Server, Ship and Block Online Counter

[SZiadaN]

So, unlike a lot of our other projects, this project is one that all of you could actually appreciate.

Here's a small HTML page that just displays the player count for PSO2 JP.
For all of those that feel that "those guys can't be trusted!"; its just html, css and some javascript, all of it can be checked if you view the source on the page.

http://stuff.kakia.org/pso2_blockList.html

New version which i decided to style anyway.
Runs on the rest api as well.
The rest api is not completely done yet though and may be unstable, hence why I'm not replacing the old one with this one just yet.
http://stuff.kakia.org:3000/

If someone wish to style the page, feel free to hit me up.
I'm not a graphics designer, so I'm not planning on doing anything else to it currently :)
Edit:
Couldn't help myself from attempting to style it after all.
Though I'm still accepting help with making it even better :P

We've verified that the numbers are accurate.
We currently believe the max regular space for a block is 150 players and then another additional 50 player premium space.
Nvm, the max regular space seem to be 140. The amount of premium space might be 40 slots (so up to 180).

[SilkaN]

Ship 20?
Am I missing something?

[SZiadaN]

It's the shared ship

[SilkaN]

Ah, okay. Didn't know it was called Ship 20.

[Poyonche]

Ship 2 (1112)
Ship 4 (1001)

Oh yeah, Japanese people are sleeping.

[SZiadaN]

Yeah, roughly 5 hours ago there were around 60k players online (on all of the JP ships combined that is). With Ship 4 being the most populated ship.

[EvilMag]

You think maybe you can write something to see if anyone is afk or not? (like maybe writing whos actually moving or doing quests)

[SZiadaN]

You think maybe you can write something to see if anyone is afk or not? (like maybe writing whos actually moving or doing quests)

The way this works right now, we sadly can't retreive that kind of information, sorry.


PS: The refresh rate on the block lists is currently set at 1 minute.

[jooozek]

amazing stuff truly :wacko:

[TaiDono]

this is koolio

[Maenara]

Think you can hack together a tool that allows searching of player shops while offline? That'd be a pretty neat and decently useful tool. I assume it should be possible if you're grabbing information like this from the servers.

[Macman]

Now can you figure out why recently if you try to join a block that's almost full and just miss the boat you get booted to a random block instead of just getting a "block is full" message?

[Gwyndolin]

Very useful tool. I've been grinding for ideal weapons and its convenient to know if space is available in shared blocks before I go.

[TaigaUC]

I can already see how useful a page like this is.
Now, if only SEGA had an official site with the same info.

@Macman
Originally, if two people simultaneously joined a block with 1 slot free, one person would get disconnected.
Back in around August 2015, they changed it so free players could randomly join premium space.
That fixed the issue, but then they probably realized people like me were taking advantage of that to get into full blocks.
So, about a month or so ago, they changed it to throw the later person into a random block.
Why it doesn't just say "too late" instead of making you waste time and tricking you into thinking you successfully got in, I don't know.

Actually, I guess I do know. When you change blocks, it essentially logs you out and then back in, ie. reauthenticates.
I found this out by accident because I once logged into an account while it was transferring blocks on another PC.
It successfully logged in, but the first PC's block transfer kicked the second PC back out.
So I guess when you start to transfer but fail to get into a block, it can't tell you it's too late because it's already logged you out.
Their code probably doesn't track what block you were previously in, so the current method just throws you into a random block as if you'd just logged in.

[Flaoc]

2pm jp time and ship 2 still more lively than i thought

http://grabilla.com/05c08-4ec0105e-dd0e-40ae-b710-c3ac8366df42.png

[Apollo996]

Nice, this is pretty convenient.

Just a suggestion but if it is possible could you also show the next upcoming eq for each ship, even if its just the 15 minute warning? Would be awesome to know which eq is coming up on each ship without changing ships, or if you're on challenge blocks. :)

[SZiadaN]

Well, this whole thing was mainly thrown together as a PoC, we'll look into whether or not we can add more of the game stuff to it.

