1) provide an actual NPE and training and quit expecting people to just figure everything out. Sure, leave the advanced stuff for players to figure out, but not even explaining to them something as basic as weapon types is just ridiculous.

2) the whole sandbox thing is nice and all, but some control needs to be taken from the players. There's too much corruption in HS when there's no actual controlling entity. People are dead set on ruining your game, as opposed to playing theirs.

3) just go back to the drawings by board on SOV. As it sits, there's no conflict drivers, leading to complacency.
It's too easy to maintain vast amounts of numbers and SOV, which leads to it being too difficult to start a new SOV.
These are backwards. It should be more difficult to hold large amounts of SOV, and easier to start SOV.

4) the game punishes new.
New player, new corp, new alliance, new SOV, new structure, new WH, whatever the case - if you include new with whatever you're about to say, it might as well come with a swift kick in the nuts. Even something as simple as moving to a new station in HS is taxing.
This is one of Eve's biggest failures.
There's little incentive to be a new player in Eve because they make it uneccessary difficult, and there's no incentive to do anything new in Eve because there's almost no benefit I doing so. This is especially true if you don't already have the skills for what you're wanting to do.
Example.. I run level 4 missions.. Why run lvl 5's when I'm just going to spend all my time trying not to get blown up by other players? Why do exploration when the chance at payout is extremely random and it again leads me out to where everyone tries to blow me up? Why run combat sites when they're again just going to lead me out where everyone wants to blow me up?
Hell, why even bother going outside HS to blow people up, when you're just going to get blown up all the time? Example being CODE. Why should I want SOV, WH, or LS system control when the only thing different is people wanting to blow me up all the time?

Someone is probably going to harass me for Number 4, but it's the truth.
Why would anyone is Eve want to do anything outside of HS when you just end up spending all your time trying not to get blown up??
And if you're not spending all your time getting blown up, it's because you are part of a large entity with vast control.
And no, joining a large entity in order to do something should never be the solution, otherwise you end up with a game that has no choice but to fail. There's a reason why governments try to stop monopolies from happening, as no one else can exist with a large entity holding all the cards.
As of right now, Eve is like a game of poker.. The larger your stack of chips, the better, but eventually the game will be over.
However, due to the players having so much control, we are at a point where people are rarely putting chips on the table because there's no reason to.
The only reason to compete in Eve is literally just because you want to destroy what other people have. You don't gain much, if anything, from their destruction, so you literally just do it because you can and are callous enough to treat others as lulz.
This sheer disrespect for others bleeds into the forums where players are douches because they came be.
They come in saying no just because the word exists and bash ideas with statements like we don't need this, or what role does this fill, or some other comment that ignores the fact that this is a freaking video game and nothing in it would exist had CCP used their logic when creating the game.

Which brings me to number
5) Eve needs a community that isn't full of a bunch of a$$holes just because the game allows them to be, and actually makes being so easier than being kind, caring, or even oblivious of the welfare of others.
See, I'm addicted to Eve's method of progression. However, it is the player base and the fact that being a douche is the easiest way to play Eve, that hinders its growth the most.

I mean, even wardecs are best used to be a douche as opposed to being a method to conflict resolution.
Not to mention, you can start a war and then just log off and onto an alt toon to do something else, until a situation arises that is heavily in your favor, while the defender is best suited to just not log in...
I mean seriously.. How good of a strategy is it that both sides of a war are best played by not playing at all?
And how good of a marketing strategy is it that the goal of many players is to actually make people quit playing Eve, and this tactic is not only allowed, but basically smiled soon by CCP.
I mean, how many games I you think will survive if their whole intent is to be the biggest douche possible and be the last person to quit?
Eve can be won. Someone like NC/PL or some other massive entity could literally smash through Eve and force everyone to quit and go play hello kitty, in a year, and no amount of resetting would ever fix that, as no one would come back.

What I'm basically getting at with this wall of text is, CCP needs to stop treating the players as content and instead provide content that becomes a conflict driver. This is because in treating the players as if they're the content, you're taking away any incentive to fight other than to be a douche, where the only goal is to get the most kills. That's basically that worlds largest and longest call of duty match, as opposed to an ever lasting MMO world.