In order to encourage certain game aspects, perhaps removing high tier ores (e.g. aegisalt) from mining and moving them to be rewards for certain activities would make gameplay more varied along with have a purpose.

When is the last time you went fishing in starbound? When was the last time you went fishing in starbound for a purpose that wasn't boredom?

Instead, what if fishing on high tier planets with a high tier rod catching high tier fish rewarded the player with a high tier ore (which would likely need to be changed from ore to item/alloy so that it seems reasonable to be catching items that would become armor/weapons).

This implementation also wouldn't be too difficult, as it just involves changing loot tables, a few tooltips on the ores for flavor, and perhaps modifying armor costs for balance.

This would also integrate well with 1.4, as you could earn violium, for example, by doing bounty hunter missions as well as earning it in generated dungeons.

Also, making tenants and cooking have a purpose besides pixels and buffs would be really cool. Imagine if you went on quests to get certain food items and furniture, not to complete a collection out of boredom, but to properly complete your endgame armor. It would make exploration have meaning and purpose, which is something starbound lacks (and thus why we have the horrible scan quests, to facilitate this exploration needlessly)!