One of the biggest problems in this game is the unwieldy nature of factions. Currently lacking security and a functional economy, there really isn't much need to expand and build an empire. Which is something I'm sure several of us want to do. I think my suggestion will fix the economy side of the problem.
As it stands, there isn't much incentive to hold more than two sectors. Your home sector and another where you mine. Once you mine out one you abandon it and move to another. There isn't any real reason to hold territory beyond this, other than maybe bragging rights. But, if you could hold a sector and planets would trickle resources to your base, there would be a reason to hold multiple sectors and multiple bases. Here is how I would implement it.
1) you would need to build a mine on a planet. This mine would link to a cargo space of any kind, be it plex storage or whatever Schema has planned. This would then trickle resources found on that planet at a slow rate to that cargo space. Once the cargo space is full one would need to link additional cargo space for resources to continue to trickle in.
2) The trickle rate would be dependant on the planet size and quality. Each planet gets a quality rating based on size and damage done. So, if someone damages/blows up your planet your trickle rate would decrease/stop if the planet blows up. Destroying the mine would also reduce the trickle rate to zero. Leaving the planet intact leaves it open for you to mine.
3) This would not reduce the need for traditional mining, as traditional mining removes blocks it would reduce the quality of the planet thus reducing the trickle rate. This would be a good tactic for pirates and warring factions, in addition new players, would need to mine to get started. Mining asteroids would also remain the same.
4)Traditional mining would be much more efficient at first as well. One would need to hold several planets to meet the same resource rate as a traditional miner. Once reaching this end game economy it would allow a faction to focus on building creative ships rather than mining all their materials.
I think this would have a few interesting effects on the game.
1) It would give players reason to compete by building empires and capturing territories.
2) It would give players incentive to defend their planets and build bases to defend sed planets
3) It would reduce lag from strip mining planets.
4) It would add to the end game economy and allow players to focus their creative abilities on creative new ships and competitive play.
I'm open to suggestions and refinement of these ideas.
