Well, it's just a case of T1 players quitting matches before they start, in order to drop their MMR score. This is why you're up against them.
For example, I'm T1 rank 4 (purple) and with a 40% MMR score, I mostly have Raider team mates who are rank 6 and unranked a large portion of my games. As an Antagonist, I'm up against 2-3 T1, rank 1 players in a team and it's incredibly hard. That stated, if you can win, their skill bonus will really boost your score. But probability is you're going to lose. LOL

I think everyone will agree when I say - the cut scenes are excellent. The animation is top notch, acting good, modelling superb etc etc.
However........
When you've watched them hundreds of time, you really don't want to watch them again.
So, please when people choose to skip the cutscene, please skip it, instead of playing half and in many cases plays the whole thing?

If you don't want to do this then how about you drop the players who skipped it straight into the game and those who want to watch it, once they've finished watching it?
It really pisses the hell out of me, having to watch the cut scenes for the umpteenth time!
Even when I started playing I skipped the cut scenes. I kind of figured that's what the cinema option was all about and also realized that fellow high level players didn't want to watch it.

Having played Doldren quite a bit now and worse, with no CQC card after at least 55 or so rerolls to try and get one (seriously MSE?), I can safely say that Doldren is really only effective as a Raider. If you play in a team that sticks together Doldren isn't getting anywhere. He's squishier than a pea. If you are very lucky, to play against a team, incapable of sticking together, then a Doldren will wreck them, but sadly a good team will keep him locked down most of the time and in wounded state. I've found playing Doldren to be far, far harder as an Antagonist than as a Raider.

Week long bans, as if MSE is going to bother with looking through reports.  Shrink the tiny player pool even more.  Of course don't fix the improper match making that is causing the throwing.  Or the weak 2nd protector dev admitted brokenness causing the throwing.  And no dedicated servers with 3rd world potato internet hosts.  Spend the whole fiscal year budget on an actress likeness instead.  I don't know how anyone cannot see this, but they are just trying to squeeze out as much money as fast as they can before they move onto the next project.  Having a robust community of players in 3 years in not something they are working towards.  look at actions, not words.  They think capping farmers is going to cause them to buy gold and exp boost, but it will just cause them to play another game.

Good post and completely agree.

After the dreadful July 2nd patch, where I eventually got a blueprint after 7 days wait, the new update brings:

1. One BP a day, compared to at least 5 common/advanced BP and 1-2 rare is a joke.
2. Pre July update ALL BP's were guaranteed, that is, if you lost the game, you could try again, unlike now it goes into a pot, for the next day, that if you lose it's gone.
3. No advanced BP's.
4. Rare BP are very rare.
5. The fact we get one a day, you should ALWAYS at least not get a duplicate.
6. I've lost many pots because of people quitting due to terrible connections. No protection for lost BP's because of it. Add an antagonist and people quit or get killed, a lot.

I decided to reinstall Spacelords to work out just what the rewards were. So, I've done a full game breakdown of the new update playing the Treasure Pot and 4 games as a Raider with the 5th as an Antagonist.

From yesterday, before the reset my Treasure pot was standing at:
XP 1033
Gold 8756
Faction 4061

Your first game of the day is to win what's in the Treasure Pot. I was playing as Hans, level 145, with his first weapon, with 19% Bonus to Affiliation and Gold. I also had 15% card bonus and 22% Aequilibrium bonus for XP gain.
I won with a score of 9.1 and received the following:
XP 1287
Gold 9481
Faction 4840

As you can see, I never got the full pot, as you need a score of 10 to get it. Even though I got above the pot, that was only due to the Bounty Hunter and Affiliation Bonus on my weapon. I forgot to write down what I did win, but it wasn't that far off what the actual Treasure Pot was.

I played the next four games with Hans.
The Pot started off with
XP 800
Gold 2000
Faction 500
 
Onto the first game of the day. To gain the full rewards you need a perfect score of 10. The rewards are as follows:
XP 800 - 1200
Gold 0 - 7000
Faction 0- 2000
I played Fistful of Sand, with a beginner team (a rank 6, a rank - and a rank 4) I won with a score of 7.5 (very nearly failed) and received the following:
XP 1508
Gold 6272
Faction 1792
The Pot increased by
XP 99
Gold 1729
Faction 494

I moved on leveled up to 146 and leveled up Hans first weapon to Affiliation and Bounty Hunter Bonus up to 36%. Again, 15% card bonus and 22% Aequilibrium bonus for XP gain.
Pot now standing at:
XP 899
Gold 3729
Faction 994
Onto the second game of the day. The rewards are as follows:
XP 600 - 1000
Gold 0 - 3500
Faction 0- 3000
I played the mission Double Agent, with a team  of Rank 6, 5 & 4) Won with a score of 8.3 and received the following:
XP 1268
Gold 3965
Faction 3400
The Pot increased by
XP 67
Gold 584
Faction 500

Pot now standing at:
XP 986
Gold 4313
Faction 1494
Onto the third game of the day. The rewards are as follows:
XP 400 - 800
Gold 0 - 3500
Faction 0- 2000
I played the mission A Low Blow, with a team  of Rank 5, 3 & Bot) Won with a score of 8.1 and received the following:
XP 986
Gold 3867
Faction 2210
The Pot increased by
XP 67
Gold 656
Faction 375

