The way I see it, the discussion probably revolves around retention and critical mass. You can wildly debate sociodynamic theories here, but the game just doesn't retain enough new players in it's current state to push through to that critical mass. And it needs that critical mass, because it's designed (and being designed) like that in all of it's aspects. This is why we cringe at lost potential.

That critical mass is also more of a qualitative matter; at this point, very few new players, even from a large influx, will stick around long enough to actually count towards that critical mass. This is why previous influxes failed, and why future ones will too.

Most of us care less now, but I mostly remember the lack of cheap (or any) ammunition and the extreme barrier to industry. This is currently not stated as being addressed, and trying to address these problems haphazard (sticking it on current systems) is just going to be mostly beneficial to veteran players and/or creates 'broken gameplay' legacy issues for years to come.

There are some easy fixes, mostly eliminating noise for new players, such as:

• get rid of solibdit alltogether;

• get rid of area charges;

• increase the number of titan fields (it's not like they're hard to find for veteran players);

• increase drop rate (or assignment rewards) of tier 1 ammunition;

• tokens should be able to be exchanged for low-level decoders.

Some more elaborate solutions, while obviously risking said issue:

• contract system (mostly for CT's);

• decrease/re-allocate sinks and item drops; i.e:
  

  • Syndicate-subsidized production (as far as NIC) in alpha-1 terminals for tier 1 ammunition and small/misc T1/T2 equipment (hopefully also increasing buy orders from veteran players and increase traffic around terminals)

  • get rid or severely decrease reverse engineering as a time/EP sink.

  • consider evaluating production time as a serious gameplay-hampering sink

Mostly, my point here is to engineer a situation where new players can try all aspects of Perpetuum without them being some lame demo mode (instances, industry assignments) or having thrown huge barriers (both EP/NIC) of entry at them. This is also why I'm looking forward to research points, strongly tiered items and working towards a viable kernel market. Give new players the tools to work on the low-tier/T1/T2 items/bots market right away.

I seriously think this game is in great shape as far as gameplay mechanics and visuals. But it's time to ease up on the holy sandbox and social-economical what-if's, and get some more people in here.

And for god's sake, get that microtransactional pink paint in there.