First off I would like to say my spelling suck so, sorry for that

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Anyhow, back to the suggestion part :
1. Resource gathering. Mining .
Any ore types that can be gatherd on asteroids, planets, and so forth. So, what is the point off gathering this.
One use off this could be a more player based modification off you're ship, repairs, fuel, ammo and so forth.
There are many ways you could use this ore / gass. Here are some suggestions to that
* Ship mainenance, repairs, upgrading base technology and so forth. This goes to another idea where
after a long fight, say set ammount off damage taken and deaths, you have to visit space dock for repairs
and maintenance.
* Upgrade hulls on ships you got. Like it would cost set ammount off diffrent ore, and gass
for each upgrade. This could be done by adding, ligther materials without looseing advantage to armor
wich would result in a slight speed increase, this way you got more power for weapons and so on. Also
upgrade hull hit points, heat resistance, damage and so on.
* Better fuel / energy. Wich increases both engine output, but also reduces the need off maintenance.
Also better fuel means better damage output on you're weapons.
* A galaxy wide reaserch and development. Instead off evry player needing to reaserch such thing, this could
be done thru donations or sold to youre faction off gatherd ore / gass / alien tech and so forth. The more Federation / klinogn and so forth have thru these donations would unlock new technologies. New ships, weapons, engines and so forth. Evry tech level have a counter wich shows evry resource needed and what has been donated this far. ( If faction based is to big, this could be done with fleets instead).
* Faction creation off space defence station on theyr borders, the more ore / gass provided the more powerfull
/ faster do they respawn if destroyed by the opesite faction.
There are many posabilites really. To gather ore and gass, you would need somkind off mining ship that you could bye either from you're faction, or we could have some sort off mining guild. These guild memberships could give diffrent bonuses. One guild gives bonus to harvesting ore, the other gass, and possably one inbetween wich adds bonus to escorts (ships that defends youre mining vessle). The areas where you gather ore could include orion pirates, and in order to have sufficient protection to yourself, you should be able to have figthers and the posability to either hire other players to defend you're ship. (these defenders could be npc as well hired for credits..)
All these upgrades would be an addition to the engineering / science etc. slots on the ship, and it also assumes
a change in somekind off penalty if you die.
2. World PVP off sorts.
At evry border there could be two fleet actions one npc and one pvp. These battles could include defense station with weapons off any kind to help the defending faction. The faction with most wins or kills would gain control off systems in that border wich could give diffrent bonuses. These bonuses could include alien tech stations, alien ship designs, weapons that are not offerd at other places. Now, I'm not talking klingon, orion, borg ships, but ships designed from wreckage off alien ships located across the galaxy. Alot off options here really. These ships could be optained thru either ore / gas requierments or plain credit. Offcurse you would need to have the right level to run them. (These system would be a planet with very old alien citys from aliens
that died off along time ago).
3. Buffs, and a circle around the ship showing weapon distance and how much damage they do (like a scale) compared to distance. Buff could be given by science ships as they are today but they stay on longer .
Comments
They have a game like this it's called Eve. It's the game most STOers can't stand and putting these changes into the game would really just turn it into another Eve. I personally don't want that
Perhaps a possability to salvage ships you destroy for ore / gas as well
As long as it doesn't turn into eve I'll be happy. Salvaging ships would be cool I admit, or maybe have the chance to beam aboard a ship after combat to raid it and finish any survivors (Boss ships there obviously)