The biggest issue is the legacy problem of cRPG. Both technical and organisational. It was never planned. Never ever. cRPG happened, was hit with success by surprise and has been always one step behind this from a planning point of view.
For example the team, it was never properly organised. People moved themselves into a position by showing dedication, but those positions were never defined, clear areas of work are completely missing. People just did. And sometimes people stopped doing. Stuff like that was never foreseen and accounted for.
It's the same for the technical aspect as well. Items in particular are especially problematic to put into a patch, because they have to be synched on the website and the game simultaneously. Sounds easy, but it isn't. If it would be a normal singleplayer/multiplayer mod, you'd just patch that shit, test it, release it. Simple as that.
In cRPG we can't even test patches properly because it all has to be in sync. This is why we (I in particular) are so reluctant of item patches - if something goes wrong, it could mean several hours downtime in best case, and a multiple day revert worst case.
Yes, this is far from optimal, and something I take full responsibility for. That's things we have changed for our future projects, because it really is horrible to work like that. Add a lack of spare time, and the chaos is complete.
As for items: we are grateful, the problem is no one is really responsible for them. Definitely PR problem. I've always wanted to streamline the way community models make it into the game, but I've never gotten to it. Again, I'm really sorry for that, and I know it's my fault. When I hear that someone is mad that his items are
still not in the game, it's usually the first time I ever hear that they are there in the first place. My fault.
That all sounds overly bad, but there's also some good news: I do have a lot more spare time in the future, mostly dedicated for the new project, but I do intend to clean up some of the mess in cRPG as well - both technical and organisational.
I fully understand that people that provide models and stuff are pissed if it doesn't make it into the game. I know I would. I really just want to tell you that we absolutely love what you are doing, even if we totally suck at showing it. I hope I can fix that though.