Isn't it kind of cheating that friends (such as Volkov) are allowed in the arena with you? 2 vs 1? That's not fair. Plus, you can just fly in circles while the others blast your opponent to smithereens. If there was perhaps some way for the game to tell when a friendly ship enters the arena with you and it then refuses to let you participate until they leave, that would fix things up.
I'm not sure how well this works with autons.
Friends In The Arena
Let autons go, they're not very powerful and if you're playing a freighter they can prove to be somewhat useful providing automatic omnidirectional fire and allowing the auton to deal with smaller enemies while you focus your main gun on the big baddie. They are a little annoying when they get in your line of fire accidentally though.
[schilcote] It doesn't have to be good, it just has to not be "wow is that the only thing you could think of" bad