I fully realize writing this that many people will immediately disagree and probably even flame this post, mainly since it is coming from a pirate's point of view. However, I ask that you think about it objectively.
In my opinion... the single most crucial thing for MA to do to both "fix" some of the significant problems with this game today, and simultaneously stimulate the economy is one single action: fix the logout exploit in space.
Why do I call this an exploit? Because MA has called it an exploit themselves, and has stated approximately 8 months ago that they planned to solve this in an upcoming VU. For those that don't know, essentially you get on a big ship warp, log out your avatar, and therefore all of your stackables are for the most part safe. Most of the "professional" transport services operating today will instruct all of their passengers to do this, even going so far as running external webchats etc. to tell their passengers when they can log back on. So, plain and simple this is an unintended exploit, and I'm sorry if that statement offends you but it's true. With that out of the way....
It's no secret that MU (markup) is in a complete and total dismal state of failure right now. Most things do not have any markup to speak of, and it wasn't always that way. In fact, MU is one of the ONLY ways average players can hope to at least sometimes turn a profit or at least do better. It's also one of the only elements in the game that cannot be controlled by the algorithms and programming, read: an edge for human players. And, this is why people are selling off crafting skills, etc etc etc. MU is a vital part of the game, and right now it's dying off into obscurity.
Think about also, the premise of the game. Planet partners... different environments with different resources. Think about the past visions (promises actually) of space missions, transport missions, hangars, etc. all of which never took place. I think part of the reason for that, is there is almost no point right now to do that.
So what am I talking about? I'm strongly suggesting that "correcting" the logout exploit will stimulate the economy, auto-correct markup issues in several domains, and add more depth to the game than is currently available. Why?
If this happens, all of a sudden all of the fleets and space transport services (and their passengers) will have to think differently about things. Realistically, they would have to hire protection. Meaning, they will have to charge more (and already should be actually... but that's another point). Meaning, moving things becomes more expensive for everyone and exponentially riskier. Meaning, when I go to sell my goods on another planet, I have to charge more than I do currently. I can also sweeten the deal and almost set the price if I'm one of the few moving alternative ingots to caly for example. Also, not everyone who is moving stuff today will continue to do it.
This means traders can charge and pay more, and it also means your average joe hunting or mining can sell their small stacks for more MU because of the few who are moving it in space in large quantities.
This opens up "jobs" in space, even more than today and adds the possibility of an actual universe where different activities on different planets actually matter and become possible.
So I realize a lot of people will immediately go - no that would suck, you stupid pirates just want more chance at loot. And while that is true... I can assure you that this thought/point existed long before I started pirating and in fact the failure of MA to fix this is the main reason I chose to do this instead of something else like moving passengers around.
Personally, I won't hold my breath. I believe if MA had any intention of actually doing this we would have seen it already.
More than likely we'll all keep doing the same thing we are now, which is playing a fragmented game with fragmented storylines, only moving planets when we feel like doing something different and looking at different pixels and getting there through broken space with virtually no point other than a longggggggggg hallway we have to walk down to get somewhere else. Then we can TT all our stuff, or try and sell it for 101%
Cheers.