I thought beating the game on Normal would unlock Hard, but apparently not so.

Now don't get me wrong, IMO "Easy" should've been called "Normal" and "Normal" should have been "Hard", but named as they are, there is an expectation of an actual "Hard" difficulty being available. So, um, where is it?

Some ships are more challenging than others. Also, some people have been doing stuff like the no shields challenge.

Be carefull what you whish for ;-)

http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=14101

You're kidding, right? I can hardly go to Sector 6 at "Normal", let alone at "Hard", if there is one.

Like I said, I don't think the game is "not hard enough", I simply feel it is very strange that the only available difficulties are called "Easy" and "Normal".

Look at Super Hexagon - the easiest difficulty there is "Hard". So why are the FTL difficulties named this way?

I think it is only because they planned to have just one difficulty level, and then decided to introduce an easier one afterwards... my guess is that they stick with the name "Normal" to imply that this was the way it should be played, while the other was for beginners/extended tutorial purpose