Okay.. I'll try to clarify this. For each ship generated in a system(dependant on how many ships you set as average), there is a 5% chance that this ship will be a pers. Any pers. This can be altered within each systs seperately to have a specific pers spawn there more often.. like Iuso in the Tre'helipar syst. (I think that's the one, though, it doesn't matter, it's just an example) This also means that if you got lucky, you could have all ships in a system to be a pers. If they all hit the 5%. For just 2 ships to be a pers at the same time in the same system, it's 0,25% chance.
Here's a brief example, say you have 5 different pers. You go in a system with 5 average ships. You enter the system and there is 5 ships. Then there is 25%(actually, it is 22,62%, but for the sake of explaining, let's keep it at that.) chance that ONE of the ships will be a pers. And then, you've got to cut that number again to have a specific pers. So, there is a 5%, when you enter such system with that many existing pers, that the one you want will be there and just that one.
The part I'm not sure about is if Nova handles multiple pers with same names as one with increased chances of appearing. That means if you wanted Bob Marley to spawn more often, would making multiple Bob Marley actually be a good idea or would it lead to keep appearing after his death/capture/whatever? Same with those pers who are set to "Hold a grudge". What if you provoked a Bob Marley and then met another Bob Marley, would he hold the grudge the other Bob Marley had against you?
EDIT: corrected numbers thanks to belthazar
This post has been edited by Mumbling Psycho : 24 August 2006 - 09:21 AM