Too much NPCs

[LuckyOne]

NPCs should stay, but they could be more spread out. Central systems with lots of activity could do with less NPCs because you see player ships going around anyway, and player to player interactions are common.

Edge systems with less player activity should become PvE havens with powerful NPCs and interesting trade routes. For example you could have a dangerous, freighter only system where players mine / farm some expensive commodity. The fun is in trying to come out of it alive. It could even be balanced so that multiple players or specialized ships (repair ships ?) would be required to successfully survive.

Basically you would be trying to beat the game environment instead of other players as a nice contrast to regular gameplay.