This Whole 'Pilot Federation' Thingie...

[IndigoWyrd]

Two things come to mind...
First... does it matter if NPC's are or are not PF members? Does this have any bearing on gameplay at all?
Secondly, perhaps the thinking is all wrong.

Perhaps NPC's are not PF members, but are still rated by the PF, thus they have combat ratings, much like movies and television shows are assigned ratings or even video games are assigned ratings by an organization that the television, movie or game industry is not a "member" of, and in fact would probably be much happier if these ratings industries did not even exist, but that is a subject for a different discussion on a different forum.

 

[Cmdr Mnumen]

Surely the bigger question here is Why would the pilots Federation maintain the rank, record and privileges of known known criminals?? Surely those pilots with bounties (of sufficient size) or a long history of piracy, smuggling and villainy would be excluded from the Pilots Federation.... They'd probably have their own equivalent after a while, a Criminal Scum Federation, or some such, put they would no longer darken the vaunted halls of the PF

 

[Fluffy Whiskers]

The NPC Union also does not have access to the latest, most up-to-date escape capsules - you know, the ones with 100% launch success rates, instant teleportation drives and made of indestrucibilium that make sure no member of the Pilots Federation ever actually dies. No, if an NPC Union ship gets destroyed, the poor NPC either dies, or gets ejected by an escape capsule that just sits there and needs to be rescued by other ships.

This. I think I remember that DBOBE once stated this to be the main difference between them and us.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Independence

Members of the Pilots federation are free to travel across any boarder and accept or decline any contract

Like the sigature.
"Swift and Sure" way to Latin.

I'm more apt to use "Semper ubi sub ubi mundi" myself.

 

[Falcon_D]

Because it doesn't seem to make any sense, given the remainder of the lore? It's at odds with everything I've seen, read and experienced? It is a statement which is rather at odds with much of the observable evidence.

Still not sure how NPCs have ratings, because nobody is counting their kills... :/

Very strange.

You could post on their forum and ask them?
The NPCs could probably give you a better answer. All we can do is give answers from a player's perspective.
I'm sure their admiral/emperor/council member issues them their rank. We know that there was a great Leader whom we players called "Skynet" a couple of months ago. Seems that leader has gone into hiding as the NPCs have toned down a bit since his/her push to take over the Galaxy was foiled by the great CMDR FDSupport.
If Skynet shows up again, I hope that The Canon, AA, CoR, SDC, Code, ToOM, and the rest of the many wings are able to capture and interrogate him/her. Then we can definitely find the answers to all the questions posed here.

Till then. Have fun, fly safe. o7