I'm fine with giving struggling factions a way to get an extra chance to salvage their situation when they thin out. But I hope this won't turn into RP in exchange for actual activity. The best way to help factions is create some real valuable activity in game that entices all sides to get online and get involved.
With a few rule changes and a team dedicated to operating an organized system, factions would have a lot more meaningful activities to jump into at any given time. Every faction could either be buying sci data, or mining it to use/sell it, etc, to be used for making big faction moves. Loosen some reigns rule wise and let player factions drive at least some story, mainly in building up their territory, if they can. Do that, and this place will have too much to do, not too little, giving factions a lot more to work on in the long term.
I think of it like this. When there are 20-30 people online during the weekdays, I ask, why is there not more online right now?
Because of lack of circumstantial interest. Ships and systems alone never sold the game, it was what we can do with all these things we earn, and how we might effect the space world in general.
Why a lack of interest? Events prove time and again something will get all those peeps with the mod still installed online. Is it really the age of the game? No. We have proven that within reason this place holds up quite well due to the ability to mod and customize. Yet we have really low interest for a free to play game.
Time to stop listening to those who reject all change here and reject pixel empire building, it's what people want to do, just organize it in advance to keep it fair. That provides some real necessities that can be filled by other roles that revolve around the major factions. It is greatly needed to keep things ongoing, which is needed to keep the place alive. Even weekends are slow these days.
Discovery needs the 'free floating factor'. It's like allowing a floating dollar, or changing market values caused by supply and demand. With OF's having an official right to challenge for control of places on their own, they'd be able to build up and use that ability as they choose, and that would change everything here. Not as much would be ruled out, opening up a random factor making developments here exciting and interesting.
Why? The bottom line is, the current way things are done leaves us knowing for sure what won't be happening, what we have no say over, and the point of playing outside events is defeated from the start.
Not knowing what could come next will mean there is some unpredictability here again, and not as much is ruled out at any given time. Who needs to maintain capships and big fleets if you know you will never really need them? Its the same for every role.
So, factions should be able to earn sieges of most NPC locations as long as it fits to their ROE's and lore. Then, people would get mining, trading, etc, and we'd need to get online to care. We'd need to patrol for scidata miners/dealers, need escorts again, need to keep trading normal commodities to pay to keep the ball rolling. Constant costs mean a constant need to earn more and keep the cycle ongoing. Once its allowed, and a system is set for all to see and use, players will get online again, and hopefully it will cause a surge for a while we can use to bolster our numbers more and more as time goes on. We'll never need registration only events to worry about balancing sides ever again, and normal server rules can be what we play by for important battles/sieges.
And as far as I'm concerned, we have relied too much on forum RP to propel story. It occured to me a while ago, we should require most meetings and negotiations to take place online, in-game, in local or system chat only. Imagine! But to me, battle events and siege/supply events should unfold over days, weeks, not a couple hours on a Saturday. Use those hours on Saturdays to meet and negotiate in-game, like an event, where eavesdroppers and party crashers may pop in. You can meet wherever, space is big, but can you keep it a secret? Keep it secure? The story would still get posted afterwards.
Be brave enough to accept, if we want people online playing, we need to keep the things needed to get anything done also online.