I have some questions and need some help...

[dashofpepper]

Hey folks!

I just purchased this game after trying it out in hopes of getting access to things that might make the game easier, but without luck. I can’t seem to get ahead, and have some questions and advice I’d like to get help on.

Thus far I’ve been playing every game on basic; I’ve been through about 9-10 pilots now, and always end up with pretty much everyone hating me and then getting killed. My last attempt made it to my first mission (I’ve gotten further) to kill a smuggler flying a transport ship; I closed range (as a military officer profession) and he hit me for 37 damage with a torpedo (I was fully healed), then the second volley killed me. I wouldn’t expect this on the basic level difficulty.

First, my questions.

1. Am I limited in ship upgrades to one upgrade per…type? IE, I can get +3 torpedos on my prow, but that will close off the ability to get +3 torpedos aft, +8 torpedos, +25% torpedos, etc? And if so, how do I tell which upgrades fit within the same bracket? I’d love to have +7 cargo spaces, but not if it means I can’t get extra armour and stuff.

2. Thus far I’ve tried been sticking to two professions; Star Trader and Military Officer. As a military officer, I chose the Cadar Syndicate based on the advice from the game author in a thread I read on the forums here. I’ve tried two approaches – keeping everyone neutral or only mildly displeased (except for my starting faction), and working solely for my starting faction and doing missions against anyone at will. The first approach ends up with everyone *still* not liking me, and me not making much progress with my home faction…and the other approach ends up with me in my starter ship after a hundred+ weeks without any friendly Stardocks with ammo to refit me or repairs, and finding myself pitted against ships that are faster/stronger than me. What am I doing wrong here?

3. Independent Factions: My first officer always tells me that my crew doesn’t like when I work against independents, but I don’t ever see it affecting my crew morale. Does taking a mission against independents hurt my standing with any faction? I’d solely do these, but missions against them don’t pop up frequently enough, and eventually cycling through the missions and rejecting the ones I don’t want end up with no missions available. Are the independent faction(s) linked? If I kill a ship linked to an independent, does it affect my standing with any independents?

4. Multiple Trade Warrants / Death Warrants / Officership: Is it possible to have a trade warrant with multiple factions? I’ve tried buying one with my starting faction and then immediately going to another faction to buy one without luck, as well as building up rep with another faction, but never have any options to buy trade warrants or death warrants from anyone but my starting faction. The “basic explanation” when you pick your pilot for….Star Trader?....implies that you can get them with multiple factions. When I explore a planet and get artifacts or electronics or other forbidden stuff, its really annoying to have to go all the way home to sell it and fight every ship on the way there who wants to stop me to search my ship or loot me because they’re a pirate.

5. Encounters in space: I picked up a death warrant from my starting faction, and then was flying on my first mission and ran into an encounter – I didn’t want a fight so I chose “ignore” and lost my death warrant. I wasn’t allowed to buy another one either. Could I get more explanation about this? I don’t want to lose trade warrants or death warrants because of a mistake.

6. Defeating ship and letting it go vs. destroying it: If I’m working for the Cadar Syndicate and a ship from another faction encounters me and wants to search me or loot me because they’re a pirate….it seems like I have no choice but to fight – clicking ignore doesn’t always get me away, and it apparently has negative ramifications that I haven’t totally figured out. So if I am forced to fight, is there a significant faction modifier if I defeat the crew (I generally advance and board, again per the author’s recommendations for being a Cadar Military Officer) and loot the ship and let it go vs. destroying it and getting paid salvage costs?

7. “Toasts?” Sometimes when I dock somewhere, I get a 1-2 second popup message that says “The captain has noted that……” or “Recent events …….” But these always flash by too fast for me to read. Are these the toasts? How do I lengthen them by a few seconds so that I can read them? If they are toasts, which ones am I referring to so I know which ones to fiddle with in options?

