The new death penalty doesn't help either. It sounded great on paper and I was on board, but the net result is dying allows my GS to stay low so there are limited threats, but the massive amounts of loot you can acquire allow me to bulk up on super armor and super weapons, plus plenty of ammo.
It was probably too early in the release for me to start my "a18 is too easy" rant but um, it really is too easy. If I have to wait until day 80 to get a decent threat, that's a flaw. "Think of the new players" isn't a good argument either, because every single one of us on this forum was a new player, and we managed to get through it. Hell, sounds like a lot of us reveled in it.