Hi, I like this mod lots, after a few .95a incomplete playthroughs:
Not having the stipend to help me, before the first colony is making enough, to cover officer salaries is a pain though.
a) the happy part a small stipend is: that negative income severely limits crew size, which then limits fleet size. In my last game this pushed me to emphasize exploration in the mid-game with a smaller fleet to at least 500K credits, THEN find a colony, build it to positive cash flow to help replace the stipend income (and just accept that for a long time, ground defenses are it...the colony is basically on its own for security other than what I can afford to bribe away), THEN perhaps officer-up/bulk up fleet size to get big bounties.
b) the sad part of a small stipend is: I can only have a few officers in my fleet for a long period of a career. They can also cost money if rescued: if I recover an excellent level 7 mercenary officer...they instantly cost me money and now I need to rush to a port to fire them (I cannot in good conscience simply space them on the spot, now can I?)
In the big picture: Trying to get more than a few officers on payroll before having a colony is challenging. My opposite numbers (Remnant, pirate or otherwise) are not constrained by this.
I tried to ignore this "no stipend means I could end up running around paying officer salaries" in a mid-game with a bounty-killing incoming strategy, and was facing a -40K per month deficit. Finally had to thrown in towel and it was painful to dismiss that much talent.
I luv that the mod config ini allows me to tweak the stipend...which I've done in my current game, and I'm covering the cost of one destroyer, three frigates, and three supply/fuel cruisers and two level 7 officer in the early game and only face -700 deficit.
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Perhaps the above implies a request for a future option in Ruthless Sector: a setting to allow "number of free officers" to whatever the player (or the mod author) thinks should be allowed. Or tweak the salaries. Or have an alternative type of salary-stipend: "the stipend pays salary cost for N of your captains for N years but doesn't cover anything else"
I.e. give the player some Captains of their own when facing "Remnants fleets with 6 Captains"