Change to server player list
 

I think it would be a great idea to instead base the player count on number of different IPs connected rather then number of connections to the server. The player count should reflect the player count. A server with 50 unboxed players should show 50 players and a server with 12 players boxing 50 characters should show 12 players.

The number of unique IPs does not equal the number of players.
The number of characters does not equal the number of players.
The number of characters equals the number of characters.
The number of unique IPs equals the number of unique IPs.

I prefer knowing the number of characters.

I know as a server owner you'd rather all your boxed characters to show up as different players so people think there are more people playing then there are.

This system is misleading and leads to really shitty server features like "keep all your boxed players logged in overnight for reoccuring bonuses!" for the sole purpose of making it look like there are more people then there are.

Obviously unique ips wont always mean individual players, but it is sure 3000% times better then whats going on now.

Like I said, a server with 50 unboxed characters has a different amount of players then a server with 12 players boxing 50 characters. Players do not look for the server with the most boxed characters. They look at the number to try to gauge how many players actually play there, which should actually be reflected in the number rather then a misleading fabricated player count.

The system is not misleading. You will only be mislead if you do not understand what the number means. Do you really think that if the system was changed to only report unique IPs that the 'keep your characters logged in to get bonuses' systems will disappear? The server OP still wants to be displaying higher numbers, even if that range is narrowed.

I am going to make some assumptions and try to summarise what is I think you want;
- The server population number gives a player an unambiguous representation of how popular a specific server is.
- There is some form of equality for servers with different boxing rules for attracting new players based on the assumption that the new player is more likely to choose a server with a higher population.

You also need to keep in mind that the population numbers you see are reported by World servers, not calculated by the login server. Server OPs can and have in the past fiddled with these numbers.

Maybe servers could report both unique IPs and total characters and the login server can publish a ratio. Boxing and non-boxing servers should have very different ratios. This topic is worth discussing. Keep it up.

If people really cared about the numbers, they would fake the results anyways.

You could always show both unique IP's and # characters...

Most people understand servers that allow boxing or multiple single-IP logins are not representing a unique PLAYER count.

Simplest way to do it has always been 1 account = 1 player, whether or not that is entirely true is irrelevant.