Writing this as a response to the original post and then reading every reply has made it clear that everyone has added there little bits and bobs into the point I want to make now, hopefully its not too redundant but still worth a think. ps im sure "my" solution has been talked about plenty of times but it hasnt been brought up much here, and I think it should be.
I've thought about this, which might be better suited for a new thread, but there is one thing that strikes me as a solution, a full server wipe and restart, now obviously this will light the community on fire that is expected, but even early last year there was 3x more rp than there is now and it makes perp today feel bland as a time capsule player, in retrospect its made a pattern clear, the few poor players rp(those who arent immediately indoctrinated into the power grow lifestyle from the get go), and the rich players hunt for kills with no concern for losing "their only gun" or "draining their small bank account buying a new one". All rp becomes obsolete when you stop having concern and it just becomes an FPS, when before it was a progressive experience.
A wipe might just show a new-old perspective to the majority(which are veterans) and foster more rp for incoming players. Might burn the current server population to the ground but man it sure would be nice to see restaurant rp again(even while they grow drugs in the back room for those players who think rp is a waste of time), man it would be nice to see crowds rp riots at the front of city hall with burning wood planks again when taxes were high as a means to threaten further action, instead of just doing the mandatory /advert threat and then rush over to kill the mayor, wouldnt it just be nice to go back to the times when people would actually gather for someones special rp event when they adverted it in chat instead of missing out on the amazing piano performance by mod Samuel the other day, that literally 2 our of 40+ people showed up to, perp lacks all the personality rp used to give it, now i just come on to raid and kill raiders.