The cargo hold amount of early mining bots should be adjusted to make it difficult to mine solo effectively. Hence forcing one to group up with other miners and haulers. If it becomes a group activity then it’s more fun.

Make more tiles with less ore, that would make one have to change tiles more often, making mining a bit more of an active career than it currently is. The tiles should in some wqy or another be easier to find perhaps though.

Add respawning npcs on the mining spots, to make it impossible to mine without an escort too. People will have to group up, it will give a job to everyone. Make said npc drop ore for example.

Transport, missions are also totally boring. Put npcs along the way that can actually be a threat to you if you don’t have an escort.  Increase payout so that everyone in group can get hosed with NIC.