Wow, i'm really happy Adrian you're doing this!
I have played ro for almost 5 years even though I barely play anymore since last year just because the game has lost it's appeal to me since I have been playing for so long. I myself found the love in this game in it's fort wars mechanics and simply having fun warring/invasions too. It is a good thing I think you don't focus on the items atm. You should focus on this games main strength, which is the best rvr experience any game has to offer, trust me.
Jewelry makes almost 0 difference in wars, only die hard pvp players care, because it changes numbers from 120 to 160 for example making ppl cry about losing due to bad equipment. But in the end it is still possible to kill the player with better equipment than you even if most won't admit it.
Good job on focusing on the fundamental, making wars fun! I remember when I had to defend the gate for the very first time so long ago, without the dragons or anything, it was the coolest thing to me. Don't try to make too much new content, polish your current content, and then give us content that coincides with what this games player base would love. Look at COR expansion, we can't even log into tdm, don't focus on that, heck remove it and go back to the basics
Good luck