Too much NPCs

[Lambda 4]

You said it yourself what you did wrong - you tried to pirate a transport close to a station. These places are supposed to be dangerous for unlawfuls.

but that is dumb...so for example, 5 Hessians cruisers are raiding Stuttgart and game spawns one Turtle and 6 GBs...and RH Military doesn't even need to show up...and even if they manage to destroy them, another will be spawned...you are probably playing lawfuls so you don't know that pain when NPCs destroy your plan

[darkwind]

You said it yourself what you did wrong - you tried to pirate a transport close to a station. These places are supposed to be dangerous for unlawfuls.

but that is dumb...so for example, 5 Hessians cruisers are raiding Stuttgart and game spawns one Turtle and 6 GBs...and RH Military doesn't even need to show up...and even if they manage to destroy them, another will be spawned...you are probably playing lawfuls so you don't know that pain when NPCs destroy your plan

Exactly.
Huge amount of NPCs favors only lawful side, creating 'blockade' like movable Weapon Platforms, and flipping capital ships in addition.

If people can't make a shield against flipping, all hostile reps just should be turned to -0.55 fixed. That's it. It would make the problem disappear for all unlawful factions.

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[Erremnart]

The only annoying part on NPC's are when they have CD or distrupt tradelane. But other than that - you can always disengage and they'll despawn.

And I do play unlawful character hostile to every House, but still NPC's make my game enjoyable when server has low population. Freelancer without them will be empty with only tens of active ships.

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[Nepotu]

Now complaining about NPCs? What will be next? Complaining that there is too much space in a space game?

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[VinitS]

I, personally, would rather have NPC removed from the game at all. Keep them for missions and maybe for the new nomad remains obtaining system (I don't know what it could be, sorry) only.

Why don't we remove the NPC Bases as well, open space?? (Sarcasm)

More NPC More "Logical" RP & In Environment.

I suggest increase the NPCs, Give some NPCs capital ships in Border systems, Heavy Patrol in Zone's like Area-21 of NY.

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[Archaetherial]

But the whole point of those law enforcement patrols is to enforce the law and protect civilians from pirates and whatnot.

Just like a corporate ships would be blasted by Corsair NPCs outside of Crete.

I would agree that ideally it should be players doing that and not NPCs, but that's not possible with the minute server population that we have.

If we had around 100000 players online at any given time then we could consider getting rid of NPCs. But now that we have 100 tops it would be silly and harmful to do so.

[LuckyOne]

I was actually thinking how cool would it be if the NPC groups / numbers / equipments spawning were less static...

Like if you had some kind of an automated system that would analyze the player statistics and ramp up or dial down the NPCs in different places depending on player activity. So players who prefer to interact with others would get less NPCs while those who fly solo would get many.

Shame that the engine is closed-source and old so no chance of ever getting something like that ...

[Lythrilux]

Just like a corporate ships would be blasted by Corsair NPCs outside of Crete.

Those NPCs spawn at a less frequent rate than the House ones do. House planets are also equipped with stronger turrets than Crete. And then you get into examples where systems like Rho have been completely stripped of their NPC defenses in recent patches. Not that I think that's a bad thing, but there's a discrepancy in how this is applied.

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[Grumblesaur]

But the whole point of those law enforcement patrols is to enforce the law and protect civilians from pirates and whatnot.

Just like a corporate ships would be blasted by Corsair NPCs outside of Crete.

I would agree that ideally it should be players doing that and not NPCs, but that's not possible with the minute server population that we have.

If we had around 100000 players online at any given time then we could consider getting rid of NPCs. But now that we have 100 tops it would be silly and harmful to do so.

There is an underlying assumption in this statement that law enforcement patrols cover every portion of lawful space at any given time. Freelancer's distorted, unrealistically small scale compounds this issue. The orbits of planets are huge. Entire star systems are enormous. In the real world, it's impossible to thoroughly keep a city under watch in all places at all times. No Navy can see every square nautical mile of the ocean at once.

Space is far larger than a city or an ocean, and far more sparse. To say that NPCs are there to catch every smuggler or foolhardy pirate is nonsense, and is already contradicted by the fact that we have atmospheric entry points that allow factions hostile to the primary owners of a planet to land there.

Just because somebody can be there does not mean that someone will always be there.

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[Archaetherial]

I made no such assumption, Grumblesaur, so if you think you're seeing one there - you are mistaken.

I don't think every cubic kilometre of space should be constantly patrolled by law enforcement. But the areas of major traffic and around planetary docking rings certainly should be.

Freelancer's preposterous scale is an entirely different topic. I see no problem in discussing it in detail in a separate thread if you so desire.

I never said they're there to catch every smuggler or pirate, but if they do catch one then I certainly see no problem with that and I don't understand how some people find that to be a reason to complain about NPCs.

Also, while we're at the topic of smuggling, I think planets should have a backdoor of sort for smugglers. Some atmospheric entry point at the other side of the planet to allow smugglers to dock and unload the cargo unnoticed by the police.

And to backtrack to what Lythrilux was saying, I didn't know that. But if it's so, then I think it is done wrongly. Crete should have a very powerful defense and so should House capitals. And space stations should act as area denial to hostile vessels