NPCs are damn too strong.

[Karst]

Wow, this thread started today and it already has five pages (edit: six now that I'm done with this post, lel).

I'm not going to read through all of it, at least not right now, but anyway, I wholeheartedly agree with Pavel.

As it currently stands, any encounter is significantly influenced by NPCs.

It's probably worst when playing as a pirate as Pavel mentioned - negotiating with traders becomes very difficult with a constant stream lawful / corporate NPCs that are simply too strong to ignore.
And it's not just NPC ships - use a hostile jumpgate and you'll be deshielded before you can even move.
Not just that, but if you're sitting along a lane it'll be constantly disrupted by friendly NPCs, forcing you to pretty much kill everything that comes along the lane, which if you're in a snub is a full time job.
But the whole NPCs disrupting lanes is a matter that may warrant its own thread.

It's also bad in other situations: Want to raid Leeds? Gallic cap patrols present a greater danger than actual Gallic players.

You're fighting Outcasts in 23? More than half the damage they take is from the notorious IMG NPCs.

The reasoning behind it I guess is "you're in hostile territory and you should notice that".
The thing is though, this system strongly discourages people from entering areas that are hostile to them, which is kinda the basis of a great deal of player interaction.

Of course I can spend all day in Alpha on my Outcast and all day in core house space on my corporates and not have to constantly defend myself from annoying, role-playing preventing, immersion-breaking, totally unnecessary NPCs, but if everyone did that there would be no interesting interactions.

Please, on this matter, consider gameplay over in role play realism.

NPCs are making everyone's life harder, but especially pirates.
The result which we've been seeing is: piracy is almost entirely dead.

I've been flying a lot since 87 and almost exclusively corporate transports, and I've been pirated a whopping total of once.

I've said this before and I will again: limit NPCs and static defenses that are actually dangerous to the very cores of their respective factions ZOI, capital planets and such.
Anywhere else they are a nuisance that ruins player interactions, and player interactions are what this is supposed to be about.

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