AP ruined the game. Those who know why will agree. I hope it will be changed soon.
AP DID NOT RUIN THE GAME! The fact that AP are so inexpensive vs solars created an imbalance that should be fixed. I would recommend the following, all done together.
1. reduce the cost of purchasing QP with PayPal. Currently It costs $9 in real money every 25 days or $84 every year for the QP to purchase VIP and all officers. To buy a wormhole cruiser costs $120. Make it 100QP for $1. Where I won't spend $84 for VIP + officers or $120 for a pledge ship, I might spend $9 for VIP+officers or $14. for a 1,500QP pledge ship.
2.
Only if you decrease the cost of purchasing QP with PayPal, Increase the cost of converting AP to QP, IMO 1 QP for 100 AP should be about right.
3. IMO the cost of purchasing AP with Solars is too low, IMO it should be doubled to $100,000 per AP, but in no case should ever be over $200,000 per AP.
An additional suggestion which can be done independently: Create a mining officer. What I would like to see him do is:
A. All mining / harvesting is at 100% efficiency.
B. Auto unload is every hour instead of every 6 hours.
C. Miners / harvesters have more on-board cargo space.