The game seems to be having quite a bit of an identity crisis right now.
It's been pretty plainly stated by dev team that they want equal opportunity to open, closed and solo options. So it's probably best we all operate under that assumption.
I've also seen a lot of risk/reward discussion in this thread and in others, and have in fact relied on that analysis myself in discussion of changes that might be considered in the game. However let's step back a moment and remember why many of us play games, in general, and elite, in particular.
Personally, and I feel like I might speak for a lot of those here or others who might consider playing the game who are fans of open-world games -- I play for the experience. I don't play to accrue the most money (I'm sure some do but I feel as though they are in the minority and may be better served applying such skills to the stock market), or get the biggest ship, or whatever other single pieces of content there might be. I play for the moments where I can go "whoa, that was so cool"...it doesn't really matter if it's in solo, group, or open play. I had equal enjoyability and fun playing the Mass Effect series (which for those not aware was single-player for the most part...the story at least) as I did playing Dayz online in servers of 50+ players, at least half of which were trying to kill me and zero my progress (which may be minutes, hours, days or weeks in the making).
I think right now the debate is focused on rewards and how to balance these in solo or group or open play, and I think it's the wrong focus. Instead, I think the question should be "How can we make more 'that was so cool' moments?"
People are willing to risk what they've worked for if they feel like they've gotten something out of it in the end, and that experience can be part (or whole) of the reward in and of itself. I think it's easy in general to get bogged down in the details of "how do we balance x with y and z when there are 100,000 different players" but if you look at the most popular games, and thus infer from those that people must be having fun because they're popular for a reason...it's that they allow the user to feel like he's made some impact in the game on some level.
Imagine this: A community event where players had to get some unique research items from a remote sector far from what is currently colonized space to a research hub at System X (insert relevant system here). However, a pirate cartel is currently in possession of one of the products of the assimilation of this research data, something that they want to prevent others from obtaining so they can maintain their astronomical bidding prices for governments interested in unlocking its secrets.
There would be three steps to the operation. The first would be to scan asteroid belts in a certain remote region of space to detect fragments of the scientific artifacts that were once on a planet that long ago was destroyed by a force of unimaginable magnitude. Then miners would need to mine for the rare fragment. Haulers would then need to move these fragments to a high-security system bordering System X (Call it system Y) and sell it at a specific station, creating a global "dump" that would track the number of fragments and adjust their price according to availability. All of the above elements could be done in open, solo or closed group play.
The last leg, however, would only be available in open play. Smugglers would need to move the stockpile from System X to System Y station, currently in anarchy due to the enormous pirate influx attempting to exert dominance in this market. If the smugglers/miners/haulers could do all of this in a certain period of time, they would be rewarded with a large credit compensation and a special logo for their ships that would be unique to the event. If the pirates win, then they get a similar prize. Furthermore, with PP, you could possibly reward various factions for certain achievements (i.e. most relics discovered, most total relics hauled, most relics smuggled, most smugglers killed, etc).
This would allow for everyone, no matter where they prefer to play, to contribute in a meaningful way to the event, and actually see their impact matter. If there weren't enough miners or haulers, people could swap to discovery, mining or hauling in whatever format they preferred to help boost the effort as a whole and ensure they got their unique, one time reward. Heck, maybe even PVE only players if they saw the relics they spent hours searching and mining and hauling were getting cut off by pirates and not making it to the station, maybe they'd volunteer their own ships to help run escort wings to ensure the Type 9s trying to smuggle at least had some sort of protection. If the relic supply ran dry, maybe smugglers and escorts would hop into an asp to help push the discovery and long-range hauling effort.
I think these are the types of creative solutions that can be implemented to make so many more "cool" moments. Give both PVE and PVP players very cool, unique objectives to do and watch what creativity and unique solutions offer humanity in return.
