Beacon Buddies

Client-side Fabric mod for Minecraft 1.21.11, 26.2 and 26.3. Turn on the mode and you'll see the other players on the server who also have it enabled, glowing. A panel at the top of the screen shows their distance, playtime and blocks placed.

It works on any server: nothing to install server-side, everything goes through a small WebSocket relay.

Features

• Mutual mode: you only see players who have turned the mode on, and only they can see you. Everyone else sees nothing special.
• Glowing: an outline through walls on nearby buddies, in any of Minecraft's 16 colors.
• HUD: a single panel, with one row per player (skin head and username) and one column per stat.
  • Row order: you first (in turquoise), then your buddies from nearest to farthest.
  • The number in the title bar is the buddy count.
  • Adjustable number of rows, followed by "+N more".
  • Position at the top right, left or center. At the top right, the panel moves down below the potion effect icons.
• Distance ("Dist." column): for each buddy, green under 50 blocks, yellow under 200, red beyond that. "Other dim." in gray for those who aren't in your dimension.
• Playtime ("Session" and "Total" columns): for you and your buddies. The current session in turquoise, total playtime on this server in gray.
• Blocks placed ("Blocks" column): your number of blocks placed on the server and your buddies'.
• Team chat: a separate chat between all players on the server who have the mode on, with messages up to 2048 characters. The Minecraft server never sees these messages.
• Settings menu with a live preview of the HUD.
• The mode switches back off every time you join a server.

Installation

1. Install Fabric Loader 0.20.1 or newer for Minecraft 1.21.11.
2. Put Fabric API in your mods folder.
3. Put the Beacon Buddies .jar in your mods folder.

Every player who wants to see and be seen needs the mod.

Usage

Keys can be changed in Options > Controls, under the "Beacon Buddies" category.

The mode only works in multiplayer (not in singleplayer or LAN).

Settings

Everything is set in the menu (G) and saved in config/beaconbuddies.json:

How it works

A client mod can't talk to other clients through a vanilla server, and it only knows about nearby players. So Beacon Buddies goes through an external WebSocket relay (wss://beaconbuddies.habibiserver.dev/beaconbuddies):

1. When you join a server, the mod connects to the relay with your username, your UUID and the server address (for example play.example.net:25565). Players are grouped by server address.
2. While the mode is on, it sends your position and dimension every 0.5 seconds.
3. The relay sends each active player the list of other active players on the same server.

Positions are kept in memory only: they are never saved or logged, and they disappear when you disconnect.

No fake players

• Verified account: when you connect, the relay checks your account with Mojang, just like a premium server. The mod proves it is logged into the account it claims, without ever sending your token to the relay. So nobody can make up a player or impersonate someone else. Cracked accounts are not accepted.
• Server players only: the mod only shows a buddy, and their team chat messages, if they are in the player list (Tab) of the server you're on.

Playtime

While the mode is on, the mod tells the relay you're online (every 30 seconds). The relay works out your sessions from that and stores them:

• What is stored: the server address, UUID, username, and the start and end time of each session. Never IPs or positions.
• Who can access it: only players connected to the same server with the mode on. There is no public access.
• Retention: sessions older than 90 days are deleted automatically.
• Limitation: only time spent with the mode on is counted.

This only applies to players who have the mod and turn the mode on: other players on the server are never tracked. To have your history deleted, open an issue on this repository with your UUID.

Blocks placed

The mod doesn't count anything itself: it asks the server for your vanilla statistics (the same ones as in the Statistics menu) every 30 seconds and adds up the usage of every block. So the total includes everything you've placed on that server, even before you installed the mod.

Your total is sent to the relay, which forwards it to your buddies along with your position. It stays in memory and is not saved. You can only see blocks for players who have the mod and the mode on: a client has no way of knowing who placed a block.

Team chat

While the mode is on, two tabs appear above the chat bar (T). They are two separate chats, each with its own messages and history:

• Global: the server's normal chat.
• Team: the team chat. What you type goes to the other players who have the mode on, without going through the server. Commands (/...) always go to the server.

The chat shown on screen, even when closed, is the one from the selected tab. The other tab shows the number of unread messages, for example "Team (3)".

Messages go through the relay, which forwards them immediately without saving them. There is no history: when you turn the mode on, you only see messages sent from that point on. The relay limits you to 5 messages every 5 seconds.

Good to know

• Visible positions: anyone with a Minecraft account who knows a server's address can see the position of players who turned the mode on there and read the team chat, even without being on that server. Only turn the mode on if you're fine with that.
• Glowing limited to nearby players: glowing only shows on players loaded around you. Buddies farther away stay visible in the HUD, with their distance.
• Same address required: two players who join the same server using two different addresses (a domain and its IP, for example) won't see each other.
• Server rules: seeing players through walls may be forbidden on some servers, even between friends. Check the rules before using it.