OldingDaGrund

Recreational drug and alcohol use would increase the level of immersion in the game (and be good for role-play, which I'd be well into), bring some character and depth into the world of DU, and make the world feel rugged, more real and lived in.  Seeing the odd player (human or NPC) falling backwards over a table, drunk as a skunk in a bar, with maybe a few NPCs who burst out laughing at him as I walk in (just back from a long haul flight on a cargo ship), would be hilarious.  I'd include smoking in the list of recreational past-time activities that you can get up to in DU.  Although I don't smoke in real life, my DU avatar would always have a well-chewed up cigar hanging out the side of his mouth ?

Yeah, true.   Everyone will have their own take on what they'd like to see (and what they wouldn't like) in the game.  However, I'd like to think that there will be some organizations in the game that will recognize the exposure and prestige that will come with building, owning and running a great-looking, well-designed city, developed over time to be filled with a variety of interesting content and roles to play.  News of these places will spread throughout the community, and perhaps attract new players to the game via third party media sources.  Of course, those places would also attract tyrants, hence the need for adequate defensive mechanisms in place.  I think automated turrets are reasonable.  Some organizations, then,  are bound to see the value in providing players with fortified PvP safe spaces outside of the safe zones around the Arkship to build, in exchange for a payment of 'protection money' (i.e. taxes).  Heck, some organizations may even be role-playing oriented organizations, and may be open to the idea of creating cities in order to pursue their role-playing exploits.
 
Perhaps, the tax system (like in real life), could be tiered accordingly (tax-bracketed), based on a player's total income per a certain designated amount of time.  Then again, that kind of system might require too much in the way of administrative overhead for an organization, and be open to all kinds of accounting shenanigans.  A fixed system, where all members are charged the same amount of quanta per X amount of time, would probably be less of a headache to administrate.  Perhaps, the organizations themselves will employ someone to organize some direction in the building activities (in terms of zoning), so as to give the end result some coherence and structure (see, we have a role someone can play already! ☺️ ).  I don't think every PvP player simply wants to play the 'Dread Overlord' who has come to smash and pillage, and I don't think every builder/architect wants to play the hermit and hide in some sort of PvE ivory tower. 
 
I think (at least, I hope) that there will be a significant number of players who want to strike a balance between the desire to build relatively free of harassment, and wanting to get out there and get involved in building some places of interest for the development of some engaging and emergent story-telling.   In that case, the scenario I described above would be a mutually beneficial way of achieving that.  Novaquark have stated that they want DU to be a game where you can do anything.  I'd include deploying automated turrets to guard a fortified city inhabited (to a fair degree, hopefully a large one) by creative city-building types who want to build something that is altogether awe-inspiring in Novaquark's description of the intended purpose of the game.  This game is therefore going to attract all sorts, so it's only fair that if there are those (and there will be) who want to invade and conquer, it should be made bloody hard for them to do.  Empire building through military conquest , I would imagine, is a hard slog.  That will help retain the interest of those players who want to create and connect in peace, but don't necessarily want to limit themselves to a pitiful 20km radius.  The best sci-fi worlds created in popular culture are not just about blood, mayhem and military might and domination.  They're also the about the interspersing personal stories, within the overall narrative, of distinguished places, cultural belonging and human connection (as soppy as that may sound).

Yeah, true.   Everyone will have their own take on what they'd like to see (and what they wouldn't like) in the game.  However, I'd like to think that there will be some organizations in the game that will recognize the exposure and prestige that will come with building, owning and running a great-looking, well-designed city, developed over time to be filled with a variety of interesting content and roles to play.  News of these places will spread throughout the community, and perhaps attract new players to the game via third party media sources.  Of course, those places would also attract tyrants, hence the need for adequate defensive mechanisms in place.  I think automated turrets are reasonable.  Some organizations, then,  are bound to see the value in providing players with fortified PvP safe spaces outside of the safe zones around the Arkship to build, in exchange for a payment of 'protection money' (i.e. taxes).  Heck, some organizations may even be role-playing oriented organizations, and may be open to the idea of creating cities in order to pursue their role-playing exploits.
 
