Ladies & gentlemen, the wait is finally over.
For the past year I have been working on RewardsLite 3.0.0 which is a complete overhaul of the LitePlaytimeRewards plugin. LPR was made as a start up project for learning Spigot plugin development, it turned out pretty good for that time but overall was very poorly optimized and didn't have a lot of features it should have had from the beginning.
That is why I chose to re-write the plugin from scratch now that I have much more experiencing in both programming as well as developing Spigot plugins.

That being said, what can you expect from RewardsLite in comparison to LitePlaytimeRewards?
Let's start off with the obvious, performance. RewardsLite is miles ahead of LitePlaytimeRewards in terms of performance, especially when working with a sizable rewards pool. On top of that asynchronous programming has been used by RewardsLite taking a big load off the main thread of your server.
Another big change people have been asking for years is MySQL. Yes, RewardsLite offers data saving to both YAML files as well as a MySQL database, with more options possibly following in the future.

It would be a bit much to write a whole essay about what RewardsLite has to offer over LitePlaytimeRewards so I'll narrow it down to a list of the most notable features down below:

• Rewards:
  • Rewards are now configured one per file, not everything in a single configuration.
  • Rewards will get a unique ID assigned to them upon creation automatically. Making it possible to rename them without losing progress.
  • A display item can be configured for when a reward is counting down, has a pending claim, has already been claimed and cannot be claimed again and if the player is not eligible for it.
  • A much more detailed notification system has been made which allows multiple ways of communicating to your players that someone has received a reward or a reward is pending.
  • Allow both automatic as well as manual claiming of a reward.
  • Set a maximum amount a reward can be pending before it stops counting.
  • Set a maximum amount a reward can be redeemed before it goes inactive.
  • Disabled gaining playtime towards or redeeming rewards in certain worlds.
• Miscellaneous:
  • YAML and MySQL storage options.
  • Reset command to reset a single (or all) rewards for a single (or all) players.
  • Automatically convert LitePlaytimeRewards data (both rewards and playerdata) to RewardsLite data.
  • Added support for PlaceholderAPI and also included placeholders of RewardsLite.
  • Rewards are now ordered by pending, then by time left and then by name.
  • The way play and afk time are used has been changed significantly.

FAQ

Q: Why RewardsLite, why not keep the old name?
A: In the future I would like to add different kind of rewards to the plugin which has nothing to do with playtime. Which is why I made the name more towards general rewards and not just playtime rewards.

Q: Can I convert my LitePlaytimeRewards data to RewardsLite?
A: Yes, RewardsLite has a convert command (/rewardslite convert) which will automatically convert your LitePlaytimeRewards rewards and playerdata to RewardsLite. It also has an option to automatically convert all YAML playerdata to MySQL.

Q: How do I create new rewards?
A: Creating a new reward is as easy as copying over the reward template (minus the generated section) to a new file and configure it how you want. Afterwards either a plugin reload or server restart is required for the plugin to pick up your new reward.

Q: What is the reward UUID?
A: A reward is uniquely identifiable by its ID and only by its ID. It is automatically generated upon creating a new reward, and should not be touched or copied over to a new reward. If so, the player data for that reward will be lost for all players.

Q: Can I change the file name without my players losing progress?
A: Yes, the filename only serves one purpose for the plugin, which is what the permission for your reward will be. The exact permission of your reward can be found in the generated section of your reward file.

Q: Can I change the rewards order in the /rewards GUI?
A: At the time of writing this, no. The rewards order is hard-coded although I am planning to add a configuration for this in the future.

Q: Why did it take you so long?
A: Free time baby, all free time I had went into this plugin (and a little towards gaming).