Ship upgrades

Uber weapons don't seem right for this kind of game. Remember the EOC mission where you face off against two cruisers and a carrier? My little corvette blew them all out of space in 10 seconds with some well placed disruptors and a pair of cutting beams. Cruisers should be all but invincible to anything out of their class except to heavy weapons like deathblows.

That said, I wouldn't mind having a death-blow or two, just so I can fly around feeling powerful because I'm carrying a couple thermonuclear bombs

In Unstable Space, I have rebalanced the ships and weapons considerably. Cruisers will be very nearly invincible. The player will need a large fleet and lots of luck to take them out. Additionally, pretty much all missiles will be nuclear. Even with deathblows, or other powerful thermonuc's, you would need dozens to take down a cruiser. And that is overlooking the problem that cruisers will be packing dozens of missiles themselves, all also nukes.