[Tomkat]

Coaching
I would set it up so when you create a planet you can go for the "newbie" option which has the advantages of being placed in an established alliance (who then have the responsibility of sorting you out), but you are limited to only two races (let's say Terran and Cathaar for argument sake) and given other perks which help you along the way (perhaps being able to undo initiation of roids or amend decisions). If you choose the "experienced" option then you get more races, a choice of alliance and if you want those Bonuses you need to officially coach a new player. These bonuses won't be a huge amount, but enough to make it worth helping someone else out. The alliances would be made up of something like 40 premade and 20 random.
I know the main argument against this is "what about security of coords?!?" - seriously guys, this isn't 2001. Nobody needs to fakenick and everybody knows the coords of every other alliance within 3 days anyway.


Rewarding activity without encouraging people to wake up at 4am
I like the prelaunch option. I (and many others) are older now and don't have the luxury of being able to screw up our sleep patterns for an online game. Games like this should reward people logging in often and checking often (remember the old amps/waves thing you'd have to do? Where the "best" way to do it was every tick?) but not people choosing to do things at antisocial hours. I know it's what you loved about this game in round 3 or whatever but that isn't where we are now and it doesn't make it fun.


Making stats simple yet subtle
Somehow the stats have become more complicated but are as tactical as a sledgehammer. You can have fun, interesting stats with only 3 or 4 races - this would make the game more challenging and lead to a bigger array of combinations of fleets.


Encourage people to work together
The biggest part of PA has been the social side. The main emphasis should be giving incentives to people who work together to achieve goals. If I'm playing an MMORPG and I'm a healer, I benefit from contributing to the group even though I'm not doing any damage. Could NPC gals be introduced which alliances have to try and take down? I don't know how this could work: possible huge XP bonuses or free upgrade bonuses if you successfully land? With short ETAs on the NPC gal so that MCs in alliances need to keep asking for new ships to add to the fray?