I have a few suggestions.. I don't know if all of them are possible but most should be..
1. Make ships more expensive: with current amount given for "vs. AI" missions, set DDs around 5k, CLs 10k, CAs 20k, BCHs 40k and DNs 80k. Speciality ships IE maulers, drone cruisers, carriers; should be double this amount, so a D6D would run you 40k. While this may seem high I have the lowest PP totals on the server at 60k (I have a new baby at home so don't get to play a lot) which would buy me 3 CAs.. There are some who could lose a DN then jump right back into a BCH. 160k for a CV sounds steep but it might start having people fly escort to such ships. In SFB certain ships RARELY traveled without their escorts.. and only in the most dire of circumstances did they enter battle without them.. Ships like CVs, Maulers, Drone cruiser, even DNs to a large extent. With ships this expensive getting blown up will set you back.. without taking you completely out of the game (although losing a CV could be crushing for a side.. which is the way is was during WWII)
2. Disengagement Rule: If I remember correctly SFB had a disengagement rule that went something like.. You could not disengage until you were crippled or until you had scored internals on the enemy. Something like that could be adopted. No disengagement until you are crippled (less than 50% hull) or you had scored internals on the enemy. If you disengage before then your ship is considered destroyed.. you have to SD your ship. That includes running out of bounds for ANY reason.. accidental.. purpose.. or pushed out by a tractor beam! The tractor beam part makes running the border even more dangerous.. for those who wish to run the border until they are crippled or manage to do internals then make a quick hop out of bounds.
There would be no time requirement for returning to a hex..because of the following
3. Expensive repairs: Repairs should be costly... repairing a ship costs.. and costs a LOT. If repair costs were set to something like up to 50% of the purchase price. So a CA 1 damage point away from distruction might cost 10k to repair.. while 10% damage might cost you 1-2k to repair. This is why ships are allowed to disengage with no time restrictions. A small ship might try flying around to tie up a larger ship, he can't disengage until he does internals OR until he is crippled. Leaving the map crippled will cost him.. dearly.. not to mention how much he is risking just tieing up a larger ship. Would you be willing to risk 5k possibly 10k (if destroyed) to tie up a CA for 30 minutes, with your measly CL? Probably not unless it was absolutely necessary.. which is the way it should be. Remember speciality (cheese ships) are double that cost/risk!
4. Huge PvP bonuses: Destroying a players ships should get you a bonus of around 40% of the destroyed ships purchase price. While even this might not cover your repair bill if you were very heavily damage.. you do get the satisfaction of knowing you just set one pilot back quite a bit.
While not all of these might be possible.. it might give someone an idea with something that is. Or just a good idea in general.. hehe
Oh and by the way.. Deepstiking is the dumbest, most out of control thing I have seen. It makes bases almost completely useless. They aren't much more than convience stores as it is.. but with deepstrikes.. the only reason to place a base is to give the deepstrikers a target to distroy..
Deepstrikes should be limited to 5 hexes from allied space.. or 10 hexes from a base/planet. I find it hard to believe that a ship would be able to fly 20 hex into enemy territory, past starbases, battlestation, planets, and listening posts to attack a base then suddenly get an AI draw.. where in the heck did those guys come from and now it makes even HARDER to believe its possible... Limiting the range of Deepstrikes would allow some use of bases, strategy in placing bases and still let people have fun doing deepstrikes.
It would also allow rules that add a bit more "flavor" to races.. Like Roms could disengage from battles if they were caught deepstriking (the cripple/internal rule would still apply tho)... ISC could have their deep strike range increased to 10 hexes from an allied hexed. Historically the ISC ships were designed to travel long distances and at high warp.. which allowed them to "police" the galaxy.
Forcing people to fight to the death is either pointless, as it would be currently, people are self destructing now as it is.. or to big a deterent to PvP. Besides.. most battles wouldn't be fought to the death anyway.. Having to start a new account would be an even bigger deterent to PvP.. you would see a LOT more drops in PvP.