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Doomrong

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If you take a look at TorStatus, they track the status of a server (light, standard,...,full), which is pretty close to the population overall. You can take a look at servers by region, type, etc.

http://www.torstatus.net/

 

If you're not a fan of TorStatus, two months ago Dulfy did a survey of US PVP and PVE server population:

http://dulfy.net/2012/02/24/some-numerical-population-data-for-swtor-servers/

http://dulfy.net/2012/03/01/numerical-swtor-population-data-for-pvprp-pvp-servers/

 

Regardless of where you look, for US servers, the most populated server is definitely The Fatman.

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In your opinion what is the most populated server:rak_02:

 

Heh! An opinion doesn't matter, you can do the math yourself! :-)

 

A lot of folks are going to suggest http://www.torstatus.net. It's useful, but it doesn't actually tell you NUMBERS of people. It just tells you if it's full, very heavy, heavy, standard, or light. If the server cap is 500 people, a full server is going to feel empty. If the server cap is 10,000 people, a standard server is going to be jumping! No one knows what the server caps are.

 

The *only* way to estimate the server population is to /who the server and record the population. The thing is, the number you get is entirely dependent on when you look! It's like asking when the stadium is full. If you check during football practice, during a championship game, or at 2:00 in the morning, you're going to get very different answers. Ideally you should look during peak hours a few times a week.

 

Here's a website with instructions on how to survey server population and a way to store the data.

 

http://www.thethirteenthlegion.torportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=433241&TabID=3813820

 

Good luck!

 

Paige

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two months ago Dulfy did a survey of US PVP and PVE server population:

http://dulfy.net/2012/02/24/some-numerical-population-data-for-swtor-servers/

http://dulfy.net/2012/03/01/numerical-swtor-population-data-for-pvprp-pvp-servers/

 

Regardless of where you look, for US servers, the most populated server is definitely The Fatman.

 

Dulfy is tha bomb! That survey was a lot of work. One drawback is that server numbers were just checked once during peak hours. That's like asking "how bad is Atlanta traffic?" If you look at 5:00 pm on a Friday, on a rainy Friday, on the Friday before spring break, on the Friday that the president was in town, or on a Friday that happens to fall on Christmas, you'll get very different answers, even though they were all measured at 5:00 on a Friday.

 

You are right, though. Fatman is the biggest population no matter how you slice it.

 

Paige

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A lot of folks are going to suggest http://www.torstatus.net. It's useful, but it doesn't actually tell you NUMBERS of people. It just tells you if it's full, very heavy, heavy, standard, or light. If the server cap is 500 people, a full server is going to feel empty. If the server cap is 10,000 people, a standard server is going to be jumping! No one knows what the server caps are.

 

I don't know with certainty, but I've got a reasonable approximation. For a while now, I've been collecting data on server status. When a server changes status, I'll log onto a republic and then an empire character on that server, and /who until I've tallied the whole population.

 

So far, I've collected data on just over 100 transitions. (I'd do more, but this stuff takes ages.)

 

Approximate cutoffs:

Light -> Standard: 500

Standard -> Heavy: 1500

Heavy -> Very Heavy: [2250-2500]?

Very Heavy -> Full: ~ 3000

 

Since there are several potential sources of error with this process (how close to the transition I can be, internal rounding errors I don't observe, bugs with the /who system), those numbers are really approximations. I'm also uncertain whether they've changed over time.

 

For a handy graph, etc, see:

http://inquisitive-myths.blogspot.com/2012/05/population-numbers-behind-server-status.html

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I don't know with certainty, but I've got a reasonable approximation. For a while now, I've been collecting data on server status. When a server changes status, I'll log onto a republic and then an empire character on that server, and /who until I've tallied the whole population.

 

OOooooo.... that's some sexy, sexy stuff! And a bloody amazing amount of hard work! I don't know that *anyone* has done this kind of work yet. Kudos to you!

 

Can we get together via email? I'd love to see some of the actual data if I could. Pretty please grab me at scorpienne at gmail dot com?

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Mythbusting... what do you think of this analysis?

 

 

Torstatus codes server status as

1 = Light

2 = Standard

3 = Heavy

4 = Very Heavy

5 = Full

 

It then checks server status on all the servers every hour and records that number. It calculates the average of all of those hourly recordings for the last 14 days and reports than number as "ø". (http://www.torstatus.net/about)

 

Then you take your numbers

 

Light is up to about 500

Standard is up to about 1,500

Heavy is up to about 2,250-2,500(?) (Let's call this 2375 for now...)

Very Heavy is up to about 3,000

Full is greater than about 3,000

 

Then use the two to estimate server population.

 

If ø is greater than 0, add 250 (where 250 is the average of 0 and the top end of the "light" status.)

 

If ø is greater than 1, add the % ø is greater than 1 x 1000 (where 1000 is the average of the top end of light = 500, and the top end of standard = 1500).

 

So if ø is 1.5, you'd add 250 plus (0.5 x 1000) and come up with a theoretical average population of 750.

 

If ø is greater than 2, then add 250 + 1000 + the % ø is greater than 2 x 1937.5 (where 1937.5 is the average of the top end of standard = 1500, and the average top end of heavy 2375).

 

So if ø is 2.48, you'd add 250 + 1000 + plus (0.48 x 1937.5) and come up with a theoretical average population of 2180.

 

That means if you take todays's ø numbers from Torstatus representing the average population over the last two weeks for the top 20 US servers:

 

The Fatman (PvP), ø =2.48 theoretical average population = 2180

Jedi Covenant (PvE), ø =1.97 theoretical average population = 1220

The Harbinger (PvE), ø =1.94 theoretical average population = 1190

The Swiftsure (PvP), ø =1.82 theoretical average population = 1070

Canderous Ordo (PvE), ø =1.74 theoretical average population = 990

Drooga's Pleasure Barge (PvE), ø =1.63 theoretical average population = 880

Ajunta Pall (RP PvP), ø =1.55 theoretical average population = 800

Lord Adraas (RP PvE), ø =1.51 theoretical average population = 760

Jung Ma (RP PvP), ø =1.5 theoretical average population = 750

The Ebon Hawk(RP PvE), ø =1.5 theoretical average population = 750

Zakkeg Beast(PvE), ø =1.44 theoretical average population = 690

Mind Trick(PvE), ø =1.4 theoretical average population = 650

Shadow Hand(PvE), ø =1.4 theoretical average population = 650

The Shadowlands(PvE), ø =1.4 theoretical average population = 650

Darth Sion(PvE), ø =1.37 theoretical average population = 620

Lord Ieldis(RP PvE), ø =1.36 theoretical average population = 610

Veeboo Lunx(PvE), ø =1.36 theoretical average population = 610

Sanctum of the Exalted (RP PvE), ø =1.35 theoretical average population = 600

Soresu(PvE), ø =1.35 theoretical average population = 600

Vrook Lamar(RP PvE), ø =1.35 theoretical average population = 600

 

For what it's worth, I'm on Sanctum, and I've done extensive surveys of our population. I know that at peak hours (17:00-00:00, all days) our population averages to 897 people ± 193 (one standard deviation). I completely believe that the 14 day average, including all the off-peak time, is about 600 people.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Paige

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Ooooh, just got the chance to check the forums. I think the analysis is brilliant and clear - and a big hit on the general forum! (Thanks for the link!)

 

I had a slightly different approach in mind, where I was going to model the population via the latent values from an ordered probit, using some boosting-based methods to validate those estimates. .... but that probably sounds a bit like Greek to most folks.

 

Oh, and totally emailing you now.

 

I love the Sanctum estimates, btw.

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