If a mission is run with only newbies then sure. What are the odds your gonna get 10 equally newbie players in one team for a mission?
Even a single mission more then the rest of the team gives you an enormous edge running on the new system and there ain't that many brand new players so your gonna wind up with veterans mixed in which brings it right back to the veterans easily out performing the newbies and thus getting far higher payment.
((Compare, say, Grate to any of the brand newbies. Grate is good, if his specific skills are needed. If not? He's very nearly dead weight. Really, one mission doesn't make nearly as much a difference as your character's personality and specializations.))
((The mission had three veterans. Two of them were members of the original five. I don't see Feyri breathing. I don't see her body for that matter. Hell, Charles, a character oh so horrifically biased in favor of speech and charisma survived unscathed while Feyri, a well-armed, well-equipped veteran lost her body. I'd personally think that it isn't very unbalanced...))
((Three of the people who I'm sure were complete newbies--Xan, Lyra, and Grate--came out unscathed. Luck plays a huge role [pun intended] as well.))
Random chances. I'm looking at it based purely on odds from nothing but guaranteed facts meaning stats and personal equipment.
((So, you're ignoring the empirical for the theoretical? You're ignoring how easily a few die rolls can put someone with over an RL year of missions so amazingly far below those with no experience, and assuming that someone with a single mission under their belt is going to be incredibly more powerful than someone with none?))
Possible but the veteran still has better odds of performing well then a new player does. I factored in potential for overshoots when I worked it out.
((I'd like to see the math. And then I'd point out how likely things not going according to the average would be.))
((And shouldn't veterans be better and be rewarded better? They played longer, they deserve it. After all, what's the point of having level ups if everybody ends up being equal to each other? Many RPGs work that way.))
((Another consideration. Experienced employees of real-life groups get paid better. Aside from that, they've also invested orders of magnitude more time and effort into this game than most newbies. Stephen Hawking hasn't done squat, whereas the veterans seem to be using most turns of their on-ship time improving their knowledge, equipment, selves, or whatever. Or at least using Tinker to try and do so.))
And the budget system is not likely to include 150+ tokens for you to spend on equipment so older players who have high end personal equipment are certainly going to have a massive edge in that regard.
((No one has been on 30 missions; I don't think anyone's been on more than half a dozen, and the mean payment for them has NOT been 25+ tokens. No one has that kind of advantage.))
In effect I've come into the game just in time for the things that gave new players a fighting chance to be removed.
((Actually, the changes you're worried about, A haven't happened, B require player malice, and C are ones the GM has said he'd prevent.))