I'll get this out of the way, I am a massive carebare LE user and probably will be for a long time. I was awful at PvP when I first played Neocron, and I'm still awful now. With less time available to shoot pixels I dont have the time to invest in replacing the stuff I would inevitabley lose, so the chip stays in. Having said that.......
Would it be technically possible to have LE Chips to be deactivated while a runner is within a faction warzone?
We currently will have 1 warzone within DoY, which claims the modern day Neocron record as most bombed out shithole in the waste. You could use the fallout from the neutron party thrown at the last DoY inhabitants as a lore(ish) reason to cause interferance with LE chips functioning, thus they are inactive. This would obviously mean that while within the warzone LE runners would be be able to attack and be attacked by other runners.
There might well be current LE users, that unlike me have the time and inclination to get involved with PvP, but dont have the allies or resources to back them up (or from some other reason), so they just stick with the LE and carry on farming. This could give those runners a chance to dip their toe into the PvP world to see if it's for them. To me this would lead to 3 possible outcomes:
1 - "Holy shitballs! I love PvP so I'm going to yank this chip out of my head and go shoot someone in the face!" Yup you've added another PvPer to the rest of the NC world. Maybe they fought alongside some faction mates and clanned up with them, or just grouped with a nice bunch of murderers from various groups, or hell maybe they just like shooting people on their own. The point is you've added another person to kill or be killed by, and that's a good thing.
2 - "Well that was fun, and I will return again, but I think I'll just stick with the LE for now" Well at least this runner is giving it a shot, even if it means he or she is a part time PvPer who you can't shoot in the face in many varied locations. It does kind of suck for non LE users that this person gets to pick and chose were they can be attacked, but hey they'll have 1 less useful brain chip installed when they do join the fray thanks to that inactive but still implanted LE chip. Who knows maybe they'll be convinced to join the party full time further down the line.
3 - "No sir. I don't like it" You can't win them all over and some people will just keep that chip installed and will have no interest in the slightly safer PvP option either. It's unlikely you'll change this persons mind if they have no interest in PvP.
I'm sure there are potential problems with this (zone line hopping from LE users to enjoy a sort of immunity would be one thing I think would need a way to work around) and it's probably not the most extensively well thought out plan, but I think it does have the potential to get more people involved with PvP. With the server population as it is I honestly think a way to get more potential targets for the PvPers to shoot it can only be a good thing be it on a temporary or more permanent basis.
Feel free to add your thoughts/suggestions or point out any massive glarings problems I have over looked.
Devs, would something like this be possible?