Also, we are currently not storing the numbers, we are considering doing that since we could potentially draw some graphs with this kind of data too :)

[TaigaUC]

Ship 2 looks pretty low during JP peak? time (just before Eluther):

Ship1 (4731)
Ship2 (3498 )
Ship3 (4541)
Ship4 (5516)
Ship5 (4572)
Ship6 (4489)
Ship7 (4460)
Ship8 (4358 )
Ship9 (4128 )
Ship10 (3965)
Ship20 (299)

[Konquer]

can you do one for SEA? :V

[jooozek]

180 players per block? thats so laughable https://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/emoticons/v1/4339/1.0

[TaigaUC]

Numbers during the first run of Eluther:

Ship1 (5511)
Ship2 (3906)
Ship3 (5166)
Ship4 (6436)
Ship5 (5138 )
Ship6 (4899)
Ship7 (5023)
Ship8 (5155)
Ship9 (4706)
Ship10 (4511)
Ship20 (192)

Ship 2 was at around 4k when Eluther started.

[otakun]

I don't think 4k for 10am est time is that bad of numbers. During US prime time Ship 2 had more numbers then all the ships, so any thoughts that Ship 2 is dead are exaggerated.

[EvilMag]

So how many players are needed for Ships to reach congested status?

[otakun]

So how many players are needed for Ships to reach congested status?

I assume 5500 or 6000.

[Dammy]

well , for you guys US prime matters more than JP prime

[Mildora]

Do you guys think this can be used right after a maint? It would surely help to get on early.

[otakun]

Do you guys think this can be used right after a maint? It would surely help to get on early.

It updates on the minute so you should be able to see when people start logging in right away.

[Ordy]

Damn, that shit is awesome!

Thanks SZiadaN (　・ω・)ｂ


...
Nvm, the max regular space seem to be 140. The amount of premium space might be 40 slots (so up to 180).

Could even add some <div class="progress"> progress bars to the block list with "valuenow" set to the current players in the block and "valuemax" to 180.

[SZiadaN]

Yes, we are planning on adding more data to it.
As I said before, this was just a proof of concept that me and Zapero threw together in like 2-3 hours.

I decided to extract more useful data around the blocks and ships and build a rest api for it instead.
http://stuff.kakia.org:3000/ship/
http://stuff.kakia.org:3000/ship/1

Like so, which contain latency and when we last heard from that server.
That way we can, for example, color code ships based on whether or not its likely to be down or if its slow etc.

I'm not using the rest api for the site yet though.

[Vatallus]

Numbers during the first run of Eluther:

Ship1 (5511)
Ship2 (3906)
Ship3 (5166)
Ship4 (6436)
Ship5 (5138 )
Ship6 (4899)
Ship7 (5023)
Ship8 (5155)
Ship9 (4706)
Ship10 (4511)
Ship20 (192)

Ship 2 was at around 4k when Eluther started.

You can pretty much bet that ship 9 went back to being dead after the EQ was over. We have barely 2 full blocks during non EQ times, but our market is still completely screwed up by people that feel the need to control it.

[TaigaUC]

From those numbers ship2 isn't dead, but as my JP friend said, a good number of JP people have transferred elsewhere.

Both that friend and (I think?) the people here said they expect more people to transfer away because of the upcoming storage changes.
But did SEGA say they fixed those storage issues? I forget.

[SZiadaN]

Been fixing a bit on the page, but on the "test version" of it.

http://stuff.kakia.org:3000/

Has some more data and bars, and generally a bit prettier :)
Feedback is welcome.

[TaiDono]

Been fixing a bit on the page, but on the "test version" of it.

http://stuff.kakia.org:3000/

Has some more data and bars, and generally a bit prettier :)
Feedback is welcome.

Soo.... beautifullll..... DX

[SZiadaN]

Because it's maintance I got the idea of adding a "notice" on the page for when the servers come up.
Obviously, I haven't gotten a chance to check yet so that the backend is able to resume everything when the servers come up, but it should.

If everything works as intended, the moment the page detects that the servers are coming back online it will open up a modal and play the intro to PSO1 DC.

When the modal is closed, the song will stop.

