sorry there was a thread i wanted to reply to but couldn't find it. So will keep this brief
crafting and harvesting are 'strong' in SoR, there are a limited number of games that have the same depth. There are plenty of players who enjoy trade skills. I think you need to do more to push the things that make our game stand out. Write some articles, market it however, but as was mentioned on the thread i wanted to reply to create news! The Step 1/2/etc and especially at the start releasing very limited numbers of accounts was a great idea but its over now and you need to keep that momentum going.
I don't want to assume how the code is, but i would hope its a relatively easy thing to, for example, add more crafting plans? Longer term finish both crafting and harvesting, get the inactive stats working, add a way to color items using the already in game pigments, etc, etc.
I think one of the key problems is that however good Ryzom is, its been virtually stagnant for 4 years now. The various large scale events that Nevrax ran were awesome, if extremely buggy, but i think they were also very resource heavy. Find some content you can add on a regular basis that doesn't require a team of 10 6 months to make. Get the raid engine working and have one every few weeks, add a mechanic to outposts so the npc's attack a random one, bring back the temple event as a permanent fixture (yes i know needs a little work but there is so much content that was made for it just sitting around unused).
Honestly though you need to finish things, that was huge problem with Nevrax - great ideas and love for their game, but they just hopped from one thing to next never actually finishing anything. I remember when i started half the text was still in French, it was excusable at launch but most of the other unfinished stuff remained for years/is still waiting...
I played today for first time in a while, and reminded myself i love this game - you are not allowed to fail!
ohh and before anything else get rid of ALL the bugs on Silan, you are shooting yourself in the foot repeatedly by having them there.
rushin