I've been maintaining this Quality of Life suggestions list for a few years, but it's sometimes depressing how many basic things, like bug fixes, are still here. I haven't updated this list for a while, so it seemed like a good time 
Missions
Missions
- Exploration and Scouting - Frontier need to make exploration meaningful again, and this means we need long-range exploration missions. These are missions where you're sent to scan or discover systems suitable for mining or colonisation. In these missions you'd need to scan all the bodies in a system, perhaps bring back samples from planetary surfaces, scan comets and other astronomical phenomena, and discover new materials and the beginnings of life.
- Allegiance and Galactic Powers - These would be where you undertake a series of chained missions for a power or faction. These can include destroying the power systems on a series of opposition bases, or scanning a series of bases to gain intelligence. These missions could take anything from a day to a week of gameplay to complete, and would really help relieve the monotony for a lot of players.
- Passengers + Cargo - We're routinely transporting people around the galaxy, but what about their cargo and possessions? It's reasonable to assume that people, especially if they're moving somewhere like Colonia, would have a great deal of cargo to take with them. We need passenger missions where you need to also have cargo space available.
- Rescue Missions - We need a new Rescuer role within the game to expand the rescue features introduced in 2.4 and the introduction of Hull Repair Limpets. We need rescue and repair missions to appear on both the missions board, at USS', and to pop up in the comms panel when we're in a suitably-equipped ship. The Fuel Rats do a brilliant job, but why aren't there USS' and missions for pilots who need fuel or repair. This would add a whole new role to the game, and give people a reason to wing-up as well, so the rescuer ship can be protected while it does its job.
- Salvage, Recovery - An additional type of rescue mission could see Commanders sent to find a ship that can't be repaired, and that has perhaps crashed or been destroyed, and retrieve its passengers' escape pods.
- Transport to Colonia and Sagittarius A* - I'm not sure where to start with Colonia. Why do all the passenger missions to Colonia only pay up "when you return"? We badly need more one-way missions to encourage people to transfer there, not just the data transport missions currently available. We also need missions to the station near the centre of the galaxy.
- Passenger Missions from Colonia and Sagittarius A* - Additionally, all the passenger missions currently at Colonia are heading back to the bubble, again with payment "when you return". I've seen almost no missions that head out into the galactic core. We desperately need more missions to the core and elsewhere in the galaxy from Colonia.
- Ship Rendezvous - This mission type would mean Commanders would transfer passengers or cargo (or both) and meet up somewhere in the middle of the black with another ship, to make the transfer. There's a good opportunity here for black market and criminal transfers too.
- Scientific Missions - These would be similar to the exploration missions in some ways, but shorter range, and involve Commanders being sent to study things like alien ruins, planetary rings, or perhaps a particular type of planetary surface structure. These missions could also include scanning and following comets (we need comets in the game), or other new types of astronomical phenomena. Additionally, they could be chained and take anything from a few hours to a week of gameplay to complete.
- Intelligence and Spying - Great play was made some years ago about missions that would suddenly pop up in a player's comms panel. I don't know how many people undertake these, but there's room to expand them to include secret intelligence and spying missions for factions and powers to which you are aligned.
- Alien Encounters - With the exception of Thargoids, how about introducing scientific missions where Commanders are sent to investigate signs of alien life. This could involve scanning alien transmissions, or signs a ship has traversed through a system. Who knows, some might even involve you running into a Thargoid, or another alien directly, which could bring many more players into alien contact than might otherwise happen.
- Fleet Carrier Cargo and Passenger Missions - because, well why not? People and NPCs want to transfer their ships and cargo long-distances, perhaps to Colonia. This would give carrier owners an extra reason to head out into the black. There could also be missions where you need to use your fleet carrier to transport many ships on an expeditionary mission or for a combat purpose.
- On foot missions at Horizons bases - just as you can get disruption and other missions for Horizons bases in SRVs, these should also be available in Odyssey, so there's more variety of base or outpost for people to walk around.
- Community Goal Offshoot Missions - There were many community goals where people work to obtain materials required to build a megaship, capital ship or base. All of these would also need lesser quantities of more specialist materials and commodities. In the way missions pop up in the comms panel, why not have additional missions appear when you're undertaking a community goal, where you're asked to obtain an additional, specialist commodity or material.
- Staggered Community Goals - I'm self-employed and work from home, but not everybody has my flexibility when it comes to playing Elite, and many people work on weekends when Community Goal activity was at its peak. There should be two waves of Community Goal in the game. One beginning on Thursday as it does now, but another beginning every Monday.
