The balance of the game has been discussed quite a bit here. It is a very, very difficult game to beat. I'll be the first to admit, i used a text editor to make some personalized changes.
In other words...
I'm not afraid to admit it, I put countless hours into this game and felt it was doing me wrong so used a weapon more powerful than plasma (NotePad+).
I'm now playing the game again with the knowledge I have built up from going through it once already. This time I wont be making any changes. I do however wish that "Beginner" was a bit more user friendly but I'm not going to complain or debate the game creators vision. I'll respect it instead. Might not like it
but will respect it.
The changes I made..
I knew nothing about modding save game files until mervx game me some inspiration, he really helped me out along with Juku and others.