In the last 2 weeks we have seen a number of things change, unfortunately in a less than positive way.

The account system, need looking at... Although fixed, it deactivated already paying customers and this caused a re-evaluation about re-subbing.

The last patch fixed many important things, like structure moving, hide, and even models... But also cause a good number to have connection issues, along with 3x more animals that few are able to find. ( maybe we need to let them spread out a bit )

And for some long time players, the frustration level has just become too great.

So whats the bottom line? What can you do? What do you want to do?

May I make a constructive suggestion?

What you need at the moment, is time to put in the updates that will smooth out the game play and promote balance, trade, and player interaction. You also need to keep the players you have or replace them with many more new players.

So...

While you work on the next patches, give the player base things that will give them reason to do what they do.

Example: introduce zombies that can knock down doors and attack players. If they can successfully hit a door 100 times they dismantle it. and can pass through. once in a town they will want to kill players and destroy baskets.

The will do a number of things...

1. it will give the walls and gates a reason to exist.
2. it will produce a sense of danger even in safe zones, while allowing the player to control his own level of safety.
3. It can even promote group dynamics and cause folks to band together, if the zombie is slow and hard to kill.

You already have the Ai for them in the coyote ai. have them wander and when close to villages, they zero in on players. They don't have to have all the combat moves, they don't have to have awesome loot, there just needs to be enough in the world to make them visible to most any player. So spawn them the same way you do coyotes near the lake.

Next go ahead and advertise to get a new influx of players. At least now you have something to keep people occupied as you finish up on needed updates. Everyone will NEED to build walls and houses to protect their stuff from wandering zombies. Even after people get an area "safe" they will just use the zombies as the new form of animal to hunt. Each time a zombie is killed, another pops up elsewhere... keep the zombie population stable at say 500.