How's the population now that the game is ftp?

It went up at first, but it's beginning to decline. More people leave everyday due to declining PVP and class balance. Meanwhile the Dev's only focus is on delivering superfluous items which they can sell through their store "Treasure Isle".  It appears this game is on it's last legs again.

I came back last week. Two of my freinds have come back since.

The game still has the best combat (ship) around and it makes a fantastic change from wizards and wombats.

There is more population now than at any time during when I was subbing. I'm sure there is lots of comings and goings, but the long and short of it is that the game is more alive than it has been and since it is a departure from the myriad of fantasy mmorpgs, it will likely always have a decent population barring something similar coming out.