Sandbox MMO's encourage and sometimes mandate group play but many times adding pilots to an operation adds so much pain to the managing of the operations split or take at the end of the operation.  Because of this pain, many avoid group activities.  There are so many factors that make group activities difficult like who mined, who hauled, who was here the whole time, who left early, who showed up late.....and much much more.  In the end this always just breaks down to % distributed to all involved players.

This is a large request but one that would make group play so much easier and more efficient to manage, and in the end encourage group activities

Outpost and Terminals to have a "Manage Operations" feature

before the operation you go to the "Manage Operation" tab, select new Op, name it xxx-op

A window opens up with the top having a "add pilot", you add pilots that are involved (can add as people join)
The pilots icons appear in the group window.
Below each pilot is a space with a % at the end.  Next to that is a "Lock %" button.

Below that window is an in game calculator and a "Manage feature" window.

In the "Manage Feature" you have a series of toggle buttons that allow you to set up how you are going to manage this operation.

Example: under Recycle you can choose to check red, yellow, white, or all. (this tells the group that all checked items will be recycled or left alone.  You can also select repair, and check the appropriate colors for this process.

Below that window is the large "Storage" window where all gathered material from the op will be visible...icons ofc.

So we have set up our op with pilots icons of who is involved, selected how we will manage the loot/mins, and have our storage prepared.

Operation begins: (for example we will use a 5 man ratting session at one nest.)
Pilots are: Suzy, Bob, Phil - combat pilots. John - hauler. Peter - combat but cant make the start of the op.

Rats are killed and loot is gathered in a field can.  John hauls drops back to term and deposits them under the tab for the op that he is on.  This is a "deposit only" not take.  He can view items to let everyone know what has been acquired in drops but only the Operations manager can gain access to the items once deposited into the Op manager tool. (so anyone can deposit into but only manager can remove or assign items)

Operation is going well and after one hr Peter shows up to help out - another combat pilot.

One more hour of all 5 parties dropping rats, filling can, hauling to terminal, depositing in Operations storage.  Great time, all played a part, but now the horrifying task of who gets what?! (well that task is about to get much easier)

Suzy logged the op in the terminal and has all pilots in her view window.  It was discussed before hand that the hauler would get half of the % that the combat pilots did (just for example...settle down!) and Peter would get a share based on the time that he spend which was half of what the others spent.

So Suzy begins the process in her manage window.  She quickly uses the calculator to divide 100% by 5 (number of pilots involved)  She sees that each pilot would get 20% of the cut, but we have some circumstances that skew the cut.

So Suzy selects the % window under John the noob hauler and puts 10% in his window, and hits "lock %"
Then Suzy selects the % window under Peter who was there half the time and puts 10% in his window and hits "lock %"

Now the balance needs to be divided equally between the remaining pilots.  At the end of the pilots list is a "Separate balance" button.  Suzy selects that and 26.6% shows up under the remaining pilots icons.

Suzy hits the lock % by each pilot and has successfully set up the distribution of the loot for the op.

Suzy next looks at the window full of drops....at this point Peter says...hey can I have that t3 ecm mod? Everyone is fine with that so Suzy drags that mod onto Peters pilot icon and that mod is set to go to that pilot.

Phil is our corp Kernel muncher and we all agreed that in this op all kernels go to Phil.  So Suzy click, shift, clicks all the kernels and drags them to Phil's pilot icon.  Now those will head to Phil when the process is split.

Suzy next looks at that toggled items she selected for recycled good, kept goods, and all other agreed upon process that the group had.

Suzy then hits the "Process Operational Items" Icon.

All items are repaired, recycled...ect as Suzy has dictated in the selection process.

Now that the items are in the state needed, Suzy hits the "Divide to group" Button and the tool separates the item according to the % locked for each pilot.

All items not able to be automatically divided, fall into a "Fragments" or "Remainder" tab for that op.

Now Suzy can give those items as desired or...place them in the remainder tab to be put into the next operation and used for the next batch of drops for a later op.

From this point the hard work is done.  She needs to be able to trade to a player from this tool.  If the pilot is docked then a green box should be around that pilots icon in the Pilots portion of the window. She can click on that pilots icon and trade all distributed items straight to him.

A nice bonus feature would be to have that op saved and items saved per pilot because lets say Bob had to run and will just get his later.  Suzy can wait for Bob to be on next time, open that op, see that Bob has items and trade them to him when the opportunity presents itself.

Sorry for the wall of text but anything that encourages group operations and takes the time and pain out of fairly separating the bounty of an op, will make these ops much more enjoyable and encourage larger groups.  It will also give a sense of security to any pilots that has to run early or does not have confidence that they will get their cut under the current "we will figure it all out at the end" system. 

This tool creates a system that will pull groups together and give them confidence that they are rewarded for their part in any group operation.

We just got a form of AP so here is a toss at the "never satisfied" wall. (btw, ty for what we do have)

I want a programmable AP, with limits.

How I see it working: (for frequently traveled paths)
I click an AP button that opens my available AP travel paths.  I choose to create a new path.  I name said path (we will use the Hersh terminal to Nurno Central Point port as our example)
I name this travel path "Hersh term to Nurno Port)
I undock and walk to the south end of Hersh Terminal platform.
I click "add point"
I walk to next navigable turn, and click "add point"
repeat above step at every turn or adjustment until I get to Nurno Port

Now when I am at Nurno Port I click "save route"

Now I can select my new saved AP path "Hersh term to Nurno Port" tag, and press "reverse trip"

I get up and get a beer while my bot travels from the nearest saved point to the next to the next to the next....until I arrive at the South platform where I had my first saved point.

My bot has then navigated the trip by staying on the road, avoided those pesky 3rd stars on the West, and gone up the 3 ramps to the terminal platform.

Limits:
I think that distance traveled per trip should be somewhere around 4k
I think a maximum of 3 travel routes per island would be more than enough

Risks:
If I want to risk pushing "travel this route" and get up to grab a beer or take a leak or type some nasty comment to Annihilator on the forums while my bot follows the path, then so be it.  If on the route he comes across a Superior roaming observer and meets with his demise...then that is the risk I have chosen.

Please let me rest the "W" key on my keyboard while I travel agonizing paths over and over and over and.....

pre-programmed, pre-traveled and pre-saved paths FTW