8. Ships: I got up to faction standing of about 100 on my best run with the Cadar before getting blown out of the sky. I was on the lookout for a new ship because I was starting to get outclassed – the Cadar offered me military ships (a shuttle, something else, and a Cadar Defender) but none of them were really better than my rookie ship. Can I get some advice on what to look for in a new ship and when? At the rank 100, I was getting pursued by cruisers and ships with spiky bits and couldn’t hold my own.

9. Exchange Prices: Do exchange prices normally go up and down, or only with special events? IE, would it be worthwhile to record the buy and sell value of different goods at different planets so I can find the optimal place to buy and sell stuff, or do these values fluctuate too often? Also, leveling the negotiating skill doesn’t seem to have any effect on prices? I was looking at the cost of water-fuel, went to status and leveled up my negotiation a couple levels, then went and looked again and the prices were the same.

10. Fuel: I read in the guide or in a thread here that Pilot and Intimidation should be kept at half of sails for maximum fuel efficiency (together with full crew and repaired sails); is that right? If I have 20 sails I should have 10 piloting skill and 10 Intimidation? Will further point expenditure to bring the ratio above half improve my fuel efficiency?


And finally, I *have* been through 8-10 characters now without any luck in getting a firm footing in the galaxy. I’ve read a lot of these threads, been through the guide…..I wish there was a “noobie walkthrough” or something that detailed the starting steps for a pilot to follow to get the hang of the game and start off on the right foot. Can anyone offer me some general guidance and advice? I really want to like this game, but am having some real problems on the BASIC difficulty level….and some of these ship upgrades that I’d like require awards at difficulty levels I can’t even imagine (like the one right above normal) because I can’t even get survive on basic.

[MTKnife]

Mar 16, 2011 16:35:30 GMT -5 dashofpepper said:

Hey folks!

I just purchased this game after trying it out in hopes of getting access to things that might make the game easier, but without luck. I can’t seem to get ahead, and have some questions and advice I’d like to get help on.

Thus far I’ve been playing every game on basic; I’ve been through about 9-10 pilots now, and always end up with pretty much everyone hating me and then getting killed. My last attempt made it to my first mission (I’ve gotten further) to kill a smuggler flying a transport ship; I closed range (as a military officer profession) and he hit me for 37 damage with a torpedo (I was fully healed), then the second volley killed me. I wouldn’t expect this on the basic level difficulty.

It sounds like you're not paying attention to Trade Embargoes and Spy Battles, or possibly that you're picking fights with everyone you meet rather than Acknowledging them, or surrendering to legitimate patrols. A Political Officer can warn you about Trade Embargoes if you forget them; I'm not sure a Spy Officer can do the same with Spy Battles, since I've seldom used one (for fuel efficiency, the Mechanic for me is way better, since she repairs sails in flight).

First, my questions.

1. Am I limited in ship upgrades to one upgrade per…type? IE, I can get +3 torpedos on my prow, but that will close off the ability to get +3 torpedos aft, +8 torpedos, +25% torpedos, etc? And if so, how do I tell which upgrades fit within the same bracket? I’d love to have +7 cargo spaces, but not if it means I can’t get extra armour and stuff.

Yes. That's documented in there somewhere. Also, once you get an upgrade, you can't get rid of it, so choose carefully.

2. Thus far I’ve tried been sticking to two professions; Star Trader and Military Officer. As a military officer, I chose the Cadar Syndicate based on the advice from the game author in a thread I read on the forums here. I’ve tried two approaches – keeping everyone neutral or only mildly displeased (except for my starting faction), and working solely for my starting faction and doing missions against anyone at will. The first approach ends up with everyone *still* not liking me, and me not making much progress with my home faction…and the other approach ends up with me in my starter ship after a hundred+ weeks without any friendly Stardocks with ammo to refit me or repairs, and finding myself pitted against ships that are faster/stronger than me. What am I doing wrong here?

Are you doing missions, or just killing enemies? You should probably try the former if you're not doing them already.

Also, you might not want to piss everyone other than your starting faction off: trying picking and choosing enemies, and check often to see if a war or embargo has ended. Also, remember that you can always do business with Independents (and run missions for them).

