i still think the starting of this game needs more work.. new players should have their hands held a little tighter and their upgrades should be a little fuller. we need to keep the new blood around long enough for them to start getting hooked.
What do you feel could be improved at the start of the game to help encourage players to stay and try out the game properly?
This one is about the start of the game to make it better.
I am with rebornjedi about the epic quests at the start, but I want to take it further.
I think HCS should gut the 1st 50 levels, make the epic quest get to level 50 and leave new players feeling powerful and ready to face the much more chaotic lands beyond level 50.
Specifically -
kill ALL content not involved in the epic quests or in subsequent epic quests, streamline the early messiness that was created when HCS had no idea what FS would turn into. Back then HCS was trying to invent spaces for players to explore and find cool.... that is not needed now, now we need new players to get hooked. New players do not need to get stuck in Narrow Paths of waste of stam on the way to nowhere interesting that makes them stop playing instantly. Kill that crap. Kill those useless early quests too.
Push all new players into the Shadowlord/quest for the Fallen Sword story arc. Use the first 50 levels to get them hooked on this idea, and in the process give them 25 BP slots, 70 stam/hour, 1680 max stam. 5000 + bonus one time stam so they can make lots of mistakes and still stay on track. I liked that when I went back to do the epic quests - but for new players it means they can screw up and get back on track without getting frustrated and giving up. Eventually they will have to learn to manage stam, doing it from day one is alien to most players. Let it become an attraction, a difference, a challenge to players - that way this game could become intriguing!! We cannot easily re-engineer level structures beyond the first 50 because of the titans at 60. They have to be accounted for - though I think Lestus is a fabulous first awesome enemy and powerful agent of the Shadowlord that new players need to test themselves against. The Kraken... well it works on its own, just change the root entries into its realms.
Yes there are going to be exceptions - what about the Inferno Hammer origin etc. well, those could be included in the epic cycle - 30-50. I just think a lot of that content could be wiped out and made simpler and linear for new players. Older players can weep into their beards about the lost realms cut... guess what - they can become an event/seasonal/legendary/global activated realm - Mists of Avalon, with their own new challenges, nothing created need ever be lost.
Make the experience for new players much more direct 1-50, give them a plot to follow and get into. Beef them up regularly,let them see how upgrades work, and give them an incentive to work to upgrade themselves further. Use the epic quests to introduce them to elites, SE, inventing, PvP. Stop GvG and PvP below level 50. I see the introduction to PvP as a knight's quest, or assassins test - go and kill your mark/face your enemy in battle. To finish the epic quest cycle PvP must be played, but only against players who have never gotten beyond level 50 before - no-one can delevel back to this. Therefore everyone who learns to PvP does so against others who are only doing it for the first time also. Guilds, and GvG battles, that can be for 50+ when the bigger world gets entered.
And yes - this is a repeat from earlier... because I am trying to answer the question of raising activity. Look back at satellite access post I made as well and answer that. This game has horizons in other languages. Maybe.
... well B I will leave to you. 