- Weekly Colonia (and other bubble) Community Goals - We need weekly community goals for all the players in Colonia (and any future settlement regions) to help keep them involved in the game.
- Black-Market Purchasing – Being able to buy black-market goods at stations, rather than just being able to sell them.
- Materials and Data Purchase and Sale - Being able to buy and sell materials and data, especially being able to sell rare ones, at stations and black markets. There is also no reason why these should be cheap, especially for Grade 4 and 5 materials and data, this should include both Horizons and Odyssey materials and data.
- Alien Materials and Data Sale - Being able to sell certain alien material and data types (Caskets, Urns, Firmware, Obelisk Data, Files and Archives, etc.) to stations and black markets.
- All Materials and Data Types should appear in ship and on-foot and in-ship missions, there's no reason why a Cmdr wishing to upgrade their suits should be forced to do on-foot missions, when in ship missions ought to be able to provide the same materials, this would also help mitigate the combat focus of the on-foot game.
- Full Engineer Info - being able to view the full range of Engineer mods available for all unlocked Engineers, and to see what materials and data you need, at any time (with what you already have, highlighted). This will mean we will need to resort to online resources much less frequently.
- Extend Engineering to SRVs and Fighters - to include engines, shields, weapons and weapon special effects.
- Multiple Pinning of Blueprints - It would be great to be able to pin as many blueprints for an Engineer as you want.
- Shielded cargo racks – to aid with smuggling and of various types with different levels of effectiveness.
- Stealth Armour - a lower grade armour that hides the ship from scanners at long to medium range.
- Ammunition Racks - being able to carry additional ammo or missiles when going into battle would be useful to many Commanders.
- More SRV types - to include recovery, cargo, long-range exploration, racing, and mining, and perhaps even a submersible.
- More Fighter types - perhaps to include stunt ships for race events.
- Software modules – moving the Docking Computer to software, and moving the Kill Warrant, Wake, Discovery and Surface scanners, and lifeform scanners to new generic scanner modules, with each run from software. Also introducing new AI modules to include flight and battle computers to aid players. Perhaps these would not be as effective as a dedicated module with its own specialised hardware, but that could be a good trade-off for additional module space on Exploration and other ship types.
- Rescue – A new role bringing the Fuel Rats into the game and expanding on the rescue and Hull Repair features added in 2.4. Through missions and USS’, finding ships that have run out of fuel, or that have taken damage and that cannot proceed until they have received repairs or aid. This would be a good excuse for players to wing-up, so the rescue and distressed ships can be protected from pirates.
- More for Explorers to do – Exploring can be dull and monotonous. More needs to be added in deep space, such as damaged ships with salvageable components (including both cargo and materials, but also limpets and AFMU cassettes. Also interesting exploration finds such as comets and additional types of astronomical discovery should be introduced to the game.
- Alien life on planets – I talk more about this later, but high exploration data payment rates for the discovery of everything from basic amoeba-type lifeforms, to perhaps advanced but pre-spacefaring alien life.
- Super-rare materials only found outside the bubble – used to perhaps unlock Grade 6 engineer mods, or to be sold for an extremely high profit, materials that can only be found through mining or surface scavenging outside of the bubble.
- Mining in Asteroid belts – if we can do this already I've never heard of anybody doing so. Why is this not already in the game?
- Mining Probes - that can be dropped from ships onto planetary surfaces, into asteroid rings, or into the atmosphere of a gas giant or a star to perform automatic mining. This would be especially useful for the mining of Tritium.
- Make Mining Meaningful - right now it feels wrong that you can just point your mining lasers at a single spot on an asteroid and that's it... all done. I think the prospector should highlight five or six points around the asteroid to mine, and you have to shoot all of them to fully mine the asteroid. This would add more realism and turn mining into more of a mini-game.
- Bionic Implants - these could add an extra layer to first-person gameplay and encounters if Commanders are able to receive bionic implants and upgrades to arms, legs, eyes, hearing and overall health and the robustness of their bodies.
- Robot and Cybernetic Crew - these could be added to the game and include combat, medical, engineering and scientific drones and robots.
- Allow crew to support on-foot Cmdrs - Why is it that we can hire crew for our ships and to fly fighters for us, but they can't support us when we're on foot doing missions?
- Recall / Follow Command for SRV - When you are on foot on a planet it would be nice to be able to recall your SRV or have it follow you, in the way you can with your ship. Otherwise you risk your SRV being left behind if you stray too far from it.
