Novidian

Oh god yes. I think the addition of AvA would be huge, with the death match arenas we could build. That was one of my biggest draws are initially; being able to build actual combat maps for competitive AvA inside DU. 
 
Give us our bread and circus!

Without an easier way to find wrecks, it’s never going to be worth the time. Why not have them as a part of the mission system? “A derelict ship (core size) has been spotted at xyz. You are tasked with salvaging it, to eliminate a possible hazard for your fellow travelers.     You have X days to complete this task before the construct’s core destabilizes and self destructs (despawns).”
 
Then, you add some exotic/unique elements to it that can’t be found elsewhere. Higher rarity and quantity in PvP zones. Make sure the spawns are random, but in proximity to planets/in the pipe. Local missions could drop common or uncommon parts in a random unclaimed tile on planets as well.

It may not be a typical mmo, but drawing inspiration from a two decades old game isn’t exactly inspiring, either.
 
I don’t think anyone in their right mind would, or has, suggested a single non PvP ship should be able to take on any number of combat ships. You said it yourself, they’re at an inherent disadvantage, more so when speed changes are implemented probably.

That would be a silly expectation. Even an armed hauler is at a disadvantage vs a dedicated attack ship, between the extra mass and the build restrictions.
 
You say the solution is to not get caught, but outside of avoiding the pipe (which isn’t much of a guarantee), there are no counter measures to avoid enemies. There are no sensor jammers or an otherwise way to go dark, so if you’re made, you’re dead. I don’t see the challenge in that for either party, but that’s just me. When 90% of the challenge is finding a target for PvP ships, that seems kind of boring to me.
 
 
 
At the very least I’d like to see ships whose engines aren’t running be harder to spot and have a device that can send dummy radar pings to throw people off, but maybe that’s just me. Also, have the stasis weapons effect be able to stack, so maybe the meta for haulers is to jam a lot of those to outpace your persuer. If you’re built for hauling, you aren’t winning any slugfests, especially if your a ship balancing space and atmo.
 
I think giving non dedicated PvP ships a chance to put smart or otherwise slip out of an attackers grasp makes things interesting, and might actually result in more people braving the pipe since the encounter isn’t certain death.
 
As far as combat escorts, you can’t count on someone being available for that and it adds cost to your trip, considerably. Getting someone to slow boat a few hundred SU with you won’t be cheap or even fun. For the cost, you may as well warp, probably.

They should add wormholes in pvp space, where players can take a short cut through the larger expanses, at the risk of getting engaged in PvP in and around these areas.
 
That way, haulers can get from point a to b faster, but they’re basically much easier to find by pirates. More people will arm themselves or hire escorts, if it means shaving a lot of time. I imagine slow boaters would be less of a target, because they’re harder to find, so a longer trip generally would mean lower risk.

The wormholes would be their own instances, naturally. They would be a winding corridor or sci-fi gobblety gook that require you to actually make flight corrections, or you risk hitting the outer walls of it and getting ejected back out into normal space and taking significant damage. This should in effect create an artificial speed limit to them to account for course corrections, and make PvP more likely.
 
You could also throw in a few ship wrecks in there from time to time.

A wipe right now is an absolutely horrible idea. For launch, possibly. Even still, it’s a catch 22.
 
By the time launch rolls around, you will have had people invest a lot more of their money into subscriptions, and this would definitely sour their feelings toward NQ by doing it later, rather than sooner. However, if you wipe before the pillars of the game are fully realized, the player base may not come close to reaching the needed development to actually test the game properly. You NEED people with the resources to build and manufacture at a large scale, especially with more PVP content on the way. A hard wipe without bots and ways to make money outside of mining is impossible. There’d be no money to even start the economy, let alone sustain it. And even then, you need MANY ways to generate quanta, otherwise it’s just mining 2.0. We’re  not even remotely close to that.
 
