You want a system that is so restricted that people might as well just do NPC 'transport' missions. Player interactions in MMOs can only prosper if there is a risk vs reward component. You want to take the risk completely out of the equation.

As a new player I don't mind if I can only do small jobs that don't require a lot of collateral. As I progress through the bots and aquire money I can do better jobs. It's a sort of progression and allows for goals to be set - which is always a good thing IMHO.

Maybe some of the posts should be split of into the suggestions forum...

Why not introduce a leasing model: a researcher can lease individual products, categories or all his researched prototype templates to a corp. A sum (with zero being a possibility) per month could be negotiated, that could go from the corp funds to the agents wallet. The contract could be cancelled from either side but would otherwise remain active until the agent leaves the corp.
Inactives wouldn't hurt THAT much then, the agent would retain the prototypes himself.

The only downside I see is that it makes sense from a developer point of view to NOT want inactives to lease their prototypes to a corp as they need to earn real money somehow. Maybe charge the corp premium NIC for the prototypes of inactives (the extra tax going to nirvana, encouraging the corp to find an active prototyper to replace the inactive one).

It would also add incentives to prototyping as a viable profession...

How accurate are the market graphs in game? Looking at them it seems like one manufacturer can fill the demand of each product. With the obvious exception of consumables no more than a few units of about every piece of equipment switch owner via the market every day according to those graphs. Add the fact that there's usually only a small collection of modules that are actually used and you have a problem retaining (independent) manufacturers as there is simply no demand for their products.

As it boils down to agent numbers there's probably no easy solution to this problem though. Maybe PBS bring more player craftable stuff (like parts, which are then actually used to make PBS structures; more consumables like fuel or ammo for PBS; teleporter charges... whatever).

Right now I think the economy doesn't need more complexity (aka individual stats or more resources) but more depths (aka reasons to actually make stuff that's needed). I have the solo noob view though, so maybe it's just that there's no 'open' market but only internal markets in corps/alliances that work.

I like the dynamic ore spawn idea as it adds opportunities for a new profession: prospector. That way even new players can be usefull to veteran organizations. Sure, it takes away convenience, but convenience leads to stagnation and stagnation means death

Regarding TF I have a mixed gutt feeling. Part of me says 'yay, ultimate power, ultimate sandbox!'. But if a feature can be abused in MMOs it will be abused. People will probably do hillarious things that will have unforseen consequences. But I guess without trying we'll never know...
I'd be very conservative regarding restrictions at first though to see what happens. Loosening restrictions is always easier than tightening them.

Persistant walls with no maintenance cost come to my mind after reading all the recent threads about walls

Everyone mining and in the help channel right now is then. Is it friday the 13th again already?

Thanks for making me buy game time to reply here, Annihilator In fact I would have subscribed anyways, and after learning that I still get my full 14 days there was no reason not to.

In my very noobish opinion manufacturing should be a viable profession, meaning someone dedicating to the task of building stuff to be blown up should be rewarded somehow. If my very noobish view is correct that's done in the form of mineral and time efficiency so far. That's good for a start.

Is there any limit to who can reverse engineer/prototype/manufacture what currently? I mean certain skill levels could be used to 'gate' the high end stuff, meaning hobby producers making ammo in their garage couldn't produce the most sophisticated tech, which would then be limited to those who spent EP on industry... or is that in place already? I am still trying to figure a lot of things out