Perhaps, the tax system (like in real life), could be tiered accordingly (tax-bracketed), based on a player's total income per a certain designated amount of time.  Then again, that kind of system might require too much in the way of administrative overhead for an organization, and be open to all kinds of accounting shenanigans.  A fixed system, where all members are charged the same amount of quanta per X amount of time, would probably be less of a headache to administrate.  Perhaps, the organizations themselves will employ someone to organize some direction in the building activities (in terms of zoning), so as to give the end result some coherence and structure (see, we have a role someone can play already! ☺️ ).  I don't think every PvP player simply wants to play the 'Dread Overlord' who has come to smash and pillage, and I don't think every builder/architect wants to play the hermit and hide in some sort of PvE ivory tower. 
 
I think (at least, I hope) that there will be a significant number of players who want to strike a balance between the desire to build relatively free of harassment, and wanting to get out there and get involved in building some places of interest for the development of some engaging and emergent story-telling.   In that case, the scenario I described above would be a mutually beneficial way of achieving that.  Novaquark have stated that they want DU to be a game where you can do anything.  I'd include deploying automated turrets to guard a fortified city inhabited (to a fair degree, hopefully a large one) by creative city-building types who want to build something that is altogether awe-inspiring in Novaquark's description of the intended purpose of the game.  This game is therefore going to attract all sorts, so it's only fair that if there are those (and there will be) who want to invade and conquer, it should be made bloody hard for them to do.  Empire building through military conquest , I would imagine, is a hard slog.  That will help retain the interest of those players who want to create and connect in peace, but don't necessarily want to limit themselves to a pitiful 20km radius.  The best sci-fi worlds created in popular culture are not just about blood, mayhem and military might and domination.  They're also the about the interspersing personal stories, within the overall narrative, of distinguished places, cultural belonging and human connection (as soppy as that may sound).

Great idea.  Yes, the ability to craft pharmaceutical and biotechnological items should definitely be included in the game.  How could it not, with all the intrepid exploration into unknown environments and potentially dangerous discoveries that will be going on -- not to mention all the military campaigning and political shenanigans that I’m sure will be rife in DU?
Biotech & Pharmaceuticals
 
Maybe this is a bit too ambitious, or incompletely thought out, but I was thinking about the Op’s post and my mind just started to run with it.  I would like to see Novaquark create a large, reference library of flora and fauna in the game from which other plant and animal life could be procedurally generated to inhabit other worlds.  Each animal or plant organism would come with its own unique set of individual biochemical properties that combine to form the whole plant or animal.  When these ingredients are combined with other substances (organic or synthetic), this may or may not create useful compounds with a variety of biochemical effects, including buffing, de-buffing or damage repair effects on the player in the game. 
So, in this simplified example, 'plant life A' comes with a set of biochemical attributes, made up of individual biochemical properties.  For example: plant A is made up of individual biochemical property 1 + individual biochemical property 2 + individual biochemical property 3 + individual biochemical property 4.  Plant life A, as a whole organism, has a biochemical property value of 10 (1+2+3+4).  Either players could try combining the entire organism’s biochemical properties (10) with other substances to see what happens, or they could try mixing its individual biochemical properties (1, 2, 3 or 4), or a combination of them (e.g. 1 and 4) with another substance to see what happens.  I just used numbers to illustrate the point.  The actual properties of plants, animals and other substances in the game would be more interesting.  Players and organizations would be able to purchase (expensive) lab equipment in the game in order to manipulate these substances.
Some discoveries would be easier to discover than others.  Some discoveries require no discovery at all and would allow players to create familiar crafted items, like drinking water, for example (if they have the equipment).  Players would be provided with a small database of known craftable items (uploaded into their enviro suit’s onboard computer) that can be crafted if you have all the constituent ingredients.  If a player also had the equipment, he could synthetize hydrogen and oxygen atoms, and combine them to form water.
Other discoveries would be composed of many disparate elements whose chemical properties are as yet unknown, located far and wide across infinite space. You would also have to combine them in specific ways (e.g. 1 part [substance 1], 2 parts [substance 2], 5 parts [substance 6]).  Some discoveries like this could turn the tide of wars and be a deciding factor in geopolitical power struggles.  Rare texts for the preparation of some compounds may be found, since there are rumors of older, more advanced, alien races that were thought to have occupied or passed through certain areas of space.  Those texts would themselves be extremely valuable. 
So, for example, say explorers discover an ancient text with instructions on creating a particular compound, derived from the combination of certain individual chemical elements from several rare species of alien plants, located on different planets --some of them very remotely located and difficult to reach.  They sell the text to one particular organization (and make a very handsome profit on the sale).  The plants are eventually located, gathered and combined, as per the alien text’s instructions.  This compound could exert one of any number of effects, from mending serious injuries at an accelerated rate, to increasing a player’s tolerance for higher G-force levels when performing stressful aerial maneuvers.  Without it, a player would black out.  The compound could be applied in one of several ways: either via a spray, via injection, or by taking a tablet.  Players would, of course, see the appropriate animation corresponding to the manner of ingestion, along with some kind of visual effect and/or diagrammatical indicator on the screen to tell you it is now activated in the body. 
Patents
 
