Hi CMDRs,
I have the same concern about new players, I remember how long it took me to get a nice ship in the begining. I understand that the fact the NPCs have been lvled up is a good thing for players that already have bigger, and well armed ships, but new players will probably see this nice lvl up more as a wall they ll be hitting on. I found it long to be able at last to buy a nice ship and feel that new players will have to wait twice the time I had to wait myself. I fear a lot of new players will simply move away from Elite, finding that the progress curve is just too hard. I wouldn't like the galaxy to end up empty and only populated with large ships of the "first age" CMDRs..
progression for new players is now 10x as fast as it was in 1.0. New players or save resetters wont even see the scary AI much, if at all. New players will do fine, its the skilless grinders who are in trouble...