EVE Fiction

Standard NPC pirates are conventionally controlled - i.e. they have a separate bridge crew. Think of it like Star Trek style bridge - there is a pilot, someone works on gunnery, another works on defensive systems and so on, and there is the commander of the ship. Larger ships (specifically, battleships to capitals) might have a bridge crew numbering at over a hundred. A pod eliminates the need of this crew and this crew only - and large part of the superiority of the pod is the ability react in split seconds to changing conditions - and obviously that we capsuleers are, as said, tremendously skilled and smart individuals (... that is the theory, anywayz).

There are some exceptions, specifically certain named NPC rats, particularly officer ones, are almost certainly pod pilots as well which is why their ships are more powerful opponents. For simplicity's sake they don't leave pods behind when destroyed. But, like 99.9% of NPC rats are conventionally piloted.

Hopefully I didn't confuse you further. :)

The answer is you're being confused by two different kinds of "pods". The hydrostatic capsule - aka, what we ("capsuleers") use as players - is not used by the vast majority of rats, which are (as you were told) conventionally crewed ships. Escape capsules - classic sci-fi escape capsules, serving no purpose but to get people off a dying ship - also exist on both noncapsuleer and capsuleer vessels; in both cases they are not represented to us ingame.

Strictly speaking, "elite" rats - not faction rats, though those are a possiblity, but the ones like Arch Blood or Loyal Sanshas - may be capsuleer opponents as well, as they vessels they fly - the NPC analogy to T2 hulls - are supposed to be usable by capsuleers only. Of course, the fact that a reasonably skilled player can eat them for breakfast doesn't help much.



Which brings me to my second major point: Power creep. Most NPC rats have not had their stats adjusted in a very long time, and in that time player ships have become much more powerful in game mechanics, in large part due to the widespread introduction of T2 and faction modules, which used to be the domain of the few, rich, and powerful players or entirely new kinds of modules like Energized Adaptive Nano Membranes. Prior to this, in the early days of the game, individual rats were a far more serious threat; while they COULD be overcome by players, they did not fall in mindless waves the way they do now. Believe it or not, Level 4 missions were originally intended to be group content.

I'm not someone that has done a lot of reading into the fiction, but I have researched this particular question extensively because it's been an interest of mine as well. So lets get one thing straight:

The majority of NPC ships ARE conventionally piloted by crews of varying sizes, consisting of average dudes who aren't immortal like us capsuleers. There are some exceptions to that, however, and those exceptions are easy to recognize because destroying the ship will leave a pod hanging in space. This can be seen in various missions.

That covers the ships that are conventionally piloted.

For the ships that are NOT conventionally piloted (Read: Capsuleer ships.):

The ships we fly as capsuleers DO maintain skeleton crews of maintenance personnel. Being a capsuleer, it can be assumed that we DO replace the bridge crew, and MOST of the crew that would be required to operate a conventionally piloted ship, because we control the guns, the cap, the warp drives, targetting systems etc etc etc. However, some people are still required on board to keep the ship functioning properly. You can't honestly believe that 1-14 km long ships can be maintained by a single person (Who just happens to be confined to a glass jar full of goo.) We may be smart and have uber skills, but we're not THAT good.

In a nutshell: Most NPC ships have hordes of guys on board, and some or most of them die in a fire depending on how fast the ship is destroyed. Capsuleer piloted ships DO have crews as well, although they're probably much much smaller than the ones found in NPC ships cause we do most of the work. At the end of the day, what kind of crew you think you have is really up to you. Personally, I enjoy the thought that hundreds of people die for every cruiser i lose. It motivates me to fight harder

More information on the subject can be read here:

http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=1243933

I found this to be very helpful in answering the question regarding crews.

New Eden Crew Guidelines

The chart provided gives crew estimates for both capsuleer and non-capsuleer ships.