NPCs

Ranks and Weapons
Every NPC is assigned a rank based on the quality of their ships and their skills as a pilot.

From worst to best the ranks are:
 * Rookie
 * Novice
 * Default (Nothing)
 * Veteran
 * Commander

When you scan a NPC's ship (or one of another player) one or several icons will appear to let you know what kind of weapons he has equipped. From left to right those are:
 * Default (every ship and turret will have this)
 * Long Range Weapons (Rail Gun, Sniper Gun)
 * Close Range Weapons (Plasma Flamethrower, Scattergun)
 * Missiles (Cannibal Missile, Carnivore Missile, Plague Missile, Scavenger Missile)

Levels:

Solo PVE Mission: Mission level - 5 levels = Mob level

Team PVE Mission: Mission level + 3 levels = Mob level

Types
NPCs' name vary depending on their level, here is a list of all NPCs you can encounter and at what level they will appear.

In general NPCs in solo terminal mission are 4 levels below the mission level except for commanders who are the same level as the mission. For party mission novices are 3 levels below the mission level, veterans are the same level as the mission and commanders are 7 levels above it.

Someone has started a google doc to collect NPC locations in Missions for the post launch US servers. You can find it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?pli=1&key=0AomM1OP8WsDUdDBkbFlNNURnM0UwRGV1ZXJORVZKdVE&hl=en_US#gid=0]. Please feel free to add missions and npc to the google doc.