1) I started a single player game on a large map (Areolian Sector), and it has 4 or 5 stars on it. To my surprise, when I explored all the planets connected to my star, I see no obvious way to get to the planets of the other stars. Am I missing some tricky sort of link? Or is this a "feature" of this particular map? Or is this a feature of all maps w/ multiple stars?

2) When use an ability point to purchase a level, it appears that permanently I lose the opportunity to use that ability point for any of the "specials". Is it not the case that if you purchase levels you will have had fewer ability points to spend on specials, once you reach the level cap? If so, why would one ever purchase levels?

TIA,

Kirk