From a business perspective space legs would be a good way to go not only would it unlock a HUGE extra market but put ED on par with all rivals.
Either way it's good to see Fdev expanding which can only be good for ED in the long run
No, No, No... The Shoot-em-up crowd would never stand for it, everybody wants to sit in a chair and shoot junk, it's clear that ED agree with that direction and just pay lip service to any other gameplay, the proof being that there are seven hundred and sixty eight gazillion gunz and related shooting stuff's and only a handful of other modules to play with!
There was an opportunity with the Exploration update, where dozens of different modules could have enhanced all aspects of exploring, including actually going planetside and taking samples, perhaps if your ship could support it analysing those samples yourself, Mining could have been the same and used not just as a stand alone 'thing to do' but to augment Exploration, perhaps the ability to set up mining units on a planet after a deep scan that revealed a specific 'rare' element... but no we get to shoot rocks planetside and blow them up in space, while Exploration went for a massless module, less travel and more cash... yeah, way to go!
It seems, from the 'get go' ED favoured a market that would accept less gameplay and support the occasional or casual commander, after all, when a game is sold the money is in the pocket, it's irrelevant how many times that customer loads up the game and actually plays it, so, get folks interested in what you're selling and deliver just that... make the news a few times, get the attention again and fire off an expansion.
If we do get legs I fear it won't be the one the dreamers imagine, it will be a fairly bare bones shooter for raids on general structures like megaships or whatever, look at the history of ship releases, and look at the way things have gone, the game professes that you play your own way..
Combat...Shoot stuff and get shot at
Merchant... Buy stuff and get shot at
Explorer... Scan stuff and get shot at (when you come back)
Ring me back when it changes!