3. Independent Factions: My first officer always tells me that my crew doesn’t like when I work against independents, but I don’t ever see it affecting my crew morale. Does taking a mission against independents hurt my standing with any faction? I’d solely do these, but missions against them don’t pop up frequently enough, and eventually cycling through the missions and rejecting the ones I don’t want end up with no missions available. Are the independent faction(s) linked? If I kill a ship linked to an independent, does it affect my standing with any independents?

It will affect crew morale, but only slowly. I think it will also hurt your standing with the Independents, since sometimes when I go to the Palace on an Independent world, or encounter one of their ships, they tell me I'm an "enemy of the state"--I don't recall seeing that lately, though, despite the fact that lately I've run missions only against Independents.

4. Multiple Trade Warrants / Death Warrants / Officership: Is it possible to have a trade warrant with multiple factions? I’ve tried buying one with my starting faction and then immediately going to another faction to buy one without luck, as well as building up rep with another faction, but never have any options to buy trade warrants or death warrants from anyone but my starting faction. The “basic explanation” when you pick your pilot for….Star Trader?....implies that you can get them with multiple factions. When I explore a planet and get artifacts or electronics or other forbidden stuff, its really annoying to have to go all the way home to sell it and fight every ship on the way there who wants to stop me to search my ship or loot me because they’re a pirate.

You can buy them from any faction you have a positive Reputation with--I'm not sure what's going wrong for you. A Trade Permit won't protect you from a pirate, though; only a non-negative rep with a pirate's faction will do that.

5. Encounters in space: I picked up a death warrant from my starting faction, and then was flying on my first mission and ran into an encounter – I didn’t want a fight so I chose “ignore” and lost my death warrant. I wasn’t allowed to buy another one either. Could I get more explanation about this? I don’t want to lose trade warrants or death warrants because of a mistake.

You lost it because you took a small hit to your Reputation for ignoring a ship from your own faction, rather than Acknowledging it, and even a small hit can be enough to lose a Trade Permit when your Reputation is low to begin with. (You can also lose one with a high Reputation, for failing missions or attacking a faction's ships.) The one instance in which you're just screwed, unless you want to give up your cargo, is pirates from your own faction, or any other faction you ahve a positive Rep with--you can't Acknowledge them (that's just a shortcut button for "Surrender"), and if you Ignore them, you lose Rep. If you have a high enough Rep, though, and make a habit of building it up continuously, this won't be a problem.

6. Defeating ship and letting it go vs. destroying it: If I’m working for the Cadar Syndicate and a ship from another faction encounters me and wants to search me or loot me because they’re a pirate….it seems like I have no choice but to fight – clicking ignore doesn’t always get me away, and it apparently has negative ramifications that I haven’t totally figured out. So if I am forced to fight, is there a significant faction modifier if I defeat the crew (I generally advance and board, again per the author’s recommendations for being a Cadar Military Officer) and loot the ship and let it go vs. destroying it and getting paid salvage costs?

I don't know what the extra penalty for destroying the ship is--the money usually isn't worth it, though, so why bother? I only do it if I've got a bounty hunter contract that says I have to.

7. “Toasts?” Sometimes when I dock somewhere, I get a 1-2 second popup message that says “The captain has noted that……” or “Recent events …….” But these always flash by too fast for me to read. Are these the toasts? How do I lengthen them by a few seconds so that I can read them? If they are toasts, which ones am I referring to so I know which ones to fiddle with in options?

Yeah, Cory should probably make those last longer. In any case, when something like that happens, you can check your Status screens to see what's changed: look at Rumors, Conflicts, and Contracts (the last to see if something expired). You might also check the Ship Status screen for sail damage and dead crew.

8. Ships: I got up to faction standing of about 100 on my best run with the Cadar before getting blown out of the sky. I was on the lookout for a new ship because I was starting to get outclassed – the Cadar offered me military ships (a shuttle, something else, and a Cadar Defender) but none of them were really better than my rookie ship. Can I get some advice on what to look for in a new ship and when? At the rank 100, I was getting pursued by cruisers and ships with spiky bits and couldn’t hold my own.

