There's basically one server running all the time, with about 8 people on average at any given time.

Hacking is tolerable at the moment, admins don't stroll the server so they can't be banned or anything, but vote kicking still works

Not many *i-need-a-broader-vocab* do it anyway.

Basically there is 12 TCE 49b servers running all the time, but only servers with players ,will show in your list, and as for 'Hacking is tolerable at the moment' there is nearly always an admin at shotzone bc if you think someone is hacking then say so, if they havent been kicked then youre maybe just a newbie player, regardless of peoples history alot of players have played this game since day one, thats 10 years and then some... banning works, as players find out...

Are there any efforts going to bring TC:E back in original forms or as new code base?

Seen Q3TC, but its half finished or maybe it is recreating earlier game (or maybe I seen old YT clips?).
Seen few screen shots of TC:E on top of new post code-opensourcing ET editions but nothing solid.

Anything else?

Not entirely sure what you mean, but as far as I can understand of what you are trying to say - Kind of, in the form of MWTC.
Q3TC is TC:E's predecessor not something new.
Xreal is indeed not solid at all. Don't get your hopes up for it.

What about swapping W:ET for ET:Legacy?

They solve some bugs, and PB problems (and PB is gone so maybe its not relevant anymore?).

Anyone working on that?

The only way to fix it is to get rid of it and find an alternative. PB may be all cool-n-dandy but never have I seen a game that works as intended with PB.

ET:Legacy seems to be nothing more than just bugfixes for W:ET and nothing of that much engine fixing which would "touch" TC:E.

Oh, how many years I haven't thought about this! :( Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be that much interest in creating a TCE-inspired shooter. Might be that most people are also looking for better graphics, Unreal 3 or CryEengine 3 or something, while I don't really care. Hell, I've even had an idea for a TCE-inspired Doom clone ;)

Anyway, I've been working mostly on ballistics for a few years — though, it's been on hiatus for the past 2 years or so — as well as basic ideas for the overall game design, even some offshoot ideas, like a Mech simulator.

Still, there doesn't seem to be much of an interest in a community effort to create a TCE-inspired open-source game. I'd love to do something, but I'm mostly a designer; sure, I know C, but you need more experience to programme a game. And I haven't coded in years ...

Does it matter? Punkbuster still works, there just won't be updates. I don't think there is many people anymore making hacks which works with a new way. There is still those undetectable hacks and PB could never do anything with them and it wouldn't. If there comes some more simple hacks which has it's own CVARs, you can just add the cvars to your servers pb violation list.

I think we need a way to fix the server list so you can see empty servers too and make a good installer for ET+patches+tce+patches+etkey installer+punkbuster updater.

The way to fix empty servers not being in the list is to fix TC:E. The command from client to master server needs a little change. I tried to do it with hex editor without success. Maybe somebody else is better with this?

http://www.dev.etlegacy.com/issues/37#change-101