Can't they focus less on ships and more on profession mechanics and gameplay? Also, are there any updates on future professions?
TL;DRSquadron 42 is the top priority, so PU-only work gets less attention for now, while professions are built from activities, with resource gathering, trading, piracy, mercenary and bounty hunting named as the first focus.
They have ships that they are building and that they've done concept sales for, so that pipeline is just running. For what they would consider careers or professions, Todd (and he thinks all of their system designers too) views them as a collection of different activities, so what they're doing is building those activities, and when they come together then you would have something that would be considered a profession. They have priorities for both the PU and Squadron 42, where from their development standpoint Squadron 42 is their top priority, and as a result most of the team and most of the resources are focused towards that. On top of this, whilst they have things that are solely Squadron, and some that are for both Squadron and the PU, there are also things that are solely for the PU, and it's those things that won't get as much love (for now) due to their priority as a whole being Squadron. When Squadron is done and ready to go, the PU should get some more attention. That said, they do have resources that are solely focused on the PU, so for example this means that they have a team that is focused on Resource Gathering, which includes Mining, Salvaging, and Harvesting, and then they also have teams more focused on things like Cargo, but that team has also done working on Scanning and other aspects that they consider to be integral to both projects. As such, their priority is to finish that work before they return to any PU-focused work. Todd then gives an update on the status of some professions, saying that Mining is in progress, where they've done Prospector mining, are working on FPS mining, and will need to do Orion mining when "that starts getting ready"; they've also got Salvage but that falls under Resource Gathering like Mining does; then they have the early stages of Trading that he wouldn't consider Hauling; then there's Piracy, Security/Mercenary, and Bounty Hunting, and these would be the first five that they'd be focusing on (so that's Resource Gathering, Trading, Piracy, Mercenary, and Bounty Hunting). After that there'll be secondary professions like Refueling, Rearming, and other similar things.