A player or organization could then submit an application to the closest Regional Patent Authority (RPA) for the jurisdiction of space in which the application is submitted.  Patents for any sort of crafted item would be assigned to an entity’s merchant I.D.  Each market region has its own patent authority, which is an NPC run organization that has access to a database of all the patents that have been issued so far in all the market jurisdictions that it oversees.  If granted, the patent would be exclusively attached to the merchant I.D. of the player or organization making the application, and they would receive an electronic document guaranteeing them the exclusive right to manufacture and sell the invention for a limited amount of time in that particular market jurisdiction before the patent expires (it would be a decent amount of time).  Patents covering larger markets (i.e. more than one market jurisdiction would become progressively more expensive the more market jurisdictions you want to gain a patent for.  A patent would not be required to sell things on the market but it would protect your ‘first discoverer’ intellectual property rights and lock other people out from manufacturing it for themselves, therefore possibly taking jurisdiction market share that rightfully belongs to you.
Private Deals
 
Alternatively, the discovery (in this case, the compound) could be traded privately, face-to-face.  This sort of trade does not require a patent or even a merchant I.D, just a contract.  Imagine, a travelling merchant sells the newly synthesized compound to a contact he has in one of two organizations that are locked in a bitter military power struggle for regional domination.  Or maybe he sells it to both organizations.  After all, he’s most likely just in it for the money and if the two sides stay deadlocked, this will only be good for his business).  You would only need a merchant I.D if you wanted to sell something on the official markets.
Merchant I.D
 
All organizations and players would be assigned one merchant I.D. when they first enter the game.  All official market-based transactions would be connected to your merchant I.D.  Without one, you would not be able to trade on the official markets.  Merchant I.Ds, however could be suspended.  That’s the disadvantage of being an outlaw.  As a slight restraining mechanism on player or organization behavior, if a player or organization were to develop a reputation as an outlaw, they could have their merchant ID suspended until fines are paid.  Repeat offenders would typically find themselves repeatedly locked out of the market system.  To compensate, however, a black market would probably spring up somewhere.  So, each player or organization would be assigned one merchant I.D.  Although players could choose whether or not they wish to connect their merchant I.D to any particular blueprints, crafted items they create, or any off-market contracts they enter, it would automatically be assigned for any transactions they wish to carry out on The Market. 
Market Jurisdictions and Regions
 
Now, I’m sure Novaquark would want to balance the need to reward players for their discoveries with the need to ensure that the market avoids becoming too dominated by a minority of individuals or organizations without some sort of counteracting force: financial cost.  I think it would be interesting if, instead of one universal market where everyone sees the same items and services available for sale (at the same prices), I think it would be cool if the overall market system (The Market) were broken down into ‘regions’, to reflect the cost/benefit analysis decisions of real-life businesses.  After all, as a business, accessing new markets costs money, and carries some risk.
These market regions would in turn be broken down into market ‘jurisdictions’, with designations like Eris-4 or Eris-5.  So, in this example, ‘Eris’ would be the region name, and the designation ‘4’ or ‘5’ would the jurisdiction.  The core areas of space around the Arkship, where players start their game, would be the core market or Ark Market.  Selling goods within the core areas would be fee free, but you would still need a merchant I.D.  If enough jurisdictions are created fairly contiguously, they eventually form a region.  So you could have a region consisting of jurisdictions belonging to different groups.   That would make for some interesting interjurisdictional dynamics.  For a jurisdiction to be created, players would have to venture out into areas outside of the core areas of space, into as yet unclaimed areas of space.  They would then find a habitable planet (or build a space station) and (after securing an area with a territorial unit, they could (if they have the credits) purchase a ‘market jurisdiction node’ upgrade for their territorial unit (an extremely expensive upgrade).  This will turn the territorial unit in a market hub.  Until you or someone else has purchased the upgrade nearby, you will not have access to the pre-existing hubs of The Market, because you’d be too far away and your area would not appear on the market system map.  Instead, you would have to travel to the nearest market jurisdiction and make your purchases there.  In other words, if you venture out a certain distance from the core area(s) of the Arkship, you will not be able to access the core market.  If you wanted to establish access to The Market, someone would have to upgrade their territorial unit with the jurisdiction node.  That would probably take time – depending on your resources.  Otherwise you’d have to travel to the nearest hub.  If there happened to be a little space between two or more already established jurisdictions, the game would just apportion the surplus space between each of the jurisdictions concerned, based on the volume of market activity in each jurisdiction until the jurisdictions were contiguous to each other.  Jurisdiction nodes, can be destroyed and replaced, however.  So adequate defenses would be required to protect them.
Jurisdiction Modes (Upgraded Territorial Units)
 