PS: This is only on http://stuff.kakia.org:3000/
And it will only happen after a maintenance (or if something derps out and all the servers gets flagged as offline for some reason).

Yay or nay for this feature?
Lemme know if I should remove it or if it should be kept.
Either way, its currently live right now.

[Ordy]

Yes, you should keep the server status notification.
That way we could just load the page in a tab and wait for the pso1 intro BGM to play, will be even more useful during extended or emergency maintenance.

Also .. looks like the max block slots value is higher than 180:

http://puu.sh/lP0XM/a6ae6c8da7.png

[SZiadaN]

Yes, you should keep the server status notification.
That way we could just load the page in a tab and wait for the pso1 intro BGM to play, will be even more useful during extended or emergency maintenance.

Also .. looks like the max block slots value is higher than 180:

http://puu.sh/lP0XM/a6ae6c8da7.png

Yes, noticed that as well.
I ended up adding a minor script on my own side to see the highest value it goes to, so far it was up at 199 at one point. So I'm currently assuming its 200 :)

The page is currently set at 200 max.

[SZiadaN]

Just for the heck of it, I've added Taiwan to the page now as well.
Their online count is just depressing though, not that I were expected a lot from them anyway but still.

EDIT:
And SEA + TH added as well.
Though we'll see how stable those two are, since they require a proxy :S

[Konquer]

lol SEA population

[TaigaUC]

I wonder if this is one of the reasons why SEGA isn't porting to the West.
Can't possibly be because of all those horrible localization changes!

[SZiadaN]

I wonder if this is one of the reasons why SEGA isn't porting to the West.
Can't possibly be because of all those horrible localization changes!

I'm sure that's one of the big reasons to why they aren't pouring any energy into it.
It's just not worth it anymore for them, as they wont be making any money from it.

Looking at JP, they peak out at around 60k players, but for all the other servers (TW/TH/SEA) they peak (from what I've seen so far) at like ~700 players.

So, unless someone like AeriaGames come into the picture and buy a license, we probably wont be seeing any western servers and I'm sure it's too late for anything like that now.

[TaigaUC]

Other countries are currently all at around ~1000 total, each.
Not sure if it's prime time for them, but it was ~350 earlier in their day.

JP is currently ~40.5k. That's a super massive difference.

[GHNeko]

I wonder how these numbers compare to DQX and FF14.

[SZiadaN]

I've updated the website again.

Added:
Translation for all block names.
Messages from SEGA.
Lowered the polling rate for block lists to 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds.

If you find a block name where the name is weird, let me know what it should say instead and I'll change it. I currently used google translate and I took a look at the block names in Kitsunes proxy then used the name that I thought fit best.

As for SEGA's messages, it's these kind of messages I'm talking about:


プレイ中の皆様にお知らせいたします。　　本日14:00～17:00の間、カジノの「ラッピースロット」 で当たり台の割合がアップしています！　　「ラッピースロット」はスロットの各リールに描かれた絵柄を揃え ることで、コインを獲得するカジノゲームです。　　この機会にカジノエリアに行ってぜひプレイしてみてくだ さいね！

The message part may need some fine-tuning later on how we display them.

[gamesbloke]

Can Sega messages be translated even basically??? Huge thanks for this resource...

[SZiadaN]

Can Sega messages be translated even basically??? Huge thanks for this resource...

I may add google translated messages, but can't really do more than that unless someone wants to sit there manually translating them or something :)

The SEGA message part is far from complete currently though, the plan is to add a tab or something where the block list is so you can switch between block list and messages.

[Maenara]

Might be a decent idea to toss in an EQ notification system too, while you're at it.

[SZiadaN]

Yeah, was thinking of that as well.

Found this thing:
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/[email protected]

If that calendar is kept updated then I may just pull from that.

[wefwq]

Yeah, was thinking of that as well.

Found this thing:
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/[email protected]

If that calendar is kept updated then I may just pull from that.
I been using that calendar to sync to my phone calendar for like, a year.
Yes, it's very well maintained up until now.

[sparab]

Meanwhile on 2ch, JP are having a flame war on these online numbers (as usual)

Keep up the good work

[AmanoMai]

that calendar is only scheduled?

