Nick

Staff play under another name and skin - to watch a suspected cheater, or just to play without being recognised. The nick is everywhere a player looks: the chat, the tab list, the name above the head, the skin, tab completion, join and quit messages, death messages. UniversalAdmin keeps the real identity in its records, and staff who may see it see it. Why it works the way it does: ADR 0025.

Commands

Command	What it does
/nick <name>	Play as <name> - with the skin of the account called that, if there is one
/nick <name> <account>	Name and skin chosen separately: the skin of <account>
/nick <name> own	Keep your own skin
/nick <name> random	A skin from nick.random-skins
/nick random	A made-up name (or one from nick.random-names) and a random skin
/unnick or /nick off	Be yourself again
/unnick <player> or /nick off <player>	End another player's nick (universaladmin.nick.others)
/nick list	Every nick shown right now, with the real name, skin and server (universaladmin.nick.see)

The commands are also /admin nick ... and /admin unnick ...; /nick and /unnick are shortcuts while commands.shortcuts is on. The same is in /admin → Nick: a random nick in one click, a form for name and skin, and - for staff who may see real names - every active nick, a click ends it.

Which names are allowed

• A valid Minecraft name: 3-16 letters, digits or _.
• Nobody may be shown under it right now - not a player online here or on another server of the network, not another nick.
• Not the name of a player who has played here (on any server sharing the database), unless nick.allow-known-names is on - so a nick never impersonates one of your players.
• Not a nick an offline player keeps for when they come back.

When a player joins whose name is somebody's nick, that nick ends: the name is theirs.

Who sees the real name

• Everyone else sees a nicked player like any other player.
• Staff with universaladmin.nick.see see the real name in the player list (a "Nick of ..." line and search by the real name), on the profile (the Nick button) and in /nick list.
• The records keep the real identity. Punishments, notes, reports, inventory edits, the player profiles and the audit log name the real player. The audit log keeps the nick in the entry's metadata (actor-nick, target-nick).
• Actions run under the real name. A nicked staff member who bans, kicks or locks the chat does so as themselves - the announcement names them. A nick hides who you are while you play, not who punished someone.
• Commands of UniversalAdmin find a nicked player by the nick and by the real name.

Across rejoins and the network

With nick.restore-on-rejoin (default) a nick stays until it is removed - leave and come back, and you arrive under the nick. Without it, a nick ends when its player leaves; switching servers in a network keeps it.

In a network the nick is stored in the shared database: it follows its player to every server, /nick list and the player list show the nicks of the other servers too, and a nick ended on one server ends everywhere.

Good to know

• Other plugins see the nick: Player#getName() returns it, so chat formats, scoreboards and placeholders such as %player_name% show the nick. Their own records (permissions, economy) stay with the player's UUID and real name.
• Vanilla commands (/msg, /tp ...) and plugins that look players up by their exact name find a nicked player by the real name, not by the nick - Paper keeps the name the player joined with for that. Plugins using Bukkit#getPlayer(name) find the nick too.
• The UUID stays the player's own; a client mod that shows UUIDs leads to the real account. Death messages lose the UUID hover of nicked players.
• A tab-list plugin still sorts and prefixes by the permission group. With TAB, UniversalAdmin TAB shows nicked players in an ordinary group.
• Proxy features (a proxy chat or tab list) see the real name.
• Changing the nick respawns you in place for a moment, so your own client shows the new skin. On join it is set before anyone sees you.

Settings

Setting	Default	Meaning
nick.restore-on-rejoin	true	A nick stays when its player leaves and comes back
nick.allow-known-names	false	Allow nicks with the name of a player who has played here
nick.skin-of-name	true	/nick <name> wears the skin of the account called that, if there is one
nick.random-names	[]	Names /nick random picks from; empty = made-up names
nick.random-skins	[MHF_Steve, MHF_Alex]	Accounts whose skins a random skin comes from; empty = own skin
modules.nick	true	Switch the whole module off (restart)

Permissions

Node	Default	Meaning
universaladmin.nick.use	op	Nick yourself
universaladmin.nick.others	op	End other players' nicks
universaladmin.nick.see	op	See the real name behind a nick

Audit log

Taking a nick (core:nick.set, the nick as new value, the skin in the metadata) and ending one (core:nick.clear) are audited.