- Remove the Combat-Focus for Material and Data Gathering - Not all players want to play or are comfortable playing FPS and combat games, I for example have the reflexes of a giant oak tree. Far too many engineering materials and data however have a combat-focus when you're gathering them. This is in stark contrast to ship material and data gathering which, with trading, can be done without a shot ever being fired.
- Panther Clipper – come on Frontier, give me this one please!
- Cobra Mk IV - I know this was a Horizons "exclusive" but a free and exclusive ship kit or paint job can be given to early Horizons buyers. This is a selfish pick as I use the Cobra Mk IV as my everyday ship for my main Cmdr as it's just tremendous fun. I missed the buying deadline for my Alt Cmdr by just one day, and have regretted that ever since.
- Long-Range Explorer - Python or Anaconda-sized ship (preferably both) better equipped for exploration than an Asp Explorer, but with massive, long-range engines and designed with a focus on purely exploration so having a far better cockpit view than the Anaconda, and foregoing hardpoints and other non-exploration ship features.
- Rare ship types – Just a few very rare, and very hard to find, ship types (perhaps like classic cars or prototypes) where only a limited number are available for sale, and the purchase locations will regularly change. This could include classic ships from the Original Elite game.
- Older ship types - It would make the galaxy a much more realistic and believable place if you'd occasionally encounter an older ship type, still travelling the space lanes. Perhaps a Cobra Mk II, or an Asp Mk I, or a superseded Type-8 freighter, with a few spots of rust but still flying.
- Salvage - This fits in with my suggestion on ship graveyards (below) with being able to scan derelict ships to discover salvageable components and materials. Perhaps some entire ships might be salvageable, which would be a great way to gain your first Anaconda. Of course the repair costs would be massive, and it's possible the ship or component would never operate at maximum capacity, but it would certainly add something to the game.
- Transporter and other Mega ships - We know ship transporters exist in the game, but it would be brilliant to occasionally encounter one. Likewise encountering other mega-ship types, such as massive cruise liners, tankers etc. would really add something to the galaxy.
- All Ships have 4t Cargo Space - we've reached a point now where smaller ships with no cargo space can't collect mission rewards, and where small exploration ships that have a Repair Limpet Controller, also require both an SRV and cargo space, which they often can't fit. All ships should come with a basic 4t rack as all ships still have a cargo bay door.
- Extra Ways to Fuel Carriers - mining isn't for everybody, myself included, so just as there are multiple ways to earn rank, credits, and multiple roles you can undertake, give Commanders different ways to fuel their carrier. This can be from using Mining Probes (see above) which would be slow, synthesis via an installable module in the carrier (which would be both slow and expensive, and which would require parking in orbit of the right type of gas giant or star), or crafting from materials gathered by SRV on planetary bodies. This could be hampered further by only filling the 1,000t fuel tank, and not adding extra Tritium into storage
- Additional Storage Module - it would be good for carrier owners to be able to add extra storage at the cost of some of the landing pads.
- Crew-Piloting - seriously guys, what are we paying these crews for? Commanders should be able to set a route to, say Colonia or Magellan's Star, and have the carrier crew take care of the piloting on your behalf.
- Auto Refuelling from Storage - Carriers should be able to use Tritium in local storage for jumps, so the owner Commander doesn't keep needing to return to transfer the Tritium by using their ship. Again, what are we paying the crews for?
- Rares and Black Market Trading - Having rare and black market commodity trading added to the carrier marketplace and the secure warehouse would add a new dimension to carriers, and perhaps even encourage player-run Community Goals.
- Flexibility with Ship and Outfitting Stock - Commanders should be able to purchase the individual ships and modules they want to stock, and in the quantities they want to buy and sell. There should also be a minimum discount (say 2%) on purchases and also a sliding scale of discounts for quantities purchased, up to say 25%.
- Sales Limits for Commodities - currently Commanders can't set a limit on the amount of a given commodity they sell, which means anybody could completely clean them out. This acts as a barrier to the sale of commodities such as Tritium, where the Carrier owner would need to keep their own stock.
- Squadron Ownership / Management - carriers are not only out of reach for many players, but there are some cases where joint ownership of a carrier would be hugely beneficial to both gameplay, and players. Squadrons should be able to buy carriers and manage them collectively. This would help with everything from combat to rescue and the Fuel Rats.
- Add "Support" Role to Carrier Role Options - this would enable Cmdrs to mark their carrier as being a support craft for explorers out in the black. These should then be visible by a toggle in the galaxy map.
