It would probably help if we start re-establishing the old RP atmosphere on the server, starting with official factions. These factions are the pillars of our community, they are held to higher standards and greater responsibility then most and as such should be rewarded for their efforts. Giving them a base was a nice guesture but it doesn't give much to the pilots and lets face it the only thing people truly want from Disco is the caps, give them to the official factions and make any indie cap SRP for the ship.
Now before anyone goes nuts, allow me to explain my reasoning. By giving official factions the most desired ships it instantly requires those who want the big ships to A. Put effort into getting it beyond grinding credits and B. Forces them to be better people for fear of losing it. Same effect with the SRP's. Those who already own caps should be given three options, refund, SRP attempt or join the official faction. It's a hardline to take but we've tried giving players the benefit of the doubt and all we've got are dying factions and an empty, mostly silent server.
Factions themselves need an audit, their lore and shiplines should updated so that they complement each other rather than being at odds. For example:
Outcasts are supposed to be small in number yet we frequently see their caps down in Liberty.
Corsairs are meant to be starving to death but have food enough to stock battleships and dreadnaughts.
The Order, a small faction that keeps tabs on the Nomads but somehow has the resources to build three different kinds of capital ships.
Zoners, basically space hobos yet somehow have become explorers with colony ships.
And so on.
These are just a handful of the mass contradictions that exist within Disco, it's almost like three different versions of lore. Vanilla, the Dev's and the factions. It's a mess and we wonder why new players find it hard to fit in. If we can get everything merged down into something solid and understandable we might be able to get somewhere.