WTF is with all the Zeuses suddenly?

[Nomen Meltdown]

So my primary 'hunting ground' in lower-G5 has turned utterly to crap in the last week with all of the big NPCs' value tanking because they're suddenly top-heavy with Zeuses (ie. 300k thans and 10k zeuses, or 500k thans and 30k zeuses). 

My understanding is that NPCs compositions' are based on the player planets (supposedly within 99 systems) that they pull their ratios from at spawning, so reasonably I expect some big NPCs to have the ratios of player planets with a lot of zeuses, but at least some of them should also have ratios similar to my main planet (9.4 million thans, 10 zeuses) or the only local player who ranks higher than I do (millions of thans and NO zeuses).  But this is *every* high-value NPC.  They're either lime green twerps not worth the fuel, or they're these Zeus-leaden BS piles not worth the losses they'll incur.

So what is going on?  Right now I've catalogued 18 targets in the size range I'd normally attack, 11 are paltry garbage and the other 7 ALL have thousands of Zeuses, numbers that can't be accounted for if they were modeled after my planets, or the other big player's planets, or frankly any of the 4 or 5 other player planets I probed trying to identify the source of these screwed up spawns.

Have the rules surrounding NPC creation changed to try and make them less profitable, perhaps in order to somehow compel us to make more microtransactions?  That sounds conspiratorial, I know, but I'd love to hear some other explanation.

[commander abаб]

Rank   Name   Tag    Building Points
1   Supreme Conqueror CIRCONFLEXES‎   FIGHT!    25,577,635,994
2   Emperor Windsinger721‎ (p)   SC    10,791,399,214
3   Grand Warlord Nomen Meltdown‎   FIGHT!    10,786,263,769
4   High Warlord Piemer‎   R.I.P.    1,020,521,100
5   Grand Warlord Han Zolo‎   R.I.P.    863,429,950
6   High Warlord Angel of Chakra‎   R.I.P.    823,792,113
7   Grand Warlord War Ogre‎ (p)   D.S.P    793,597,283
8   Supreme Commander Comm Twilight‎   FIGHT!    563,532,024
9   Warlord Deadblood‎   D.S.P    469,893,915
10   Admiral *CAPT SCAE2*‎ (v)   Eagles    451,078,749
11   Warlord Jimmy Tux‎   AA    402,338,650
12   Grand Admiral Ares‎ (p)   SOJ    365,434,201
13   Grand Admiral Samcro‎   SOA    342,572,860
14   Grand Admiral Larryl‎ (p)   ANH    288,977,098
15   Warlord Gen ☆Jamz RockRyder☆‎   Eagles    273,062,185
16   Grand Admiral Woe_is_me‎   D.S.P    263,585,831
17   Fleet Admiral Lutherz‎   R.I.P.    220,483,870
18   Fleet Admiral Smuckers‎ (p)   SOA    211,879,765
19   Fleet Admiral Loonie Lonnie‎   FIGHT!    200,487,868
20   Vice Admiral SynGenOr‎ (p)   R.I.P.    191,514,345
21   Fleet Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo‎   FIGHT!    187,279,807
22   Vice Admiral Ipsos Custode‎   UFP    186,115,298
23   Admiral Big Jelly‎   SWaRM    183,560,482
24   Vice Admiral Bhound2‎   BORG    180,473,414
25   Admiral J.V.C‎ (p)   TFA    172,208,876
26   Vice Admiral Commander 3042488‎ (p)   ORI    162,325,874
27   Senior Commodore Silver Dews‎   D.S.P    156,628,219
28   Junior Commodore Jend Hx‎   ANH    145,042,691
29   Vice Admiral Timbu‎ (v)   SC    140,924,589

Rank   Name   Tag    Fleet Points
1   Supreme Conqueror CIRCONFLEXES‎   FIGHT!    151,370,900,710
2   Emperor Windsinger721‎ (p)   SC    79,784,082,130
3   Grand Warlord Nomen Meltdown‎   FIGHT!    32,817,643,666
4   Grand Warlord Han Zolo‎   R.I.P.    8,601,700,071
5   Grand Warlord War Ogre‎ (p)   D.S.P    5,911,785,471
6   High Warlord Piemer‎   R.I.P.    5,004,100,910
7   High Warlord Angel of Chakra‎   R.I.P.    2,856,622,803
8   Warlord Gen ☆Jamz RockRyder☆‎   Eagles    2,363,624,621
9   Warlord Jimmy Tux‎   AA    2,233,868,226
10   Warlord Deadblood‎   D.S.P    2,172,422,510
11   Supreme Commander Mr Star‎   ANH    1,625,162,581
12   Grand Admiral Ramses‎   Eagles    1,347,821,905
13   Supreme Commander Comm Twilight‎   FIGHT!    1,296,956,659
14   Grand Admiral Samcro‎   SOA    1,074,603,804
15   Grand Admiral Woe_is_me‎   D.S.P    1,034,954,842
16   Grand Admiral Larryl‎ (p)   ANH    947,850,527
17   Fleet Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo‎   FIGHT!    840,436,516
18   Fleet Admiral wardawg‎   R.I.P.    766,882,263
19   Fleet Admiral Loonie Lonnie‎   FIGHT!    749,348,097
20   Fleet Admiral Smuckers‎ (p)   SOA    678,654,383
21   Grand Admiral Ares‎ (p)   SOJ    669,703,665
22   Admiral BUCKEYE MAN‎   SWaRM    535,685,052
23   Fleet Admiral Lord of War‎   R.I.P.    526,163,690
24   Fleet Admiral Lutherz‎   R.I.P.    517,174,528
25   Fleet Admiral Deathmanjoe‎   SWaRM    460,850,117
26   Admiral Mad Jack‎ (v)   SOA    372,460,171
27   Admiral The Dark Lord‎   R.I.P.    335,297,942
28   Admiral Animal Mother‎ (v)   M-VAB    297,169,484

Might be patterned after Larryl as his rsp rank is higher than his fleet points rank.

[WarOgre]

It is just the algorithm that the NPC's spawn off of. They spawn off the players, but they don't use that particular player's exact fleet composition in all their spawn, for example I'm sure we've all noticed there can be NO zeus on some NPC's and others with thousands. It all has to do with the spawns in that time from what I have noticed. They all come in waves of good and bad.

I'd recommend hunting actives if you don't like the losses you'll take on NPC's.. After all we're playing a WAR game!

[Deathmanjoe]

I see this issue has arisen again. been a week now with top heavy zeus npc's and no thans. it makes them useless and un hittable/profitable. how is one supposed to catch up to the top guys which are 10x the size with no npcs? there are only 100 people playing this universe now and targets are few and far between.