One thing i know didn't help back in 2014-15 which roughly about 40 or so players left this game for good was some of the crooked things done by devs for certain "groups" back then. I am sure it will be denied it happened by some, but i did happen. But one thing out of the huge list people say killed the game is a lot of nerfing of ships, weapons and even going as far as putting smaller hitboxes on ships to give an advantage in pvp. Certain people cried to their dev buddies on how overpowered a certain faction's ships were and how they should not win in pvp. I cannot remember exactly which ship it was but pretty sure it was a UC gunboat that basically had a hitbox the size of a light fighter. Sure call me crazy, full of s**t or whatever. But i have had stuff that happened years ago confirmed by more than one person that knew it was true. Toss on top of the mess a ton of meta and power gaming. Getting in other factions teamspeak to spy and let others know what they are up to. There has been tons of crooked and very spiteful things done to others in game over the years over stuff like "I don't like so and so, he is in this faction as leader so i must really take out my hate on the whole group of players. Also just some of the really really toxic behavior over dumb things that some people could just move on but didn't and ended up harassing some players right out of the game. Cannot blame the devs fully for killing the game, make sure to look in the mirror and see if you were one of those who may have contributed in even a small way to even making one player give up trying to accomplish anything here by harassment of them, destroying bases they may be trying to build (even within rules and laws). Yeah you may have only made one person quit, but you making one person want to leave and 10-20 others making one person leave the game. It all adds up. So it wasn't the devs, or lack of impacting how the game evolved, or any specific thing that by it's self killed disco. to me it seems like if anyone is to blame it's the community. We are all human, and never going to agree 100% on anything so i feel players impacting the game more would just kill this place off even more. I feel it is too late now to even waste time arguing of the why and who to blame, i don't see anything bringing back tons of active players to a damn near 15-20 year old game and mod. All i can say is stop bickering, stop the hate of others, think before you type. Be good to each other and try to make this a better community of players and it just might help attract newer ones who stay.
(Drops mic and flips the bird to everyone as he walks away)