Hive Skirmish missions give crystals, but Deneb skirmishes, where there is more chance of death and losing your ship, ironically don't. Deneb is a pure crystal drain. You don't get crystals no matter what you kill, how many you kill or what skirmish you do. This doesn't make sense, and is basically demoralising for any crystal user to do Deneb. For premium players it's literally free since even credit costs for ships are 0. But if you're on crystal, it's a place to lose all your crystals and gain nothing. Please change this. I'm not saying Deneb should drop crystals like candy, but atleast some crystals for big capship kills (and assists) as well as winning skirms should be given so as to be slightly sustainable for a good bomber/fighter who doesn't get killed very often.

hmm that explains why no newbs or freeloaders play it

Fix that. +1

I'm about 100% positive you get crystal in Deneb, unless some really recent update bugged it.

Edit: I think your issue is that you just focus on the capships.

"You don't get crystals no matter what you kill, how many you kill or what skirmish you do"

That statement is false. You get crystal for every kill. Sometimes you may need to get 2-3 kills and then it will proc the crystals giving some for your previous ones as well..

You don't get crystals no matter what you kill, how many you kill or what skirmish you do

This is an unfounded statement. I went to Deneb, and did a mission really quick. While crystal does not drop 100% of the time, a player could conceivably spend an hour in Deneb and max out their crystal awards for the day.

Proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuzjSbDaMgM