I have already send this to JP, but thought it would be a good idea to start a fresh thread where anybody could toss in any ideas about their view of the game as it currently stands and new options that could be incorporated into the game by JP to make fix breeches and the like (as pertaining to the use of scripts or the play of the game without scripts or a combination of the two), but still maintain game edit flexibility so as to leave it at the discretion of the edits creator to decide the way their edit is going actually effect the playability of the game.
So these are some of my ideas as of recent:
i.  Modify the Federation Commission option to permit ships to be classed as one of:
a.  Federation Class - Federation Commission required for use.
b.  Chaotic Class – Negative alignment (Red players) with ability to Port steal. For use, (-100 alignment or greater (IIRC).
c.  Neutral Class - Either Red/Blue class of player may use.
ii.  Modify the experience requirement to take into consideration negatively aligned/red players in addition to neutral or positive aligned players.  This way in addition to being Red or Blue you can also make them have to maintain their experience to use certain ships.
iii.  Include an alignment requirement option that would work the same way as experience does.
a.  I think ii and iii would be good to make players become motivated by the ranking system, because as it stands now the only benefit the ranking system really offers in my opinion is a small bonus when port trading or stealing, but that is about it.  Though I was also thinking it might serve better to lessen the penalties from being podded or destroyed, currently you loose about ½ of your gained experience (I don’t recall about alignment loss?) with each occurrence, if you are a captain or greater (or the Red equivalent) this sets you way back. Perhaps as you increase in rank it goes from ½ loss, to 1/3 loss, and then up to say ¼ loss, or something to that effect, rather then the blanket ½ reduction.
iv. Enable the option to make zero TPW ships, this would be interesting to do for certain types of edits.
v.  I had this really neat idea to use barges and cargo transports for trading and       colonizing that would permit the ability to use zero TPW and up to 1,000 holds, but they could not be equipped with more then a small quantity of shields and fighters, could not contain computers, mines, photons, etc., thus basically it is dangerous to use but reduces your required turns by approximately ¼ (you would still have a tow and Xport penalties but there could be zero TPW or whatever as the edit dictates by the creator). So basically this request is to changeup the maximum holds from 255 to say 1,000.
vi.  Make the three roving Feds attackable by Red players for Blue players advise them something like the Federation would not be happy to hear that one of their own has turned on them, or something to that effect.  It would be neat though for Reds to be able to take them out,  and then add an extern regeneration option that could be set to change the effects of the edit, either if they are killed they will regenerate at extern or once they are gone they are gone.
vii. Make the advancement of the planets changeable, for example I would rally like to make Moon based planets that would afford offenses but could not move nor support defensive shielding and I want to make super planets that are heavily defended with offensive abilities but could not move, where it is created is where it stays.
viii.  Modify photons to have an option in the edits to not take the players turns away until their ships shields have fallen below a certain percentage and they are hit with a new photon, because this hit with the photon from a limpet trip via script makes the game very unplayable for most, it would be nice to have an option in edits to modify this rather then being so cut and dry (their ship would still be “dead” for the period of time, but they could call for help and keep their turns (and credits) at least).
ix. Enable an option either for players or within the edits setting to auto-collect all Toll fighter credit gains. Currently it is not worth it to collect any tolls received by Toll fighters, so it makes using them pointless other then to create one more prompt opposing players must go through.
x.  I think something really needs to be changed about taking out fighters left in space, a large part of the game is gridding now, and getting punished from taking out figs, you find that you can quickly go from blue to red and then get your ship taken away from you if you are not careful, either change the policy on fighting with figs left in space (I don’t think there is a penalty for attacking figs in unmanned ships?), or change the policy all together, meaning when you attack a like aligned player.  Another issue is that mixed corporations use personal figs to quickly change their alignment for extern by have a red and blue attack each others figs, I have always felt this is a form of cheating, by getting around the extern penalty as well as quickly building up their own alignment so as to cause a penalty effect upon other corporations during the battle for gridding.
