Make public class distribution?

[stormlord]

I thought about making this a poll but decided against it since I already made a poll and don't want to saturate the use of it. That and this is something that would have to be moderated or sanctioned probably, in my estimation. The point of the question I'm asking is, do you think that publicly making available the popularity of certain classes in comparison to others might help to fill in holes so people can form solid groups?

For example, what if there're not enough people playing clerics? Or warriors? Or dps? Should we as players know that so we can make an educated choice about which alt to actively play at any given point?

What I'm thinking of is a list of all classes with a % of the population next to each one, and a preferred % attached to it to represent the optimal % for solid groups across the server as a whole. This could further be organized by level: 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50. There could also be an activity field added which would represent the % of people in that level range that're actively playing.

---------Overall: Current %/Active %/Optimal % | Lvl 1-10: Current %/Active %/Optimal % ......
Cleric..............................[x]/[x]/[x]............................................[x]/[x]/[x]
Ranger............................[x]/[x]/[x]............................................[x]/[x]/[x]
Druid......
Wizard......
......

This is of course not classic. It's just something I was wondering about. For example, lets say you got a level 26 cleric that you rarely play. You go to the website and see that there's a shortage of active clerics 21-30 and 31-40. Using this knowledge, you decide to play the cleric after all.

Or do you think this is too much information? Or not relevant? Remind you of population control? Should we control it by default, or only control it in certain circumstances, or just let nature do its job?

Thanks in advance.

[Audacious93c]

Druid 40%
Magi 25%
Necro 25%
Ranger .01%
Paladin .01%
All others [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Hasbinbad]

I see something like this being welcomed in a WoW community.

[Murferoo]

You're trying to describe this:

See Aion: http://na.aiononline.com/livestatus/server/

[FatMagic]

I think this would be a pretty cool idea - but not sure how the community would receive it. In light of keeping everything classic, this probably wouldn't fly. But you never know... Great idea though!

And as to my opinion on Class Distribution... tanks are needed. I've been monk tanking all week (which isn't bad with a cleric by your side). And I have yet to group with a warrior (they are more rare than a Ranger, which I've grouped with!)!

[karsten]

i wouldn't think anyone would try to keep this secret -- it just seems like a pita to compile all the data

[Ferok]

Originally Posted by karsten [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

i wouldn't think anyone would try to keep this secret -- it just seems like a pita to compile all the data

select class, count(distinct player) from players group by class

[Rabkorik]

Originally Posted by Ferok [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

select class, count(distinct player) from players group by class

This is a very complex sql statement!

[karsten]

so, it'd be easy to do? wouldn't it be skewed data though due to peoples' playtimes not being represented, just character levels? also, wouldn't the data be skewed towards level 1s? if good data were easy to get i'd say let's go for it

[Cilraaz]

Assuming that P99's character table isn't much different from the default PEQ character table, the SQL would just be something like:

SELECT class, count(distinct id) FROM character_ WHERE timelaston > (UNIX_TIMESTAMP() - 604800) AND level > '5' GROUP BY class;

Replace 5 with whatever level you want to check for. That will check for individual characters (not accounts) that have been logged on in the past 7 days, so it would eliminate some mules and unplayed alts from the list. You could even use this to show representation within brackets (ie. "level > '5 AND level < '11'" would give you the 5-10 bracket, etc).

Edit:

Assuming that it wouldn't put too much strain on the SQL server, you could create a PHP script that would display the different brackets. You'd just need to decide what brackets you wanted it chopped by, but it could pull and display say 1-9, 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, and 50.

SELECT class, count(distinct id) FROM character_ WHERE timelaston > (UNIX_TIMESTAMP() - 604800) AND level > '0' AND level < '10' GROUP BY class;
SELECT class, count(distinct id) FROM character_ WHERE timelaston > (UNIX_TIMESTAMP() - 604800) AND level > '9' AND level < '20' GROUP BY class;
SELECT class, count(distinct id) FROM character_ WHERE timelaston > (UNIX_TIMESTAMP() - 604800) AND level > '19' AND level < '30' GROUP BY class;
SELECT class, count(distinct id) FROM character_ WHERE timelaston > (UNIX_TIMESTAMP() - 604800) AND level > '29' AND level < '40' GROUP BY class;
SELECT class, count(distinct id) FROM character_ WHERE timelaston > (UNIX_TIMESTAMP() - 604800) AND level > '39' AND level < '50' GROUP BY class;
SELECT class, count(distinct id) FROM character_ WHERE timelaston > (UNIX_TIMESTAMP() - 604800) AND level = '50' GROUP BY class;