Depends on what you're trying to do: the ones with lots of sails are good for running away (or closing from long range), the ones with lots of engines are good for closing at short range, and the ones with lots of guns and torpedoes and armor and hull aren't likely to get kicked around once you do get into a fight. If you're not scared of having your opponents run away, one of the big military ships is probably the ticket--but if you want to catch things faster than you, you might consider something smaller but faster, like a "Jango"-, "Blade"-, or "Spear"-class.

9. Exchange Prices: Do exchange prices normally go up and down, or only with special events? IE, would it be worthwhile to record the buy and sell value of different goods at different planets so I can find the optimal place to buy and sell stuff, or do these values fluctuate too often? Also, leveling the negotiating skill doesn’t seem to have any effect on prices? I was looking at the cost of water-fuel, went to status and leveled up my negotiation a couple levels, then went and looked again and the prices were the same.

They don't vary much except with events, with the exception that a high Rep with a faction drives both buy and sell prices down, as well as pushing them close together, and high Negotiation I think does the same.

10. Fuel: I read in the guide or in a thread here that Pilot and Intimidation should be kept at half of sails for maximum fuel efficiency (together with full crew and repaired sails); is that right? If I have 20 sails I should have 10 piloting skill and 10 Intimidation? Will further point expenditure to bring the ratio above half improve my fuel efficiency?

I think it's hull you've got to worry about, not sails. I don't recall the magic ratio, but I don't think further improvement past that makes much of a difference. Make sure though that your sails are fully repaired, and that you have a full crew--the Mechanic can help with the former without your having to land.

Also, a lot depends on the ship class and Upgrades.

And finally, I *have* been through 8-10 characters now without any luck in getting a firm footing in the galaxy. I’ve read a lot of these threads, been through the guide…..I wish there was a “noobie walkthrough” or something that detailed the starting steps for a pilot to follow to get the hang of the game and start off on the right foot. Can anyone offer me some general guidance and advice? I really want to like this game, but am having some real problems on the BASIC difficulty level….and some of these ship upgrades that I’d like require awards at difficulty levels I can’t even imagine (like the one right above normal) because I can’t even get survive on basic.

Well, maybe the above will help. Welcome!

[spike]

Mar 16, 2011 16:35:30 GMT -5 dashofpepper said:

2. Thus far I’ve tried been sticking to two professions; Star Trader and Military Officer. As a military officer, I chose the Cadar Syndicate based on the advice from the game author in a thread I read on the forums here. I’ve tried two approaches – keeping everyone neutral or only mildly displeased (except for my starting faction), and working solely for my starting faction and doing missions against anyone at will. The first approach ends up with everyone *still* not liking me, and me not making much progress with my home faction…and the other approach ends up with me in my starter ship after a hundred+ weeks without any friendly Stardocks with ammo to refit me or repairs, and finding myself pitted against ships that are faster/stronger than me. What am I doing wrong here?

One thing you may be missing is that you don't have to buy new ships - you can take them from a defeated enemy. Use Take Ship after a successful combat. This swaps the new defeated ship for your old ship. You have to transfer cargo you want to keep off your ship, onto the new ship, before doing Take Ship.

Even if the seized ship is barely intact you can limp back to a nearby friendly or Independent world and repair them back up to full strength. This is probably the most common way to upgrade ships. Way before you get Faction standing of 100, you should probably upgrade your starter ship. The longer you wait to upgrade, the harder it gets (the enemies are tougher). Ideally you want to upgrade by taking (in combat) a ship that's say 25% better than yours, with the lowest level non player Captain aboard.

3. Independent Factions: My first officer always tells me that my crew doesn’t like when I work against independents, but I don’t ever see it affecting my crew morale. Does taking a mission against independents hurt my standing with any faction? I’d solely do these, but missions against them don’t pop up frequently enough, and eventually cycling through the missions and rejecting the ones I don’t want end up with no missions available. Are the independent faction(s) linked? If I kill a ship linked to an independent, does it affect my standing with any independents?

