Agreed, but blasters are energy delivered in one concentrated (and very short) blast. I can't imagine the ship designers and shipyard workers thinking 'Ah bah, the pilot's gonna die anyway, he might as well get radiated...' ;) Thus, I would use shielding warding against most stronger sources of radiation in space, but of course, areas with extremely high rad counts would be dangerous... kind of like the (early) Chernobyl dead zone, even if you were in a shielded APC.

> They would be more rare, and be more like hurricanes than the
> storms we have now. (i.e span 9 sectors and be more intense at
> the center than at the edges. Having different colors &
> properties as well...)

I _love_ that idea. Would actually make ion storms more interesting than a random sector to boost through. It would make it harder for pirates to ambush traders, though.