Did a speedrun today (time will be a surprise) and something I noticed which seemed strange was that if I had no save files then enemies didn't seem to spawn at Achillies. I messed up my first attempt, and restarted leaving the save file there, but when I started a new game each time I launched there was about a 50% chance of enemies being present (I died every time). But without any save files in the directory it seems to never spawn enemies at Achillies. What are your observations?

I think you're onto something. I always clear out my saves before a run and never get a hostile spawn at Achillies.

xyzophoj had an enemy spawn during his most recent run, but he did something significantly different in his farming stage. He bought a higher level radar. There are obviously trigger points for increasing difficulty in the game, early in the game you have single enemy missions, then later two, three and four as you progress. Exactly what the trigger points are, I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if upgrading the radar is one of them, as that is something you generally don't do until you've upgraded some other parts on your ship already.

This is actually not the first time this happened to me today. In an earlier attempt, I panicked when the pirates appeared and flew into my own ejected cargo. Not a great idea considering my total lack of armor or shields.

This makes a lot of sense. It would be good game design to avoid killing a new player within seconds of them launching for the first time... but a well-equipped ship is fair game.

I suppose I don't really need a good scanner that early in the game.

One thing I also noticed that caused a pirate spawn is buying the usual set up but when buying the terrible radar SELLING your map (and not having one at all) also triggered a pirate spawn. Weird as you'd expect it to make you look weaker to the game but there must be some RNG that is seeded by your average equipment (or perhaps I just got very unlucky).