I am actually getting weak players of the same level on my mattle tab. In fact, I found a player 19 levels above me who (due to a energy-only ship build) went down in 5 shots. (and an easy hack) The weakest player (rank-wise) was 13 levels below me and had the same ship layout as me (weapons and cloak focus). even so, his ship was full of 6 weak weapons instead of less higher weapons that he should have had for his level. I don't think it is a problem with game balance, I think it is a problem with how players choose to design their ship.
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I have suggested 7 Races, 5 Organizations, 3 locations, 3 materials, and 20 planets.
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