Disruptive player counting reports

[joelslamospersson]

Priority

Low

Area

• Datapack
• Source
• Map
• Other

What happened?

The problem
Two different protocols report player counts differently:
XML status protocol (sendStatusString()) — IP-filtered

Protocolstatus.cpp lines 108-125 ( At the time of my editing )

pugi::xml_node players = tsqp.append_child("players");
uint32_t real = 0;
std::map<uint32_t, uint32_t> listIP;
for (const auto &[key, player] : g_game().getPlayers()) {
    if (player->getIP() != 0) {
        auto ip = listIP.find(player->getIP());
        if (ip != listIP.end()) {
            listIP[player->getIP()]++;
            if (listIP[player->getIP()] < 5) {  // Only counts first 4 per IP
                real++;
            }
        } else {
            listIP[player->getIP()] = 1;
            real++;
        }
    }
}
players.append_attribute("online") = std::to_string(real).c_str();  // IP-filtered count

This counts up to 4 players per IP.
Binary protocol (sendInfo()) — no IP filtering
protocolstatus.cpp lines-187-192

if (requestedInfo & REQUEST_PLAYERS_INFO) {
    output->addByte(0x20);
    output->add<uint32_t>(static_cast<uint32_t>(g_game().getPlayersOnline()));  // Actual count
    output->add<uint32_t>(g_configManager().getNumber(MAX_PLAYERS));
    output->add<uint32_t>(g_game().getPlayersRecord());
}

This uses g_game().getPlayersOnline(), which returns:
game.hpp lines 181-183

size_t getPlayersOnline() const {
    return players.size();  // Returns ALL players, no IP filtering
}

Impact
XML status (used by otservlist.net): shows IP-filtered count (max 4 per IP)
Binary protocol (used by some server browsers/clients): shows actual player count
Example:
10 players from IP x
XML: 4
Binary: 10

This inconsistency can cause ( Can ):
Different counts between protocols
Potential otservlist bans if the binary protocol is used for reporting by fault or by meaning
Confusion for server browsers ( Issue I've encountered )

Updated code:
protocolstatus.hpp,
under:
void sendInfo(uint16_t requestedInfo, const std::string &characterName) const;

Add:
static uint32_t getIPFilteredPlayerCount();

Under this function:
void ProtocolStatus::onRecvFirstMessage(NetworkMessage &msg) {

Add this new function:

uint32_t ProtocolStatus::getIPFilteredPlayerCount() {
	uint32_t real = 0;
	std::map<uint32_t, uint32_t> listIP;
	for (const auto &[key, player] : g_game().getPlayers()) {
		if (player->getIP() != 0) {
			auto ip = listIP.find(player->getIP());
			if (ip != listIP.end()) {
				listIP[player->getIP()]++;
				if (listIP[player->getIP()] < 5) {
					real++;
				}
			} else {
				listIP[player->getIP()] = 1;
				real++;
			}
		}
	}
	return real;
}

Remove:

uint32_t real = 0;
    std::map<uint32_t, uint32_t> listIP;
    for (const auto &[key, player] : g_game().getPlayers()) {
        if (player->getIP() != 0) {
            auto ip = listIP.find(player->getIP());
            if (ip != listIP.end()) {
                listIP[player->getIP()]++;
                if (listIP[player->getIP()] < 5) {
                    real++;
                }
            } else {
                listIP[player->getIP()] = 1;
                real++;
            }
        }
    }
    players.append_attribute("online") = std::to_string(real).c_str();

Add:
players.append_attribute("online") = std::to_string(getIPFilteredPlayerCount()).c_str();

Edit this:

if (requestedInfo & REQUEST_PLAYERS_INFO) {
		output->addByte(0x20);
                ->Remove this: output->add<uint32_t>(static_cast<uint32_t>(g_game().getPlayersOnline()));
		->Add this: output->add<uint32_t>(getIPFilteredPlayerCount());
		output->add<uint32_t>(g_configManager().getNumber(MAX_PLAYERS));
		output->add<uint32_t>(g_game().getPlayersRecord());
	}

Please review this code before using it yourself
https://otland.net/threads/otservlist-ban-c-code-to-count-online.276146/

What OS are you seeing the problem on?

Linux

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