What is it?

While poking around inside the Nova Ship files, I noticed a Nova bit, number 8888, that was set to go high (programing and electronics speak for on) whenever the player either buys or captures a capital ship, like the Auroran Carrier or the Federation Carrier. Does anyone know what Nova bit 8888 is supposed to do?

According to the Bits Bible, it causes more powerful pirates to appear when you have a powerful enough ship.

sombody should make a cheat plug for noobs, except it makes more powerful ships appear when you get a shuttle