Good God. Don't you lot have any imagination?BillSheil wrote:In a couple of hours of play you the normal payout for combat missions is in the region of a billion credits per hour at which point money and rank have no further meaning and you are capable of taking on any threat that the universe can offer (and the game/system can handle) by sheer brute force.
How do you credibly combine that with any meaningful trading, building or thinking?
The missions are giving you too much money? Become a philanthropist! Decide to donate all (or some %) of your earnings to charity! Suddenly, you're not swimming in cash any more.
You simply need to think outside the (sand)box. You are given extraordinary freedom to do what you want in this game, so do it to set your own difficulty level. Make up some story to justify it. As an example, take a look at the squiddy thread - he's made his own set of rules to make his game more of a challenge. Just because the game throws money at you doesn't mean that you have to do everything which pays hugely, and it doesn't mean that you have to use that money to buy the most humungous fleet you possibly can. Do some roleplaying to give yourself a reason to play.
There you go. There's your 'think' for you.