I have purposefully not reviewed the thread. Aside from the fact that it would take quite a bit of time, I probably am not able to understand many of the suggestions highly experienced players would make. My suggestions would come from the point of view of a "noob" player of only several weeks of play. But, I am not a noob to gaming or this genre, by any interpretation. That being said, my critique and wishlist follows:
Evochron Mercenary is worth the money I have paid for it. That must be made clear. In reviewing whether or not to purchase the game, I found many criticisms that don't address the value of the game, only player's dissatisfaction with certain elements or criticisms that would apply to the genre as a whole. The gameplay value of the purchase price is there, if one is a fan of the genre. If not, one shouldn't have purchased the game.
However, the game does need some improvements in order to make it competitive and increase its entertainment and appeal. After all, that's why I am posting in this thread...
Gameplay is extremely repetitive. For fans, that's not a huge problem. But, it does kill the game experience, somewhat. Missions come from a stable of cookie-cutter patterns that only differ in that they take place in different sectors. You can expect to find the exact same type of missions in just about every sector. That is.. not fun, not rewarding and does not add to gameplay or flavor. So, my first suggestion is:
1) Different Sectors should have variability in Contract choices and each should have unique Contracts available only in that sector. (OR, barring that, resource availability, unique locations, truly unique factions, etc.. should be used. More on factions, later.)
Why? In order to build upon the flavor of the game and its large universe, sectors must be differentiated more. You can't just change the textures of planets, their locations and the background and achieve the same effect. Sure, a few stations with different offerings are nice. But, that's very easy stuff to do. Adding specialized Contracts that are dependent upon the unique, added, features of a new system are what is called for, here. Want to improve the game experience? Add uniqueness to the systems. Some suggestions would be unique resources only found in that system, or a few others. Unique hostile factions added to the Contract generator which, in turn, generates Contracts in their region of the sector. (Planting a hostile capitol ship near the sector's only source of a unique resource and then tagging already existing contract generators to use that area, when called, would be something along the lines of what I'm describing.) It shouldn't be beyond the games engine to accomplish something like the above.
Next up is Factions. There seem to always be the same type of factions present in each sector. That is.. boring. I realize that one's rating with individual factions matter and that these will change across sectors. After all, they are unique to the sector. However, that's not enough. Since factions are in the game, they should be meaningful and not just a part of the scenery.
2) Factions need to be more meaningfully unique, but there should also be some "noob" factions that reach across sectors that let new players build upon their work in earlier sectors. There should also be more meaningful benefits, and penalties, for a player's work with factions. For instance, one shouldn't be able to even entertain the thought of buying a "fighter" from a Carrier without having a very high faction rating. Similarly, a high rating with a Mining faction should increase the player's return on sold ores as well as allowing them access to unique mining benefits, like a new mining laser only available to certain faction ratings gained in select sectors. The point is - Make factions meaningful to the player beyond simply offering cookie-cutter mission ques.
Then, there's items. Just about every game in this genre relies on three hooks - The Main Storyline, The Gathering of Items and Gear (RPG element) and Exploration. Blowing up stuff is cool, but that is part of the architecture of the game, not the "game" itself. There is very little benefit, in this game, to blowing up stuff, by itself. The benefit comes from completing the mission, which is something that is architecturally different, as far as design goes.
3) Items - There are too few of them and quite a few of the stable of items are depleted very early in the game by even the most noobish players. (Like me.) Items need a lot of work and this is probably the most difficult portion of my suggestions. It doesn't require an entirely new game architecture, but requires a lot of balancing work.
3a) I hate to use other examples, but in this case, it is necessary. My first Item suggestion is incorporate dynamic item creation much like Diablo II used. That game is still going strong because of that feature. Admittedly, it is its primary draw, at this late stage. But, that one feature has kept that game alive for eons and I think a similar feature could be incorporated into the EM engine.. provided someone could code it. It would not need to be as robust, though. But, it needs to present a new type of reward for players - Continue playing and you will see new things. Continue playing and you just might, if you're lucky, come across something really amazing. Continue playing and you will not get bored because you happened upon a new station that sells everything that every other station has been selling for the last two months...
