This has everything to do with what server you play on then, because on my server this shit just doesn't happen with any sort of frequency to give a damn. It is a rare fucking site to see any sort of coordinated trade run that does not take advantage of peacetimes. Even out on the sea, you don't see things like blockades and fleets of pirates just hanging out waiting for merchant ships on any regular basis. What you're talking is large scale stuff where yea, you would give a damn but most you see is a bunch of farmcarts travelling roads during peacetime. My guild did a shitload of traderuns over the weekend from Solz to Ysentere, in the middle of the day on Saturday. Did not run into one pirate ship (or any other ship for that matter) was the most boring thing you can do is just sit on a ship and watch the waves go by. And all we were was one galleon with 15 people on it. Rolled right up to the enemy dock with 15 reds standing right there, couldn't do a damn thing because as soon as they start the attack they were dead by guards. We told all our people not to attack, we didn't and turned on all our packs without one death and ported out. Did it 5 times in a row with no incident.
I've never seen a game where PvP is supposed to be the centerpiece of the game and most of it's players find ways to bypass it in anyway they can. I can't tell you the last time I saw a farm cart come through a zone that wasn't in peacetime.
Yeah and those players won't last long either. If you are just playing this as a glorified farmville, you are going to have a bad time. This game is what you make of it. I'll be having a blast griefing, ganking, scamming, etc. with some downtime playing farmville, crafting/gathering/fishing, dungeons, and doing trade runs. Shit, there is pvp right outside my house in sandeep. I am on another server so your experiences may vary of course.
And yes, people do avoid risk with peace only trade runs. I can still catch them in the middle of the ocean like pirates, which is pretty entertaining. And those of us willing to take risks and turn packs into a red zone, just make more profit because no one is doing them. There is risk and reward, and while I may wish it was more substantial, it still provides plenty of content for me and I still giggle like a little girl when I gank someone running packs.
Half our wormhole Eve guild came to play (we fly a Guristas pirate symbol on our ships), and while it may not be has 'hardcore' as Eve, I always have something to do and can find pvp in 5 minutes, rather than spend 4 hours in eve just trying to find a drake to gank, ganking it, and having to rinse/repeat. Imagine itty 5s, freighters, and drakes coming thru your wormhole everyday. Then imagine stealing an itty 5, flying it into sleepers, and looting the wreck. Sure you can't keep the itty 5, but that's what it feels like to steal a farmcart from your own faction. It kind of feels like eve sometimes too. You have highsec, you have lowsec (contested zones), castles (nullsec) and you have the open water (wormholes, spam that dscan!). Sure I don't have as much to lose, but that's kinda great because people don't have to pos up because they are scared to lose their ship. I'll run a tradepack thru contested zone, because it's not really any skin off my back (50s for a quality certificate). Having nothing to lose just makes an easier entrance to pvp for casual players. They don't have to farm for 3 days to get back in a ship and pvp again, which increases content. It may not be enough to get you off on ruining someones day, but fucking over someones trade run/ship is still pretty satisfying. Plus once there are castles, you definitely have something to lose (your castle, your income, all your houses, etc).
