Victoriacamper (atys)
OPs are becoming an event exclusive for those who have mastered the arts of Pvp, this means a large part of the Ryzom population is being left out and OPs are no longer fun for the side who repeteadly loses.
Despite the incredible prick Virg is, we should note he is right at that -- outposts are, by their nature, pvp. If you suck at pvp you suck at outposts, the two are tied. Now, there are multiple variables in pvp, but I would shorten the list to : a) gear, b) skill, c) teamwork.
Marauders own no outpost but they still show up regularly at supernodes, sometimes managing good battles (and when they aggro drag, they actually win); what they dramatically lack is numbers, but they compensate with the other two points. If kami numbers are low at one particular season change, maras kick butt.
Karavan sucks at investing time in the game, or maybe at investing time in stuff that matters. You rarely see karavan (teams) hunting nameds, or scouting for bosses, or digging in PR. Granted, one poor alt can't know everything :p but I think I'm close to the truth when I say kami invests more time. Just put an alt in their guilds and you'll see what I mean.
I still stand by my initial idea, though : should the karas start giving an actual rat's ass about their members, they are still outnumbered and past the tipping point at that. To extend on what the other camper says, a kami heal pod is a formidable tool simply by the crapload of OP mats they already have in their amps, just as an example. Add slightly better stats on gear and you have a disheartening situation.
In short ... devs are stupid allowing one faction to go past a tipping point.
oh, and @Soulfyn:
We can't compare with other games. In Ryzom it takes weeks to reach the bare minimum masteries to become really useful (heal, ele, one melee). New players are trickling in slower than in other games, and subbed ones are really rare. Very difficult to grow your numbers, also considering most of them prefer joining the winning side :)