Darkwind, please, don't give up. Go small steps, refactor function by function but find a way to get your fixes in game. Slowly is better than "never". It would be a shame for such work to go to waste.
@Ilya , I think you misunderstood, some of the proposed changes are aimed exactly at "solving" the pop density problem (well the last change mostly). As for the Coalition issue, maybe heavy slot removal is not necessary for their carrier if you take out some of the Docking bays slots.
From my observations the problem of current state of Disco is this: even when there are enough players online they all prefer to sit in their own corners of Sirius. And when a potential situation develops, for example a shootout between Navy and Pirates, it's often pointless to try and reach the hotspot unless you are at best a system or two away.
The fleet battles that develop "spontaneously" are a few caps and a couple of snubs at best, and even then it's usually because a few tagged ships decided to try and provoke the locals. And of course then you have the issue of snubs getting their fun spoiled by overzealous Solaris - decked caps, turning what could be a fun firefight into a quick death with no second chances for the next hour ...
You either need to have a ship docked, kitted out and ready at every potential point of interest or try to go for organized events / raids through 3rd party services (Forum / Discord).
I believe some of the proposed changes would help with spontaneous development of a bigger fleet battle, not the usual half an hour affair that is the current meta.
