Sandbox games always require you to set goals, and often limitations on yourself.
For example, I had a goal to visit Sol (completed) and limitations that I am generally lawful good. That means no smuggling, no slave trades, etc. Exceptions to the no smuggling for things like the Community Goal, where the president asked pilots to retrieve wreckage. That never should have been illegal to bring to the station. Would have been more interesting if it was made illegal everywhere else, but also worth more cash. Or a more recent military promotion where I was to retrieve an Ancient Artifact... that time it made sense for it to be illegal at that station, but I was turning it over to authorities, so made sense.
How good a sandbox game is often comes in how many layers it has. This is where Elite suffers a bit, because it really only has a couple layers of depth. I hate to make a comparesen to the X series, but it is the most obvious, in that player goals could get far bigger. For example, trading. At start you have a basic ship, no upgrades, and are essentially just looking for carrying cargo from A to B. But then you progress, and can afford better ships, better computer components, you start dropping satellites in systems so you can monitor station prices in other systems, allowing you to refine your trade routes. You hire more pilots, expanding your trading network. You build stations, allowing you to start selling commodities on the market. Eventually, you can take over the market for certain commodities, and become a serious businessman. Along with that, you want fighters to defend your trading ships, etc etc etc etc etc.
Now, one major difference between Elite and X is single player, vs multiplayer. And the fact that players are *not* a major force in the galaxy. But some things can be learned from the above description, namely: adding layers of complexity.
If I want to trade, all I can do right now is get a ship, do trade routes. It never gets more complex. I also can never see data outside the station I'm at, which is nuts.
We know the Pilots federation has the ability to transmit data anywhere in the bubble. Why not put it to use. Allow pilots to "pay" for access to it. A nominal fee, but it means that a pilot can tangibly expand their trade network. It also gives traders something else to manage, a layer of depth, in game.
Another layer for traders might be the ability to hire NPC wingmates, to help protect them on their trip. It's a small loss of profit, but might be worth it. And if a pilot uses them often, they may change the outfitting of their ship to match.
And lastly, and this is a big one. Give the players something to call their own, aside from their ship. A place to call home, that they have a definitive reason to fight for. I know player owned stations are a no go, and player factions is a good start on this, but it's still lacking something in the "I have a tangible piece of this galaxy that I can call home" feel. That's tapping into a players emotion, both in successes and losses.