- Add a 25% Subsidy selling genomics data at carriers - currently there is no amount taken for the carrier by Vista Genomics as there this with Universal Cartographics. Carriers out in the black rely on this sparse income for upkeep so allowing some extra income from genomics data would be very welcome.
- Different space station types for the Empire and Federation – the Empire and Federation have different ship designs, but why do they all use the same space station designs? The Empire and Federation should have their own space station types, this could be implemented in the same way space station internals were changed in 2.2.
- Player Base Building - this would be a great addition to the game, following on from Fleet Carriers. With Commanders being able to build everything from a small mining station, to a space outpost, to a city-sized planetary base, complete with services, storage and sales, black markets, and even their own mission boards. This would see a great expansion of Commanders out of the bubble and could greatly help with Tritium availability for long-range explorers.
- Player Mining Stations - on planetary surfaces and perhaps in planetary rings. Allow Cmdrs to build mining stations for commodities they can then sell to other Cmdrs. This would be very useful for Tritium stations out in the black for carrier fuel.
- Bases Out in the Black - this could be handled with player-owned bases, but having random bases and outposts in deep space, especially ones selling useful commodities such as Tritium (perhaps even at inflated prices) would be very helpful for many a Commander.
- Remove littler from station hangar bays where there is zero-gravity, it doesn't add to the realism having it there.
- Remove Two Elevators from Small Landing Pads on planetary bases and space stations. Outposts sensibly only have two elevators for small landing bays, and it doesn't make sense for these bays to need four.
- Add additional services to some concourses - Not all concourses should be the same and include all of the same services, some should not have a Vista Genomics or a shipyard for example. There could also be additional services available at some starports such as an assay office (redemption and illegal materials sales), on foot Universal Cartographics, a local administrative office where bounty and other vouchers can be handed in, and missions found, an SRV, fighter or ship showroom, a garden (which can help push forward game development), a panoramic observation lounge, or even a firing range with a mini-game to help Cmdrs practice their marksmanship.
- Medium and Long-Range Apex Travel - should be added to the game, with appropriate ships of course, such as the Diamondback Scout for medium range trips and the Asp Scout for Long Range. Where currently Apex travel is limited to 50 light years, the medium and long range trips could be 200 and 500 light years respectively.
- Apex Travel in Fleet Carriers - Carriers are a great way for players to interact, and also for players to get free transport to and from Colonia. At the moment players who only play on-foot are completely excluded from carriers, they cannot visit them at all. Having Apex travel fitted as an optional module in carriers, and a player concourse would allow on-foot only players to travel to Colonia, something they currently cannot do unless they join a Wing.
- Ground Entrance / Exit - so that concourses can be accessed and exited to the planet's surface. This could also include ships being allocated landing pads outside the station, and making their way into the station on foot, perhaps even using their SRV and parking it outside the station entrance.
- More variety to concourse design - similar to what I described about Imperial and Federation starports looking different to one another, their concourses should have different designs as well.
- Add security to concourses - we have security on watch at carriers and engineer bases, so why are they completely absent from concourses? Surely they'd still be required and could even walk over and arrest you if you're wanted in that system.
- Systems Where X or Y is Prohibited – Systems in the game where, perhaps for religious or political reasons, X or Y is prohibited. This can include Engineer mods, certain weapon types (Mines or Plasma Accelerators), or specific ship types, such as combat vessels. This could also apply to some on-foot weapons in the way it already does with an e-breach.
- Additional New Bubbles – Colonia is a fun place to be, but if Frontier want to encourage more players to go exploring, they could place additional bubbles near Sagittarius A*, Beagle Point, and the other far side of the galaxy where there may be heavy Thargoid action.
- Optional Naming of Systems - To be available only if you have first discovery and first footfall on every body in a system.
- Ship Scrapyards & Debris Fields - It would be great to be able to explore ship scrapyards, graveyards and debris fields from destroyed ships, and from battles.
- More Planetary Landing Support - this will be coming to more planets with Odyssey, but I doubt anybody would complain about this being added to Earth type worlds, and gas giants.
- More Stellar Phenomena - while there are some oddities to be found within nebula, there is a distinct lack of weird and wonderful stellar and celestial phenomena in the galaxy, from comets to dark-matter regions, high-density gas and particle clouds and more.
- More Planetary Phenomena - needs to be added to the game including volcanos and lava flows, oceans of water or chemicals, and especially caves and caverns.
