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Player Nameplate - The Overlooked Combat Mechanic

Anyone can see your nameplate (NP) so long as you are within render distance. It can only only be hidden via sneaking; this is tedious. It's impractical to be stealthy indefinitely, shake a pursuer, or build a hidden base. What if this were a more complex system?

To start, have the NP fade away slowly under some circumstances:

  1. Standing still.

  2. Moving about 40 blocks away from a player.

  3. Losing line-of-sight to a player.

With this, you have a basis for stealth.
Certain actions would reveal your hidden NP:

  1. Player looks directly at you.

  2. You make a loud noise (fall damage, hit a mob, riding minecart, etc.)

  3. You and another player both have the same map.

  4. You are hit with a spectral arrow.

Sneaking would guarantee your NP is hidden, as it does now. This new system would be a gamerule to accommodate server instances that don't need it. I'm not saying my idea is perfectly fleshed out, but the limited system we have now needs looked at.

Tags: name tag, name plate, nametag, nameplate

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31 Comments

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  • 54
    Registered User commented
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    Good idea. At the very least, don't make them visible through several blocks

  • 39
    Registered User commented
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    This is such a good idea, I swear it would be so fantastic for PVP and multiplayer in general. Even with a gamerule, this should be the default,

  • 21
    Registered User commented
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    I think it should be a gamerule that can be toggled without cheats: /gamerule ingameplayernames true/false. We've needed this for a long time.

  • 12
    Registered User commented
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    Personally, I think it would be as simple as making it only render within like 20 blocks, and not be seen through things.

  • 9
    Registered User commented
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    Thinking about nametag opacity based on player actions, it would have to be server-side, meaning things like looking at a player increasing their nametag opacity or having nametags appear specifically to only some players might not be easy to. I really, really like this idea, though. If it's a simple enough system, it would be amazing.

  • 8
    Registered User commented
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    I like the idea of it being a gamerule, as for non-pvp situations being able to see nameplates can be a good thing.

  • 4
    Registered User commented
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    very in depth!

  • 7
    Registered User commented
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    I don't know if I'd add all these features, but the name plate is definitely something that needs to be looked at. Pun intended. Personally, I'd just keep it simple and make it disappear when sneaking or behind blocks. Perhaps having it fade when standing still for some time as well, but the rest should be covered by my minor changes and features already in the game (such as sound/subtitles, map indicators and spectral outlines).

  • 4
    Registered User commented
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    This should be toggleable as it could be annoying if you were playing coop survival

  • 4
    Registered User commented
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    Very good idea, would be a welcome change so you don't have to sneak to get rid of your nameplate.

  • 5
    Registered User commented
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    i disagree with this, I am not hating it because name tags need customization options for map makers, but I find that hiding the tag too easily destroys the point of a name tag, if you cant see a player directly you want to be able to see them through walls or know where they are, so they added the name tag like this, sneaking gives you a disadvantage to hide it so it is balanced, and also when you try hiding your name tag you are usually hiding from someone or something, and you can just crouch. Making the name tag unseeable through walls destroys the point of the name tag as they were added so you know who the players were and so you know were a player is through walls. Plus name tags are hard to see anyways from more than like 20 blocks. 

  • 3
    Registered User commented
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    I like the idea of the nameplate only showing if your crosshair is hovering over the player, and in a reaching distance?

  • 3
    Registered User commented
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    Stop please don’t add this please, crouching is good because it is balanced and makes it so hiding your tag comes with a cost, if this was in the game, it would be terribly way too easy to hide your tag and also would destroy more in the game then you think, even if this was a gamerule, bedrock edition would have to have this in survival even because bedrock can’t do commands, also this gamerule seems to only be wanted by people who prefer hiding, this destroys dynamics to many games too such as skywars and bedwars where if this was a gamerule, the tracker would be the only way to find someone, hiding your name tag should come at a cost like your speed and the dynamic is already good, name tags are already hard to see anyway so why do this. The dynamic is good, so why change it. There is no need for this, it just makes the dynamic worse and not just for 

  • 5
    Registered User commented
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    This is a great idea. I agree with some that some of the elements may be a bit complicated to implement, but if it could be done, it’d be awesome! Unfortunately, as it stands, stealth is just not a practical strategy with the current system. I feel like you should be able to sneak up on someone at a distance, from behind walls, without having to hunch over.
    Maybe this could be implemented with wider stealth changes, such as stealth attacks as some have suggested! That way, if you’re bad at PVP, but are excellent at stealth, you could gain an edge.
    As for team games, maybe it could be done so that only teammates could see your nameplate?
    Voted!

