Elite has been out for three years, long enough for people to learn its mechanics and its weaknesses. Yes, SC looks on paper a great game. Imagine hauling that cargo multiple times, the galaxy they are aiming for is so small, interdiction is inevitable. We have enough salt on here about credit loss and methods of earning money quickly, I can only imagine the salt that will flow.
Elite's strength is in the galaxy sim, but conversely that is its weakness, because the scale and number of systems and markets, make trying to design some sort of economy model very difficult. Looking at the mechanics of the BGS what I wonder what might be possible is to have finite, but persistent, events trigger when a system changes state.
eg Mining POI with a finite number of material A, Combat zone POI with a finite number of kills required.
Once the materials are mined or the combat zone kills are achieved the POI does not spawn. each requires a system, location, POI type, resource and a quantity which should not be too bad storage wise particularly if you limit to a random number in each system from say 0 - 10.
Similar principle could apply to extraction sites, so the site eventually is played out. If someone mines a resource the counter reduces by 1.
If you skate from system to system you will never notice of course, but stick around and subtle differences become apparent.
