Planets, the next frontier in eve. Forget space ships look down to the ground, so much content for omega accounts to extract those subscriptions and the conflicts of control. RTS,RPG,SIM the possiblity of added play styles to attract a different clientele to the game.
Instead of looking for more water in a old well, dig a new one and start an new era. 
I think thereās also few things which maybe even CCP didnāt think about:
That juicy game feel.
Some time ago i wonder why World fo Tanks was so satisfying to play even when Armored Warfare came out and was in many terms better and cooler. I understand it was mainly because of that smooth, juicy feel of hitting another tank, in WoT UI, numbers floating after shooting another tank, health bar etc looks and feel so good, and adding to it coresponding sounds all of this makes that satisfying feel.
I mean EVE UI is the bigger obstacle for players, not only because of complexity (tbh itās not so important) but mainly because of that not cool, not smooth look and overcomlicated. The new agency and wallet are great and CCP should ASAP redo rest of UI, especially ship control UI which are terrible looking and are not intuitive. Also there should be clear, big information about ship main statistics. Look at fitting window, itās a little mess, overstatistics, there should be BIG colorfull number that represents DPS, Tank, speed, cap, drones (not what we have now that almost no differ from rest) and quick big, clear information about changing those statistics when player change module. Im talking about making UI at first glance very pleasant, smooth, with little info and easy to read and give more statistics only when player wants to (like expanding menu which partly now). Players like to see when numbers growth. The same goes ship lock style, it could be better looking and feeling not to mention overviewā¦ It should be redone ASAP because well locking etc is core part of game so nothing can be done here but we can upgrade overview so player want to click on it and use it with pleasure because it looks cool, have pleasent animations, colors etc
No 2x per year expansions drive many players away (also me) i donāt see so many new or redone stuff like it was years ago, and im bored.
Redo PVE especially missions and more exploration (why no sites for BS in HS?). Game lacks some hardcore end game especially for BC and BS in HS. Players skill up for marauder and then thereās nothing else not anly to skill up for them but especially no proper use of marauders for HS beers
PI has potential to keep players which like RTS games
with your charm and charisma a find this hard to believe 
Well it is always nice, after few days of grinding ISK ( so you can afford any pvp/pve activity) to hear someone has hundreds of billion or a trillion of ISK plus another half of that in assets. Makes you visualise things, like that pilot did in āBehind Enemy Linesā when he heared about the randezveus point. Some people keep chasing that dragon, some donāt. And a day lasts only 24h. Plus, many of those meta players (who donāt pay for the game like newbros do) go to high sec to scam, fck up noob mining ships, scam more, bait, form suicide fleets, wardecc noob alliances - the list goes on. To be honest I am gonna be surprised if this game will manage to draw more players in current state.
Oh lookā¦
You are missing the point.
If all the bad players, bears and causuals left, you cannot take an advantage of anyone.
And this seems to me as a main reason why so many veterans quit or moved to other activities lately. They just couldnāt find (enough) content anymore, they could not find enough profits/advantages anymore.
This goes back to the UO servers splitting thread. PvP players will not be willing or interestedto PvP against each other and will quit - at least not in a game like EVE. And the PvE content would need higher progress, less predictability, and much more to keep the players engaged for longer period - which EVE doesnāt fulfill in a slightest.
Either way I donāt think it is even doable. EVE is possibly most expensive game and yet more unfun game on the MMO market. It has unsustainable design from start (most MMOs have actually) and it is running for a long time so the flaws become evident and are futher deterring new players and also those still playing.
So it makes sense why is CCP milking cash from current player base and trying to keep us, current players, playing by cheap methods like Skilling Spree or the new āeventsā where you just need to log in to collect reward (and the rewards are so generous if you are omega that you might as well sub (yet another account) - worked on me at least haha).
It is also the only bigger MMO (to my knowledge) that allows and encourages multiboxing and alts. Which is the main issue in my opinion.
You sure about that?
Somehow players managed for 10 years before player activity started to decline.
I am glad that a post earlier described this game at its core is a hardcore pvp sandbox.
I would hate this game if anyone and noobs were invincible. I like the danger that happens when you undock! Game would be so boring if anything else than that.