Pot now standing at:
XP 1041
Gold 4969
Faction 1869
Onto the fourth game of the day. The rewards are as follows:
XP 200 - 600
Gold 0 - 3500
Faction 0- 1000
I played the mission Hanging By A Thread, with a team  of Rank 6, - & Bot) Won with a score of 9.0 and received the following:
XP 878
Gold 4320
Faction 1233
The Pot increased by
XP 37
Gold 323
Faction 93

Pot now standing at:
XP 1078
Gold 5292
Faction 1962
Onto the fifth game of the day. The rewards are as follows (and every game thereafter):
No XP
Gold 0 - 1750
Faction 0- 1000
I played as an Antagonist and deliberately lost (not even spawning into the game, just spectating) to see what was added to the pot. I played as Lycus Deon, with a 20% card bonus compared to Hans' 15%. No bonuses on his weapons. I played the mission In Shock and lost with a score of 1.8 and received the following:
Gold 315
Faction 180
The Pot increased by
Gold 1435
Faction 820

The treasure pot so far (if I play any more games, which I won't) is:
XP 1078
Gold 6727
Faction 2782


So now you've seen it, what does the new update promote?

1. Casual gamers who play no more than 4/5 matches a day.
2. A higher tally of gold and possibly Faction points in those matches than compared to previous update.
3. Antagonists who lose games and I suppose Raiders as well, as some reward goes into the Treasure pot.

What does the new update penalise?

1. Serious gamers. No XP, low gold and faction rewards after the fourth game leaves no incentive to play.

2. Adding 1,400 gold and 800 faction points, or so, to the pot, if you lose, as an Antagonist, doesn't really give people the incentive to play after 4 games.

3. XP reward daily is really terrible and lower than before the update. It means that new players are going to have a hard time leveling up. This means they're not going to want to play when they're being beaten to a pulp by better enemies, due to having a higher ranked player in their team.

4. Although not shown in this breakdown, I think the game now rotates at 18 hour intervals (correct?). The update came in on July 2nd. So far 65 hours have passed, meaning 4 rotations. There hasn't been one common or rare blueprint in that time. Compared the previous update, in 65 hours, someone on 8hour rotations will have had 8 so far. That means on average 7/8 common blueprints and 3/4 rares. This also means that duplicates will tally in 14/16000 gold for commons and 12/16000 for rares. Giving around 26/32000 gold.
There have been no XP multipliers, which technically makes the Treasure Hunter stat for weapons obsolete.
Understandably the Bounty Hunter and Affiliation stats are now more important than they ever were to maximise on 4 games worth of gold and points.
You're onto the third day of the patch. And were I a new player, I wouldn't have one blueprint to build for my character, leaving me at a colossal disadvantage.

5. Gameplay was much harder for me and I'm lvl 146! Imagine how it was for my team mates who were 100+ levels below? Because of this, on average the final scores were lower, meaning much lower rewards.

6. I haven't lost, but I should imagine that if you play for the Treasure Pot, on your very first game of the day and lose, you certainly won't be getting what you have. I'm also imagining that only a portion of the winnings would be added to the next pot, not the full amount.

7. 50% of my games were with bots. One with a bot a level 6 and a noob. This makes winning games much harder, due to me being at a much higher level than them. There going to have it tougher than me, due to no bonuses to health and weapon/strike power, unlike me.

8. It's clear that as a result of this update, there are less people playing, which is bringing more bots into the game. I read a previous article by sonofoz who was put into one of his 4 matches with three bots. He of course lost and with it the bonuses:
 
https://www.spacelordsthegame.com/community/index.php?topic=31078.0

He thinks it's a bug. I think it's because the pool of players is dropping. This is going to become more common and in turn, more people will stop playing.You are going to lose your player base MercurySteam.

9. I've just noticed this, so this a late modification, but they've also turned off all gold rewards for solo missions. That's right. As if the low gold wasn't an insult already, they've now completely removed any gold rewards from solo missions making them obsolete as well. What is the point playing a solo instance, when you aren't getting any reward? Pointless.

The cons vastly outweigh the pros of this update.
I was a game's tester for Sega, back in the mid 90's and Sony later on. I would never have given support for this update and neither would any of my colleagues.

I've already said it, but I strongly suggest you rollback to previous update. The Treasure pot is a good idea, but if you rollback, have it only for Antagonist game losses.
Conclusion is simply that you are driving away serious gamers, that in turn will increase matchmaking wait times as well as more bots in games. This does not bode well for Spacelords and MercurySteam.
Bottom line: This update is insane. Whoever came up with this should not be working in the gaming industry, but instead sitting at the table with the Madhatter, the Dormouse and Alice in Wonderland.

I highly doubt it's a bug.
What's happening is as I explained. This is the direct result of people leaving the game and now having a small player pool. Limiting XP to 4 matches means that people aren't playing any more. If people don't play there's no one to team up with so guess what? You get Huey, Luey and Duey to come along into missions that are going to screw you over.
At least in pre patch, you could just have quit the game and the game would have been over there and then, with you only having to wait 5 minutes. Instead, under the new system, first game you've lost 6k gold, 3k faction points, 1000 xp and your first game is over. However, at least some of those earnings will go in the treasure chest, but still a lot less that what you could have won.