Since you locked it I couldn't respond...
Anyway, I was going to suggest at one point, and this is likely going to be highly controversial / frowned upon (I don't know the current status of the game, how many people actually play for pvp anymore) by a lot of players:
Why not turn the mud at this point into purely PvE?
Do like other online rpgs and set the current low-limit items low, low drop rate where no items have an actual limit (but there could per se be a lower drop chance if a certain numbers of them are currently in the game). Leave in decay (make it harsher even), add zones (or alter current ones) that require you to have 3 players with humas, etc.
Suddenly (and again, this is my own speculation as I've seen very, very minimal pk in these past couple of wipes other than what we started ourselves) people will enjoy zoning since everything has a chance to drop (now that I think about it, you'd debateably have to remove locate object).
I really don't have any specifics, just something I'd been mulling over recently. It might be a complete bomb I don't know.
I sound drunk.