As one recently returned, let's see what I have noticed.
I'm an european player, currently with a lot of time on my hands during the daytime, so that gives a slighly different view on things. Especially in regards as my character is not really a "everyone likes him" kinda guy
.
Player numbers on LS are very low during the day (3-5 non-statter players). That means I have very limited things I can actually do (so get bored and may want to do something else.). e.g.:
I'm lvl 51, restatted, and there are not many Tower players on (that I can try to fight). If there are, they are Sedai/Warder pairs and quite honestly, my stab ain't going to cut it to fight them. So I may as well not even try. Then I want to do something else...but there is not really that much you can do solo. I'm looking for SMOBS I can take on myself, but there are very few spread about that you can solo effectively. Did I mention that I"m not well-liked across the globe because I fight fc's? That also hits me in group-activities. There are no group activities for me (next to the lower playerbase numbers). This effectively means there really ain't that much I can do as a HoL during my playtimes. So I go switch to some new unclanned alt and may join a tower smob group.
On those new alts, I then need to decide whether to join a clan. I could, but it is quite an timely investment, and now I have some spare hours to play per day I could do it, but for the foreseeable future I think it will become a detriment. I'd much rather play an established character and pk a little. I think gear is more easy to get these days, which is nice, but I"m not sure how well doable that is solo.
Again, my perspective is really from Janers PoV, whcih is different from other players on this MUD. But I think I'd have the same if I were to play my seanchan. Quite honestly I haven't bothered playing them yet, with the recent SS/LS changes. I'm not even sure what they all entail, as my characters are old and warranted everywhere. SO it seems like just playing Janers but differently. Now I"m purple, and even less liked. But it's still semi same-side pk, where now as seanchan you do'n't have your separate channels.
So I guess what I'm concluding to is that part of the problem is that you have low player numbers, while the mud is designed for high player numbers. I think tehre should be more things you can do solo, to keep you busy, where you don't rely on others (because they're quite honestly not there). If you can then do more stuff solo, and keep playing, maybe the numbers will grow again. I.e. somone like me will log on again, and actually be able to do something. Otehrwise he/she logs on, can't do anything, and logs off again.
edit:
I do like that a much more stuff is known these days. I.e. how stab is affected, charge, etc etc. What gear and what stats. Homeland statistics. That helps a lot.