It would also keep the combat from getting boring once players reach a level where their ships/armaments are so strong the battles are no longer scary. Once you have that frigate or luxury liner armed with torpedoes or the latest from Canimus yards, these kinds of events might keep the game feeling fresh and give combat that "anything can happen" kind of feeling without the events always seeming negative (some are good, some are bad, etc).
I would stress, however, that these events might be hard on beginners, so the "Time the Healer" quality might need to be checked against some of them though.
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