The ECM attack is one of the ways that poor players can survive combat in Novarunner. Simply close to within a few meters of your opponent, and unleash the ECM attack. It will kill their throttle and stun them for 15 seconds, allowing you to either get away or chip away a substantial amount of their hull. Naturally, since it's so open to abuse, the base price for it is $30,000.

Implementing the ECM attack system required me to implement an "upgrade" system. You can purchase upgrades at any shop and install them either in flight or in the equipment manager aboard a station. Most upgrades are simple survival tools, such as "refill my shield" or "repair my hull." However, you can buy some upgrades which permanently alter your ship's stats, making it take more damage or go faster. The player can make the ship their own through obsessive upgrades, and rice their space Honda Civic to the level that it can surpass even the high-end ships on sale in boutique outlets.

I'm considering implementing paint-job upgrades that do things like change the shader that is used to render the ship. Stuff for personalization, to improve replay value.

Upgrades are permanent, and do not affect the trade-in value of your ship when you decide to toss it for a higher-end machine.