I agree with Chevre, I also wouldn't recommend doing up the NPC character sheets in full detail but instead just picking the key stats and setting them at the level you think they need to be at. It also isn't all just about stats in combat, using the environment to their benefit could give them an edge (asteroid with high EM radiation to toast the PC's new toys for example). Giving the NPC an escape plan can also really help, I once played an NPC that was really weak in combat but due to a undisclosed quirk kept coming back to life over time slightly stronger so the first time in combat he died in one round but then eventually could go toe to toe with one of the PCs. The players seemed to really like this as they often wondered when/if he'd show up and what he was really up to. His death was the ultimate escape plan for the NPC (though with him I had to use him rarely as otherwise his ability would appear stale).

Another trick to make NPCs believable is to give them a gimmick based on their organisation. Odds are good that a Martian ranger isn't going to be packing a whole arsenal of anti-synth weaponry, but his back up might be (possibly in the form of jammed drones with missile launchers). Scale it up as the PCs make an impression on the world. So if your PCs walk over an encounter and then start making the assumption that their current set up is god, have your antagonists act organically, learning from their mistakes. Unless the combat was done so cleanly that there were no witness (via spimes, or forensics) or the PCs up and relocate significantly away from the scene of the crime and investigation area, they don't get a free pass. Ultimately their load-out will be identified and someone higher up the chain will brain storm a counter-kit for the rank and file to deploy. Of course if the PCs do execute a hit cleanly or they simply hit and run away, then the NPCs should remain easy until the PCs start getting cocky and stupid. Most importantly remember that the PCs winning isn't necessarily a loss for you. Yes the epic final encounter might not go according to plan and the PCs might learn nothing from it; save for their own 'invincibility', but the repercussions of that one victory may work in your favour. If the PCs continue to cause trouble and start developing a MO (Modus Operandi) then it's fair to say that the NPCs will begin to kit accordingly. Of course this falls to pieces when you're not referring to organized antagonists. If you're referring to exsurgents and TITANS then you should start off ridiculously powerful but leave an archilles heel that the PCs must figure out in order to succeed. In these events you're looking at less long term learning and scaling for the NPCs and more short-order ass-whupping. So for example I used the following encounter for my PCs. [b]ARTILLERY BEETLE Morph[/b] (Synth Morph). WT 20, Durability 150, Death Rating 300, Armour 30/30*. [i]Description[/i]: A house sized beatle shaped synth morph cover in battle damage, its armaments are covered by a pair of giant metal 'wings' which fold out to allow the artillery to fire up and over the body. The monsterous head is a large plexi-steel radar dome along the front of its head are six glowing 'eyes' – powerful particle beams and lasers used for both killing and targeting. The right side of it's 'head' below the eyes is badly damaged. An automated light machine gun rests atop the fold of each leg joint for close combat. On the up side it would appear that the infowar suite is damaged beyond repair. [i]Advantages[/i]: [list] [*]Bombardment; Skill 60, 70 DV (Blast Radius 25m). [*]Precision Blast; Skill 60, -15 AP, 35 DV (Blast Radius 12.5m). [*]'Laser' Eyes; Skill 60, -7 AP, 5d10 DV. [*]Autoturret Mounts; Light Machine Gun, Skill 40, -2 AP, 3d10+6. [*]All armament (except turrets) are laser guided. [/list] [i]Disadvantages[/i]: [list] [*]Slow, it may move or shoot. It must turn to shoot things directly behind it and cannot shoot beneath itself. It has a 180' Firing Arc but can only fire two of its weapons per round. [*]Minimum Range, within 30m it can no longer fire it's artillery pieces. Any character underneath the huge morph cannot be targeted by weapon fire – but stands a chance of being crushed as it moves (successful Fray or suffer 5d10 DV). [*]Weakpoints, missile bays (when launching), infowar suite (right side of 'head'), under-side, all 15/15 armour. [/list]

