Actually - it seems I've put that point in the wrong place. What I meant was that this: * Ideally, you should be killed as soon as possible after the game becomes unwinnable. is untrue in the sense of that unless you actually loose the fight and your ship and/or crew is obliterated there is always a...

* When you get knocked too far down, the game becomes unwinnable -- you will be unable to achieve enough power to beat the boss. True - ran into such situations more than once. But that's one of the things I love about the game. It does not "make sure" the player has everything and then s...

What BigD said. Afaik, only two ships that can have 4 slot teleporters. One Mantis and one SuperSecretHushHushRace. ^,.,^

4199 - Easy - Rock Cruiser (Type A) - Loss. (I died in the middle of sector 7)
4091 - Easy - Engi Cruiser (Type B) - Victory. (I even killed a few small ships in sector 8)
Difference? Rock cruiser got the Scrap Recovery Arm faster. Highscores are teh borken.

In my case the answer to the op's question is - immense fun factor. I didn't feel it weaker, either, although I must admit I'm probably just a tadbiased because I beat the game on my first try with this baby. :P Now for some "number crunching": 1) Amagawd less weapons! The -1 weapon slot i...

I managed to unlock Torus thingy on my fifth go with Kestrel and got blown up a moment later. Okay. Time to try the new ship, then! I carefully picked the names for my Torus and its crew (took me about 5 minutes xD). Started the run. First jump - solar flare system with an automated scout. With a ro...

I agree that having the option of selling "consumables" on stations would be making us have too much... err... scrap. I have an immense amount of fun fretting over the economical choices I have to make. Eg. Should I upgrade that weapon/shield/engine or buy that shiny teleporter pad...? Or ...