Didn't back then the NPC were a serious threat for returning explorers?
so serious that Iridium was offering escort services for the said players against NPCs?
Guess it was too much and it got dropped.
Now, strictly from my point of view, i would not mind a increase of NPC aggressiveness in relation with PP pledged players.
But it really has to be sort of balanced - being interdicted 6 times while flying 400ls is not funny and does nothing to improve my game play as a PP merits hauler.
It may disrupt a botter.
Or not.
I guess the bot can be programmed to throttle to 0 when interdicted, then align to target, boost, boost, wake. A Cutter with size6 Prismatics (or even A-rated) will be unstoppable.
In which case the botter will be slowed down a bit, while a human player might get so frustrated with the repeated, mindless interdictions that he may refuse to do it anymore.
My idea in this vein was a separate class of more hardcore NPCs, perhaps in addition to what we have, who are not incompetent at interdiction and can pack a punch. They might also have FSD disabling weapons, and be in a wing. There needn't be many, not 6 per 400ls, because they are potent. It'd be reasonable if they focussed their efforts on higher rated/ranked (PP and combat rank) pilots, while letting the rank and file NPCs deal with less experienced/impactful players, or have a sliding scale between the extremes. There'd be a strong case in my view for making these tough NPCs more common in PG, where wing benefits are available, but player opponents are not.
EDIT: looks v similar to Rubbernuke's link now that I read it, hehe.
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