Launch Day Numbers

[Codewalker]

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.

[Arcana]

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.

So about 50kb/sec per connection (40 up, 10 down).  So the 25kb/sec - 100kb/sec per user was actually a pretty good estimate.  Yay, I'm not an idiot.

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.

I'm honestly not sure what would happen if 100 players in the same zone simultaneously tried to execute a mapmove command to the same destination on the live servers.  However, it sounds possible that with everyone standing still and appearing in the same place in visual range, there was a sudden exponential burst of metachannel traffic that broke the room.

Still, pretty good for day one.

[epic]

Since the launch, 788 unique accounts have logged into the Titan XMPP server. No doubt most of those were using Paragon Chat.

That means 788 people in the community still care. Those are nice numbers.

[Arcana]

That means 788 people in the community still care. Those are nice numbers.

Some might have been chat clients, but conversely there are still a lot of people either having difficulty setting up Paragon Chat, just plain downloading Paragon Chat or the I24 client, or having other technical difficulties that make it impossible for them to log in yet.  I would not be surprised to see that number double in a week or so.

[Zekiran]

It was positively amazing. Having been part of the hours before the release, seeing just the few of us and then hearing the livestream... It was full of amazing.

I was wondering what was going on - watching the stream and seeing everyone separately hit D and then Ouro, and all having the same response, "um, there's no one here and my chat stopped working" was pretty telling. Obviously still some bugs to be worked out there. But on the whole, relaunching when invisible to people seemed to work *mainly* (I'm guessing that as time went on and more people got on, that became the issue rather than just being slightly out of synch - since chat worked, but visibly the characters weren't there for some, were for others).

780+ people *in the first night* seems like a marvelous indicator of how this will go.

Now if only the folks having issues (the same issues, usually) will come HERE instead of randomly asking in the facebook groups for help...

[Kheprera]

I could not yet log in. My computer is still in Wisconsin.

I'm in Texas.

Thus me logging in is difficult.

Also none of my SG has yet logged in (though one is a Cape DJ and imagine he'll be there soonish). I ramble.

Some people on Facebook were getting errors. I tried to send them here to report errors for tracking.

Yay for success!

[Blackmoor]

That means 788 people in the community still care. Those are nice numbers.

And that's only considering the people that still active pursue CoX news. There's an even larger number of people that still care, but they aren't keeping their ears to the ground like we are. 

[Noyjitat]

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.

So it would seem to be safe you need a system in place that only allows so many people to change zones at once. some sort of queue that occurs during a loading screen. 30 is the default cap per zone or is that the cap for atlas only? Because I remember having 50 in rikti war zone and the hive for full league and two people outside of the league.

If you think we'll need better hardware start a donation page. I imagine you'll meet the required goal in record time haha.

[Stealth Dart]

It was really great seeing all of you who made it in.   

To those having difficulty I hope you persevere until you are successful.  It was a real tear jerker moment    logging in to Atlas Park and seeing members of our community livening up the place.  Looking forward even more to what is yet to come.  Thanks Codewalker and all who helped to make this a reality.  I really, really miss my home.  So great to have our community back!   

[Golden Aurora]

I had screenshots the night/moment the servers went down, and again the moment CW made them come up.
It was a night I will remember for a long, long time and hopefully the beginning of the return of something we've all lusted after.

It's good to be home.

[Remaugen]

Myself and one other person ended up in Pocket D4.

[Brightfires]

It was great fun seeing everyone last night... Even if they *couldn't* see me. 

(Apparently both Palrah and Kestrel were invisible to the majority of the other people in Atlas and the D. 'Something to do with their costumes, it seems. My non-angel-winged Nemissary showed up just fine.)

[Arcana]

So it would seem to be safe you need a system in place that only allows so many people to change zones at once. some sort of queue that occurs during a loading screen. 30 is the default cap per zone or is that the cap for atlas only? Because I remember having 50 in rikti war zone and the hive for full league and two people outside of the league.

That would probably require hacking the Openfire server, which I think Codewalker would rather chew through his own leg than do.

Its probably not the explicit switching of zones that's the problem, but what happens next that is the problem.  Everyone (i.e. every game client) now has to figure out where everyone else is, and what they are doing, simultaneously.  A more sophisticated discovery protocol might address that in theory without having to tamper with the XMPP server, but that might be a sufficiently complex TODO to make it a lesser priority.

Its also possible there's a subtle design flaw in the way presence messages are processed in high density situations that could be resolved algorithmicly.  I'm certain Codewalker will find a solution in due time.

[Surelle]

Some might have been chat clients, but conversely there are still a lot of people either having difficulty setting up Paragon Chat, just plain downloading Paragon Chat or the I24 client, or having other technical difficulties that make it impossible for them to log in yet.  I would not be surprised to see that number double in a week or so.

True, me among them.  Glad to hear so many were able to take that maiden voyage though!  Cool beans!  People still care! 

Not complaining here by a long shot, just waiting until sometime when the dropbox bandwidth isn't drained dry.  Again, not complaining.  Even if I can't download for weeks, I'm still happy we even have this option available.  Months and years fly by like nothing to me.  I blink and they're gone-- a side-effect of getting old methinks.   

