Charlotte

Now that your reading this. here are my reasons:

the current state of the game, and the space only CvC cant be properly tested and balanced due to desync and the fact that the majority population vastly does not pvp (we just warp around it, or go outside of the pipe). 

as it stands, pvp is just sit for hours and wait for something to come to you. basically fishing. then you have to hope you can catch it, or get in range to shoot it a bunch. hard to do when its in warp, or at max speed.

so my recommendation, is to focus on the non pvp aspects of development. putting pvp on the back burner, much like thoramine.

-OR-

Address the core issues of space pvp, which is lacking.
1) the ability to properly engage in fights
2) reducing the cost to defend yourself
3) allowing for a entry level of rudimentary weapons a lone player can use/craft.
4) the ability to catch people.

Here is what I am proposing:
1) allow for a tier 5 item called a 'gravity field generator' to be deployed only on a space core. fueled by warpcells ( or something similar, basically its warping space to generate gravity ). this forces a 3G gravity effect over 10 SU to pull in things within 5SU of the gravity field generator. think of it as a sphere effect with a nullified sphere effect inside. basically a trap. this affects all players and orgs. you can escape it by applying more then 3g's of force to get out of the field. or shoot the space core that contains the gravity field generator.
2) with this change, we need to limit G forces on combat ships in some way. so my second proposal is a new type of voxel called 'armor.' this voxel material has significantly more hp and weight over honeycomb (its denser, because its armor). since ships are basically trapped inside of a gravity well arena, you cant always just zoom zoom, out of range of everything to regenerate shields. you also need to be able to defend a static space core holding the field together. this will slow down ships, and help fix the rubber banding/desync issues due to high velocity combat. this is where armor comes in nicely. since its super heavy and has a high amount of hp. people cant just cube meta it. otherwise they will not have enough thrust to move around. so a balance of hull armor and mobility is created. currently mobility is king because of shield venting by running away. but in a arena small area, with a point to defend while attacking, a mix of fortification from slow ships and space station vs fast interceptor type ships is created. 
3) rewarding players for risk. currently, pvp is not profitable, and people just delete their cargo as they are dying. a new proposal is a questionable one, insurance. people do not like to lose things they worked hard on in a videogame, and since the nature of the game is very slow paced and over a long period of time, my recommendation is a insurance premium a player can put on their ships. this is a 1 time fee for a few hours of insurance type of thing. essentially, you pick up some cargo, then insure your ship for about 60-70% of what the elements and cargo is worth for about 5% of the premium. when insured, anything that is not fuel or ammo is locked, and cant be moved or deleted until the insurance policy is canceled. you also cant edit your ship by adding or removing elements. this solves the issue of deleting profitable things from the people engaging in pvp, while also dulling the pain of losing a ship and cargo. as I said before, the duration of the insurance is short, lasting a few hours or until canceled by the ship owner. the only way to insure a ship is if its within 2 SU of a market (this can change in the future to something else. but the idea is you have to be close to a insurance agency place. ) to balance the economy, a insured ship has a chance to have some elements deleted when cored ( lets say about 50% of the elements for a ballpark amount. ) however containers are a exception to deletion.
4) currently weapons are balanced horridly, so here is what I think needs to change. weapon range, all sizes of weapons should have the same range. the only difference should be tracking and damage application. XS being better at tracking and hitting a target, but have low damage output. and L being worse at tracking and hitting fast targets, but hit very hard. range should be tied to the type of weapon, lasers being short ranged with bonus's to tracking, cannons in the middle, and railguns being long range, with lower tracking, but more damage. all turrets should have a omni directional firing arc. it does not make sense why they don't. this is where I have to add, a new proposed weapon type, dorsal (or fixed) weapons their firing angle is very limited (like 2 degrees, and deal big damage, have long reload times (shoots 1 shot every 30 seconds or so) and have to be mounted on a M or L core. the purpose is a siege type of weapon. as for missile changes, this is where things get interesting. it does not make sense that missiles function how they do. so the proposed change is to make missiles the weapon system that is the widely used for those being chased or to attack static/slow targets. each missile pod has a fixed container you have to manually load. each missile is then buffed in volume, and has to be loaded like fuel. making this weapon a preloaded weapon system (about 24 shots before needing to reload it.) the size will determine the damage, but will also increase the volume and material cost of the ammo. missiles have access to all 4 damage types, and is loaded similarly to fuel where only 1 type can be loaded per launcher. how it will change to work, is if the difference in velocity of the shooter and target is less then 3000 kph in the forward direction of reference (basically, shooting someone following you or slower then you), it will hit. and deal big damage. similar to a rail gun. however its shots are limited until reloaded and the range is just under railgun range. due to this, you can only attach 1 missile launcher to 1 control/gunner seat. the idea is a weapon to use against a target with limited shots. meaning its not likely to kill a target if its properly defended but allows for a entry level weapon system to be attached to most ships that a single pilot can use. the new changes would make missile launchers a tier 2 crafted item, turrets a tier 3-5, and dorsal weapons a tier 5 item.

Most of the above changes would make considerable leaps towards a more balanced pvp system with more fun for all parties. as with anything, this is what I believe needs to be done, or at least the general spirit of things that need to change for space pvp. since it cant hurt to propose it, I did. it cant be dumber then the current state of pvp where people exceed the g forces that would kill a human 3 times over, or the 'fishing' for conflict that exists.