Absolute boatloads, and the mechanics already exist... just for some reason, FD refuses to actually exploit them.
Ref:
Could core mining mechanics be used to create salvage gameplay
Just something I thought last night. Like, instead of planting charges to fissures to crack asteroids, we'd have derelict spacecrafts (megaships/carriers/etc) and abandoned outposts to scan and locate weak spots on the hull, bulkheads and so on. Then blow those up to gain access to whatever...
Uncle J's Illustrated yet Incomplete Encycopedia of Useless Stuff (picture/video-heavy)
Updated 23rd October 2020: Megaship Features Or as I like to call it, "Things you probably didn't realise because you were too busy doing nothing but grinding some FOTM Meta" As the name suggests, this'll be a semi-regularly updated (and by Semi, I mean mostly if I'm bored, or someone really...
Great effects and mechanics, left at back of the cupboard
I recently sent my alt-account out to explore in-anger. They're primarily scoping out all the different types of anomalies and their effects. And some of them have great effects: (This video not mine) Along the way, I've also come to recently experience Lagrange Storm clouds: My big...
But first, what does making them look more like Odyssey missions look like?
Take this for example:
Assassination (Odyssey): Fly to base (noting this is already problematic if you're wanted/hostile), locate target via base computers, get access to target (they may be in a secure/restricted area), optionally disable whatever security measures to make the takedown a bit easier, take down the target, escape.
Assassination (Space): Fly to USS, PEW PEW PEW
Space-based missions in Elite are incredibly one-dimensional by contrast to Odyssey and are barely activities. The only one which I think is "fine" is hijack missions, which require hatchbreak limpets and some specialised tactics... also disabling megaship turrets. I mean, you can do an Odyssey mission by going "Rock up and pew pew pew", but you're going to have a bad day. Odyssey missions simply have more nuance, depth and pathways to resolution.
To ramp up missions in a similar capacity means taking advantage of some of those linked mechanics. For example, instead of salvage being "fly to USS, scoop cargo", it becomes "Fly to derelict minor outpost/megaship, use recon limpets to circumvent security systems, avoid navigational hazards, fly into the wreck and breach a cargo hatch. Panic because you had to power up the hatch first, which also activated a transponder which has drawn pirates to the site, who will arrive in one minute. Escape.". It doesn't need to be that sequence of events every time, because the wrecks should be procedurally generated. But there's a vast array of "things" available.
Pirate Assassinations could be "Fly to location of target's last victim, extract the black box from the wreck with hatchbreakers, or even cut it out with a mining laser, which tells you what system they're in next. Respond to a distress call while in supercruise from the target's next victim, pew pew". If the target is not a criminal (say, a politician or military leader, for the common ones in game), maybe it involves going to a "live" base and stealing some intelligence either by scanning, hatchbreaking or some combination of the above. You could destroy power conduits to more aggressively shut down the minor outpost's defence systems first before getting the scan, but that will get the locals more angry. Or just shoot everything because you hate the superpower running this show. Then you track them down in the next system and interdict them.
Along those lines, there's all sorts of missions you could build; outpost/megaship repair/restoration, sabotage/destruction or espionage/theft. Scenario-based mechanics allow for assassinations and massacres to become pirate outpost assault missions where you combat waves of ships in a CQC-like environment, instead of being just glorified "bonus credit" overlays to existing activities like they currently are.
And of course, a whole bunch of these can have environmental threats instead. instead of the salvage mission having a security-and-pirate threat, instead the drive core has become unstable, creating a large electromagnetic field that disrupts ship systems around the vessel, much like what we see with anomalies currently.
That's just the tip of the iceberg, using mechanics that already exist in the game. They just aren't orchestrated together.... and with a host of actual interesting missions, we can retire the ones that are "free credit" overlays like massacre, source, mining and delivery missions. Removing them is not hurting that gameplay, source and delivery missions only generate for trade routes you could otherwise do anyway, and massacres are just a credit top-up to bounty hunting, and are completely unnecessary (and poorly designed)
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some of us have just reached our first ever 300M and feel like that's "rich" when they know it's really not...ahem.