The login screen doesn't show the chars anymore so something has changed -- which hopefully means someone at the other side has noticed and is working on the problem.
I would like to get the discussions to a slightly different track:
If it is true that:
1) GN cannot afford to pay enough employes so that the server status can be monitored 24/7
2) this is due to the small income Unity generates (because of the small player base)
3) players get disgruntled by server breakdowns that are not fixed (and not acknowledged)
than this road leads straight to hell -- in other words the player base gets smaller and smaller and some day everything will just shut down.
It is my opinion that:
1) a healthy server status is necessary to keep people in the community
2) to ensure that, people must be present on weekends -- and get paid for it. And since everyone should have leisure time, that means hiring more people
And this leads to the conclusion that the owners of horizons have to decide whether to invest in the future of the european horizons or not -- the latter means the death of this game. Slowly, but surely. And they should not forget that such a failure is damaging to their reputation and thus to future commerce.