[SZiadaN]

Things that aren't scheduled are already pulled and shown on the website, at least I believe they are.
I'm still working on making the notices a bit better though.

[GHNeko]

Meanwhile on 2ch, JP are having a flame war on these online numbers (as usual)

Keep up the good work


Lmao what have they been saying.

[sparab]

Lmao what have they been saying.

"We winners play FF14 and DQX, why are you pigs still playing pickup stone online2?"

[SPOILER-BOX]ユーザーの半数を引退させた菅沼ファンタシーストーンが凄過ぎる
1年半で50000人のユーザーがいなくなるゲーム


2013年7月24日22:40　10万7,259人
http://pso2.jp/players/news/?id=1888

2014年8月27~ 5日連続　同接10万人超
http://ameblo.jp/sega-psblog/entry-11920449023.html

2015年12月14日23:00 5万4000人
http://stuff.kakia.org/
[/SPOILER-BOX]

[SPOILER-BOX]ttp://stuff.kakia.org/
過疎ゲーだな
もう駄目だろこれ[/SPOILER-BOX]

[SPOILER-BOX]ついにpso hack.comが本気だすか？
大規模垢ハクくるんじゃないか [/SPOILER-BOX]

[SPOILER-BOX]必死に同接隠し続けてきた運営もこれじゃあもうドヤ顔できないな
無能バ開発はサイトみて「えー！？なんでわかるのー！？；」って口ポカーンやな [/SPOILER-BOX]

[SPOILER-BOX]想像してた以上に人減ってたよな
2鯖が平均的に一番人多い感じか

お前ら朝は2鯖が多いぞ。移住するなら今 [/SPOILER-BOX]

[Maenara]

Things that aren't scheduled are already pulled and shown on the website, at least I believe they are.
I'm still working on making the notices a bit better though.

Why not use this bot? https://twitter.com/pso2_emg_hour
In my experience, it's extremely accurate and even reports non-scheduled quests an hour ahead of time.

[Rehal]

Does the player count account for people that's in My Room or Team Room?

[SZiadaN]

No, the only ones we count are the ones that are in the blocks shown on the website.
So, if someone is in My Room or Team Room, the will not be included.



Why not use this bot? https://twitter.com/pso2_emg_hour
In my experience, it's extremely accurate and even reports non-scheduled quests an hour ahead of time.

That might be even better.

[Hysteria1987]

pickup stone online2This is the best thing I've ever seen. Goodbye EQ Star Online, we got a new name.

...They have a point, though, I really don't feel the game's got much playability left :-P

[Sora3100]

Sorry for the bump, but will this ever come back?

[SZiadaN]

Sorry for the bump, but will this ever come back?

Sorry for the late reply to this, I rarely check pso-world.

No, we will not put this up again.
Reason being, it's not worth it.

We didn't mind having it up as long as we didn't have to actively work on it too much, but since SEGA decided to patch it, it's not worth our time to look for alternative ways to fetch the info (especially if SEGA decide to fight us over it by patching it again later on as well).

We originally just threw the site together because it was easy to do and we already had all the information we needed to do it.

[BWS-1]

I'm sure that's one of the big reasons to why they aren't pouring any energy into it.
It's just not worth it anymore for them, as they wont be making any money from it.

Looking at JP, they peak out at around 60k players, but for all the other servers (TW/TH/SEA) they peak (from what I've seen so far) at like ~700 players.



I know this is old, but it would be funny to see how many non-TW/TH/SEA/JP players play this game (likely on the jp servers).

Surely the bulk of all those players amount for more than SEA playerbase at peak of 700.

Could be one of the reasons SEGA wants to stop having those numbers shown; having numbers showing how failing the game is where it has been confined and released in English compared to how popular it is from unsupported and illicit connections from other parts of the world onto the original Japanese release instead too no less could be a bit of an embarrassment to say the least.

Unless there really are only, like, 100 or 200 "expats" playing on the JP version, spread out on all ships (maybe concentrated on Ship 2) and that the numbers seen for, say, Ship 2 are in reality all mostly from actual Japanese connections...