My two cents. Don't know if this thread is even read anymore, but here I go.
Community involvement while still maintaining professionalism.
This may seem to extreme, but if you think about it for a little bit, it's needed. A server reset. Items and stats reset. You can completely revamp progression in every area of Zone for the better. Spar, bomb spar, basing, trading, missions (tons of wasted potential in missions - this could be a huge event that offers hundreds of hours of involvement), earning gralats and upgrading your weapons. All of it could be refreshed. People need motivations and something to work for.
A new tileset and style of graphics, and removing many of the horrible GFX in the game from mostly hats.
It may suck, but if you really want to improve Zone, you must consider complete resets in some areas in Zone. Refusing to even consider this inherrently means Zone will not truly improve in any substantial way.