 I think these things would really add some very interesting aspects to the game.  Other idea to consider but for future versions are shield regeneration and some type of photon or quasar or ion pulse device installation on planets as more levels of advancement, possibly ship shield regeneration as well and other forms of ship offences that cause various effects such as: loss of all (or random percentages of) shields or holds and/or regeneration (until repaired or repurchased), loss of drive control or TransWarp abilities, (and/or even towing and porting, or hauling cargo),  for a period of time as set by the edit… or a loss of fighters.
 I had this other idea to enable the players the ability to send a given wave of fighters (based on ship limitations or a special edit setting) to surrounding sectors, but that might be too complex for you at this time (perhaps permit planets this same ability or allow fighter waves to travel through as many sectors taking out anything in their way until they are all gone or until they reach their destination and then they just standby there until either collected or destroyed; perhaps with an option to leave a given number of fighters posted in each sector as they go along? This portion of the idea might be a bit much though, because you could then effectively grid the universe without moving while remaining completely hidden, so if implemented many limitations should be put on it or maybe let the edit creator decide that by having a max sectors fighter waves could travel setting)?

Last night I came up with one of the most interesting ideas ever contrived as of yet.
This involves adding a new level of advancement to planets, possibly the final upgrade, a "Beam Ray"!
This would be capable of using fuel ore (as configured by the edits, i.e. could be 5K, 25K, 50K, 100K units of FO per blast, whatever the edit creator determines) to fire a Beam Ray at opposing planets in the same sector or in adjacent sectors, each blast would downgrade the opposing planet by 1 level.
Beam Rays would be capable of firing in sector at the designated quantity of FO and in adjacent sectors requiring the twice quantity of FO.
In order for a planet to be downgraded the planetary shielding would have to be reduced to a configured amount, say below 200 planetary shields as with Photons).
If the opposing planet is Level 1 and hit with the Beam Ray it would blow the planet up. *
* If level 1 there would be a 50% (possibly even make this an edit say 0-100% so you could set it 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, etc.) of being blown up, if level 0 then it the planet will be blown up.
If there is more then one opposing planets in the sector, a prompt would enable the player firing the Beam Ray to aim it at whichever planet they desired.
The Beam Ray would be operated by anybody within the Citadel of a planet equipped with a Beam Ray.
Beam Rays vs. opposing ships in sector or in adjacent sectors during firing, there would be a set percentage (editable with the edit) of being stuck by a Beam Ray being fired, i.e. 5%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 100%, etc. Ships successfully struck by a Beam Ray will be instantaneously destroyed along with their escape pod.
If a ship is on a planet that is struck by a Beam Ray; if the planet is appropriately shielded will have no effect; if the planet is not appropriately shielded the blast will send the ship (regardless if the ship is in the planets orbit or on its Citadel), off from the planet and into the sector, by evacuating them from the planet through an "automated systems failure launch", thus leaving them visibly in the sector and exposed, the resulting effect will be similar to as if struck by a photon, except they will not loose turns, their ship will only have subsystems computer support, i.e. no TransWarp drive, no launching of photons, all shields removed, unable to set mines, launch Eprobes, though they will still be able to Ewarp and land back on the planet.
Multiple ships for the purposes of getting stuck with a "Beam Ray" each ship will be a treated as a separate incident, thus a random roll will be performed upon each ship within the sector, if successful that ship will be obliterated. For the purposes of ships being struck with a Beam Ray, this rule would apply the same to all ships, regardless if they are manned or unmanned.
Planet Citadels, these will remain fully operational until downgraded, i.e. full use of Bwarp, Pwarp, and all other Citadel related functions will remain intact until the planet has been "downgraded" to the point of removing such functions.
I think this pretty much covers everything regarding the "Beam Ray" idea. Dang, just thinking about having one of my very own makes me want to go out and "colonize"! ROFLx2!

Also a little further into the idea of barges and cargo transports, but I think it might be a little much programming wise (?), would be to basically include or treat the cargo on the towed barge or transport as if it were actually within the holds of ship currently being manned, thus removing the need to Xport back and forth when handling cargo related tasks, however there would still be the tow penalty as well as the TPW of the towed vessel.
As well, there would need to be a modifier when landing on planets towing these types of vessels for this idea to work effectively.