NPCs

[FooFighter]

I've been thinking a bit about NPCs, and how they affect server gameplay on the Disco RP server, and now I've come up with two suggestions which I'd like to present to the community. I'm curious about your opinion on them.

Should NPCs be restricted to certain hotspots?

NPCs - are they a justified obstacle or just a big annoyance? On one hand, they serve as protecting force in guard systems, near planets, and also to contribute a bit to the overall atmosphere in certain locations (like Toledo, which pretty much does feel like a warzone indeed thanks to the constant swarms of NPCs fighting each others). On the other hand however, NPC patrols tend to be horribly annoying, or did you ever have some fun when some NPCs disrupted the TL you were travelling on, or when they CDed you in open space?

I propose that NPCs should only appear in certain hotspots - stations, planets, some warzones (Planet Leeds, Toledo), some chokepoints (like the passages through the Gallic minefield), guard systems and maybe some gates and jumpholes. Place them there in force, so that trespassing will actually be difficult, but remove them from anywhere else. I think players should do patrols, not NPCs - you can enjoy being chased or caught by a player, but fending off mindless NPCs...

Should NPCs be stripped from the ability to scan people?

NPCs will scan you for contraband regardless of your in-RP licenses or other justifications for carrying certain goods and start shooting you if you don't drop whatever they are demanding. Is that really necessary? You can have nice RP with people over them demanding you to drop your stuff. I once bribed an LPI officer to give me a license to carry artifacts, because I usually carry an alien artifact representing my character's necklace. I doubt you can argue about this with NPCs. And we all know how annoying the little buggers get when you carry around a faction pilot to represent your character in your ship. So - remove their ability to scan, and let players do it.

Vote, and, more importantly, post your opinion please.