I don't really think the factions worlds can really be fixed. I think there are too many problems stopping them from regrowing to the scale everyone loved back in 2012-14. I mean there are things you can do to make it more fun, but a serious problem I believe exists is that the way this server uses the factions plugin is very different from how a lot of factions servers operate. (I know the plugin is designed for this server, but Massive does use it differently.)
Marty can correct me but I would imagine that when new players join the server looking for a factions experience they would be quite confused about it. This server is very complex to immediately understand and the way factions works isn't normal. Some people might find the server too complex or find that the factions worlds are too dead or all the good spots to build are taken. The problems with the factions worlds are self-perpetuating in that as people leave because there arent enough people, the new people who join leave because everyone has already left and then when those people who left originally look to see if anyone is there they find nobody.
I think to turn the faction worlds around there would have to be a lot of effort put in by both the staff members as well as the run of the mill players in order to make sure that when a player logs into massive because they want to play factions, stays on the server for more than a couple of hours. Things that would need to change in my eyes are -
* The inherent gap between new players and old players. PvPers and long term survivalists have huge amounts of supplies and gear while new players are outclassed as without significant grinding it is practically impossible for them to match PvPers.
* The creation and propagation of safe zones in the factions worlds (short term) in order to allow for roleplay events and other such gatherings. I would love it if new players were able to have a day of PvP protection in order to set-up. I think that having permanent blanket protection from PvP would be insulting to the PvP community, but an expansion of short term protections could go a long way to create the lure of safety within the factions worlds.
* (Possibly controversial) I think that perhaps a watered down version of the lore could be used in factions worlds instead of Regalia, where people are allowed to create some of their own lore for their factions and spread it on a wiki or on these forums and act within it. This would allow people to roleplay in their own way and establish their own rules within their factions that still loosely coincide with that of the main server. I also think that people who roleplay in the factions world should be able to get protection from annoying people by contacting Lore staff through the ticketing system. (Though the extent to which this would apply to PvPers needs to be worked out. As a final point, the watered down version of the lore could also provide a good introduction to players who want to roleplay but aren't ready for the roleplay that goes on in Regalia which can sometimes require a good knowledge of the lore (Though of course this is a generalisation and I do understand that there is a lot of roleplay that doesn't require this in the slightest.
* This list is non-exhaustative and other people also have great ideas on how to improve the factions worlds, but I will be honest here, there needs to be a lot and I mean a lot of work done to recover the strength of the factions worlds, especially in terms of bringing players who want to take part in factions from other servers to experience the system we have on massive, because it is incredibly fun and allows a certain type ofplayer to flourish.
I would love to see a return to how the factions servers used to be. And while some might think that the nostalgic memories that many survivalists and PvPers have are fables, I still hope to make more of them on the server. This is why I believe that many people, myself included still keep their chest rooms and vaults in hope that one day the factions worlds will return to their former glory.
(I hope not to be rude to anyone, and hope that no one feels offended or annoyed by my arguments. I also know that they are not perfect and have a lot of holes, please expand upon the ideas through constructive criticism rather than shooting them down.)
