In many recent comments to other post, it has been stated that UIT are only Traders who trade with both sides in the Itani/Serco conflicts and provide needed equipment to both sides. If this is so and is in like with the backstory that they point to, then lets make it a reality.

Make certain weapons only available at select stations like the AAPB are at this time.

Make certain ships, especially the top ones, available at only selected Stations.

Make it a little harder to obtain the top of line ships for Itani and Serco where more is needed than just standings and credits. I suggest that a players must bring a select item to the station before the ship is actually built and can be purchased. To make it even more interesting, I suggest that a Prom needs for player to bring 5 cu of Apicine ore and make that only available for mining in Itani Space. Likewise, a Valk needs for player to bring 5 cu of Pyronic ore and make that only available for mining in Serco Space.

Make other ships and weapons also dependent on player bringing select items to select stations before item can be bought.

This would open up the RP that many suggest that UIT players have now. They could actually be the traders that move materials all over the verse, for a price, and Itani/Serco players would need this trade to be able to get the ships and weapons they want. It would also open a "black market" that Corvus is know for now. Corvus could offer high prices for these select items and sell them for higher prices.

Also, vary the Procurement missions to point where a station don't take 2,000 cu of Plasteel in missions and not require any other items, or very few others. The stations need to be looking for more than one or two items that are needed to make it more real.

AND NOW, let's here from all those who call UIT traders and don't want us to have a roll to play in game.

I basically agree with this, assuming I'm following you correctly. My feeling is that stations should have a finite supply of ships and items to sell, and must be provided raw materials (or the actual goods to be sold) before they can restock. Prices would of course scale up as supply diminishes.

NPC convoys would supply the stations and move things around (e.g. bringing the manufactured goods from the manufacturing station to the commercial station), but player participation would result in greater supplies and consequently lower prices. It would also get things resupplied faster, since the NPCs might not respond to shortages immediately (I'm not just talking about reaction times; the mining station might not even have the ore to provide to the manufacturing station yet, so overall logistics would factor in).

Some people get afraid of this idea, and worry that some rich bastard would just buy out all the supply. So what? Low supply means that they have increased demand for raw materials, which gives you an opportunity to sell ore for a much higher price. I'm a firm believer in permitting economic warfare.

Overall, this would give much more meaning to miners, traders, pirates, NPC convoys, and hive skirmishes (which interfere with NPC mining ops). The Serco could blockade trade between UIT and Itani spaces, driving up the cost of goods in general within Itani space and possibly severely cutting the supply of equipment that is either imported or requires imported resources. Meanwhile, it would boost Serco-UIT trade, as the UIT would have surpluses in their exports and shortages in their imports, thereby giving the Serco better overall prices.

Similarly, large amounts of combat would exhaust supplies, resulting in more profits for the traders.

All in all, everything becomes way more awesome.

Pretty sure the devs already intend to do something like this someday, though I wouldn't be surprised if they faked the supply rather than having it be actually finite.

You know it's basically a seller's market for capital ship parts still, right?

I love this idea. Gives UIT back some power.