I enjoy the combat...and I am pretty sure the enconomy will get fleshed out. However number 1 complaint about this game is ...

What am I trying to achieve?

In Eve there are constantly new things to research and buy in the game. However in this game the really visible piece of prestige is your ship. BUT, the ship is not really that valuable since it has the downsides of being much slower and once you loose the highest level ships, it's gone for good.

In most RPGs there is the items you are holding or wearing. It gives the player sense of accomplishment to show off their stuff. But in PotBS, there is only your ship and your character's level. But nothing about your character changes. Your ship does not look THAT much different than everyone elses. You can't rig it with customized parts like you can in Eve. The economy is really only visible in the auction, so nobody knows how everyone else is doing. There is no armor or pieces of clothing to show off your prowess.

The PVP is cool, but taking over ports takes a lot of man hours so it is difficult to tell your really making a difference on your own.

This game has a lot of cool ideas, but after playing for a while it became clear there was not really any goals to head toward. I am still REALLY REALLY hoping this game does well, so they can apply more of their design to it, but it is going to have a rough time at the start dangling a carrot in front of players.