I think this will likely apply to TRPG 6.0 as well as HL2RPG:
Users will only have one account. On this account, you will chose which character you want to use when you get in-game. There is a good reason for this kind of change. It would work wonders on the mangerial side of things, being able to identify users instead of characters. This would allow easier (and more accurate) votes, bans, promotions, bonuses, restorations, security, etc. Obviously this is a good thing for both the users and administrators.
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I think it might be prudent to move characters from thousands of small files to a SQL backend (such as the free MySQL server). I've already got a framework for this established, but I've just never used it for anything. This would mean slightly longer load times due to the asynchronous nature of character loads (and saves), but it would probably keep the server from choking quite so much when a lot of player accounts are stored. It would also greatly reduce the effects of character file chopping and data loss in general. Additionally, this would allow server owners to more easily create web-based stats, etc, since characters would be stored in a real database. There are more benefits than this even, and the drawbacks are likely to be small.
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I plan to continue work on the new launcher interface, and I will be moving a lot of the data transfer to HTTP. This will allow server owners to dish out custom content from fast web servers instead of a slow connection (for those who host at home). This has been done in other similar situations such as Steam games with good results.
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Added to the launcher system will be an option to force "pure" clients--forcing clients to play the game as it was intended (if the server owner desires this for their players when on their server). This will prevent things like replacing the shield with invisible or mis-positioned items to increase screen visibility. Things like that are cheating anyway, and this will allow a server owner to dis-allow such activities when a client is connected to their server, if they so choose.
