Since a few people asked, here's a few statistics gathered last night.
The maximum number of concurrent users peaked at around 200. At that time, the XMPP server's CPU usage was about 20-25% (around 1 full core on a 4 core system). Outgoing bandwidth was around 8Mbps at that time, and incoming averaging 2Mbps. Peak traffic was 14Mbps.
At one point we had around 120 players in Atlas. The one hiccup we had was when about 100 of those who were following the livestream all tried to mapmove to Pocket D at once. That caused something to go wrong on the server and it got stuck in a loop using 99% CPU and was unresponsive - chat traffic wasn't being passed. I restarted the service, which kicked everybody out momentarily, and re-established the default 30 player cap for Atlas. Once everybody got back in we had 3 Pocket D instances and 3 Atlas Park Instances.
After things had settled down a bit, I changed Atlas and Pocket D back to being uncapped. So far the issue has not repeated itself. When I get some spare time I'll dig into the server logs to see what it got stuck on.
Since the launch, 788 unique accounts have logged into the Titan XMPP server. No doubt most of those were using Paragon Chat.
I was wondering about the stats myself.
788 is a decent start.
...and many were having technical problems (including myself, trying to download issue 24 which 'hung' half way through. But I didn't need to. I already had Issue 24. All I needed was Paragon Chat. Once I downloaded that and put it in the i24 'directory' with icon and 'boom' - I was in!) I think you could safely say it would probably have been closer to 1000+ with all the players who couldn't get on. That's 1% of the CoH player base at 100k subscribers. An impressive stat to say almost nobody knows about it. I woke up at 5am in the morning and checked the forums to see Atlas 'alive' with CoH 'players' on some screen grabs taken by the community. Simply amazing.
When I got into Atlas a day later? I was completely blown away. An actual working server! The chat window works!! People logging in. Standing around and nattering. Just like they used to do in Coh!
I watched the 'log ins' and people kept logging in...they just kept appearing. The chat is rabid Coh fest (I mean that in a good way) and picked up right where CoH chat left off before the closure. Except...people are far more excited now.
Creating my alt and logging in to the city. Walking around. Using the tunnels. (They work!) Finding the 'easter egg' (tastefully done...) Map Zoning. Ambient sounds. Taking in the scenery. Going to Icon in Steel and setting up my 2nd costume slot. A working NPC!
Prognosis?
Once word on the street gets out, the spiritual successor communities get wind of it as well as MMO online publications giving Paragon Chat exposure...we'll comfortably dwarf 1000. I can see Paragon Chat drifting past 5000 and chasing down the 10k number real soon.
Tony V is absolutely right about Paragon Chat. It will challenge makers of 'rental' software to think about how they treat communities they take (substantial investment) money from. NC could have handled the closure of CoH much better than they did. I don't think they did 'exhaust possibilities.' It seemed 'personal' to me. But I can't prove that.
Team SCoRE have been svelte and classy as well as inspired. They've brought the community back with a chat client using CoH client. Genius. Because...no IP is distributed or shuttled about. Very clever. Is NC going to try and censure a community from 'chatting?' Good luck with that. The way the timeline goes...travel powers, trains and even bases will be back 'online' (or 'offline'
and the key blocks of the game for many people, chat, travel, costume contents, RPG, bases and probably (at least location based badge hunting?) will be back. For many people, a lot of the time, this WAS THE GAME! It wasn't all 'just' about the combat. I can see Paragon Chat numbers climbing to 5-10k for these 'kind' of CoH players and also, at least just as a 'home' for CoH players.
The only thing missing then will be PVP and NPC combat.
This 'stealth' development by putting tertiary elements back in place before combat will manage expectations and give the team time to work on the more 'difficult' stuff like unbundling powers/PVP/NPC spawning/AI/walk paths etc.
Once that happens, 'BOOM' the blue touch paper will be lit.
Getting the login and player creation screen working, the chat server up and the tunnels up for travel to other zones and the costume tailor working are seminal moments. We have a running server. I'm still in shock. I knew it would happen one day. I didn't expect it to be before the 3rd anniversary of closure.
A seismic moment.
Azrael.
PS. We can spread the word. Avatar builders and casual gamers who like using chat clients would love Paragon Chat. A place to explore..!