When a territorial unit is upgraded to a jurisdiction node, players are given the opportunity to name the jurisdiction. The game would decide when enough jurisdictions have been created to form a region.  That’s not to say that all regions will ultimately be of the same size, or that the establishment of a region would be cast in stone forever.  Military force, or political alliances could change that.  An existing market jurisdiction node could either be destroyed or moved to reflect new relationships.  The jurisdiction node would be prohibitively expensive for all but the wealthiest and/or most industrious individuals and organizations. 
The incentive to establish a new market in the first place would be that, once upgraded to a jurisdiction node, players or organizations would receive a small commission from every sale made on the market system in that market jurisdiction, which could potentially become extremely lucrative once the population of a newly established frontier jurisdiction reaches a critical mass (if they choose to go there, that is).  This would reflect the prestige of achieving this feat and reaching this position, and could also result is some kind of RPG-like boost to a player or organization’s reputation and standing in the game. 
Selling & Buying on Remote Markets
 
So, outside of the core market, new jurisdictions can be created by players as they venture out of the core areas into untapped areas of space.  To sell anything on these markets, you would need to pay a fee.  The farther out the target jurisdiction is from the jurisdiction where you are selling from, the larger the fee would be to sell goods in the target jurisdiction.  As I said, this would simulate the cost/benefit analysis decisions of real-life businesses, where accessing new markets costs money and means more risk (the farther out and newer the market is).  Players and organizations would have to weigh the added cost of selling items in remote markets versus the likely value of what they are selling, the size of the population in that particular jurisdiction, and therefore the level of demand for what they are selling.  This added cost to sell in more remote markets pays the commissions that market jurisdiction founders collect on each sale, in honor of their efforts to expand the empire (or something like that).
 
So, in having to pay a fee before they can access newer markets, sellers would have to factor in the cost of the commission to the market jurisdiction’s founders into their pricing decisions.  Will they absorb the cost, or will they pass it onto the customer.  If they choose to pass the cost on to the buyer, this would give more remote market jurisdictions a reputation for typically being more expensive to buy things on.  Then again, sellers may choose to absorb the costs and undercut their competitors to gain market share.  Something you also see in the real life economy. 
Market Access Cost Reduction Strategies
Alternatively, organizations, and groups of players, may choose to organize themselves in order to reduce the costs of selling goods in other market jurisdictions.  For example, imagine 3 market jurisdictions: A, B and C.  We have a ‘merchant A’. If merchant A wanted to sell his goods in jurisdiction A (his home jurisdiction), the fee he would have to pay would be smaller than if he wanted to sell in jurisdiction B. This because he would be selling his goods into the market jurisdiction that he is physically located in.  If our merchant wanted to sell goods in jurisdiction C, the fee he would have to pay would larger than if he wanted to sell in jurisdiction B, and much larger than if he wanted to sell in his local jurisdiction A.  If the merchant wanted to keep his costs down (which you'd think he would), he would have two choices:  1. He could travel to jurisdiction B or C himself and list his goods for sale there, but this would be impractical.  2. Or he could have contacts stationed in jurisdiction B and C while he remains in jurisdiction A.  Since Novaquark have said they wish to include realistic industrial processes in game, it would be cool if that extended to realistic commercial processes too, where goods are actually physically transported in cargo ships loaded with freight containers to their intended markets.  Organizations or groups could then have their contacts waiting in other jurisdictions to take delivery of the goods upon arrival.  Then the contact would pay the smaller local fee, before listing the goods for sale on the local market.  This would reduce costs, but (depending on the nature of his relationship with his contact), he may have to pay his contact.