Itās described that way, but a lot of players donāt play it that way. Lack of willing combatants who choose a different way to play frustrates PVP, and lack of fresh content on a regular basis frustrates PVE, which frustrates PVP. This sixteen-year-old sandbox does indeed need a dredge and a refill.
Itās still a game we care about or we wouldnāt bellyache so much, it simply lacks expansion in its expansions. Triglavians, for instance, are just another thing to do now and a tad on the ābeen there done thatā side. Almost a nuisance in some parts of space, rather than something worth investing in.
Iām not a bittervet but Iām a vet and Iām simply biding my time, not because I see the end in the near future but because thereās still enough I can do each day while chatting with old friends 
Iām sure this game is a hardcore PvP sandbox FOR YOU. The high sec miner would probably say itās a relaxing game - with occasional excitement (maybe). The station trader would probably say this is a stock market simulator. The Nullsec FC might consider this as a strategy game. Ultimately, itās a sandbox which allows for a variety of play-styles in a shared universe.
Now, if Iām wrong, and this game is a hardcore PvP sandbox for EVERYONE, then uhā¦ Iāve been playing this game incorrectly for the last year 
Iāve started threads to make suggestions to get people back to Eve.
I think we need to make space for the trolls and bad guys again. We need to bring back the pirates, the classical, low-sec pirates.
Among other things.
Itās a pvp sandbox for everyone, but itās also a market simulation game for everyone and itās also an industrial game for everyone. All these parts of the game are linked to eachother and you donāt get to choose which ones you can opt-out of. They are all mandatory and must be balanced for the game to work.
Take out too much industry and the market collapses. Take out too much pvp and the market becomes saturated and the game becomes boring.
Too many people get caught up in whoās playing the game ācorrectlyā.
If you are playing by ccpās rules and not abusing any exoloits then you canāt play the game incorrectly. But that includes non-consensual pvp as well. Something a lot of people forget.
Players just have to honestly ask themselves; am i willing to accept these rules? Wardecs, ganking and allā¦
I think the primary way we can see EVE grow is through additional focus player retention. We all know that 10% of people who try the game end up quiting shortly after due to what people claim is a ālarge learning curve.ā What I would argue is that CCP should continue to focus on bridging the divide between late game PVP content and early game PVE content that gets people started.
One way this could be done is by supplementing some of the current mission mechanics to more relevant scenarios. Fewer enemies with more hit points could provide for some more realistic training for our new players and a couple of tips and tricks from the agents could be exactly what they need to understand additional mechanics of the game. E.g. instead of having to warp to an isolated deadspace site to then fight 20 frigates with an annoyingly low amount of hitpoints, the player could have to warp to a real site anyone can warp to to destroy some near-peer threats and learn about managing range and effectively using modules. This method would also force new players to interact with the local world as opposed to getting online to then go off on there own in a deadspace area. Additional advice built in to the agents could benefit new players with potential ship fits and respective tactics. There should be increased emphasis on safety measures for agents providing missions in low sec.
Refinement of the current mission scheme should be focused on development and providing the necessary knowledge of how to play the game. There should be a smooth and logical progression between mission levels so that new players can then join corps with understanding and a reasonable amount of capital.
That reality of yours is in a very special place, and probably doesnāt have much commonality with quite a few others on these forums.
Which is fairly self evident by the forum Pvp banter going on here.
Oh, I realize everyone else is just clueless though. 
Which they do all the time.
Luckily truth isnāt decided by popularity contest.
Yeah 10 years of suicide ganking bears, wardecding industrialists and gatecamping hs entrances. Now most of the players who did that are gone when the activities got nerfed/ammount of easy targets decreased and only suicide ganking is on rise (as that is the activity that still playing wardeccers and gatecampers switched to).
This happened just very recently and will only escalate.
Yeah thatās what Iām saying. After core gameplay was nerfed. Core players left. Go figure.
Meanwhile the casual players that are being catered to are still leaving even after getting what they wantedā¦
But whatevs.
Link?
Killboard? Obviously the ganking is now heavily influeced by current 100% loot drop, but even before you could see some lowsec groups in the GANKED list and only minority of the kills are tagged as such.
Ganking of the blinged combat ships is now heavily on the rise you have to be blind not to see it.