Something I considered but didn’t post in the OP. If CCP can put in the work to compress the map, great! But if one of the trade-offs of getting something like this is dealing with essentially a 1:1 mirror of the live server because they wouldn’t want to invest more than the minimal effort to make it possible, I’d be fine with it.
This is perfect. This is exactly what EVE is about. Why shouldn’t there be the possibility for backstabbing? It would be a very big consideration for forming relationships on a hardcore server, and that’s perfectly alright.
This isn’t for them. Why would they go on the hardcore server in the first place?
If the primary argument against a hardcore server is that people who don’t like PvP are going to complain about it, well…