Aside from the rebel flagship, do you guys have any observations on the changes to normal?
So far, here's what I've seen so far:
-scrap rewards are much, much lower. Missiles and drone rewards seem to be more or less the same, though in general I usually manage to save enough to have a surplus. For scrap though the amount you get is much lower than normal. Comparing the total amount of scrap I get from normal and hard, I get around 500 less scrap on hard when it ends. That can make things tricky since you'll have to pick one or two systems that won't be maxed, especially if you buy the extra systems on stores.
-hard to tell, but it seems that the enemy is a bit faster on repairs, even on early sectors.
-lots and lots of ships having an artemis or leto missiles. Aside from that, you might run into some drone using ships on the first sector with a defense drone II, which can be pretty nasty on certain ships on sector 1 and 2.
Aside from that, there really isn't much change I think.