I recently posted this idea elsewhere, and I decided to make a thread about it.
There is a problem of publicity. We need more people to know about the mod, and that Freelancer still has new, fun things. As others have mentioned, the possibility of Machinimas. Perhaps offer special rewards to people who can put together good films of the mod and post them on youtube. Have an admin rate them, or something. This could apply to any sort of major contribution, actually.
These videos could be anything. Gameplay videos, roleplay stories, guides, tours of the mod's content, freelancer gameplay raps, whatever people come up with.
5/5's would receive 100 "Disco coins". 4/5's would receive 50. 3/5's would receive 10. Shared efforts would split the rewards.
Then these coins from contributing could be used to get things like:
Defiler: 1000 coins. Barge: 500 coins. (Maximum 1 per person, and when the first 5 are won, no more, cuzz we don't want the server getting full of barges) UAU MkX - 2.75x Hull, 25 cargo: 300 coins. (Yes, I know these don't exist, but it'd be neat.) Dynamic SRP Request: 200 coins. $100,000,000 in-game credits: 10 coins.
Explanation of "Dynamic SRP Request":
This would be something where the winner could make SRP requests without the fear of losing 400 million credits every time the admins don't like his idea. With the "Dynamic SRP request" prize, the winner could speak with an administrator until they come to an agreement on an approve-able SRP. Additionally, there would be no starting time, only playtime, requirements on the Dynamic SRP, so players who have been around for a long time, but want the idea on a specific character that they've been playing actively but made less than 6 months ago wouldn't be excluded. This is the big killer, because most people who come up with a roleplay idea and make their character aren't going to want to wait half a year before they can even request the SRP for what they want to roleplay that character as. Some particular ideas aren't properly role-playable without the SRP.
People who make good videos could pool their coins together for one reward, as well.
If at first you think "Oh great now we'll have a bunch of indie defilers and lolwut SRP's". Not really, take a look at the prices and rewards. You'd have to make 10 perfect videos for a defiler, and that's only one defiler, you'd certainly want at least a pair, probably a set, but most people'd probably be getting 3/5's which would take a hundred per defiler. So you won't have a bunch of defilers going around, that won't be a problem. But it would encourage people to make good videos.
Anyway, if you can think of some good rewards, post them below. Also post your opinions and such.
