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+--- Forum: Discovery Mod General Discussion (https://discoverygc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=37)
+--- Thread: [Poll] Forum player page tracking (/showthread.php?tid=210920)
[Poll] Forum player page tracking - darkwind - 02-07-2026
Disclaimer: This is unofficial poll posted in my capacity as community member with absolutely no guarantee from staff that results of it will be implemented
Since in the thread https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=210911&action=lastpost topic of discussing player online page got too much raised for discussions, i create a thread about it to spiral things in a single direction at a single thread and come to conclusive decisions
People seem to be voicing to change player online page https://discoverygc.com/forums/api_interface.php?action=players_online
Okay, lets pick the choice that best works to acomplish it
RE: [Poll] Forum player page tracking - The_Godslayer - 02-07-2026
At this point, removing the activity tracker from darkstat just opens the floor for another activity tracker to read from the forums player online list, so the player online list should go completely to completely put an end to the loop. No numbers, no names, no locations. Ideally you'd be able to remove it from in-game as well, but then you couldn't select people for DMs, so that'd be a problem. Probably should do the region thing that cloaks do as well.
RE: [Poll] Forum player page tracking - Maik - 02-07-2026
I don't check the player list through a darkbot. I have forums for that. And the lion's share of interaction (from an RP perspective) comes precisely from knowing who is where. Hiding players by region, or by any means at all, is like shooting yourself in the knee.
I'm logging EOS|- and looking for people to interact with. Whether it's PvP or RP, I won't be logging in and searching for them all over the Gallia region. I see someone in Champagne – I'm flying there. I see something in Cologne or Zurich – I'm heading there. Languedoc? Excellent, I'm already on my way. The question is how people react. Many take a game from 2003 too seriously and seriously think that the opponent is flying towards them to harm them specifically out of some imaginary personal grudge. No, lol, imagine – people can just log in and play.
At the same time, I know that there are people in the game who check the online list not to look for PVP targets, but on the contrary - to look for RP encounters. If you simply remove this tool for them or make it much less convenient to use, then I expect that the RP will converge to meetings of some bosom friends, and random encounters will happen 10 times less often. This will literally be "Raidlog RP", lol.
RE: [Poll] Forum player page tracking - Soban - 02-08-2026
Option 4 is the best. I barely use it anyway. I know where my ship are, and with option 4 if there is some people in a system that I have interest in. I'll log.
But 99% of the time, I log in-game and plan what to do once there.
The ingame player list, I'm honestly somewhat in favor too. You can only see where the people in your group are and other player in your system. Then you see who are online and not where (or region at best).
RE: [Poll] Forum player page tracking - Ashyur - 02-08-2026
At 10 players online, you might want an option to find each other, you know?
would only work if there were less than 10 systems available to fly in; otherwise, you might as well play single player (or alternatively use economy to steer players into each other's gun's length).
the goal is to generate interaction and not avoid it, which means we could remove bots that help traders avoid it if more are created, though keep the good ones that help interactions happen
RE: [Poll] Forum player page tracking - Lythrilux - 02-08-2026
Whenever the players online page or the in game list has been modified in the past it has had negative consequences for the server. I seriously cannot believe in the big 2026 this suggestion or things similar to it keep getting brought up again when it has never worked out the way people think it will. And this was back when the server was significantly more active. Madness.
RE: [Poll] Forum player page tracking - Haste - 02-08-2026
All options other than option 1 require us to find an additional 200 average players first. Or cut the game universe down to New York, New London, New Tokyo, New Berlin, Ile-de-France and maybe one Tau/Omega/Omicron/Sigma. Maybe both.
In an ideal world we'd all just be logging in and finding encounters organically, but that hasn't really been very reliable for about a decade now -- probably longer. Adding additional barriers to entry, like forcing players to boot up the game and sit docked on a station for a few seconds -- which will not meaningfully increase player counts, and does not create any opportunities for player interaction at all -- is just going to make fewer people play the game.
RE: [Poll] Forum player page tracking - LuckyOne - 02-08-2026
Agreed with Haste on this one. If you want changes start small. Remove the exact system from the forum playerlist and then check the impact.
That should fix about 90 % of the shadowlogging complaints. But it would not help the player experience in a meaningful way, just have more people randomly logging on for a few seconds to check where exactly everyone is.
Remember that the forum playerlist is also used for bounty hunting, raid organising etc. Making people waste more time would only piss them off.
What we need instead is a way for the shadowlogged people to get help easier. Make jumps to jump beacons FREE, That way everyone can always ask for a jump capable cap that can be there in about 20 seconds from logging.
RE: [Poll] Forum player page tracking - darkwind - 02-10-2026
(02-08-2026, 10:40 PM)Haste Wrote: All options other than option 1 require us to find an additional 200 average players first. Or cut the game universe down to New York, New London, New Tokyo, New Berlin, Ile-de-France and maybe one Tau/Omega/Omicron/Sigma. Maybe both.
In an ideal world we'd all just be logging in and finding encounters organically, but that hasn't really been very reliable for about a decade now -- probably longer. Adding additional barriers to entry, like forcing players to boot up the game and sit docked on a station for a few seconds -- which will not meaningfully increase player counts, and does not create any opportunities for player interaction at all -- is just going to make fewer people play the game.
We tend rarely to agree, but this one is the case i have agree with you for 100%. You are right.
The main point of information with online solution with pointing where is player presence, to make worthy gameplay with a low online server.
The proposal Jammi makes with showing only amount of players in specific systems sounds very attractive nevertheless though.
and thinking from all angles about it, i can see it merits and very tempted to try.
There are two counterarguments to Jammi's idea:
- Firstly ingame players will see exact player names anyway, so technically Jammi's idea will not change much
- Secondly, forum page requires player being already authentificated to forum. Which brings extra layer of security to this player page. So technically player page at forum is already sufficiently defended and changing things much from how it is in game anyway makes little sense
So considering that... i think player page at forum should remain actually the same.