Yeah, im not really seeing myself as much of a pilot for combat, even in BF i've always preferred the gunner seat over driver/pilot. With the trade & mining (ore, scrap or gas) related stuff, i think i'll be flying them from time to time, but when it comes to combat, i'd rather let someone else fly and take over from an NPC.
I'd imagine i'll end up buying 5 character/NPC slots provided they're say $10 each, and hopefully you wont need to pay them a wage, and if you do, just flick through the characters once a week and empty their accounts. Hopefully they'll work for no pay, just to save that faffing (its probably taxed too). Having NPCs in a few hornets and doing the odd Starfarer run in say med-sec space would be possible on my own from time to time, as i do like playing after midnight for a few hours.
Thats a very good point, i've always thought of exploration being 1 ship, the idea of taking other ships along isnt as fun IMO, and hopefully using the measures you list would be a great way to hopefully avoid it. Focus on avoiding conflict, rather than increasing the likelihood of being spotted and needing to use the firepower.
It'd be good if you could mount ewar weapons on any turrets too (assuming they work like that), and avoid conflict in a non-aggressive manner.
I really hope things like this are viable, without being OP and people focus either on 100% defensive or offensive stances. Hopefully the heavily NPC filled universe will help too.
