…Because few things make for a more boring intro screen than a Sapphire trying to take on a swarm of Mules, getting timed out, and the Sapphire being replaced with a Svalbard Explorer.

nms 31 Jan 2017:

Or, if that would have undesirable side effects, change the intro ship selection algorithm to only create ships with weapons.

See also: Feature request: Setting to deactivate ship timeout in intro.

george moromisato 9 Feb 2017:

In 1.7 Beta 6, unarmed ships do not show up randomly (though they can still be created by name).

Thanks!