I'm a few months late to the party. However, I thought I might chime in and one, echo some sentiments (that I'm happy to hear are finally being listened to), and perhaps point out a few more things.
From someone who would play if there were changes, here goes.
As someone who prefers roleplay, but not all games are, I'm not even going to go there. If the playerbase doesn't want to roleplay, then they won't roleplay, no matter how much other players or staff want them to. If they want to roleplay, lack of policy relating to it won't make them stop.
It's great to hear that the host team is working on some of the things that have been asked for repeatedly by numerous players for two years. Those things being general presentation (menu issues, spelling/grammar issues), social media spam, overcomplexity of the starship system, and more. What would be nice is for that feedback to be taken sooner rather than waiting two years to implement it. Activity cloning (all the dozens of activities being based off four or five core activities) is one of those things. This is something that has been brought up for at least a year and a half by countless current and former players.
Host turnover. Okay, this is one I haven't heard brought up. But I keep pretty up to date with the goings on, even though I don't play anymore. First and foremost, while having a sizeable host team can be a plus so that you don't end up with a huge backlog or one host taking on so much they burn out (Star Conquest as a prime example for both of those), it's also true that too many cooks spoil the soup. In addition, when it's not just adding new hosts, but it's also suddenly dropping one or more for one reason or another, it makes maintaining a single direction forward difficult. Any company that's had as many turnovers in upper management as Comic Rage has had in the last two years would be in huge trouble. And Nathan, I heard you mention that your playerbase is declining. Reach out to former players (not just current) and find out why they left. Maybe see about fixing it and getting some of those players back.
Going to go back to activity cloning for a moment. Yes, I know it's been brought up already, but let me put a bit of perspective on why it's an issue. There isn't a lot of tavern-sitting, chatting on channels type of roleplay. Which leaves little to do except grind. For someone who tends to sink themself into something, the activity system on Cosmic Rage will make someone burn out. And fast. If I hadn't been turned off by so many other things, I could easily grind my way to the top in a month or two. Caveat being if I didn't burn out first from all the repetition. Once you've done a few activities, you've done them all. There is no challenge, and there is no real variety. Someone I know called it a "baby game" for various reasons, but this is the one that stuck with me. I don't recall who it was that said that a five-year old would have no disadvantage starting out, and I tend to agree. But I'm not five. And I like a challenge. One that ramps up with my experience.
Host favoritism. Goodness, here it goes. For a game where countless players and a few (at one time or another) hosts have told me that there is absolutely no favoritism in Cosmic Rage, I could tell you a couple of stories. One about a HTPL's ooc girlfriend who bought babies with real-world money and had them summarily taken away by hosts and given to the HTPL's character when they broke up in-game. This after the HTPL and another host (if I'm remembering who was involved correctly) basically bullied the ex-girlfriend on the ooc channel. Or the in-game girlfriend of a host character who received special roleplay opportunities because they were the host character's in-game girlfriend.
I've also heard a number of former players and disenchanted current players talk about being blown off by a host when they had a legitimate concern. I'm not even going to pretend this doesn't happen other places, because of course it does. But for a host team that claims to pride itself on listening to the players and being sensitive to their needs and wishes, I am surprised at how much I've heard that sentiment repeated.
I almost filled out a survey once, to explain why I chose not to play any longer, but I didn't feel comfortable giving my character name or username (so don't ask here either). If it had been anonymous, I certainly would have brought up these issues (again).
“What's fun for other people may not be fun for you- and vice versa.”
― Gretchen Rubin