One of the thngs which made the Elite series of games so enjoyable was the rich history and background information that accompanied the game. This created a deep sense of atmosphere and direction for the game, such that had never been seen in a game before. It was this helped to make the game a real classic.
To keep with the style of previous incarnations of Elite, it is important that TEP has a very good story line and history. This will then help to provide a plot for the game which will be present in the actaul game, e.g. the Thargoids in FFE and other such examples. It may also be a good idea to involve a story line with 2 seperate big ideas. In FFE there was only one, the Thargoid missions. If there are 2 in TEP then this will create a very detailed and eventful plot, and avoid the death of gameplay found in FFE once you have completed the Thargoid missions. We want people to play the game over and over again simply to read all of the news etc, do all of the handcoded (or special) missions until thay are all completed. This incredible depth and detail will result in a great reaction from the public, and maybe even some magazines/magazine sites, and thus increase publicity and popularity. TEP is intended to add to Elite, not replicate it. There needs to be a stunning void between TEP and the other, rushed, commercial products. TEP, made by the people, for the people.