secondly, there need to be adjustments made so that new players dont get stuck way behind older established players- ie so that the top 100 wont always remain the top 100 simply because they've been here longest.
Actually, That's what the top 100 should be, the top players. They compete for their rank every day. Believe me, any slacking and the slipping starts. I've suggested a "degradation of stats" effect or a hardware repair system. As it stands, your computer never needs updating, just added on to. Nothing ever permanently damages anything. Hackers mucking about in your system isn't going to end up breaking or wearing out some of your parts?
Have a cumulative percentage for you to sustain computer damage while battling. A small one, like a .5% chance. The more battles you do, the more likely it is that you will have to fix something inside your machine, rather than just booting up your apparently useless firewall. Hit the percentage and a message comes up "you have sustained battle damage", and you lose 5 points per level (the bigger you are, the more there is to break.) Perhaps have the same idea applied to equipment, as well ....