Too much NPCs

[Grumblesaur]

It simply makes interactions that shouldn't happen in these areas in the first place impossible. As it should.

And why shouldn't they happen there? What is so intrinsically bad about having a big fight in a planet's orbit? The owners of the planet and their friendlies already have the benefit of being able to dock to escape a blue message. They already know that reinforcements will be able to undock straight away. The pulse weapons flying from stations and docking rings are already a significant advantage. Why do we need super strength NPCs there too? All that does is take the difficult and foolhardy and make them intractable, and at times, even impossible.

The strength of NPCs reinforces our ideas about the power projection of factions, and the disparity between small, usually unlawful factions, and large, usually lawful factions has been on an upward climb since I first played Discovery. This disparity is not just a lore thing, it's a gameplay thing too. And we as a community love to call it "realistic" when being a law-abiding citizen or a kickass Navy ace is the easy mode and being a dirty, scummy criminal on the run is hard mode. But this "realism" only comes from the assumption that lawful factions are omnipresent and omnipotent, or nearly so.

As things are, there's no reason for lawful players to patrol, that is, seek targets for interaction, if all of their stations and planets are strongholds. The role of establishing system security that they could be playing is obviated by NPC gunboat patrols with CDs and full-power weapons. High-level VHFs that are able to swarm and overwhelm even well-equipped player vessels. Why bother to go even sweeping the trade lanes when any threats can get sweeped up or scared off by an NPC patrol? Why bother going out to engage anything when you can wait for a distress call and go out to drag the fight to the nearest base for the support of its defenses? These may be "realistic" actions, but they don't produce interesting gameplay.

(Never mind the hard counter to smuggling that is "sit at the sellpoint with /nodock and a cruise disruptor ready, but that's another thread. Nevertheless, it is an expression of the belief that lawful powers have, or should have, infallible security technology.)

Furthermore, the role of pirates and terrorists actually being able to antagonize lawful installations is taken away. In the vanilla campaign, we see a flight of Bloodhounds harassing Pueblo, and damaging it severely. Nowadays it's almost considered suicidal (and often OoRP, by some players) for a pirate (in a much better ship than a Bloodhound, mind you) to be anywhere near a lawful-aligned object that isn't just a trade lane ring.

There are fewer ways for unlawfuls to force an interaction because of the NPC concentration near lawful installations, and the only reason this is the case is because so many people believe that's the way it should be. But why should pirates and smugglers in lawful zones (or in your reverse case, lawful traders or navy scouts in lawless zones) need to assume not only all of the player and topological risks and consequences, but be subject to harassment by NPCs as well?

When players are present, their power projection is felt. When they are absent, they have left a hole. NPCs do not have to fill that hole.

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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.