CF 1.9 SP for the first time, right after daybreak

I've just finished playing through the CF 1.9 SP campaign, having inadvertently stayed up all night to do so.

I am very impressed, indeed, and looking forward even more now to the release of 2.0.

I can't say that it wasn't difficult to do. The Inner Core especially was very, very harrowing (yeah, I know that's an understatement).

There is a lot of beautiful stuff to see and exciting things to do...while you're having your head handed to you multiple times.

I can hear the veterans laughing at the incompetent noob, but that's OK; there were a lot of alien pilots and Corsairs and their friends laughing at me, too...I'm used to it.

It required a lot of retries, but so did the very beginning of the (beautifully) redone first part of the campaign, until I managed to acquire a more suitable and better armed ship (the Defender), and then later upgrade that to a Black Eagle.

I owe great thanks to Gearhead10 for advice on the Black Eagle and on beating the Hovis race--I've always had trouble with that--to NucNuc for advice on ships and the race, too, and especially to Martind Forlon for advice and for helping me with a glitch that I just couldn't seem to get past.

I'm not that great of a pilot, but this very well-made mod strongly motivated me to persevere. I finished up to the end of the original game's missions in the Black Eagle, then made a quick side trip to buy and outfit a Werewolf to see if it would be different/better. I can't say that it was better, exactly, but it was different, and a larger cargo hold made income earning faster.

Once I ended up in Coalition space, I switched to a Devil, and that's what I flew until I finished the truly awesome new campaign.

I am very grateful to those who helped me directly with advice and technical assistance, as well as to those who contributed so much useful information on the forum, in the lexicon, making maps, and so on. And, of course, to the makers of the splendid mod, who have provided me with a whole new take on the Freelancer universe.

Mostly to try out different ships and styles of dealing with the Crossfire universe, I'm now doing some sightseeing while I try to increase both my wealth and my piloting skills. I've tested out a Deathblade for pod hunting and a Bullpup III for aggressive trading, then reconsidered a combined trading/reconnaissance trip to Coalition space in the Bullpup III: the nomads and Corsairs ate my lunch mostly by outmaneuvering me, so I traded it in on a Saracen when I came across one, and now I'll see how that goes.

If anyone has advice about a more suitable ship to use for combined trading and scouting while trying to survive outside Sirius space in SP, feel free to chime in with a recommendation. I went with the Saracen because it seems popular and because it appears to offer good offense/defense and a cargo hold big enough to last a while until I find prisons and/or merchants. I haven't yet compared its agility.

Once I improve my piloting skills and deal with some RL issues, expect to see me online. You may have to look fast before somebody blows me to a cloud of expanding gas, though, at least for a while.

Thanks for your experienced advice, guys!

The Bullpup's shields are definitely a consideration, as is its underwhelming agility. It did a good job of getting out of trouble fast, though. The big cargo hold and firepower, etc., are nice, and I've been noting that the ships (so far, anyway) are very well balanced: you don't get something for nothing, there are always trade-offs, TANSTAAFL.

So far I'm liking the Saracen and its cargo hold is adequate without being spectacular. I may give the Haidar a try to compare it with the Bullpup III, after I've built up the finances a bit more (and my piloting skill, too...). I'll give some of the other recommended vessels a try, too, when I feel that I don't need the cargo space quite so much.

I'm losing some money on each of the ship trade-ins, but since I've got a pretty good store of looted weapons and equipment, it's not such a big deal. I'm doing some exploring to be able to find my way around, and as long as I don't run afoul of Nomad fleets or too many wings of other enemies, I'll be testing out some of the other ship options and equipment load-outs. "Semper paratus" seems like a good motto in this universe.

Thanks for the tip, Silver Fox!

Having tried out a few ships now to get the hang of the differences, I can see what you mean about not needing the "best" ship.

In fact, it looks as if the developers went to considerable trouble to ensure that there really isn't a best ship: they're very well balanced overall, AFAICS.

Some are clearly better in some roles than others. Right now I'm trying a combination of trading and pod hunting using the Saracen, because of its large cargo capacity for a Rather quick VHF. I'm going to give the Haidar a try, to see how it handles compared with the Bullpup 3, and then maybe I'll try out the Redemption...the weapons loadout looks good even though the cargo hold is on the small side, so it doesn't seem really suitable for trade runs but could do for pod hunting or missions, if one didn't get too far from a prison.

Thanks for taking the time to give a new arrival some advice.

Thanks for the information about 2.0!

Although I made a little detour when beginning the new set of missions in 1.9 to trade in my Black Eagle on a Werewolf, I was apprehensive about breaking the story line by doing so. It turned out OK, but there were some places/times that I would have been happy to be able to make detours to improve equipment, raise income, etc., as could be done in the earlier/original mission series by ignoring Juni for a while.

I'm happy to hear that 2.0 allows some digression from the campaign missions path.

Ajay, I agree about Altair.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Murmansk pays prison rates for pods, but less pleasantly surprised to see how many Coalition rogues one can encounter in the area.
If you survive, though, it can be very lucrative collecting from Murmansk.