Ghost Players vs Real

[GRUMPY]

This is just something that some players may not realize, when looking at the player
count on a server status before they logon and realize the actual players in-game
may not match what you seen on the server status. Although there could be different
reasons, this is a very common one, as well.
More often than not, some players, when they log out of a game, they might leave
their clients parked at the character select screen. Those "parked" players will still
show up as being logged on to the server, just not fully in the world.
Even though it may be for innocent reasons, I try to discourage that practice, since
it can be deceiving to a player looking at the population on a server.

[Anon.GM]

One other part of this is GMs can hide client and won't show in the /who all. They do #gmhideme on / off. I do this on Anon if I need to check on suspicious behavior. So that will also show as a number.

False numbers will also show on boxing servers where one person can box more than one account. Each account logged in shows as one number. I know one server where one player plays 12 accounts so that's 12 added to the server number!

[GRUMPY]

I am referring to players NOT logged into the game, just at character select,
whether they are GM, boxing or whatever.
Pssst - MQ sees right through the #gmhideme, haha

[Anon.GM]

Pssst - MQ sees right through the #gmhideme, haha

Is that also true if you have not enabled GM mode on the character? Just curious as I don't turn that on as I think it only detects if the GM mode is on. I could be wrong on this, but it doesn't matter as anyone running MQ get's banned on Anon.

Ghosting of player characters part I was just expanding on as servers with multiple GMs on it could have more than one Ghost character and should be considered in your false server numbers your referring to.

[GRUMPY]

Originally Posted by Anon.GM

but it doesn't matter as anyone running MQ get's banned on Anon.

I hope you're taking that "hackers" table with a grain of salt. I've done lots of testing
with that and many innocent things will show up as an /MQ command. I just had one
recently with /MQZone entry showing up, so I went to test it and found out that a bad
set of x,y,z destinations in the zone_points table can cause that.

But "ghost characters" I was referring to are not relevant to players logged in game.
Yes, other things "in-game" can affect seperate player account numbers, but that's
a whole different topic. (boxers, etc)

[Anon.GM]

Originally Posted by GRUMPY

I hope you're taking that "hackers" table with a grain of salt.

Actually it's more accurate than most think. You just have to read it correctly and manage it right. I tested this on my server for awhile and if you don't run MQ its rare that something comes into that list. I have also made some other adjustments to it. A character showing multiple /MQWarp with location -1.78, -18.05, 5.27 is most likely using warp. I'm not talking about the rare occasion sow or speed buffs that show up here, but that one player that fills 100 rows in a day with /MQWarp. Also when this occurs in non npc summoning areas its worth looking into.

Not going to say any more on this and let this thread go back to your reasons for why its important not to leave your character logged in at character select. I misunderstood what you were referring to as important.

[GRUMPY]

There is only one reason I brought this up, but it's for server owner's benefit as well.
Here's an example. (If you were a boxing server,as an example only).Right now, I
could fire up 6 boxes, log them into your server at the character select screen. and
leave them parked there.
A player would come along and see (for example) 11 players on your server. But once
that player gets in-game and does a /who all, they see only 5 players. Well guess
who they "think" is deceiving them - YOU.
This doesn't just apply to boxers, it could be 6 different actual players at the character
screen.

Originally Posted by GRUMPY

I try to discourage that practice, since it can be deceiving