I would say "do not push yourself into a corner". You should usually limit the moment when players lose their bodies to the last 25% or so of the adventure, or of the segment of the adventure before a group resleeving/access to a body shop (the "Mind the WMD" quickstart adventure uses this masterfully: there are two combats, one just before a mass resleeve and the second at the end of the adventure). First, there have been a lot of casualties at once? Though luck, even with resleeving policies, some time will pass before the dead are reinstantiated (and the poor indenturees now will have to start over). If the stack is recovered by "good guys" (that is, not Nine Lives tugs or the like trying to make a profit), then it has to be identified, and then the insurance company can pay for resleeve. That gives a couple of days the players can still die and be resleeved quicky if the stack is recovered. Another option is to resleeve them as Infomorphs (the Ghostrider Module is there for a reason...), or to "take over" the body of an NPC! Mind you, that is really illegal... but they don't have an option, now do they? It is, after all, "for the greater good"... Second, their selection of "backup morphs" tells me all that is to say about their mindset: they think they can "jump" from their current body to the real "killing machine". Sorry, pal, but unless you make yourself vulnerable to hacking by implanting a cyberbrain in the biomorphs, they will need at least an hour to be "downloaded" from their current morph. Or they can just get their cortical stack "popped out", killing them and forcing the Continuity Tests (plus the resleeving tests!) after they are sleeved (another hour or so for the Ghost, mere minutes for the Cases and the Reaper...). And they expect to get into a firefight, and get out shooting. That will mean casualties, like it or not, and EP is not a game for baby-sitting GM's. If you set your players up, anyway, it is your responsability to give them one or two ways out, even if those ways mean, in EP, to blow your own stack off and leave no trace so your backup won't be erased for gruesome crimes against Transhumanity! Of course, they will need an Ego Bridge or a morph with a cyberbrain to pull this off. Third, if they bother buying some blueprints and a CM big enough, they can make their own morphs. Granted they will need a lot of time and a medtank for the biomorphs, but they can "print" a synthmorph in hours if they have the materials, specially the "spare Morphs" depicted in Gatecrashing. Fourth, we are not seers. We cannot give you any answer without knowing the character's sheets, and the player's way of using them. Personally, I'll tell you that I have had trouble to stop my veteran players from sweeping the floor with vanilla NPCs in EP, and they did not spend a lot of points into combat skills (Fray, Kinetic Weapons, and little more... the one using a Ghost picked some blades and profession: medicine, though. He can get to you and pop your stack without anybody noticing... The rest, movement skills, and the recommended ones in the core book, plus some "standard hacking"). In fact, they had no skill above 60 wihtout the morph's bonuses. And yes, I know you mention you made clear to the players that EP is not D&D. Sadly, a player might need a dire experience to really understand that, and I tend to introduce new players into a combat situation into a simulspace or in a way that, if they die, it will take little time for the rest of the team to resleeve him, without endangering everybody else. My advice would be to run pre-made scenarios to get a feeling of both the game and how the players react to it before making your own adventures, so the timing in the events allows them to make mistakes that won't ruin the fun nor to force you to baby-sit. Sorry if the post sounds harsh, but I'm quite spend at this time of the day, and the way the new forum lets me see 5 lines of my answer at a time doesn't really help to make good answers :S

Somewhere on this site there is a "Goon" sheet for just this purpose. Flesh them out like one would flesh out thugs and goons in SR. A few skills here and there that matter. You'll need to gauge how you want your NPCs to run. Realistically, at a professional level you'd want them to run on par with the players, if you're looking for something more monty haul, some handwaving and reduced skills are all you need. I like to keep in mind that most people with bodies are very capable in their field of choice, if not multiple fields. Unless they're soon to be free or have been recently freed indentures, you can bet that what you come across is both confident and skilled.

I completely understand that the average character is going to be an exceptional transhuman. In this setting I like to keep my players going head to head with other exceptional if not more exceptional threats, keeps them thinking and on their toes. This also denotes a strong sense of realism. In an advanced setting, you're not going to have an small array of guys simply charge you guns blazing. Tactics, comms, ECM, ECCM, flanking, etc. are going to be utilized by any combat threat. Accordingly and on other avenues such as negotiations, dodging, vague intentions, brevity are going to be used just as much. Dicing goons is what goons are for, its fun, but its more monty haul IMHO, and that's humble. Don't get me wrong I'm all for that, and I play with thus, using tough guys only sparingly. But brushing players with death does give the game a certain thrill.

Wading through hordes of enemies is something better done with d20 than with EP. The standard campaign setting for a Firewall team might as well demand exceptional enemies as existential risks are, by nature, threats to an entire civilization. Wading through hordes of feeble minded barbarians with tusks or greasy clothes is unrealistic at best considering thus. But, these are just playing styles and all are welcome. :)

I think in all games I have played, the best balancing formula is: 1. Many bad opponents is better than few good. 2. High survivability and low damage output is better than the other way around. 3. Look at the PC's skillset as baseline, don't take skills from 'thin air'. 4. Reinforcements / multiple encounters can make fights more interesting without being too hard. (With better I mean more balanced, better to have to avoid TPW) So, what does this do for EP? Well, high fray and lower-than-PC's weapon skill is what I'd recommend. Make sure the opponents don't have higher speed than the players (unless you make them face only one opponent but read my formula for that). Give them weapons that will do damage on whatever armor they run around with but won't melt them in one attack. Opponents with decent durability and wound threshold is good, as is armor that makes sense for whatever they are doing. A point to remember though is that ghosts are meant for infilitration, so if they do not use ambush tactics they are not using their morphs properly and you should not be "nice". If you have the upper hand you can easily kill one opponent before the "fight" even begins. Also, if you have opponents with extreme equipment and that are very skilled and the players know about this but choose to engage them anyway, that's not your fault.

As some other users told you, I think the best way to make an action (not only combat, but action), is to use the enviroment to make it more interesting, so the PC or NPC can use it on their advantage. Few things are as boring as a shootout where both sides have good cover. You'll find yourself rolling dice for hours in a scene where nobody will abandone their cover. You could use some things in the scene to give the PC some options (like the classic shoot at the fire extinguisher, or red hot steam tube). You should prize the players who use this kind of "cheap tricks" to win the fights, so in a short time, all players will be willing to find a way to get the winning hand on the scene. So, with this tricks, you can use stronger enemies, but players will know that there's always a way. (But there MUST be a way, other tan lucky dice rolls)

Chevre wrote:

...I think he secretly enjoys it.

Don't know, but I sure do.

Thampsan wrote:

The environmental hazards also make for great equalizers and are things the enemy can use as well.

Here is an old favourite from our games: when your enemies are using lasers or other beam weapons, trigger the sprinkler system.