In 1.3, somebody worked out a set of rules used to govern when you would come out of warp, and find a capital ship battle that might allow you to buy a new freighter.
I don’t remember the details. It went something like:
“They won’t appear until you’ve completed 2.5 hours of continuous play. After that, they appear every fifth jump you make”.
I remember trying them once or twice, and they seemed to work reasonably well.
Does anybody know if there are similar rules for the current version of the game? I can’t spot any obvious pattern.