SP question regarding a ship before leaving Liberty and how to use missiles

Well, it is a good idea to have a nicer ammoutn of money before continuing the storyline, but you'll still have to get teh same ammount of money for each level later. So, it makes things easier as you can buy better ships before problems start, and it won't affect your level-requirements, you'll still have to work that money but with a better ship

About missiles, notice that the NPCs in CF know how to use Countermeasures, they stop and decrease the damage of your missiles(when there's any damage).
So you will have to fire your missiles from closer, or from other directions so even if they go for the CMs they still hit the NPC's ship.

Firing missiles when they come towards you , or while they turn arround and you are at their left/right, are both good options. Just don't fire from behind the NPCs.

NPCs here know to use nanobots, batteries, CMs, missiles and even CDs, they are a lot more clsoer to a human than in vanilla, isn't it ?

The shade is a great ship to start off with. Fast agile durable and packs a punch for it's level.

I just downloaded CF 1.9 last weekend, and have played through the SP with a new FL install up to where Liberty gates are now open.
I can only play Friday - Monday when I'm home; I'm in a different city the rest of the week. So I've been looking through the forum trying to develop intel for my next foray into CF space.

It appears to be a good idea to amass cash now and get a better ship than the Defender to which I recently upgraded.

I was considering the Dark Angel and maybe even--if I can make the cash--upgrading to a Werewolf.

However...in vanilla FL I had a terrible time with the Hovis race. After more than a hundred retries with different ships, I gave up and used the Hovis Bypass mod. I've got a feeling that it's going to be more, not less, difficult in CF than it was in vanilla FL, and I dread it, but I'm going to try anyway.

The question is: should I abandon the Dark Angel>>Werewolf plan and get a Shade instead (even with the expense), presuming that it's more agile and a better choice for the Hovis race?

Or does anyone have better advice?

The "Shade" is a tremendeous ship and absolutly suitable to finish the whole vanilla storyline - including the Hovis race. But don't forget, that it's quite big compared to the "stock" ships, even the other light fighters like the "Patriot" or the "Dagger".
The Hovis race isn't really THAT difficult.
There was somebody winning it with a "Swashbuckler" (it not onbly looks like a brick, it flys even worse ), even only with a bit of luck. And ...hmm, kind of a "bypass" is built into CF. Just dare to race Hovis - one or more times

Lil' hint : dont't forget, that in cruise, which you should engage immediatly after the race starts, your thrusters still works to give you an additional way of controlling your flightpath through the race course,

But for the "new" added storyline a ship in the class of the "Werewolf" which is already one of the VERRRY HEAVY FIGHTER class is necessary. But on exploring a bit during the vanilla story you might come along even better or at least ships of comparable strengh.

Thanks very much for the advice. I'll keep it in mind for when the time comes (not far off, if I remember the story line...it has been a while since I last played through the story). I appreciate your coming to my assistance!