A component of Eve Online is the narrative - the storytelling. The game purports to be a simulation of a space game. If I were to look at a typical Science Fiction movie or novel I do not mostly get a cavalcade of killing ships or industry ships - a very important component would taking [insert demeaning phrase] colonists to farflung locations and settle systems.
Colonization is a truly political act and Eve is loads and loads of systems, planets, moons - and space real estate. In fact, it’s even possible to create absolutely amazing colonial (NPC?) structures right in space. These could be in addition (or stacked on top of) PI. Imagine having an additional capacity to create colonies by ferrying slow ships through dangerous territories, and then returning frequently to supply these [expletive] colonists. Each settelement allows you to score money. Each resupply mission, ditto.
Colonies could be a corporate (or other organizational) creature as opposed to a strictly player owned ‘secular’ undertaking. They generate offspring (or slaves), taxpayers, employees, they are consumers, they venerate the god empress (what have you) and their presence might synergize (or damage) nearby PI infrastructure. Maybe one day player owned stations will start more realistically quantifty the presence of hundreds of thousands of occupants and service providers. Maybe systems or stations under siege will need their crews rescued to safety. Maybe one day NPC populations will become a measurable statistic in Eve Online, and you can actually see the populations living on moons, on planets, in stations, in O’ neil cylinder habitats or lagrange point structures. Maybe the death of a few billion highly trained humans will actually hurt, as they would have to be replaced by the locals in control. Remember all those people in Triglavian occupied space that are screaming to get ferried out? Seems like repatriation missions for decades to come.
All in all, this is massive potential for growth in the game - better storytelling, better immersion, much better narration. By cultivating a metric of how many people are in a place, how many people are needed in ongoing operations, what skills they should have, how loyal they should be - it should all be part of the game for the established alliances.
For CCP - this could be a real good money sink in-game. These populations need food, consumer products, infrastructure, entertainment, exotic dancers, lebensraum. Of course competing populations might then proceed and change allegiance - or decide to battle it out with competing populations in the area. Eventually the introduction of colonial game game design, with ships and [expletive] colonists doing about their boring colonial lives, with their small little colonial needs - it would massively enrich the game.
Summarizing
- revenue generation colonies, colony management
- coloial infastructure, resupply missions, colonial logistics
- population numbers on all eve online planets, moons, “goldilock zones”.
- stations
- Inter colonial strife.
- more space for smuggling, colony driven missions, ressuply, “behind enemy lines”
- significantly increased potential for storytelling and competition between factions.
- maybe later the odd genocide and planetary bombardment.