Then it becomes solely a question of who has more skill because differences in wealth are negligible. Oh the horror, even footing. Yes, part of the zone is building up your ships. What people seem to forget is that after you have built up your ships, there are still other people to kill and flag games to win. Back in old (I mean OLD) hyperspace, the majority of the time was spent in the maxed phase and nobody complained about it being boring. Because it wasn't.