Autonicker

The nick module disguises staff members with a random name, skin and – optionally – a random player rank. The real rank and all permissions stay untouched; only what others see changes. Every nick session is logged and can be traced in the dashboard.

Enabling

• Module key: nick, no dependencies (in the presets survival, lobby, minigame). See Modules & Presets.
• In addition, autonicker.enabled: true must be set (default).
• Network: set autonicker.network: true on all servers – Spigot and proxy. The proxy then manages the nick centrally and transfers name, skin and rank prefix to every server; the disguise survives server switches.
• ProtocolLib is optional: it only improves the nicked player's own view (first-person perspective). For everyone else, the disguise works without it.

Usage

The name tag only exists on servers with the lobby module. On game servers, a leftover tag is removed; there, only the command works. eternal.autonick.use has the default level Team (in-game plugin.yml: op).

Nicking as a real player

/nick <name> takes the name (in its exact spelling) and skin of a real Minecraft account. It is refused for:

• an invalid name (3–16 characters: letters, digits, _) or your own;
• a name someone is nicked as right now;
• a name that does not exist at Mojang;
• a player who has ever been on this network (by name or UUID). Nobody can pose as a real member, and the real player never collides with the nick later. With eternal.autonick.custom.known (default: admins only) such names are allowed too.

eternal.autonick.custom has the default level Team.

Rank: without one given you wear that player's real rank if they have played on the network (only possible with eternal.autonick.custom.known), else the default rank. /nick <name> <rank> picks it yourself (rank name or display name, tab completion). Allowed are the ranks a random nick can wear and your own; team and creator ranks you don't hold only with eternal.autonick.rank.any (default: admins only).

What happens when you nick

1. A random name is picked from the name pool.
2. The skin of a player from skin-pool is applied. The skins are fetched from Mojang in the background at startup; a nick takes an already loaded skin instead of waiting for Mojang.
3. With randomize-rank: true a rank is displayed (prefix, colour, tab sorting). Which one is set in the dashboard under Moderation › Nicknamen › Ränge beim Nicken: a weight per rank (0 = never) with the resulting percentage. Without a setup a nick shows only the default rank; tick further ranks there and give them a weight. Team ranks (eternal.team, * or eternal.*, also inherited), creator ranks (YouTuber, Partner, Streamer …) and gamemode packages never appear. The real group does not change. (nickable-groups/protected-groups only apply with CloudNet.)

Autonick (left-click on the name tag or /settings): you are nicked automatically when joining a server that is not a lobby.

1. Unnick: name, rank and skin come back – the real skin from the login, else from Mojang; the server then checks it really is back and sets it again otherwise.
2. Chat name, tab list and the name tag above the head show the disguise.

In-game notifications about new reports show the nickname for nicked targets, so the disguise is not blown.

config.yml

autonicker:
  enabled: true
  # true = proxy manages the nick network-wide (set on ALL servers + proxy)
  network: false
  # Only for plain Spigot (not Paper) with at least 2 servers: short reconnect
  # so your own skin becomes visible. With Paper or a single server: leave off.
  reconnect-on-nick: false

  nametag-slot: 5            # hotbar slot (1-9) for the name tag
  give-tag-on-join: true
  lock-tag-slot: true

  randomize-rank: true       # display a random rank
  hide-rank-without-cloudnet: true
  default-display: "&7{name}"     # display without rank ({name} = random name)
  append-random-digits: false     # append 1-3 digits (e.g. "Leon4")

  name-pool: [Leon, Finn, Luca, Jonas, Max, ...]
  skin-pool: [Notch, jeb_, Dinnerbone, Grumm, Steve, Alex]

  nickable-groups: [player, premium]   # empty = all except protected-groups
  protected-groups: [owner, admin, sradmin, srmod, mod, moderator, supporter, builder,
                     developer, dev, team, staff, youtuber, youtube, yt]

names.txt

The plugin folder contains names.txt with roughly 10,000 inconspicuous names (one name per line, # = comment). If the file exists, it replaces name-pool from config.yml – on Spigot and proxy. So maintain your own names there.

Nick history in the dashboard

Every nick session is stored in eternal_nick_history (UUID, real name, nickname, displayed rank, start, end).

Punishments, reports and logs always work with the real UUID and the real name.

Common pitfalls

• Nick disappears on server switch: network: true is missing on one of the servers or on the proxy.
• Your own skin does not change (first-person view): normal on plain Spigot; use Paper or reconnect-on-nick: true (only with multiple servers).
• A staff rank shows up as a nick rank: add the group to protected-groups or set nickable-groups explicitly. The names must match the group names exactly.
• No name tag in the hotbar: only on servers with the lobby module; the player also needs eternal.autonick.use. Watch out for slot collisions with cosmetics (see Lobby module).
• Real identity after a restart? Nick sessions are stored in the database; the mapping real name ↔ nick is kept across restarts.