Personally I don't think Independents planets show any connection with each other, or any memory of you. The crew are the only ones who care about Independents, and they forget easily enough if you buy them some Spice. Abuse Independents with impunity, that's what they're there for!

4. Multiple Trade Warrants / Death Warrants / Officership: Is it possible to have a trade warrant with multiple factions? I’ve tried buying one with my starting faction and then immediately going to another faction to buy one without luck, as well as building up rep with another faction, but never have any options to buy trade warrants or death warrants from anyone but my starting faction. The “basic explanation” when you pick your pilot for….Star Trader?....implies that you can get them with multiple factions. When I explore a planet and get artifacts or electronics or other forbidden stuff, its really annoying to have to go all the way home to sell it and fight every ship on the way there who wants to stop me to search my ship or loot me because they’re a pirate.

As others have noted you can get multiple Trade Permits, for different Factions. It may be useful to get the galactic maps posted on this Forum to help you navigate. Also, Cadar has the least number of planets, so you could play a different faction with more home planets, to have an easier time reaching a faction world.

And finally, I *have* been through 8-10 characters now without any luck in getting a firm footing in the galaxy. I’ve read a lot of these threads, been through the guide…..I wish there was a “noobie walkthrough” or something that detailed the starting steps for a pilot to follow to get the hang of the game and start off on the right foot. Can anyone offer me some general guidance and advice? I really want to like this game, but am having some real problems on the BASIC difficulty level….and some of these ship upgrades that I’d like require awards at difficulty levels I can’t even imagine (like the one right above normal) because I can’t even get survive on basic.

A starter guide would be great. Sorry about that. One of the contributors to this Forum (ehkamp) is in the late stages of editing a new player guide, hopefully this will be ready soon.

[MTKnife]

Mar 16, 2011 19:47:57 GMT -5 spike said:

Mar 16, 2011 16:35:30 GMT -5 dashofpepper said:

2. Thus far I’ve tried been sticking to two professions; Star Trader and Military Officer. As a military officer, I chose the Cadar Syndicate based on the advice from the game author in a thread I read on the forums here. I’ve tried two approaches – keeping everyone neutral or only mildly displeased (except for my starting faction), and working solely for my starting faction and doing missions against anyone at will. The first approach ends up with everyone *still* not liking me, and me not making much progress with my home faction…and the other approach ends up with me in my starter ship after a hundred+ weeks without any friendly Stardocks with ammo to refit me or repairs, and finding myself pitted against ships that are faster/stronger than me. What am I doing wrong here?

One thing you may be missing is that you don't have to buy new ships - you can take them from a defeated enemy. Use Take Ship after a successful combat. This swaps the new defeated ship for your old ship. You have to transfer cargo you want to keep off your ship, onto the new ship, before doing Take Ship.

Even if the seized ship is barely intact you can limp back to a nearby friendly or Independent world and repair them back up to full strength. This is probably the most common way to upgrade ships. Way before you get Faction standing of 100, you should probably upgrade your starter ship. The longer you wait to upgrade, the harder it gets (the enemies are tougher). Ideally you want to upgrade by taking (in combat) a ship that's say 25% better than yours, with the lowest level non player Captain aboard.

The last (er, only) time I did that I got jumped and died horribly, directly over the world on which I was going to get the new ship repaired--unless you take it in a boarding action, either the engines, sails, or hull are toast, and the armor is likely all gone, too. I wouldn't try this except right next to an Urban planet, though if there are no Warrants out for you, I suppose the worst that could happen is you have to surrender your cargo.

Mind you, if you're very picky about the ship you want, you might want to buy one anyway (I really, really wanted a "Spear"-class in my current game.

