As me and other mentioned i will try to summarize most critical things that need to be done to boost and keep population on Haven:
- return mob spawn to early Horus days. this will make grinding possible again. remove mob regeneration when they run back. grind is not so bad if you have mobs to kill - there is nothing more annoying of buying a XP booster and running like mad around for mobs. i have seen so many been furious of wasting a booster because there are no mobs to grind on.
- enable WMC in all territory. this will stimulate wars everywhere. open and bridge wars are fun - make them rewarding again.
- remove WMC redeem block. needing to invade to get WMC well some realms do not have numbers to do so.
- if possible disable invasions temporarily until population stabilizes.
- disable guard captains if possible. this can ease fort farms as killing a guard captain is a pain in the ass with less than 10 allies. i doubt GC makes difference on RA, sooo remove it completely? Most invasions on Haven start with a group taking forts, making them to GC level and after defenders give up and logoff they invade empty realm.
- make war events - old fort war events that giant GM's lead realms was so fun. i do not say find the GM is not fun, but hey we need more focus on war.
- get GM's back on shifts - people seing someone official is there make realm chat more friendly for newcomers and less toxic.
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On a later stage you can start to squash bugs balance and fix spells and rollback some questionable features like needing to stay on place to shoot or cast spells.
I think returning grind back to old days was the most vital part that managed to build the community Horus once have. Grind parties, hunt parties and so on made people become friends, build good clans and take teamwork to the next level.
If you want to get this server back stop thinking of how to make people spend ximerins and start to think how to get teamwork, fun and warmth back in this place.
I'm sure if things start to change for the better many will come back.
P.S. I'm maybe sounding nostalgic for talking about Horus, but this is not because game was better then. It was just more fun despite having bugs, being ugly ans so on. We just need to seek things that made old regnum fun and what was changed to break things up.