While i am aware this won't be able to be done easily.
I think adding a area to the south. or east, that has some new items to find. and a new town or two would be helpful in the long run. as one of the main things is that people don't like some of the new things, since they're not "fallouty", or the dev team cant really do somethings based on the pre-set fallout lore.
But if you could go a little ways east. or south. you could add new weapons. and have the option to learn how to make them via NPC quests. and add other things to give people stuff to do.
You could add items such as,
Automatic Mauser C96 upgrade for the normal mauser.
M1 Garand. made as a step up from the hunting rifle. but under the sniper rifle.
.45 Peacekeeper revolver. for the sake of revolver lovers. and as an extra low tier gun for raiders. them all having mausers is kind of strange.
"Doc's Whiskey". a mix of healing powder and whiskey. giving the effects of healing powder and beer mixed.
"Jug bomb", a simple timer based fire bomb. made with rotgut, but weaker than TNT.
"Poison Puffer Grenade". a homemade gas grenade that does light damage, but poisons a target.
You could also build a rougher PvE area. as well as an option to start out as a local of the new area. As a trait to take early on.
The main reason i thought of this. is it also gets around the question of "Why didn't the original game have those items? or those monsters", as the answer is you didn't go to the place where they're at. and i know getting PvP to an enjoyable state is a goal. but giving more PvE and less griefing based options would help draw other players in.
Thoughts?
-Ulrek-