Outcats in Towel-23

[Beagle23]

If they do not have CD's, the RP ground can be moved to left by 5k.

In an ideal situation where two people are talking, then yes.

Consider the following situation, however: I spot a suspicious contact on scanner and move to intercept. I cut him off, and discover he's carrying a load of Slaves. I tell him not to move, to cut all his engines. Let's say this guy is just a Freelancer or an uneducated Smuggler, this might be the first time he'll realise that Slaves are something we don't allow, even though we're in the remote Taus. I cannot explain to him in any detail why these Slaves are not allowed, I cannot negotiate a peaceful release, because there are two things that you can be assured of -

1. The Smuggler is always looking for an opportunity to escape, and if I don't keep watch on him and stay prepared to CD him at all times, he will make a break for it.
2. The NPCs that will show up momentarily if they haven't already will mean it is very, very difficult to talk without running from the situation.

That's why I bring up the problem of these super-fast spawns - its not a case of the Smuggler catching a lucky break and having some Outcast NPCs help him, because those NPCs are GUARANTEED to show up in short order.

So, instead, when I'm handling interdictions, I halt them immediately, tell them I'll open fire if they try to escape even once, and immediately demand they drop the contraband. If they try to argue, I have none of it and give them twenty seconds or so to make up their mind. This is much more efficient and I have no problem doing things this way, but I would've expected some people WOULD have issues with this.

As I asked earlier in the thread, I would understand the defense of this issue if we had an argument for having so many NPCs - what is the positive of having constant and guaranteed harrassment? Why do we really need more NPCs when there are less players? Are people arguing to keep things the way they are just to maintain the status quo or are there real reasons to not change this?