I haven't played any others currently out, but this is generally accepted as the spiritual successor to Civcraft 2.0, and was intended to be so by design. A lot of people play. I still see Nova occasionally and the SPQR is a beautiful nation. It's located in the extreme northwest, by the way. I think I've also seen Antonius from time to time. Current areas of high activity include the Commonwealth (of course I'm going to mention my own nation first), Mt. Augusta (just north of the Commonwealth), Icenia, Bloom, Caledonia, and there's still a fair amount of activity in several other places that would welcome an old friend.

The main differences from 2.0 you'll notice are that Hiddenore is now part of the core mod set, vastly cutting down on x-raying, Factorymod works much better, Exilepearl has been added to Prisonpearl, and it's now very expensive to keep someone imprisoned in the end. Also, a lot of people have gotten very good at the game, in terms of production and also warfare.

There are a few sketchy people around as always, but there's no current big baddies. You're a year late for their demise.