Solving Common Zone Pop Trends

So, this time while thinking about how to fix Hyperspace (again I know... sigh...) I thought that about remembering the actual zone pop levels before/after things happened, and making judgments based on that... perhaps I'd get somewhere this way. Anyways, there where two obvious things that would kill pop using this method from my experience:

• After a flag game has ended
• When the lanc gets killed

After a flag game has ended:
Situation: A flag game ends. People leave in mass droves. Active pop is a mere fraction of what it just was a short while ago.
My Opinion: Take out people warping to safe after it ends, leave people in base. Maybe they'll keep playing.

When the lanc gets killed:
Situation: Rusher(s) steamroll lanc, calls said team newbs. Team agrees, leaves in droves. (Ok I admit part of this may be exaggerated but...)
My Opinion: This is a bit harder. People HAVE quit over "not being able to break into a base", so increasing gun duration may just bring that back again... Also, people get frustrated over the "lack of rushers", and quit over that, too. Would it really be a great idea to simply buff gunlines, and risk this becoming more prevalent? Probably not. All I can see left is to increase recharge on ships, so that gunliners can put out more DPS with stronger guns, but breaking bases shouldn't be too much harder, as gunline duration did not increase. This (hopefully) allows more stability against rushers while keeping bases relatively breakable.

So next, lets review the "old days" with this method!

Old Situation: Long gunlines of doom
My opinion: People quit over the settings at this time, leaving only some who could handle it. Thankfully, devs fixed the problem successfully, simply by nerfing gun duration. A new golden era of HS was born... It lasted about 6-12 months, maybe?

Old Situation: "Overpowered" repels/bursts/items in general
My opinion: While surely some would whine, in population statisics it could only be a low number that actually quit. And even if it wasn't, plenty didn't quit, actually causing net-population. I would be careful making changes like these, unfortunately, devs made a major change instead... a whole settings had the biggest change it has seen at once ever since. While this situation was definitely fixed, there were other consequences...

Old Situation: Breaking into bases too difficult
My opinion: Here's an example of what happened after the nerfed item set was implemented. Like deja vu, a similar situation was born, one that just happened ~1 year ago. There where various ways to solve the problem. My opinion, back then, would be to say "these changes were made in error, clearly we caused a bigger problem", make settings more like just before, and revise how to fix repels/bursts/overpowered items once again, this time, without big problems occuring. Unfortunately, that was not quite what happened, and zone pop could be seen to noticeably decrease due to settings. Sigh... here starts the downfall of Hyperspace... I still wished it wouldn't happen though, and wasn't really that sure anyway at the time (still many people played), so whatever.

My Opinion up until now: After this they eventually fixed the problem, by nerfing gun duration once again. Unfortunately, MANY consequences have occured, including:

• Removing bountying in base from making money
• Removing basing private teams
• Deciding bomblines as they once were shouldn't exist and mandating their effective death

...And other additions to the game, including more turrets at one time, item categories, items, nerfs, and buffs. With so many changes now it'd be hard to quantify what actually caused quitting due to "zone settings" at this point. My two points, in the first post, would be all someone like me could remember/tell, for now.

EDIT: Also, if people keep playing a game they "hate everything about"... I would consider banning them, rather then appeasing their demands. Its, after all, what they wanted, anyway, right? Why would they play a game they can not stand? Sigh...