2 sounds excellent, and all suggestions are welcome!
If I had them I would give them. The tough part of doing this is that Battlemaster is such a niche game. It is the absolute best type of game for its niche, but its niche is small and finding just the right kind of players that want to play this sort of game and dedicate the time to really put into having fun in battlemaster to its fullest extent (which I argue is more than 5 minutes a day when nobles really want to get the full experience) is very hard. The best way of finding new players to me that works so far is one already in implementation: Word of mouth. Those that play tell their friends who they think may be interested and get them to try it out.
Usually people will know which of their friends would like it and which won't. A vast majority of ppl that play online games wouldn't want to play battlemaster, but there is certainly a group that will and does.
So far that I can tell since speeding up the recruitment process is rather difficult(unless someone really starts pumping advertising money, which I doubt) then our best hope is to retain as many players as possible. One way in which we can work towards doing that (beyond fixing the estate system which you've already addressed) would be to allow new players more information about what can be gained from different realms upon joining. Specifically, generic pros and cons to both small and large realms. This is not even related to better specific information about individual realms, but it can give new players an idea of what life will be like in a small realm vs a big realm.
The reason I think this is important is because I pointed out just a bit earlier how those nobles who join large realms are less likely to have social mobility and progress in lordships. However, a new noble in a small realm could easily gain a lordship in their first weeks if they are actually playing the game and sending letters. This way we can cater the experience to what a player wants to do. Some players will want to join the largest realm they can just to fight in large battles, while some players will want to progress quickly in the game on the political landscape (like me), and that is best found in small realms. Some players may mistakenly think that the second category may also apply to large realms instead of small and thus be quickly discouraged. This is just one small example of a pro and con which could be pointed out to new players before picking a starting realm.
I know there is a point where there is information overload, but I think some thing should be available to players before playing should they wish to see it and understand. It doesn't have to be forced upon them, but perhaps a link or a side page when starting up can give them such information will allow them to gather information if they are interested in it. Not every player will want to read it, but those that will want to read it are more likely to stay longer in BM anyway, and they will also be further kept around once they have access to such information.
That is really my only suggestion I can come up with other than the ones I've suggested already in other threads.