  • 4
    Registered User commented
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    good idea

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    Nelly dow this would make it a lot too easy to hide in games such as skywars or bedwars when you don’t have a tracker. Plus the current disadvantage to hiding your name tag is very fair, and name tags are already pretty hard to see. 

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    Also this “limited” system is balanced, and if something is balanced, we don’t need to fix it. Mojang updates things that hasn’t been updated for a long time, but if it’s already fine, it doesn’t need updating. You may say that it’s really annoying to crouch, but name tags are already hard to see and also hiding your tag should come with a big penalty such as speed. This would make it incredibly easy to hide your tag, and people seem to be saying this for pvp because those who are bad at pvp can gain an edge, if someone knows how to aim that wouldn’t happen, it would just make the game longer, so you would survive longer, but it wouldn’t actually make you win unless they were like a one shot, plus you can get good at pvp, even on phone, I used to play on iPad and still won around half my games at the time when I was on phones. 

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    please read my comment and consider it because i can tell you this would annoy the f out of everyone including you, so please try to understand my points. Then i hope you please remove this feedback, or edit it so its a thing with gamerules that we can edit, rather than making it a vanilla game mechanic able to be accessed without commands, plus this post literally undermines itself. Firstly because stealth should come at a price thats big, such as being slowed down. Secondly, because this would be removed from servers so it wouldn't help you win in skywars, cause thats the reason im guessing you made this post, you lost at some game, and now your pushing stealth. thirdly because since the only place this would be useful would be in a world made my you or your friend, usually that means survival, which would annoy you and your friend(s), then if it werent survival you have no reason for cheats to be off so you could install a mod or run a function that does this. No reason to annoy everyone just because your post got 100 likes by elementary school kids who don’t know how balancing works. Also you couldnt deactivate this if it were a feature because on bedrock edition which has the most players, gamerules cant be accessed without cheats. So please make this a toggleable gamerule that is off by default. 

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    Combat update v2 was made to make 1.8 players come back to newer versions, not to add random mechanics that servers wont have enabled anyway

  • 3
    Registered User commented
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    This sounds cool! I was thinking maybe as long as you aren't sprinting or jumping or getting hurt and you are over maybe 24 blocks away or so, then your NP is faded. The NP comes back as well, if you are within 8 or 16 blocks of the player. This would require you to sneak at that point. It sounds exciting XD

  • 5
    Registered User commented
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    This is a wonderful idea, and should be on by default! Stealth is a very important, but rather underpowered aspect of Minecraft that needs a buff. In PvP, the nametag is indeed a big issue, and should be more hidden. This adds more depth to PvP!

    And in survival, I hope stealth can be fleshed out better, such as using stealthier armor sets.

  • 4
    Registered User commented
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    I agree. This would be great to be added, although I think that the armor you are wearing should have an effect too. If you are wearing leather armor, if someone is 40 blocks away from you, they cant see you name tag. But in you are wearing iron armor, the distance is 50 blocks.

  • 2
    Registered User commented
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    This would add a whole new level to PVP, you would finally be able to be stealthy, and not be instantly seen and attacked. This could make a completely new play style!

  • 1
    Registered User commented
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    it should be much more simple. nameplates won't be seen through walls or stuff like that just like the player model itself. also it should be as it is now by default because its a significant change that doesnt have a use in many situations, sometimes i just wanna know where my friend is when they are on my survival or creative world. /gamerule limitedNameplates true

  • 2
    Registered User commented
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    Stealth SHOULD be a part of minecraft. Seriously. It SHOULD.

  • 1
    Registered User commented
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    Why not just disable it in the default game rules?

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    I mean as a Redstone engineer and secret base guy, I don't need to use end crystal, respawn anchor, and tnt insta kill set ups to secure it lol

     

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    This is actually amazing!

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    It's not a complete fix (holding down "shift" for keyboard users will be tiring), but Swift Sneak has partially fixed this.

  • 1
    Registered User commented
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    Considering that other nametags are naturally only seen when the mob or entity is in the crosshairs, this actually makes sense to implement.