[Graphite]

We are the Hard Core Super Early Adopters.  In business speak, we're the crazies who camp outside for the Newest I-Phone.  I'm sure those numbers will climb, especially as new hits the press circuit and word of mouth starts to spread.  All and all I think it was a fantastic release.

IMHO, someone should at some point add a link in the Paragon Chat Forums that's easy to find for Tequila with out having to dig for it in another sub-folder like I had too.  I'm really impressed with how easy everything was to set up.  However, the simpler the better so people don't get frustrated enough to potentially quit.

I mentioned this in chat but am posting it here as well so that it gets properly logged.  If you AFK it disconnects you from Paragon Chat but NOT Icon.  I came back before the old time window, noticed the chat hadn't changed and that no one else was around.  Looking at the system alerts I then saw: "You went AFK.  Unknown command AFK.  You went AFK."  Again, my assumption is that AFK causes a bump off the servers since its unknown, but hey, I'm no expert.

And Again THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone involved with this project!  It's great having our City back!
Praise the Code!

[Golden Aurora]

That would probably require hacking the Openfire server, which I think Codewalker would rather chew through his own leg than do.

Its probably not the explicit switching of zones that's the problem, but what happens next that is the problem.  Everyone (i.e. every game client) now has to figure out where everyone else is, and what they are doing, simultaneously.  A more sophisticated discovery protocol might address that in theory without having to tamper with the XMPP server, but that might be a sufficiently complex TODO to make it a lesser priority.

Its also possible there's a subtle design flaw in the way presence messages are processed in high density situations that could be resolved algorithmicly.  I'm certain Codewalker will find a solution in due time.

Actually Arcana, I can think of ways to do this.
You could have a room that sits between your source and destination room.
Call it a loading room if you will.

While within this room, the only thing you have to broadcast is your destination and timestamp of when you entered the loading room.
First come, first serve for when you leave the room and go to your destination.

While in this room you wouldn't need to flood the server asking for costume pieces, and all that other stuff that is the cause of the server issues.

[Arcana]

Actually Arcana, I can think of ways to do this.
You could have a room that sits between your source and destination room.
Call it a loading room if you will.

While within this room, the only thing you have to broadcast is your destination and timestamp of when you entered the loading room.
First come, first serve for when you leave the room and go to your destination.

While in this room you wouldn't need to flood the server asking for costume pieces, and all that other stuff that is the cause of the server issues.

That would break mapmove and force everyone to learn how to make double moves.

[Risha]

Well I downloaded, got impatient and screwed up stuff on my end and downloaded AGAIN (in a better place), so I went in late but made it.    In a little today, and now I have 3 toons up.  One in Atlas, one in Pocket D, and one in the Cryptic Lounge (no NPCs in the Cryptic Lounge).

Don't know as I ever ran through Skyway before, but, man, it's not fun.    Somethings I've embarrassingly have forgotten, some I'm surprised I recall.  And wonderful points -- oh, I died here the first time I came into this zone.  Oh, this is where I met . . .

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

[laufeyjarson]

So awesome to see the client full of people again!  Thank you all so much for doing this.

It didn't feel like there were 200 people on, so we must have been spread out pretty good. 

[Golden Aurora]

That would break mapmove and force everyone to learn how to make double moves.

I envisioned it more as an automatic process taken care of by Paragon Chat. You type in the mapmove number and it does the rest.

[MaidMercury]

I tried to log in Today.
I get this error.

Manifest download error for http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37952257/Tequila/titanicon.xml
The remote server returned an error: (429) Bandwidth Error.

[Aggelakis]

I tried to log in Today.
I get this error.

Manifest download error for http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37952257/Tequila/titanicon.xml
The remote server returned an error: (429) Bandwidth Error.

Download a fresh Tequila: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Titan_Icon

Let's not use this thread for any more errors, please.

[Arcana]

Recommend people with problems see my Common Questions and Problems post, and if it is not resolved there then post in the FAQ thread itself (where that guide is posted) which is here: http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,10977.0.html.

Both questions posted here are addressed at least in part there.

[Aggelakis]

Removed some error chatter from here. Please see Arcana's links.

[Vr2Lrose]

As far as caps go best to play things by ear monitor what rooms instance a lot and the can have higher caps.

Pocket d and Atlas will obviously be big population at first but i estimate
rooms like 

RWZ,  Midnighters, Imperial(club 55) and paragon dance party could become  player hubs as well since we are just maploading the difficulty to get to these spots are removed. They all have good access to tailors and multiple cityzones. and they are small so mapmove will drop you near the action.

[Azrael]

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..!

[Styrj]

Just dropping by to say THANK YOU! to Codewalker and crew (sorry don't know all the names).  I turn 68 this September and to have Paragon Chat up and working was a thing of beauty to behold.      ( yes, I shed a tear for everyone logged in.)  The best b'day present a guy (or gal) could have.  I had PC up on both my tower & my new MSI GT80 notebook (downright awesome!). No problems.

