Population Statistics Website

[Kreek]

We just pushed it live. Will make an announcement now. I apologize in advance for any work that this undoes for you.

I understand the removal of the current online users count. 595 looks a lot better than 145.
Does anyone have any ideas about what I should track now?

[Kaios]

I understand the removal of the current online users count. 595 looks a lot better than 145.
Does anyone have any ideas about what I should track now?

I understand the inclusion of those other numbers but what confuses me is the removal of the actual amount of players online. It's a pretty important number to be aware of, I thought.

[JohnCarver]

So its not an IP check, then. If I recall, jorbtar were always giving the impression that the status page did infact only count unique IP connections (IE, Imrielle could be logged in on two accounts, but the status page would consider it as one user online). Has this changed, or is weekly and daily count just a temporary thing, and not fully coded?

We will keep playing with it. We are tracking a BUNCH of information now. However, we feel it important for a new player, and old, to know how many unique accounts are booting into the game over given periods of time. Given that this is not your traditional game where you MUST find somebody online to interact with them, it always seemed silly to us that it was some kind of measuring bar. You most certainly can find a base, item, or establishment from most players who have simply visited the world of Salem. Therefore, it seemed better to know just how many of those players there were, which was most certainly more than the current characters 'connected'.

[loftar]

If I recall, jorbtar were always giving the impression that the status page did infact only count unique IP connections

I think you recall wrong, in that case. The status page always showed the number of active connections, regardless of the number of unique IPs those came from.

[imrielle]

If I recall, jorbtar were always giving the impression that the status page did infact only count unique IP connections

I think you recall wrong, in that case. The status page always showed the number of active connections, regardless of the number of unique IPs those came from.

Ahh, I was going off of what repeated in IRC over and over - that you and jorb said they were based off of IP.

Doing it based on IP should be relatively easy, in theory, since the data is already available via the forums (as the usernames are, obviously, tied into PHPBB). It wouldn't be 100% accurate, since plenty of us do use proxies to connect to the forums, but it's a thought.

[Voltaire1512]

I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself

It is (falsely) claimed, that Winston Churchill said that. But he totally should have done so.

[JohnCarver]

Now that the week has rolled over. Month statistics are now updated.

http://login.salemthegame.com/portal/state

[Darwoth]

the status page (at least the old one) never counted numerous clients from the same ip, i tested it extensively and have had over 20 accounts simultaneously logged in several times while hitting refresh every minute or so for 15+ and the population numbers did not fluctuate beyond the 1 - 2 they would normally.


with regard to the current server status i much preferred being able to see who was logged in while i was actively playing, not how many storage and alt accounts have been logged into over that week/month/ i understand those numbers look a lot better but they are also misleading (along with useless for those trying to plan something for peak or off peak) and nobody likes having smoke blown up their ass, population was climbing significantly anyway so there is no need to hide the numbers at this point.

have both features imo.

[Feone]

Id like to see the current online numbers again.

[Champie]

I think it is safe to say that the "Daily" player logs in an average of 4 accounts per day. That number would coincide with the old "currently logged in" number of 150 that we were seeing before the change to the status page. I would guess that we have about 75-100 actual players logged in at any given time. I would guess that there are about 150-200 players that log in daily.

My guess would be that the new status numbers also seem to show that there are probably an equal number of casual players that log in less than daily (150-200).

Based on the numbers at the start of the New World (300-400 concurrent), I would guess that there are at least as many people who quit playing but still follow the forums and updates as there are daily players.

Overall, I think the player numbers are promising and if development continues to deliver as planned, and the MM, Inc. crew continues to be the encouraging and helpful participants in the community that they are now, the future of Salem looks bright.