BusyBubble

A thought bubble appears above your head when you open menus - visible to other players but not to you. Like a little "…" cloud that lets everyone know you're busy rummaging through your inventory/menu.

What It Does

When you open your inventory, a chest, the map, or any other menu, a comic-style thought bubble pops up above your character's head. Other players nearby can see it, but you can't see your own - so it's a natural social cue without cluttering your own screen.

Each menu type has its own unique ellipsis art, and the bubble plays a smooth intro animation (small cloud puff, medium cloud puff, then the full thought bubble fades in) before looping.

Detected Menus

Inventory (Tab) - backpack/equipment screen [Inventory]
Containers - chests, crafting benches, furnaces, etc. [Container]
Map - world map overlay [Map]
Pause Menu - escape menu (singleplayer only) [Paused]
Custom Mod Pages - menus from other mods [Menu]

The bubble clears automatically when you close the menu or move.

How It Looks

You open a menu
A small cloud puff appears above your head
A medium cloud puff follows
The full thought bubble fades in with an animated ellipsis (…)
The ellipsis loops until you close the menu or walk away

Other players within range see the whole sequence. You don't see your own bubble at all.

Commands

/bbub - Toggle busy bubbles on/off for yourself
/bbub color - Open the color picker GUI (live bubble preview)
/bbub color #RRGGBB - Set a custom bubble color via hex code
/bbub color reset - Reset to default beige
/bbub status - Show your current state and tracking info
/bbub range - Show current visibility range
/bbub range <blocks> - Set how far away players can see bubbles (default: 40)
/bbub anim on|off - Toggle animated vs static bubble (default: on)
/bbub debug - Toggle seeing your own bubble (for testing)
/bbub help - Show all commands

Good to Know

You can't see your own bubble - only other players can. Use /bbub debug if you want to see it yourself for testing.
Cooldown - there's a short cooldown between bubbles to prevent visual overlap when rapidly opening/closing menus.
Pause menu - only triggers in singleplayer since multiplayer doesn't actually pause the game.
Movement clears - walking even half a block will dismiss the bubble, so it only shows while you're standing still in a menu.
Static mode (/bbub anim off) - shows all 3 dots immediately instead of animating them one by one. The trade-off: no animation, but the bubble fades away much faster when you close the menu (~1.5s vs ~5s) and has a shorter cooldown (1s vs 4s).

Compatibility

Works standalone, no dependencies required

Current Limitations

Alt+Tab not detectable (packet)
Chat menu / opening chat is not detectable (packet), but sending a chat message is (but that's not what I want, so it's discarded for now).
There isn't a "kill particle" call/event that I could find - particles play out their full animation before expiring.

Installation

Download the JAR file
Place in your Hytale mods folder: %APPDATA%\Hytale\UserData\Mods\
Launch the game

Credits

Created by BeyondSmash
Testing: Advocaite

Support

Found a bug or have a suggestion? Join our Discord!

Changelog

v1.2.0 - Custom Bubble Colors

New Features:

Color Picker GUI (/bbub color) - interactive color picker with a live bubble texture preview that recolors in real-time
Custom bubble colors - set any color via the GUI or /bbub color #RRGGBB, reset with /bbub color reset
Grayscale recolorable textures - bubble art is now tinted at runtime, supporting unlimited color options

v1.0.3

Fixed think bubbles to be unlit so they stay visible regardless of world lighting

v1.0.2 - Idle/Sleepy Detection

New Feature:

Players who are completely idle for 5 minutes (no movement, no key presses, no interactions) will now display an idle thought bubble (EllipsisThought_Base) with a "Sleepy" particle floating above it

v1.0.1

Raised bubble position - bubble now sits higher above the player, no longer clipping into the nameplate
Static mode (/bbub anim off) - new per-player option that shows all 3 dots immediately (no frame-by-frame animation), with a quick fade-out (~1.5s) and shorter cooldown (1s) for a snappier feel
Intro cloud puffs still play in both modes