configurable fall and Elytra-collision protection during active runs.
• Admin test runs that do not write attempts, records, rewards, or leaderboard results.
• Course validation, record moderation, diagnostics, and repair tools.
• Optional PlaceholderAPI, MiniPlaceholders, Vault, and LuckPerms support.
• A public Bukkit service API and race lifecycle events for other plugins.

Creating a Course

Ely-sky is designed so most of the actual route can be built while flying through the world.

1. Create the course

/elyskyadmin create Canyon Run

New courses begin closed and the editor immediately enters Start placement mode.

Stand where racers should be prepared, face the direction they should launch, and left-click to save the Start.

2. Fly the route and place rings

Once Start is set, fly the route you want players to follow.

Left-click places the next timed checkpoint ring at your current position and facing direction.

While editing:

Boost Portals are route elements rather than timed checkpoints, so placing one does not change ring numbering.

If the generated route guidance needs another pass, it can be refreshed with:

/elyskyadmin trail refresh [ring]

3. Place the Finish

When the timed route is complete, enter Finish placement mode:

/elyskyadmin finish

Move to the center of the finish, face through it, and left-click to place it.

A complete course requires a Start, at least one timed ring, and a Finish.

4. Add the course details

While the course is open in the editor, its public information can be changed without editing files directly:

/elyskyadmin rename <new name>
/elyskyadmin set description <text>
/elyskyadmin set icon <material>
/elyskyadmin set difficulty <none|easy|normal|hard|expert>
/elyskyadmin set permission <permission-node>
/elyskyadmin set competition <inherit|casual|competitive>

Use none as the permission value when the course should not require an additional access permission.

5. Finish editing

/elyskyadmin done

The course remains closed until it is deliberately opened to players.

6. Validate and test it

Before publishing, Ely-sky can check the course structure and run it through the normal race engine without touching real records:

/elyskyadmin validate Canyon Run
/elyskyadmin test Canyon Run

Test runs do not change attempts, personal bests, leaderboards, or rewards.

7. Open the course

When everything feels right:

/elyskyadmin open Canyon Run

The course is now available to players who have access to it.

Course revisions: After a course has been published, competitive geometry changes advance its revision. Existing times stay archived with the revision they were earned on instead of being compared against a changed route.

Using Ely-sky

For players, the normal entry point is simply:

/elysky

Alias:

/esky

The menu provides access to available courses, personal statistics, course details, leaderboards where enabled, ghost selection, and player settings.

Flying a course

Choose an available course and start the run. Ely-sky prepares the player at the course Start and displays a countdown.

The timer does not begin during the countdown. Timing begins when the player crosses Ring 1, so the launch itself does not become part of the recorded time.

From there:

1. Fly through each timed ring in order.
2. Follow the private particle guidance if it is enabled.
3. Fly through any Boost Portals placed along the route.
4. Reach the Finish after completing the timed rings.

If a checkpoint is positively missed, Ely-sky gives the racer a short recovery window before the run is restarted. Players can also restart instantly at any time with:

Shift + Left-click

or:

/elysky restart

To end the current run:

/elysky leave

Personal stats

Ely-sky keeps per-course statistics including:

• Best time
• Latest finish
• Average finish time
• Attempts
• Finishes
• DNFs
• Completion rate
• Total time racing
• Competitive rank when that information is enabled

Ghost racing

Ghosts are private recorded replays shown only to the racer. A player can race with up to two ghosts at once.

Depending on the course's competition mode, ghost choices can include:

• Personal Best — race your own fastest run.
• Server Best — chase the fastest eligible time on the course.
• Rival — compare against the configured competitive rival selection.
• Leaderboard Player — choose a retained replay directly from the leaderboard.

Players can configure their primary and secondary ghost preferences from the Ely-sky menu.

Casual and Competitive courses

Every course can inherit the server default or explicitly use Casual or Competitive presentation.

Casual keeps the focus on personal improvement. Personal Best and Server Best can remain visible while public ranks, player names, Rival selection, and named leaderboard pressure stay hidden.

Competitive can expose shared ranks, player identities, leaderboard ghosts, Rival selection, rank movement, and record-holder information.

Both modes use the same race engine and timing system. The difference is what competition information is eligible and visible to players.

Commands

Player Commands

Alias: /esky

Course Authoring Commands

Course Management Commands

Record and Maintenance Commands

Admin alias: /esa

Permissions

Thank You

Thank you for checking out Ely-sky.

I built it because I wanted Elytra courses that could feel like they belonged inside a Minecraft world instead of being permanently built on top of it. The terrain, landmarks, caves, mountains, and builds are already interesting — Ely-sky is just there to give players a new reason to fly through them.

If you use it on your own server, I hope you have as much fun making routes as I had building the system behind them.

Happy flying.