This was my reply on the Steam forums:
We aren’t aware of any hacks, and as I said the entire game is server authoritative. Clients get told how many credits they have by the server, not the other way around.
I’m not excluding a bug, but without knowing more details or the context, it’s hard to say. Also, for people saying “hacks” in chat, they may simply be uninformed and genuinely think there were hacks.
We’ve fixed a bunch of issues related to team switching and credits not staying persistent already. They’ll come in a server-side only patch tomorrow. There may be more bugs to fix; we entered Early access and it’s the first time our servers are hit with so many concurrent players. We need time to analyze reports and figure out what is going on, but I’m 99% sure that whatever issue it is, it is not hacks, because I do not see how it would be technically possible with a server that basically controls the entire gameplay. Even physics or projectile damage is entirely server controlled.
As I said, we’re not excluding potential bugs yet, so any information on what happened in that game is welcome. You mention the “start of matches”, which is already an interesting information. But then you mention “I no longer have many credits” which is contradictory, since credits get reset between matches, so you’re not supposed to have a lot of credits at the start of a match.
Are you sure those enemy ships weren’t NPCs ? The AI can obviously spawn capital ships much faster than players, since it generates missions and battles even 10-15’ after the start of a match. The AI capital ships doesn’t spawn at capship bays like players do; fleets warp in around the battlefield when the battle starts.
I wouldn’t be surprised if all of this was a mix of genuine bugs ( team selection was definitely bugged and non persistent, and some credits could get lost too ) and mis-understandings of the design of the game by new players ( thinking some ships are player controller instead of being AIs, and credits being reset between matches ).
I think the most simple explanation is also the most likely, which is that the game has many new players unfamiliar with it yet, and many of them thought the AI capital ships were enemy players that hacked due to being available before what players can get. However this happens on both teams / sides, your own team also gets those AI capital ships which participate to battles.