Since the economy is essentially static - and clearly implementing a proper supply & demand X-BTF style economy system (with NPCs moving goods) is not currently possible in the Elite Dangerous universe - how about smaller, random, procedurally generated events?
The current faction states - boom, lockdown, civil war etc. don't really do too much to the actual system economy - they make little difference hence not attracting CMDRs to turn up and get involved so much.
An event occurs in a system, and makes the news feed locally - other systems within say 10-15LY. Events are temporary, lasting a couple days or so.
Agriculture system:
Hi Tech System:
Tourism System:
and so on and so forth...wold go a long way to giving a sense of life and variety in the galaxy.
The current faction states - boom, lockdown, civil war etc. don't really do too much to the actual system economy - they make little difference hence not attracting CMDRs to turn up and get involved so much.
An event occurs in a system, and makes the news feed locally - other systems within say 10-15LY. Events are temporary, lasting a couple days or so.
Agriculture system:
- Boom Harvest - fruit & veg / grain / tobacco / etc. is raised to high supply / lowest price. Bulletin Board has loads of transport goods jobs. NPCs carrying loads of fruit & veg can be found in system. Pirate activity increases.
- Crop Failure - stocks plummet to low, demand for land enrichment systems and pesticides etc. rockets. Jobs demanding goods increase. Ships "looking for food" turn up.
Hi Tech System:
- Corporate firesale - specific tech goods suddenly in super-high supply & low prices as company sells off assets. NPC and Pirate activity increases massively.
- Hostile takeover - loads of jobs to attack traders appear, massive increase in pirates. Good for bounty hunters.
- Medical breakhrough - huge increase in supply / drop in price of performance enhancers, progenitor cells, and agri-meds.
- Strike Action - supply of goods plummets. Ships "looking for weapons" to break the strikes appear
Tourism System:
- Celebrity event - demand for alcohol and narcotics goes through the roof. Police presence increases massively.
and so on and so forth...wold go a long way to giving a sense of life and variety in the galaxy.