Updated my original post. Sorry for the horrid Grammar, in a rush. Should give you a general idea of what I feel needs to get done.
Making it more "Futuristic"
Zone is very lack luster in this area. The stated before reasons can help to improving overall quality of the server, but it'd till be lacking in being futuristic. Here's what I believe needs to happen:
Completely remove all the Planets and remake them
Planets are a BIG part of a futuristic scheme, as of now they serve no real purpose except for Basing. I find that really disappointing. What should happen is there should be Planets with UNIQUE CIVILIZATIONS; species, climate, buildings, base. Meaning we take all the current aspect of the game a revitalize them onto New planets. This also ties in with my next point; Factions.
Factions
I always loved this idea since Nyte first introduced it. It really should be considered as a serious system and project to be worked on. I don't want to go into too much detail with there's a thread with it all, but I'll tie it together. Each Planet could have it as own Faction. As an example, let's say Lava Planet. There's Fire Faction, if you choose this Faction you must protect this planet from other Factions. If they take over your Planet you have to win it back, in the meantime they're gaining Faction Time. This can take over Basing entirely or be a ranking system within the Factions, and the ones with more Faction Time can have access to their Factions' items and weapons that they may get and greatly improve their battling.