Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I've posted comments regarding PI over the years since its been released. PI can be expanded in so many ways and enhance gameplay on such a massive scale, but its just been left untouched, this passive thing that once created only needs very little attention. I personally enjoyed setting up my PI colonies, and was a little sad once they were up and running because there was nothing left to do.

Is PI fine the way it is.. Sure, it does its function, and I think it functions really well. But anyone who has done PI can easily see that it has the potential to be so much more. I'll throw out a couple ideas about what i think it can evolve into.

1. Realism of a Colony. Is the planets being operated by machines? How do these colonist survive, where do they get their food/water especially on hostile planets like the lava or plasma. Implementation of structures that ensure the survival of your colonist can be something that makes PI more involved and interesting. Is it needed? No, but it can be something that can be enjoyable and make PI more intricate. Think of how the population of a planet comes with its benefits and its burdens, this could play into the efficiency and productivity of the planets industry, build a well laid out planet that thrives you can get certain bonuses...

2. Expanded manufacturing. If you look on the eve market there are thousands of NPC buy orders for generic goods. These goods obviously are produced on a planet, but they cant be produced on a planet by players... Why not? Expanding PI manufacturing in this way to more than just POS components or Citadel components, creates another way to make isk off your planets that is bringing "new" ISK into the game from NPC's and not just an exchange of ISK across players.

3. Customs Offices. Currently the only reason to attack one of these is to setup your own. The whole purpose is to get the money off the planet, so why upon destruction do these not drop anything whatsoever?? Likely because it doesnt have a loot table, or no one is getting ready to extract anything off the planet so it is indeed empty. I am suggesting three things regarding customs offices.
(1) Increase the capacity of a customs office to alot, like a 1,000,000 m3 or more and everyone that is producing on the planet has their shipment combined in the customs office storage.
(2) Automatically ship "completed" goods from the planet to the customs office, and fees are paid upon removal from the customs office not upon the shipment.
(3) When a customs office is destroyed all goods that is currently stored in the customs office has a chance to be dropped upon destruction.

4. Transportation. This one is a little in the left field. I know everyone whos been around the block in Eve has seen those NPC haulers, and if you are like me you've probably wanted to blow them up as well. What if you can setup NPC hauling from your planets for your goods (for some fee of course) that can be automatically done and transported to stations of your choosing. (I would suggest this hauling option only available in low sec, maybe something similiar to moon mining requirements) These haulers carry your corporate flag and can be attacked and whatever loot is carried can be dropped upon destruction.

I know its a little wordy, but thanks for reading... Hopefully the right people see it, because I think these are some decent ideas. For the sake of space I left out the implications of these ideas, but I think its easy enough to imagine how they can enhance gameplay, especially pvp. If you see something wrong/bad with these ideas in the Eve universe, i'd love to hear about it.