[jerry]

Sorry for long post, but there's a lot of questions to be answered, and these are not simple questions

at #3. Most missions for/against independents are not really independents. After completing such mission you might loose reputation in some faction, political officer might open your eyes (it was a disguised operative for xx faction)
However if you meet independent ship in space - you are free to do with it anything you will like - it won't hurt your rep, AFAIK you don't have any rep with independents, after all it's not one independent faction, all planets are independent of themselves, even all ships are independent without connection to planets.

at #4. Sure you can have multiple military ranks and death/trade permits. You can buy trade permit if you are at least couple points reputation with that rank, sometimes you can buy it at 3 points, sometimes at 10. I think it depends on your charisma/negotiation skills and the palace level.
Military rank can be purchased from 9-10 points of rep and another rank for each ten points.

at #6. Retreating vs Looting vs Destroing impact on reputation.
Engaging any contact and looting him will hurt your rep for that faction for one point.
Destroing the target will hurt your rep for additional 4 points, or maybe some other random number close to that.

Pay attention to the first text on the contact screen: "YourName vs faction"
If it's in red - it's the enemy, and will want to hurt you. Even if all you do is ignore (or battle stations-retreat, it's the same) - you will loose one rep, possible loose death warrant if it's a pirate.
If it's in white and you go to battle stations just to see what type of ship it is and if it's worthy of your interest (easy prey or tough nut to crack, or perhaps better ship then your, worthy of capturing) - the "you vs faction" text is still in white, you can still withdraw without consequences, unless it was a military wanting to inspect your cargo - in that case you might loose rep for reatreating.
However, if you press advance or torp - it turns to red, meaning you will always loose one rep, because you've shown hostile action. Looting doesn't take any more points (besides the one for hostile action).
Is it worth destroying the opponent? It depends. If you're in an all out war with that faction and don't care about their reputation - it's worth for the cash.
If you do care about their reputation - you should not destroy it. Pardon usually costs more than the cash from scrap parts.

at #8. You can beat better ships, you only need higher skills than the enemy captains. Both better skills and better ship is awesome. For combat, invest heavily in quickness, pilot and stealth, or if you prefer boarding - strenght. From the ship side - high solar sails help to avoid torpedoes and shoot your torpedoes while high engines help in avoiding gunfire/ramming and shooting the guns yourself. I usually close the range immediately and shoot the engines, so I always invest in engines (titan componens is a must have and ancient reactors a welcome addition).
At faction in which you have a military rank, you can always buy cheap ships, around 40K (the military is sponsoring you), but it's always the same low class ships (three to choose from, two shuttles and defender). It's in star dock->military base->rank ship.
However - the real choice of new, sometimes very good ships, is in star dock -> new ship plan.
The better the ship, the higher the price, even 500K or more.
The more experienced you are - the better ships are being offered to you. They higher rep/military rank you have - the lower the price.
I usually get new ships by hijacking them (boarding). It deals the least amount of damage to the target, but requires high amount of warrior skill from you, which should be no problem for military officer. It's especially easy to hijack ships at the beginning of the game, since you already have some warrior skill. However if you don't invest in that skill, don't expect to win the boarding at higher experience levels. In that case it's still possible to hijack the ship, just shoot it's engines, limp back to nearest planet and repair them. If you encounter baddies on the way - simply surrender. Only Aliens would kill you, pirates would take your cargo, enemy factions would imprison you for a year or two, but you would still live and have your new ship and crew.

at #9. The prices can be lowered by high faction rep, perhaps high faction military rank, and for sure the negotiation skill. However - the effect is not immediate. All things take time to refresh, for example new repairs, uprages, plan ships, rumors, recruits and finally prices and quantity in exchange. Usually every one or two years (I think), or every time the ST RPG process is killed (either by android, which doesn't happen often, or manually).
So if you change rep/rank/negotiation skill, be patient, the prices will go down eventually (for everything, except purchasing higher military ranks)
However - it still won't allow you to play the game the very old Elite game style, or more modern Freelancer or X.
In ST RPG - the success in trading lies in watching the rumors closely. If you see shortage somewhere - buy that stuff every where else and sell it there, or better yet - stockpile in a hidden stash all your loot and cargo purchased at surpluses and wait for a shortage.

