I also think there are better ways to make new players stay, like tutorials, quests to train them, etc...
That's why there will be no 10 safe zones around Hub. Also that's why we already have a tutorial for newbies, which should teach them something and give them a safe place to store items (tent-like).
If you want the game to be populated, then you should be concerned about new players. You can believe me that more than 80-90% players end their adventure with FOnline in under a week, because it's too difficult. Many ragequit in hours. So, you want the game to be populated or you want the game to be suitable only for hardcore players who will die 100x times but eventually learn how the things work? Some old players understand what I'm talking about, I also kept posting "wasteland is harsh" for months but it's not a good approach unless you want a hardcore game with 20 online who will play no matter what because they are only interested in pvp. You don't see the bigger picture, so-called pvp population is less than 20% of the server at any given time, it was also like that on 2238, most people just don't care about pvp even if you think it's otherwise.
A game that do not get patched or updated is a game that lose players and by players i mean pvp players because like furior said those 80 players online are ghosts.
The most fidel community to your game is the pvp one proof is that everybody is waiting for wipe on this server and updates. It means that reloaded got a huge fan base rdy and waiting. If people complain its because your server is actually very good but lack updates because pvp is broken and everybody is trolling with OP weapons and broken classes.
Everyone wait test server now is good time leave reloaded for roleplayer and chit chatting in hub and give your pvp fan base a test server so we can discuss changes together!
At some point the game will not get patches just because the preparations for new session are in progress and you cannot make certain changes to the running server. Then, I'm unable to develop two servers (one on old version and the other one being prepared for the next session) because I don't have enough time for this. Why it's taking so long, I already explained in "Reloading the Reloaded" thread.
Of course you can still be convinced that it should be done better, the game should being as hardcore and timeconsuming as 2238 because "these were the better times", and maybe you would know better how to develop the game, prepare wipes, testing and listen
"to the right people". The tools are available since almost two years, so no problem, you can do it. I'm not saying that you can't do it - whenever a new server starts being developed, I honestly wish them good luck, because I am sure that more servers = the better.
300 servers with one player each? Please. You are talking like there was a closed community with limited number of players involved, it's bad approach saying "oh noes don't create another server because the community will split!!11" It's totally wrong. Believe me, if you would take into account all people that played Reloaded since it's launch, it would be probably somewhere about 10.000-20.000, maybe even more. Is it a huge number? Nope, even this forum has 5500 accounts with no bots because they just can't register. So, there is a lot of potential FOnline players, you just need to attract them, because currently all the servers are too harsh for new guys and the learning curve is too steep.