All this talk about uninhabited systems - whatever happened to "safe" systems like corporates and democracies vs anarchist?
To all you people crying "stupid" or"get gud" - some people only play casually and don't hang out in the forums to learn the latest news and tricks. I can fully understand their frustrations when they suddenly get their assess handed to them.
I haven't been back to the bubble since 2.1 but read a LOT of posts about the current situation. It sounds to me like the AI / encounters are no longer matched (if they ever were) to the pilots loadout/experience/recent number of hours played and thus you end up with completely ridiculous encounters where overmatched NPCs attack people.
Sure it's good for the experienced fully equipped and practiced up combateer to have more challenging encounters.
But what about for the more casual player who doesn't have the time or inclination? Elite (used to be) about more than just combat. Games also always ought to dynamically adjust difficulty. It should be challenging but stay fun.
High-security democracies are still as safe as it can get, system security response times are extremely short, and the interdiction rate is quite low.
"Get gud" is a ridiculous statement, I agree on that. But: Stop being complacent or greedy isn't.
Take, for example, the classic trading ships, Lakon's T-series, as well as the Asp: They are designed so that the largest compartment is for cargo, the second largest (or the second of the same size)can fit a shield that is above optimal hull mass. But what are we used to do? We equip paper-thin 3D shields. We deliberately, intentionally go against the design specifications of the ships we fly, because we hunger for that extra light-year of range, or 32 more tons of cargo space.
The same goes for thrusters and distributors. Sure, I can fly my trade Python with 4D shields, a 6D distributor and 5D thrusters. But it'll be destroyed - my only ship loss in 2.1 - and why shouldn't it? It's designed for class 5 shields at least, it needs class 6 thrusters to get somewhere close to optimum maneuverability, and without a reasonable distributor, I can't expect it to run away really fast. Why exactly did I chose to fight a combat equipped, elite NPC pirate in a Clipper? Complacency. We all know that there are pirates in the game. We treated them as a joke. They aren't, anymore.
You don't have to be fully equipped to survive these days, but you should not be under-equipped either. You don't have to be a practiced combateer, but if you aren't, you need to practice escaping it, and you need a ship that can help you instead of becoming a death trap of your own construction.
Is it frustrating? Yeah, it is. It's change, change often is. Elite still is about more than just combat, but what has changed is that - as long as you're in the bubble - combat readiness has become an integral part of it. Readiness, not capability. Don't want to (learn to) fight? That's okay, just fly a ship you can escape with. Those stats aren't hidden in secret forum threads, they are right there on the outfitting screen.
Blazing our own trails isn't something that happens in empty space (I know, I know), it's something that can only be done in an environment. There's a living, breathing galaxy out there, and yes, it's become a little more dangerous. Not much, but it has become important that we watch where we blaze. There's pits of vipers now, as well as pots of honey. There might be the occasional bear out for honey as well, and the occasional "Trust in Me" system security Python. The game's reminding us that maybe we better blaze our trails with torches instead of matchsticks, and that it might be better to take a machete instead of a butter knife. And not to go trailblazing where huge warning letters read "Low security - Anarchy" while dressed in a loincloth. There's no healthy breeze around the nether regions in a vacuum.