at #10. I think that the most important thing in fuel efficiency is high, undamaged solar sails. Read this blog post:
tresebrothers.blogspot.com/2010/11/water-fuel.html
As you can see, the pilot and intimidation skill have impact on fuel use, but it's the lowest impact of all possible things. Therefore I suggest investing in skills based on other needs, not the fuel.
Personally - I'm upgrading my ship always for combat (with exception of water tanks) and invest in combat skills, lower fuel consumption comes from better ships. With higher engines/sails you will get 0 fuel use in green space, even without any upgrades. And all my captains have 1 intimidation, even with 100 crew. In case of lack of water and mutiny - it's very bad thing, but I usually slaugher them with my enormous warrior skill (as well as Aliens ). For me, the warrior, pilot and stealth are much more important than intimidation, but I'm a combat pilot (Cadar Military to be exact), not the merchant or smuggler type.

Ask more questions, read even more answers, play the game dozens of hours and you will be good at it.
Right now I'm playing on Crazy with very good results, managed to be hated by all clans at -300 rep and one syndicate (going for Dark Nemesis quest), over One million on account, lvl 20 Cadar Holy Executioner, going for insane difficulty soon, it's the Creator's preferred fifficulty level after all

[dashofpepper]

Thanks for all the answers so far!

My newest Captain is L7 now (still on the basic difficulty), and I followed the explorer guide in this forum - I got trade warrants with all factions, and go exploring planets and then bringing the plunder back to whatever faction I am working on to increase my standing there. I've gotten between 80-150 standing with every faction, which I did so that I could rank up to L8 with every faction for the award.

It helped that I got the Exo-crawler thingy from the get-go, as well as a smuggler officer.

I'm still flying my noobie ship, although I've discovered that the upgrades I'd like to get are only achievable through unlocking them in higher difficulty levels.

In terms of ships....I'm having issues with what to do. I've seen a few ships floating around in my encounters that I was like, "Man, those have great sails! Oh...but terrible cargo space" kind of things. I haven't seen anything that seems to offer a "general" upgrade to my starter ship; just ships that have pros and cons, none of which balance out to seem like an upgrade to me.

I got my explorer skill up to 14, then my piloting and intimidation skill up to 9, and I think I just got stealth up to 9. Thus far I've been avoiding conflicts, and since I have trade permits with everyone and everyone likes me, I don't have issues with militaries or pirates. Hearing about how independents work here, I may start picking on them to look for a better ship.

I also wish that I could find a mechanic, but have had no luck in doing so. All my exploring and selling artifacts has netted me about $500,000 (even after buying promotions up to L8 with every faction).

I *do* wish that I had done more research into the effects on fuel that piloting and intimidation have; getting those from L1 to L9 each takes quite a bit of XP, and I certainly wouldn't have minded dropping those into other skills since I'm playing a peaceful character.

[spike]

Sounds like you are doing well and it's time to think about starting a new character at a higher Difficulty!

[Kelvin Zero]

dashofpepper--Sounds like you are off to a good start now. Don't forget to take advantage of carrying certain types of cargo with you. Weapons make boarding enemies easier, electronics helps you perform surveillance better, and Vudka (when your First Officer is present) keeps the crew in line. Crystals and a Chief Engineer really keep your sails in good shape while traveling through red zones.

[Havok]

One thing people haven't touched on yet (unless I missed it - I started skimming part way through): RUMORS. These are your best friend for making money and can turn the game into a cakewalk. Just read every free rumor you find until you find some surpluses/shortages (preferably a surplus and shortage in the same good). Then fill your hold with whatever the good is (and enough fuel to get there) and watch your dollars climb. Just make sure your trading isn't pissing off a faction you are trying to raise rep with and you should be able to make $100k+ pretty quickly. Also, the key to this is to get as many trading permits as possible. I've found a great way to do this is to buy a pardon if necessary, complete 2 missions for the faction, then come back to their planet before doing anything else (this has worked every time on demanding difficulty).

Without doing much more than this, I had $1.2M credits at level 3 with a Rychart Invader for a ship (which I was able to purchase without a trade-in) and the game got stupidly easy. Maybe I got lucky on my surpluses/shortages though?

[havocme]

You got lucky. Wait until later when everyone is trying to take you out, no matter your rep.