Seems the things are going on more views of the problem at once... that's quite better.
Yes, the RP is not the problem, the problem is the way how we do RP.
Pirates have to kill, to smuggle, to do unlawful things cus it's their RP, excepting their SP leader.
Police have to still catch out pirates, and take down any unlawful thing, smuggle, tax, steal, chase... etc.
All the other RPs are in middle... sometimes iwth the good side, sometimes with the bad one... but always in middle, accepted by both sides as they are.
If one side of the RP falls down, all the balanced situation is gone. What happens when there's no balance ? Chaos. And that chaos consists in anything, getting bored, making more problems, getting mad and making more problems... (think of it... what happens if there are no pirates... police go everywhere, then complainings, problems, sentimental affects(bad ones), fake people trying to make it worse with a "good look" as revenge or personal stuff... who knows. The same thing happens if it's in the other way, without police, the chaos is even faster. Why the police is needed if there are no pirates. If there are no pirates neither police, why to play the game ? PvPs only ? Exploring ? that takes 2 weeks to get bored. The RP is a NEED for a glorious server and an actin correct for your own RP, where SP's RP is not their clan's RP, but they are also NEEDED to keep players go on their own RP correctly... no SP or admins online goes to a chaos AGAIN !! And this is by experience and pure mind's result)
THE RP AND players need a fresh RP and sentimental beggining. A char wipe won't solve the problems if we still hate Player X for killing my store, or for KOSing me, or for being pirate/police, etc. You'll just start making your fighter ship again to revenge, if not, to expect the other player making a mistake to get him down hard...w or w/o you starting it.
And this restart has to happen NOW !