I agree with some of what you're saying. The problem ELITE has is that it is very unbalanced - combat and exploration don't pay anywhere near what they should, mining has had a period of some pretty serious flaws that have allowed for an explosion in earning potential. I believe the thought process is that combat is more exciting so it pays less (the flip side to that argument is that it is the activity with the most risk so it should pay more), exploration has the POTENTIAL to be one of the most interesting, particularly for solo players who aren't interested in combat; again, here, the counter-argument is that the FDEV have done very little with exploration to make it interesting - the actual implementation is really more a choice of grey rocks or brown rocks when it has the potential to be so much more. There should be trails to follow, vast trips across space to unlock mysteries driven by in-game lore, etc., and we are long overdue for some more variety in planet surfaces and features. Then there's mining and trade -- inherently boring, plodding around inside rings, pinging away. This is a tricky one to get right because real trade is a game of supply and demand, but players control neither -- all the supply is driven by FDEV, and so is demand. Players don't actually PRODUCE anything to drive the market.
Perhaps what is needed is a way to tie these things together -- explorers find the systems that contain the raw materials for miners, miners gather raw materials and produce processed materials used by other players to increase the tech of their ships -- combat players defend their faction's miners and explorers while attacking those of other factions. The three core play styles dovetail each other.
As for players leaving because they've seen it all - I can relate to that. I've been playing since the kickstarter, I've played in all three of the major roles and I have all the ships I want and more than enough cash. I've also gone months without playing because there was nothing new to do. Fleet Carriers didn't initially interest me, but grew on me, so I bought one - what else is there to spend billions on, really? It took me a very long time to make my first billion, substantially less to make my first 5-6 billion, and a lot less time to make my first 10 billion. Yes, there are new players who are where I am today and have done it in just a few months or weeks of play by leveraging mining. That's fine... it's a very different game today than it was back in 2015 and, honestly, why do I care what someone else is flying, how they choose to play and whether or not it took them 1/10 the time it took me? As long as the game is fun and everyone is getting out of it what they want to get out of it, so what? At the end of the day, it's a game - it's supposed to be fun. If people want to get to the end-game stuff fast, then that's the way they choose to play the game - they'll get their stuff and get bored and move on, but they aren't the kind of players who would have stuck around to do the same thing had they been forced to do it the long way anyway - at least they had their fun while it lasted. People are spending a lot of time worrying about other people's game when the only one that matters is the game they, themselves, are playing.
![[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/234/234580.jpg?1612617334){kind=avatar}
