Too much NPCs

[Grumblesaur]

To this day I'm not sure if I'd prefer npcs always having real guns or not. Back before they were nerfed I never had serious problems with them (minus of course the capital ship patrols) and whenever I see an npc with a 2.00 laser that does 12 damage it sort of brings me out of the experience a little bit. At least if those NPCs had guns that mirrored the player variants in refire only and their hulls and shields were low enough so they could kill eachother.

I think this would be best approached with some high-danger and low-danger zones. Every faction should have some dangerous NPCs to ward off foes from an area of interest, but also to give players some emergent PVE to do that doesn't involve starting a mission. Allowing opposing factions' high-danger areas to intersect would create little NPC fight arenas that wandering players could dip into for some credits, and carry on their way.

I think it's important to avoid putting all of the high-level NPCs near bases. Having a defense grid made up of VHFs with stupid-accurate shotguns would only encourage players to camp their bases (as we see with the already excruciatingly well-defended lawful house planets). Normal wimp NPCs should be in zones where player interaction is common and expected, while the beefcake murderhobo NPCs would be better off the trade lane grid, at points where the lines between jump holes or mining zones intersect.

This would emphasize the "space is dangerous" idea that the community likes to talk about without making a stray CD in a populated zone an instant death sentence for someone who fatfingers their keyboard while they're talking to another playet.

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A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay,
brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.