Direct answer

Edit the proxy’s velocity.toml to change its server-list MOTD and player-count presentation. These options control what players see in their multiplayer server list; they do not configure backend forwarding.

Recommended procedure

  1. Stop Velocity and back up velocity.toml.
  2. Find motd and set the text you want players to see, preserving the TOML quoting syntax.
  3. Review show-max-players for the displayed capacity and ping-passthrough for whether server-list information is supplied by the proxy or a backend.
  4. Leave bind, backend addresses and forwarding credentials unchanged when you only want to edit the MOTD.
  5. Restart the proxy, then refresh the multiplayer server entry from a separate Minecraft client.

Why this matters

The number displayed in the server list is not a hardware capacity guarantee. A backend MOTD may not appear if the proxy is serving the ping response itself. Keep MOTD styling compatible with the Velocity version you use.

Practical example: Example: if the lobby has a special status message but Velocity still shows its own MOTD, inspect ping-passthrough before editing the lobby again. Test after a proxy restart and refresh the server entry; a cached server-list result can briefly show old text. MOTD configuration should not require changing forwarding mode or the shared secret.

How to verify the result

  • Check the public proxy address in the multiplayer list, not a direct backend address.
  • Compare the displayed description and maximum players with the intended values.
  • If the proxy fails to start, restore the TOML file and inspect its configuration error.

Version and compatibility notes

  • See your installed Velocity version’s configuration reference for supported formatting and ping-passthrough modes.
  • Changes to a backend server’s server.properties do not necessarily change the proxy server-list MOTD.

Official references

These sources were checked for the current MSH revision. Version-sensitive details should always be confirmed against the project documentation for the release you run.

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