I know I will get hate for this but it's the truth, maps is what drove people away, It literally is because I know for a fact a sector of those people that left didn't have that great of a graphics card and they would rather not play the game at all if they cant have maps or shadows/shaders. Sorry but it's the truth.
Also Badspot needs to communicate with his community more, look at notch or someone, they have a twitter and they're always tweeting about development, and even if Badspot isn't working on the game the slighest, that's not even good.