NPCs are damn too strong.

[Dratai]

This works both ways, you bring a lawful into an unlawful system, you better hit cruise right away or you're space dust.
At the same time, not having the NPCs around means there's often no danger to a pirate being in any system.
True, there probably should be less capship NPCs and optimal loadout ones, but...
As much as, ideally, this game is about human-human interaction, a lot of the less flexible pilots that rely on the usual powertrader to fuel their other ships, and by logging those, create targets for people flying ships they would rather be flying right now, instead.. There's something to be said for the fact that there aren't always people around, several systems away, to be exact.
The fact that I used to find myself in situations where I could lead a pirate on a 5-system chase and almost kill him but not see another person or even any shelter for all of that distance, while consulting the starchart and returning fire? (this being over a year ago though) little bit frustrating.
A transport doesn't exactly get the best of equipment.
and if there's noone around to interrupt the pirate. or, heck, even the space stations don't actually give much protection (hence the infamous tactic of just camping a docking area), I can see a lot of the less turret-view-savvy pilots actually needing this just to even the odds.

TL;DR: I'm not saying we shouldn't tone it down a little, but.. ideally you want people to interact with people. Unfortunately, there aren't enough players around and certainly not enough that are going to take up patrolling EVERY SYSTEM to replace the NPCs to simulate the background activity of a living universe.

If this was to scale, the patrols would mostly congregate around the tradelanes, the tradelanes would be several hours or days of travel, and pirates would have to chance at not meeting a patrol or heavily guarded transport.... Or be lane hackers who automagically have the skills to find out when/where to strike.

Which isn't feasible.
Because this is a game.
I'm for toning it down a little, but a full out nerf?
I'm not so sure about that...

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One of these days, there will be a clever, stylish and/or funny signature here.
This is still not that day, however.