FiveM Fake Players Scheduling FAQ: Top Questions

The scheduling feature generates more operator questions than any other part of the FiveFake dashboard, the control panel for our FiveM fake players service. Most of those questions come from operators who have never used a time-based configuration tool before and are not sure how our scheduler maps to their server's real-world context. This post answers the 12 most common scheduling questions we see in support tickets and the Discord.

Should I use the default schedule or build my own

FiveFake ships a default schedule built from intensive research on top FiveM servers. That research mapped actual player flow patterns across server categories and regions over time. The default schedule replicates those observed patterns, making fake players statistically indistinguishable from a real community when evaluating through public list metrics. Using that researched default, a human auditor cannot deduce fake players from public player count data over time.

If you are setting up for the first time, use the default. It is a calibrated starting point based on real data. If your server has a distinctive regional audience or community pattern that you know from experience, building a custom schedule that mirrors your community's real behavior is also a good approach.

How does the scheduler handle timezones

The scheduler uses UTC as its internal time standard. When you configure a schedule window in the dashboard, you enter the times in UTC and the system executes them in UTC. There is no automatic timezone conversion.

This is intentional. Automatic timezone handling introduces daylight saving time edge cases that can cause windows to shift by one hour twice a year without the operator noticing. By requiring UTC input, we remove that variable. Your schedule runs at the exact UTC time you specify, every day, regardless of DST changes.

What is the minimum interval between schedule windows

The minimum window duration is 30 minutes. You cannot create a window shorter than that because the activation sequence (fake players connecting) and the deactivation sequence (fake players disconnecting gracefully) each take up to eight minutes. A window shorter than 30 minutes would have fake players still connecting when the deactivation sequence begins.

The minimum gap between two consecutive windows is also 15 minutes. This gives the system time to complete the deactivation of one window before beginning activation for the next. If you configure windows with less than a 15-minute gap, the scheduler will enforce the gap automatically and the second window will start 15 minutes after the first window ends.

Can you overlap schedule windows

Overlapping windows are not supported. The scheduler treats each day as a sequence of non-overlapping windows. If you attempt to configure two windows that overlap, the dashboard will reject the configuration with a validation error before saving.

If you want to transition from one player count to another without a gap (for example, running 20 players from noon to 6pm and then 40 players from 6pm to midnight), configure two adjacent windows with the same end and start time. The system will handle the count transition by adding connections as the higher-count window begins.

What happens during a schedule gap

A schedule gap is a period of time between two windows where no schedule is active. During a gap, fake players disconnect according to the deactivation sequence for the ending window and the server returns to its real player count.

If your real player count drops to zero during a gap, your server will appear empty in the browser. For overnight hours when you have no real players and no scheduled fake players, this means your server drops to the bottom of the browser sort. This is the intended behavior for operators who want their server to reflect real overnight inactivity.

Can you configure different player counts for different days

Yes. The scheduler supports per-day configuration. You can configure different windows with different player counts for each day of the week. A common pattern for servers that see significantly more traffic on weekends is:

• Monday through Thursday: 20 players from 4pm to 11pm UTC.
• Friday: 30 players from 3pm to midnight UTC.
• Saturday and Sunday: 40 players from noon to midnight UTC.

This configuration is more expensive than a flat weekly count but produces a more realistic population curve that matches real player behavior patterns for most European and North American servers.

What happens if my server is offline during a scheduled window

If your server is offline when a schedule window begins, our connection nodes will attempt to reach your server and fail. The connection attempts continue for up to 10 minutes. After 10 minutes without a successful connection, the window is marked as failed and no players are activated.

You are not billed for time when your server is unreachable. The billing clock runs from when fake players are actively connected to your server, not from when the schedule window opens. If a window fails to activate because your server is down, that window incurs no charge.

Can I change the schedule while fake players are active

You can modify your schedule configuration at any time, including during an active window. Changes to a future window take effect before that window begins. Changes to the current active window are applied according to these rules:

• Increasing the count for the active window: new connections begin activating immediately.
• Decreasing the count for the active window: excess connections are deactivated over the next five minutes.
• Ending the active window early: the full deactivation sequence begins immediately.
• Extending the end time for the active window: connections remain active until the new end time.

What is the maximum number of schedule windows per week

There is no hard limit on the number of schedule windows per week beyond the constraint that windows cannot overlap and must be at least 15 minutes apart. In practice, most operators use four to eight windows per week. More than eight windows per week is unusual and generally indicates a schedule that would benefit from simplification.

How do I know if my schedule is active right now

The dashboard schedule overview page shows the current window status in real time. The active window indicator shows the current window name, the current connected player count versus the configured count, the window end time in UTC, and the time remaining in the window.

You can also verify status through your txAdmin panel. If fake players are active, they appear in the txAdmin player list with their configured names and session durations.

Does the scheduler account for FiveM server restarts

When your server restarts during an active schedule window, all fake player connections drop as part of the restart. Our system detects the disconnections within one to two minutes and begins the reconnection sequence automatically if the schedule window is still active.

Can I pause the scheduler without cancelling it

Yes. The pause function in the dashboard suspends all scheduled windows without deleting them. While paused, no fake players will activate even if a scheduled window's time arrives. When you resume the scheduler, it picks up from the current time and activates any windows that are currently within their scheduled time.

Pausing is useful when you are running a server event with a guest streamer or a community tournament and you want full real-player-only counts visible in the browser without disrupting your regular schedule configuration.

What happens to billing during schedule gaps

You are only billed for time when fake players are actively connected. Schedule gaps, failed windows, server offline periods, and manual pauses do not generate charges.

How does the scheduler handle the transition between plan types

If you upgrade from a daily plan to a weekly plan mid-schedule, or downgrade from a weekly plan to daily billing, the schedule configuration itself does not change. The billing model changes at the next billing cycle boundary. Your existing windows remain active through the transition.

If you downgrade your player count (for example, from 40 players to 25 players) the scheduler adjusts immediately if you change the configuration for the current window. If you change the count for a future window, the change takes effect when that window activates. You are never forced to run a count you have configured down just because the billing cycle has not rolled over yet.

What if I need to run different counts for different time blocks on the same day

Running different counts within the same day is done by creating multiple non-overlapping windows on that day. For example, a server targeting lunch hour and evening peak might configure:

• Monday window one: 20 players from 11am to 2pm UTC (lunch peak for European servers).
• Monday window two: 35 players from 5pm to 11pm UTC (evening peak).
• Gap between windows: 3 hours with no fake players, which matches the natural mid-afternoon low-traffic period.

This two-window per day approach is more expensive than a single flat window but produces a population curve that more closely mirrors what a real active server of that size would look like across a full day. The extra expense is the daily rate for the additional hours, which at €1 per player per day for 20 players is approximately €0.42 per hour for the lunch window.

Next steps

If you want to move beyond the FAQ basics and understand how to design a schedule that mirrors realistic player behavior for your specific server region and demographic, the

covers the full strategy for building a population curve that looks natural to both browser users and platform monitoring.