The phenomenon you're describing only matters now.  I'll explain.

Yes, everyone else is making points about you can be effective in this and that role without tons of EP.  And that's true.  But the idea that someone with tons of EP is better than you and you can never surpass them is not.

In the long term, the benefit of being a high EP character isn't being the best at something, it's filling multiple roles.  After two years, a player could conceivably be AWESOME combat AND production.  Whereas a new player would focus on combat, and become awesome at that, but not be able to touch production.

Right now, when the game is virtually brand new, no one has the kind of EP where they can do this yet, so most people are highly concentrated in one thing.  A new player can't compete because the new player has 2 weeks in combat and the old player has 3 months.  But in a year, both players will have 6 months in combat, because at some point you get very diminishing returns and you start to train other things.

Having a gun skill at level 10 vs. level 9 is a huge EP commitment, but its not going to turn the tide of a battle in a meaningful way.  So you have to hang on, realize you still got in at the beginning (Eve has been out for 8 years and is still going strong) even if it doesn't feel that way, and focus on being good at what you can be good at.

Also, if your corp is really saying things like "mechs @ 71+kph required," and you don't meet that requirement, find a new corp.  There are lots of corps and they are all different.  Most are a little more flexible than that.

tl;dr
You have to take a long view of the game.  You still got in early, and in the long run you only need a few months in any area to be 95% competitive in it.

I think the corp bulletin tab flashing or having some symbol denoting a change would be a big step as well.

Am I missing something or is it not possible to download an mp3?  I'll listen to this one because I'm curious but in general podcasts get listened to in the car, at the gym, etc.  Something to consider for next time.

We just fundamentally disagree on the way the game accomplishes its goal (to entertain players).  In a game like WoW, and I don't mean that as an insult, you could say Aion, Rift, FFXIV, etc, the game entertains by having endless content for players to go through.  As the game ages they raise the level cap and add more content for players to enjoy.

In a game like Perpetuum or Eve, there is minimal content provided by the game, rather, players are encouraged to "make their own fun."  Player-created corporations fighting each other for valuable resources which will be player-gathered and player-created into bigger and better weapons to continue deploying against other players, is the main content in these games.  Yes, an equivalent of Eve Titans or even Capital ships would add to the content available, and I'm sure they will come.  But right now the game's problems are lack of market activity (too few people supplying and especially too few people demanding), lack of PvP activity (triple the number of players trying to access beta and this will step up significantly), etc.

PO is an extremely niche game; it is not for everyone.  It is not for most people.  I suspect that is why many people are leaving it; if you put a random MMO player in a world and say here's your bot, here's how to shoot it, go have fun, they will scratch their head and wonder where the first quest hub is supposed to be.  Even relatively successful sandbox games like Eve have negligible numbers compared to WoW or even its off-shoots mentioned above.

So basically what I'm saying is the content in PO is directly connected to the players.  More players, more content.  It's not the type of content you're used to, but for the audience PO is intended for, it's what is needed.

I guess I should have added that I mean this less as a suggested course of action, as I'm sure everyone at AC is aware of this option.  I meant it moreso for people to keep in mind as they are complaining about everything.  The game will work really well as it is now once there are more players, and all of the changes we are clamoring for (myself included) probably aren't really needed once players start coming.

Point 1: The NPC buy order system is technically sound.  I just don't like it because its artificial, and everything attractive about this game to me is that it is a player-created sandbox.  Other than the "pilot light" items, like miner charges and ammo, everything should be player bought and sold.  And even those items, I'd like to see people undercutting the NPCs more.

Yes players manufacturing items to sell to NPCs is better than hauling missions, but I would support it in a temporary fashion only, to get the game moving.

Point 3: I do agree with you that there shouldn't be valuable minerals very close to stations.  There should be common minerals close to stations though.  My reasoning for this is that I think the game should be completely accessible for every play style with only one account.  Miners would need to be able to get to base and back within 10 minutes.  However, placing rarer minerals farther away encourage teamwork (or alts, but basically the same thing), because with a hauling character everyone can mine more valuable material.

The other point I argued was that there are enough minerals in the game, but we get into that in...

Point 4: "With one miner, they are generous."  I am one miner, so that is my frame of reference, though I see no problem with a group having to continue moving to find more and more ore.  However, it should never get to a point where there is "nothing" to mine.  I can't speak to whether we are at that point or not, as I am one 3 week old character with a Termis.

I personally favor a system where once fields are mined, they regenerate in a random new location, like artifacts, but not specific to the agent playing.  As it is now I have no use for Area charges since I have bookmarked where I can find everything, and that seems unrealistic, as well as de-emphasizing the scanning skills' importance.

I'm sure that as more players play the game, more minerals will be added proportionally, if not dynamically, then in occasional patches.

Point 5: I talked a little about it here (http://forums.perpetuum-online.com/post/22263/#p22263).  I just see hauling and mining missions better served by a contract system, and bounty contracts being huge for combat players, not to mention pvp in general (corps hiring mercenaries, etc).

Doh, thanks.  See, this thread is educational!

One more thing, a mute button in the options.  Of course you can drag all the sliders down, but a mute button would be convenient.

How do you get total players online?

I was honestly surprised that I got so much free stuff from the tutorials.  We are in universal agreement that the market needs to be stimulated, and now we have all new players gunning for light bots from the market.  How is this bad?

It's a free market.  If the light bots cost too much for new players, they won't buy them, and prices will come down.  Then they eventually will not be too expensive, and new players will buy them. 

Economy thrives.