Any way to slow down advancement?

[Stormy Fairweather]

I have noticed that as the game progresses new components become available and that the price of things increases; I would like to slow that down, way down. So far I have been puttering around the galaxy just having fun doing nothing but things have begun to get expensive and many weapons and equipment that I never even got a chance to try seem to have become obsolete.

So, is there any way to do this?

Edit - Also, I am having one hell of time finding any additional information on this game, especially for text quests. Or what the difference is between reparing cladding or the hull (droids vs minidroids), or if they repair other components, or if the nanidroids repairs wear and tear, how to move spare hulls, and many other minor questions I can't think of just now but I was unable to find any solution for, all I did find was some (very) incomplete faqs, which are full of specific details but lacking for game mechanics, or quests.

Edit 2 - While I have begun to be skeptical of ever recieving a response... is there any way to stop your team from winning while your dinking around questing and such? I gave the dominators increased strength in my game setup, supposedly stronger than coalition, but after the initial struggle the coalition seems to have a definite advantage, taking multiple system without and losing none in some time. Is there some way to prevent this from happening? Would I need to assassinate some higher ranked rangers to keep my side from crushing them? Do dominators ever improve?