- Thargoid and Guardian Missions – Thargoid evaluation and passenger missions added to the game, such as rich people wanting a Thargoid encounter, or scientists or the military wanting tissue samples, probes, artefacts, or other materials.
- Additional Alien Races – It's widely recognised by all now, that we can't be the only life forms in the galaxy. Additional life should be discovered, both on planets where missions and powers can either exploit it, or work hard to protect it, and spacefaring races, where they could be anything from unfriendly to very timid.
- Alien motherships / Generation ships - We have our own motherships and generation ships. It would be great to be able find derelict alien ships floating in space, or perhaps even the occasional live one.
- More stories and tension between the Empire and the Federation – The Empire and Federation all-too often seem to indicate the two powers just live next door to each other in harmony. We need more storylines and conflict between the two major powers.
- Make Alliances Meaningful - Currently, Commanders can be allied with anyone and everyone. In addition to my suggestion on ranking (below), we should be able to specify allegiance to a specific faction or power to gain additional missions, benefits. This is part of bringing PowerPlay into the main game.
- Consequences for gaining Imperial / Federation / Alliance ranks – Why should I be allowed to be both an Admiral in the Federation, and a King in the Empire? Gaining rank with one power should make your more unfriendly with the other. You should be able to state an allegiance to a power to gain rank (not doing so would prevent you from gaining rank) and also be able to relinquish your rank should you wish. This could be linked with an Federation / Imperial narrative to have the effect of suddenly making Commanders unfriendly in systems where they were friendly only the week before, adding to interesting gameplay. Remember we can already become friendly or allied with a power without taking rank increase missions (this effectively begins to bring PowerPlay into the main game) and it also means that more in-game activities could count towards your rank increase.
- Cargo insurance – it’s been mentioned in the game since day one, but has never appeared.
- Add Points of Interest to the Codex / Galaxy Map - There are many wonders to see in the galaxy, from Guardian beacons to brain trees, and strange phenomena within nebulae. These are impossible to find though without resorting to information on the Internet. These could be brought into the codex and perhaps even the galaxy map as an overlay of exciting things to see.
- Planetary bookmarks - being able to set bookmarks for features on planetary bodies, so we can easily navigate to them again.
- Bookmark Packs that can be switched on in the galaxy map to immediately display links to useful and interesting places, such as Guardian and Thargoid sites, notable stellar phenomena, cardinal points, stations out in deep space, and nebulae.
- Coloured and Player Definable Bookmark Categories - being able to have different coloured bookmarks in the galaxy map would help Commanders navigate our sometimes extensive lists, and make sense of what's what, and where's where.
- Removal of CQC Rank from the game - Alternatively, CQC could be brought directly into the game, along with flight and SRV race events. I'd like the ability to hide it from my status panel though.
- Paint-Job Creator in the Livery section. Using Arx, Cmdrs can purchase different colour, style, decal, pattern, and iconography packs and mix and match them on their ships to make custom paint jobs. This would lead to...
- Custom Suits / Weapons with the same purchased packs allowing Cmdrs to fully customise the look and feel of their suits and weapons.
- Cockpit Customisation could be the logical extension of this system, with purchasable customisation packs for cockpits, where Cmdrs could swap out aspects of the interface, such as the scanner or menus, with ones that work in an identical way, but that have a different look and feel.
- More carrier colour-schemes - why are the only three colour schemes (all free) for carriers with no more available to purchase with ARX? I'd buy them.
- Commander Switch in Launcher - For those of us with more than one Commander it would be nice to be able to switch between them in the launcher without having to sign out and back in.
- Allow the in-interface clock to display your local time - some Cmdrs can only play for so long and this can be a useful feature in people's lives.
- Remove the ultra-wide screen "stretch"- those of us playing on ultra-wide screens are poorly catered for as the game is only designed for a 16:9 screen ratio and, when on foot in Odyssey, everything to the left and right of that is stretched and distorted. We need a proper full-width view. Also, interface components such as the galaxy and system maps are only designed for 16:9 screens, with the interface controls squashed into the centre of the screen, and targeting for FSD jumps not always locking unless the target system is in the centre of your screen.
- Reinstate VR Development - while I have never played in VR myself as I can only see me knocking my beer over all the time, I was considering it when the news broke that virtual reality would no longer be under active development. I appreciate how big a blow this was to the player community, and if NMS can support VR on foot, then Frontier should definitely continue development.
- Add Bindings backup option to launcher - people always have to make a backup copy of their bindings when a major update is launched, so why not add this as an option in the launcher to make it simpler for players?
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