Firstly, pioneer looks great, and I can see it getting a lot better.
But one issue, I played a lot of First Encounters many years ago, and I remember hyperspace time being proportional to distance. In Pioneer it seems proportional to distance squared however. I find this a bit annoying when trying do deliver packages, trying to perform lots of little jumps to save hyperspace time, where in First Encounters it was a simple matter of taking the most direct route.
Could this be made (or optionally made) to be simply be proportional to jump distance? I understand this will make short jumps longer than they currently are.
Speaking personally, I'd be happy with either system. I always liked the Frontier one, because it was an interesting idea: that jumping the maximum distance always took a set amount of time, with lesser distances taking a proportion of that maximum time. But honestly, I could get used to Pioneer's as well. I think as long as there's a consistent system so that people can learn what to expect, either will work fine.
Plus, although it may be a subjective opinion, I also believe that science-fiction games should be encouraged to be science-fiction in themselves. And 'hyperspace' is one of those SF staples that everyone uses but people rarely put a lot of creativity into. Generally it's just "that parallel universe that lets you go faster than light in this one". It's a standard; an off-the-peg tool. Sometimes you get shows like Babylon 5, where hyperspace is made something a bit different (it has 'drifting currents' and requires beacons to navigate); and one of the things that always fascinated me about the original Elite - or at least the backstory/novella - was the idea of 'witch space', where strange, haunty things can happen.
Pioneer's jump times are much more complex than that. Your journey time is also affected by mass. If you have an important deadline on a package, do not fill your hold with tradeable goods as well. Go light and empty.