I'm tried to come up with a more suiting title but had no better ideas, yet the thing I would like to talk about is somehow more complex than the general topic this title cover most of the times (as far as I checked the forum). I'm a player who not really have time to actively develop a roleplay character, and my net also doesn't help with the connection to the non-Asian servers. Due to this I'm forced to play either alone or on a server closer to me. Since there was active servers here I never had trouble enjoying the game as it is and I'm more than amazed about the new contents the game got since 4.86. Sadly the server was shut down since I played the last time and the official Discovery one still time out me. So after this much talking I'm at the point of this topic.
I know and completelly understand the reason the NPCs were nerfed to this point, and since I had troubles with the strong ones during my time on the server I doesn't want them to come back to the roleplay. In the other hand without them the game has no singleplayer worth other than the random missions.
The thing I would love to request or at least ask about is the possibility of a separate loadout config for the fans like me. I've noticed the .ini in the Data/Ships folder which handles the NPC encounters' loadout. It would be easy (but time consuming) to make an another .ini and place it in the main folder. Then when someone can't play online he/she will have the option to copy that over the existing multiplayer loadout to make the NPCs be more significant.
I know this is rather a strange request. But unlike me the mod's developers know the weapons and ships better, would be easier to write a config like this. Of course not prioritized over the multiplayer content but I would love to see a discussion about this and the possibilities.
And just to repeat it again, I'm not talking about an option to change this but a separate file placed somewhere in the installation. Then one can manually copy it over the existing file (of course after a manual back up of that).
I can't see it happening. It would be work for the devs to fulfill the wishes of a very few people and, afaik, they have bigger fish to fry. As for doing it yourself - don't. Rules specifically state that no .ini files are to be edited. It'll set off the anti-cheat and will get you put in Bastille.
All I can suggest is to do missions (as you already stated), or go into the Nomad worlds and take on the nommies. They pack a punch, especially in Iota, Psi and Lost.
I'm not playing on the official servers because it is laggy from my location/with my connection. We already made changes to the game to suit more of our little LAN group. The loadout would be possible for us too but it is a way more harder to do so because there is a lot of different possible NPC spawns as well a lot of faction unique weapons to fill the NPCs' hardpoints. The missions are boring and repetative in this game since it is very easy to overpower the targets, and with weak NPCs the traveling also boring even if you have the other 20 players in the schoolroom roleplaying with them. The best part is when you have to think before trying to act behind the other players' line because there may be NPCs patroling, or there is an actual benefit finding a pirate base in a house system.
Anyway even importing the mass-system of the original Evolution mod in Discovery to prevent the large ships spin from the ramming interceptors is simple compared to editing all those loadouts.