My opinion on why the game has constantly been losing players

[Sanctions]

@Sanctions Or you can play Star Conflict, if you want free-for-all mindless PVP, just saying. Roleplay in here is the only thing that makes me be around Discovery. Without it, it's just a dated average space shooter that can be easily replaced with Elite: Dangerous.

Tried it.
Was disappointed a lot. Not comparable to FL at all.
People usually say that FL is just old and that's why it is losing playerbase.
Thing is, age doesn't really matter, as long as this game is unique in terms of gameplay.
QW is 1996 and still being played, Q2 is 1997 and still being played, Q3 is 1999 and still being played. Why? Because they're unique and there's still no rivals, same goes to FL.
We used to enjoy it for it's combat complexity, style and variety, even in vanilla.
And during .85 it was still like that, accompanied by great RP, numerous factions and people devoting themselves to the game.
And then we got **** like Goldern Coin and Puerto del Sol, hot spots being distanced away one from another, leading in greater loss of player base.
This game is based mostly on conflicts, you erase conflicts - > you erase trading, you erase RP, you erase playerbase.