WarcraftRealms.com

Hello,
I'm really enjoying adding to the site so far and running censuses (censi?)
A few questions and thoughts:
How do you handle getting to 50 toons created, or whatever the cap is? It seems like creating trial accounts would be a lot of hassle, especially because you then have to track different lua files.

Do you have a set rotation of servers that you run a census on, or do you just use the most wanted list?

My strategy has been to create a DK each time (faster logout when you're done, because they start in a city). I've also decided to just do Dragonblight (my server) and just hit the most needed servers, which means deleting toons and creating new ones. Is there any downside to that?

Also, when there are more than 50 Blood Elf Paladins at level 85, how does the tool decide which letters to search? It seems like it doesn't search all 26 letters (there could be names starting with special characters too). Is that expected? It seems like it usually searches Y, U, T,S,R,P, etc.

Hello and welcome!

Different people have different methods. Some have additional trial account(s), some, like I, use just their one account. Same can be said about the strategy for rotation / wanted lists.

Your strategy has one minor flaw from WCR point of view. Using DKs means that the database gets a lot of useless DKs added into it. Level 1 chars are preferred, because they get wiped out a LOT faster.

Just as an example, my account currently contains 39 characters I actually play, 10 "permanent" census alts and the 50th slot is kept empty so I can rotate additional factions if the mood strikes.

The searched letters are programmed into the tool. And you are correct, only some letters are used, but they already grant a pretty good coverage, because most names are long enough to contain at least one of the searched for letters. The searched for letter also does not have to be the first. That is, character called for exampe Xáy will get caught by the search for Y.

Also, you can only have one DK on each server, so you can't use DKs to cover both sides..
You can create level 1 toons and while your Census runs, you can treck to nearest Inn. This can usually be done faster than a Census completes, and then you have fast logout..

Well, if he is doing the "create, census, delete, create, census, delete, etc..."-routine that restriction doesn't affect him... but using that routine and DKs creates unneccessary level 55s into the database... and since new 55s are above all cutouts (character age and level) they bloat the database with non-existant characters for a much longer time than already deleted level 1s.

Also, always using only one character class on low population factions would (with very active censusing) already start to distort the results in the direction of the faction having an unusually high (level 55) DK count, possibly of even specific race.

Thanks for the input. I've settled on a set list of servers that I'm interested in right now, and I'm mostly doing horde side (because I'm more curious about Horde numbers). I'm also deleting my DKs and creating level 1 toons instead. So I'm covering my home server on both sides, and covering close to 40 other Horde side servers 2-3 times a week.

Right now I'm 3rd on the monthly stats.
We'll see how long that lasts. I'm sure you've seen a lot of people come and go.

Indeed.. I have only been a member about 30 months (2,5 years) and even in that time many have come and gone. Some only stayed a few days, others burned out in a month or two.

And then there are some who far surpass me in length of membership and are still active, like Gmmmpresser and Balgair.

If you keep up your current pace, you stand a pretty good chance of being in the top 5 of both monthly lists regularly. Reaching spots on the all time top 10s... will require a longer effort, should you choose to try that. Current figures withstanding... about 23-24 months or just below two years, I think.

That it takes so long... well, it is partially my fault. I am afraid I pushed quite a few people over their limits or wore them out, placing high on the monthly lists, month after another... Right now... I could most likely take a six or seven month break, return and still see myself in the number 1 slots of the all time lists... Even a break lasting two years would probably not knock me completely out of the lists.

One small piece of advice... only do as much as feels fun.

Epic Censi wishes all readers a good day/night, depending on location.

I have a question.

I'm sure this is true, but - can you do multiple servers with the same lua file? That is to say, you log in to a few servers, take the census, and then upload it just once?

Should be in the FAQ really.

Kudos, Xen.

And can you take multiple censi on a day while uploading just once?

Confirmed, you can do multiple servers and multiple censi. I've heard that there is a limit of 10MB for the upload through the website, but I've been using the server prune to keep my file smaller.

Alright, thanks.

Jeremy already covered the answers. I'll just add that I assume that almost everyone who uses the addon runs multiple censuses and many of us cover multiple factions between submissions.

Even though I have cut down on censusing somewhat, I still cover about 16-18 factions a day and run well over 40 censuses daily. Even so, I rarely submit more than 5 times a day and lately, I have often only done 2-3 submissions a day.