[Mental Maden]

After a little hiccup updating files and such I finally got in to Atlas Park about 12:30 am. I never thought I'd see it again. Just walking around our old city and seeing a few familiar names and faces has given me an extra spring in my step today.

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this possible.

Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!

[nicoliy]

I was in during the launch/live stream and was not prepared for how much joy I'd feel being there with others. I've played in Icon for so long that I thought I'd be fairly neutral feeling in Paragon Chat, but boy was I wrong.

There is something that just can't replace being in Atlas/Pocket D with people again.

Glad to have been there for the launch...See you all again soon (Hiruko)

[Eoraptor]

I was in during the launch/live stream and was not prepared for how much joy I'd feel being there with others. I've played in Icon for so long that I thought I'd be fairly neutral feeling in Paragon Chat, but boy was I wrong.

There is something that just can't replace being in Atlas/Pocket D with people again.

Glad to have been there for the launch...See you all again soon (Hiruko)

this is why I didn't really get into Icon very much... it felt too much like a fucking ghost town to me. A post-apocalyptic abandoned waste I was the lone survivor of; doomed to wander until the day I-....



you get the idea.

[MaidMercury]

this is why I didn't really get into Icon very much... it felt too much like a pancaking ghost town to me. A post-apocalyptic abandoned waste I was the lone survivor of; doomed to wander until the day I-....
you get the idea.

Icon isn't stable...My character would soon get out of sync and float...then remain there.
I couldn't play with it more than a few minutes, sooner or later it would happen.
Didn't like passing through walls, interesting at first but just cheapens things.

Also didn't like being alone like you said.

Thank the lord for this beta. It was so much fun, felt like registering for College or something,
everyone standing around
Will try it again Tonight.! Thank you all TonyV and code duuudes   

[Codewalker]

Icon isn't stable...My character would soon get out of sync and float...then remain there.
I couldn't play with it more than a few minutes, sooner or later it would happen.
Didn't like passing through walls, interesting at first but just cheapens things.

You should stop pressing F5 to toggle noclip mode to avoid that 'problem'

[MaidMercury]

Yezz, Thank you. It is wonderful to see friends again

[emperorsteele]

Oh wow, so sad I missed all this. Downloading everything now, maybe I'll see a familiar face or two tomorrow =)

[Joshex]

Some might have been chat clients, but conversely there are still a lot of people either having difficulty setting up Paragon Chat, just plain downloading Paragon Chat or the I24 client, or having other technical difficulties that make it impossible for them to log in yet.  I would not be surprised to see that number double in a week or so.

or are too busy...  university deadlines...

[Floride]

You gonna post any first week numbers for us CW?
Only if you have some and when you find time. I know you're not busy or anything 

[Codewalker]

I haven't been keeping detailed stats, but have noticed that we tend to average around 60-90 concurrent users during "prime time" (6PM to 1AM US Eastern time), sometimes peaking at around 100.

So far, 2,189 unique users have logged in to the chat service. Most are likely using Paragon Chat, but some probably are only using a standard XMPP client.

Here's some graphs.

[Eoraptor]

that's not to shabby all things considered.

[LaughingAlex]

I get a feeling a majority of those are very likely roleplayers.  I saw some CO players come to paragon chat, even, though so far only cool ones(thank goodness .)  I have invited some of those I did like at CO over, I hope to encounter them soon.  Only roleplayers, obviously, and ones I like.

[caine6900]

Yea ncsoft should see these numbers and restart the game back up.

[Azrael]

Nearly 2,200 registrations so far is pretty good going.  I thought Paragon Chat would blow past 1000-2000 really quick...and chase down the first 5000!

It's only been out for a couple of weeks and word is only just getting out.

As more functionality comes back more people will be tempted back with 'more' to do.

Building our 'old home' as a 'new' home...brick by brick.

Azrael.

[UltimateHenryyy]

Livestream?  What livestream?  If its on twitch or something whats the name of the stream so I can get notifications for it? Please and thank you

[Aggelakis]

Livestream?  What livestream?  If its on twitch or something whats the name of the stream so I can get notifications for it? Please and thank you

The only livestream we had was on launch day. It only lasted about an hour (? memory hazy due to extreme excitement). Leandro, Codewalker, and some other folks chatted while they were getting ready to launch, then took us on a "howto" journey, then signed off to let us do our thing. AFAIK there hasn't been another livestream (by any of the devs anyway).

[Stealth Dart]

https://youtu.be/nl-brZ5roao

Above is the link for anyone else who missed it.

[Ravynwynd]

I'm working on bringing players and role-players from Champions Online over to ParagonChat.

I have formed a Super Group on Champions Online, called, "Pocket D V.I.P." and it's created for CoX players and role-players.

In the Super Group Information window I give the url to Titan Network and Tequila as well as City of Titans.

And so I spend half my time in Champions gaining members slowly, and half my time in ParagonChat.

To the folks of Titan Network and MWM, keep UP the GREAT work!

the end

[MaidMercury]

https://youtu.be/nl-brZ5roao
Above is the link for anyone else who missed it.

tried to watch...youtube says it's not availiable.