There was a time when I would have sided with a full wipe. I just returned to DU, having not played since early alpha, so this was a wipe for me, either way. I tend to lean towards not hard wiping - I see more cons than pros. There are too many bugs/optimization issues to even implement all the features (element destruction) properly, so I think there’s a LOT of work to be done before we even consider a wipe. I’m not sure what you gain by doing it, honestly.
 
In short, this is at best a discussion to have 6 months to a year out, and even that may not be enough time. If a wipe comes, it should only occur in preparation for launch, otherwise we may be having the same debate again before then. We need a feature full, highly functioning game, before we can even consider what a wipe should be and how it would work.
 
Wait for the final product, then we’ll see.
 
Regarding people paying subs, I think a fair compromise in the event of a wipe would be to offer them free post-launch game time and some of the other freebies promised to alpha backers (Pets/TUs/etc). That way, everyone who contributed pre-launch with subs didn’t feel like it was all for nothing, and their time and support was appreciated. 

I don't think removing element damage was necessary - it just needed to scale with the quality/complexity of the element.
 
Something along the lines of:
T1 Element - 8 Restorations for collisions
T2 Element - 7 Restorations for collisions
T3 Element - 6 Restorations for collisions
T4 Element - 5 Restorations for collisions
T5 Element - 4 Restorations for collisions
 
Perhaps then make it to where weapon damage removes 2 restoration points, instead of 1.
 
Now, core damage? Yeah, that needed to change. I think upping the HPs  considerably, and lowering collision damage on them
would benefit both PvP and non-PvP. For one, it'll make it harder to lose one in a crash, with the benefit of making ramming a non-option.

I don't think removing element damage was necessary - it just needed to scale with the quality/complexity of the element.
 
Something along the lines of:
T1 Element - 8 Restorations for collisions
T2 Element - 7 Restorations for collisions
T3 Element - 6 Restorations for collisions
T4 Element - 5 Restorations for collisions
T5 Element - 4 Restorations for collisions
 
Perhaps then make it to where weapon damage removes 2 restoration points, instead of 1.
 
Now, core damage? Yeah, that needed to change. I think upping the HPs  considerably, and lowering collision damage on them
would benefit both PvP and non-PvP. For one, it'll make it harder to lose one in a crash, with the benefit of making ramming a non-option.

This has been somewhat of a puzzle for me, actually. When it comes down to it, will player missions offer genuinely engaging experiences, or will it simply be glorified fetch quests and "kill XXX of YYY" type scenarios that we've seen a million times over? Even the rewards won't be something you can't get yourself, if you think about it. Traditional MMORPG rules are kind of out the window for content with sandbox games. There are no "uniques" or "nodrops" (Old AO player here), or phat lewt incentives like in MMOs of old, that you would get from PvE experiences. There's no fascinating story-driven narrative to get you at least minimally motivated. No XP to gain.
 
It's not at all traditional and incredibly ambitious; this could be either amazing, or as boring as you'd expect. I almost think it's a waste of time, and it should be saved for some kind of PvE incorporation, except with unique rewards like special element variants/blue prints/recipes, etc), so at least some genuine lore can be injected into the game, but I'm probably a minority there.
 
In a lot of ways, it seems destined to be mainly transactional, where you have to consider the cost benefit of what you're doing for another vs you just doing the same thing for yourself (or as you say, them doing it for themselves). In the end, that's just doing the frankly tedious things you already do - but with extra steps. I think the question is how do we as players create fun and interesting things for fellow players to do, and then, how does NQ implement it (hopefully more involved then drop down menus) into some kind of completion > reward type scenario? Is it even worth their time, if it's just going to be things we can request in chat or put a buy order in for?
 
But yes, Lore matters, and right now there really isn't much in that regard. I know they're probably counting on much of that to come from us, the players, and the story we unfold over time as a result of our collective experiences. Those "I was there" type moments you heard about in games like EvE. It makes you wonder if they really put any effort into a story at all, or if the intent is for us to write the whole thing ourselves. Still, for the RPG part of the pillar and the segment of DU players that value that type of  game experience, some sort of foundation to build upon is dearly missed.