3b) Enemies drop usable items - IOW, enemy fighters don't need to be carrying around a hold full of ore or a block of machinery. That's for trading posts and item creation, not just loot. In order to encourage and reward players for making kills, aside from the Contract Reward, enemy combatants should have a chance at dropping generated items, even unique items if the producer of the game desires to add that feature. The point is to make every single enemy encounter interesting and to add drama and purpose behind each kill, not just treating combatants like a tick mark on the "Kill 10 rats" quest chart... Sure, enemies can still drop crafting and trade supplies. But, that is not all they should be able to drop, if one wishes to make those encounters meaningful.
3c) Crafting - I exhausted the crafting list, as far as I know, before I left the first sector... and I didn't even know ANY of the recipes. I discovered them all by myself. That is.. bad. That is not a good crafting system, it's an afterthought. (If there are more secret recipes then I would have to say that leaving them up to the player to discover after playing the game for thirty-three years is not a good decision..) So, that needs to be revamped, extensively, and the system is already incorporated in the engine, so it won't be difficult. What will be difficult is coming up with meaningful recipes and balancing them against the overall demands of the game and the levels (faction/sector/ship frame/constructor) they become available. In short, a LOT of items need to be added. What they will be should come from suggestions from the community as well as the producer and their desire for the direction/expansion of the game. Some things to offer in the way of suggestions in general Crafting requirements in order to increase game appeal and flavor:
1) Unique Resoures found only in certain sectors should be included for powerful added effects in mundane recipes and used in the creation of items in high-recipes, often combining several unique resources from various sectors to complete one powerful item. (Sort of a SWG approach with elements that already exist in-game.)
2) Use the Crew variable to dictate the type of items that a player can create, given the availability of certain crew types. Require multiple crew members for the most powerful items while leaving some lower level, but useful items, for new players to create without the added expense of a crew, yet still the challenge of collecting the necessary components.
3) Allow for random effects based on ___. This is difficult to do and may not be innately supported in the engine. Again, it's borrowed from SWG's system, which was a fairly robust system and highly regarded in the development industry until it got tanked.. (Not a huge SWG fan, just a studious gamer.) IOW, allow for some variability that the player can influence, themselves. For instance, if they have a higher faction rating with faction XX and the recipe they are using fits within the sphere of influence of faction XX, then they may make a "better" item than the recipe guarantees. Similarly, if their crew member(s) are of high level, they could create an item with more benefits than is on the visible recipe table's results, if the recipe requires specialized crew to complete.
Lastly, for now, I want to discuss NPCs. So far, NPCs are just randomly generated number-monkeys without a face. They are fairly meaningless. That's ok, they're not meant to be. They are "flavor additions" and I understand that. BUT, they could be more than that and could add a lot of roleplay and reward to the game.
4) NPC pilots, stationmasters, entities - I would suggest that certain sectors have within them certain "named" pilots. Consdier these "henchmen" ala any one of the standard RPG games out there. You can make them as unique as the Neverwinter Nights series or as plain as the old AD&D Gold Box games. It doesn't really matter, there. What matters is player perception and the player's own ability to roleplay while playing. That means that in order to increase the value of the NPCs in the game, you need some unique one that the player can hire/associate with/develop a fictional relationship with. (Nothing naughty.. just roleplaying.) So, for instance, the player moves into a sector and might see, of all the ships present in that sector, four or five uniquely named NPC pilots. If they hire one, complete a quest that allows them to hire one or bring one along with them on a certain scripted mission, that NPC will become part of their fleet, either whenever they are in that sector or, in a few cases, for as long as they want them.
A unique twist could, and shoud be, that the player can then outfit the named NPC as they see fit. Why? That part is extremely easy to explain - It gives the player more reason to continue playing the game. With an NPC ally that needs to be outfitted or improved, the player will craft new items, hunt for new ships and drops, hire new crew and figure out how to pay for them, etc.. Effectively, doubling the tasks that would be meaningful in game but doesn't require that an entirely new game be invented.. it's still the same game, with similar play-session goals that the player has been playing, but now involves improving another aspect of their character - the henchman.
That's all for now. I know I have only been playing for a few weeks and not constantly, at that. There are many elements of the game that I have not yet experiences, but I have a handle on what they are after reviewing what information is publically available. I think the above suggestions would go a long way towards improving the game and adding to its appeal without increasing repetition. In truth, it would help to minimize the perception of repetitive play, while not adding radically new elements to the engine, IMO.
PS - Sorry for the TLDR-possible post. But, being a fan of this genre requires me to truthfully supply my thoughts in hopes of improving the play experience of this particular title.
A major understatement if I ever read one. Hot-cha-cha-cha. 
How quickly we forget.