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I did end up addressing the difficulty by making it easier for each route to complete the debt payoff. It should now be possible to complete the debt payoff in your first run, but it still is not easy and will require planning and upgrades.

The game does not end at the debt payoff though, but from that point on the dynamic shifts significantly, promoting the use of different methods without the punishing interest rate looming

It was a mistake with the copy writer, will address this immediately.

There is a failure state at 100000 credits of debt. It is definitely possible to complete the game, but you must learn the payout and success rates, which is intended. There is a fixed piracy rate which becomes a major factor after debt has been paid and you can no longer dump wealth, also you are accruing interest every time you travel, so travel definitely has down sides. The wealth states dictate base prices which fluctuate in a range for each state, you may find that one "Rich" station will have better ore prices than another, but they should always be higher than "Poor."

I created the game as an open world gambling simulator and I feel that it serves that purpose quite well, while still necessitating an understanding of the underlying mechanics and rewarding experimentation. 

Thank you for the review and I appreciate that you took the time to try it!

I'm still balancing, but Alpha 3 is ready to post, I'm just tweaking the interest rate to force the player into buying upgrades to make more money to pay off the debt. I have decreased the rate of failure just a bit so now it's more about grinding to pay off chunks of debt rather than worrying about the repo man. 

This was the easiest way I could implement your suggestion, but I still need to balance the economy around it:

I am definitely still adjusting the economy, my initial debt was 50,000, but at that point the interest is higher than mission payouts. I can refactor most aspects of the economy with a single change, so I'm taking my time figuring out a debt amount that is oppressive but not impossible. I see what you mean about the upgrades, there was definitely pricing in the menu, but I must have reverted that accidentally. I will hotfix that immediately.

The best idea I have right now for agency is to offer 4 jobs in the bar, 1 for each category. I will also need to refactor the balance of mission payouts in that case.

Edit: hotfix implemented:

I am so happy to hear you're doing the trench run! I have tried Project Stardust and really felt the mechanics were lacking (basically had to spam the brakes to get through it alive.) Once you get it to a point you're happy with, don't forget to put it on Sidequest. Several reviews of Project Stardust explicitly mention a desire for a Quest native trench run. I know it's a fine line you have to walk to prevent C&D, but you do deserve some kudos for what you've accomplished so far.

Thank you so much for responding! I am so excited to see what the future brings!

I really hope you are still developing this! This is the perfect space game for Quest. Combat is difficult, but very rewarding. I loved having the ability to just fly around the stunning environments! Been looking for something like this for a while and it really makes me want to binge the movies again. Thank you so much for making this! It's great to be able to fly through space without having to link up my laptop for Squadrons!