FakePresence

FakePresence

Fake players for your tab list and server list – no entities, no chunks, no lag.

FakePresence makes a quiet server look alive. It shows configurable fake players in the tab list and in the server list (player count + hover names), with realistic join/leave rotation, real skins and rank prefixes that sort correctly between your real players. Nothing is spawned in the world: everything is done through packets, so there is zero impact on TPS.

Features

• Tab list – fake players with name, ping and skin, rendered client-side via PacketEvents
• Server list – player count (real + fake + extra), custom max players, fake names in the hover list
• Realistic rotation – a random number of fakes is "online"; every few minutes one leaves and a replacement joins shortly after
• Join/leave messages – MiniMessage format, match your existing chat plugin ([+] )
• Real skins – texture list of Minecraft names, fetched once from Mojang and cached locally
• Ranks – weighted rank pool with prefix/suffix and name color; fakes can join existing scoreboard teams (LuckTAB, TAB, …) so they sort exactly like real players
• Self-healing – intercepts tab packets from other plugins that would overwrite or remove fake entries
• Server-list-only mode – disable the tab list and keep the rotating player count for the server menu
• Live commands – change count, range and timing in game, saved to config

Requirements

• Paper 26.2 (Java 25)
• PacketEvents – required for the tab list; the server list works without it

Commands

Permission fakepresence.admin (default: op). Alias /fpres.

Command · Description
/fpres list · Fake players currently online
/fpres status · Current count, range, intervals
/fpres count · Fixed number of fakes (joined/left gradually)
/fpres range · Fluctuating number of fakes
/fpres interval · Seconds between rotation events
/fpres rejoin · Seconds until a replacement joins after a leave
/fpres add [rank] · Add a fake player manually
/fpres remove · Remove a fake player
/fpres ranks / debug · Show rank config / sent display names
/fpres reload · Reload config

Configuration (excerpt)

names: [Lukas_B, Finn2009, Bergfex, Nele_Craft, ...]

tab-list:
enabled: true
min-online: 3
max-online: 7
change-interval-min-seconds: 90
change-interval-max-seconds: 400
rejoin-after-min-seconds: 10
rejoin-after-max-seconds: 60
join-message: " joined the game"
leave-message: " left the game"

server-list:
enabled: true
extra: 0
max-players: 0
show-names: true

skins:
enabled: true
sources: [Grian, Mumbo, Etho, ...]

ranks:
default:
weight: 70
team: "lt_004_default" # existing scoreboard team (see /team list)
prefix: "[Player] "
name-color: "gray"
vip:
weight: 25
team: "lt_003_vip"
prefix: "[VIP] "

Set team to a scoreboard team created by your tab plugin (check /team list) and fakes will be sorted together with real players of that rank. Leave team empty to use FakePresence's own sorting via the sort key.

Notes

• Fake players are not real players: they cannot chat, move or be interacted with, and other plugins do not see them.
• Skins are fetched only for the names you list, once, and stored in skin-cache.yml.
• No metrics, no update checks, no outbound connections except the one-time skin fetch.