we have been at these discussion before.
fact is not everbody wants to go to beta/gamma.
the game neaads a healthy economy of carebears. look at eve. most of the player population sits in high sec. doing their things.
if you nerv alpha too much down no one will stay in the game that dont wants to go to beta/gamma.
these ppl will not be forced to play the way you want them to play. they will just look for another game.
alpha players need enough to do on their own.
i think alpha ore fields are small enough as they are. and mining solids is a pain in the azz...
make them smaller in size ok.. make the tiles have more ore for that so one field has the same yield. so you dont have to switch tiles all half miniute even if you spread your miners around...
to make beta and gamma more atractive there have to be other things like the standart ores that are highly sought after. for now we have epri and colixum. sadly we dont have the high demand in economy yet that would make it rewarding o go for that. if we get a economy that wants colixum badly then this will be a different thing. besides gamma islands can provide much more content in the future. if the devs find the time to develop it...