The consistency of the Universe as a whole seems to be a complete mess only made worse by PP. I'm relatively new and had only just about got my head around flipping systems when it dropped and now I'm completely lost. The only options open seem to be to grind and that's not why I play the game. I play it for the experience and I would like it to make as much sense as possible...and it's too confused at the minute.
Power NPC's should not attack vessels if they are merely trading legal goods, if they are however caught smuggling supplies or w/e then fair game. In a consistent environment, trade is essential so to limit this in the way it has will only nerf one of the core fundamental roles you can play in the game and that's why many are not amused.
One way to fix this is for the Power NPC's to only defend Control systems and only attack those who are actively involved, as in carrying supplies to that system. Save the random, shoot first-pick up cargo later for the Pirates.
If possible, and if a system is far away from the Home system, ramp up the number of interdictions to include a system or two along the way so it is that much harder to fortify border systems and also do the reverse regarding the closer systems as they should be easier fortify.
I can see a downside to this in the merit farmers having it too easy but what they might be able to do is once a system is successfully fortified / cancelled, interdict spam that system with overwhelming numbers of high grade NPC's so players will have to look elsewhere to farm the easy merits.
Far too much of that going on tbh....there will probably be tears though.
Grinding and decay is bad, it leads to repetitive actions which players will tire of and hence stop doing it. This may also have an adverse effect on their desire to play the game as a whole. Variety, size and freedom are what make this game great but all PP does is force players into a single role and rinse, repeat till bored.
Personally, I'd take out the merit system or at the very least make it less about grinding, more about time served or even more like the Elite ranking system works.
Add some PP missions to the bulletin board, some ideas would be:
Smuggle poisoned goods to a station / encrypted data transmissions as a means to undermine. Source Mining / Weapons related missions as a means to prepare a system. Combat & Assassination Missions as a means to expand. Controlling systems could be your Combat zones once a control system is under threat.
Some of the Mission types could work for different aspects of PP depending how they're worded.
New types of missions could be added relating to your Allegiance rank. Maybe go flip systems or cause havoc behind enemy lines by killing "x" amount of traders or just their general traffic. Basically allowing Pirates to do their thing and allowing one Powers clean player to moonlight as a Pirate in an opposing factions territory. Might be nice to have some Bounty hunting NPC's pop in once in a while to, until the timer runs out.
The rewards could still be tallied as merits like they are as of now so it would be more about incorporating how PP is accessed to by the players through the bulletin board and not just the PP menu.
Basically, all the mission types are already in the game and they could be applied to PP just by adding PP specific goals and their associated result regards Undermining etc. These should also be available only within that Control systems sphere of influence from outlying systems. I would even suggest only from stations under your Allied Powers control but the whole minor faction things is confusing me. If this could be done though, it would mean system flipping would have added value and introduce an extra dynamic to the game.
Another thing I haven't really seen mentioned is the whole aspect of Exploration in relation to PP. Some ideas:
As systems get discovered, could a tally be made or a record kept of the player who is aligned with a Power to basically make a claim for it, or run a CG type event where the Faction which supplies the most gets to build a Station and thus earn a new system?
Again, they could run like a PP mini event for control of it.
I haven't been "out there" yet and I don't know if there are plans to expand the game that way but it may be a way to incorporate Exploration into PP.
Anyway, just thoughts.
