from what i can see from restarting a new account, money isnt a problem for new people, its the exp thats hard; usually one base game earns a new person more money than they have the exp to buy with. Buying double thors and salvo will only take a little time leeching in a base game, and is almost the only way to gain fast exp to buy better equipment. And gar, while it is easy for your adverage so called "midlevels" to kill "newbies", after 5k exp the ship have pretty much been maxed out so there really isnt much difference in the ship strengths anymore. So the "priv" dont have much advantage over the "midlevels" except in skill.