First ship purchase?

[Skala]

Hi all. I'm a total noob to this series/game. I'm playing the campaign but doing my own exploration and freelance stuff in-between missions.

I've gathered about 600k credits so far, and I feel like its time to upgrade my ship. Does anyone have any advice?

[StickyFingers]

Kinda depends on what you plan to do... have a look at the ship guide in the guide section. Helped me.

[IxianMace]

Get the Synthia III enhancement on all of your light weapon batteries, the Optisoft III enhancement on your shield generator, and, if you're the kind who likes to capture ships, the Watanabe III enhancement on your transporter. Alameda and Hamilton Shipyard, both around the area of Planet Trinity, should have most of what you need.

[Wrathinside]

First, what is your rank? To upgrade to next ship type, Corvette, you need to be at least rank 5.
Second - what kind of upgrade do you want? If you are rank 10, you can upgrade straight to cheap Freighter for something around 1mil, then get plenty back by trading.
Or, if you want straight military career, you'll need to get a Corvette. A bit spoily, but constructive guide is available for ships: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=320785025
If you know how to capture ships, your one and only choice is Wolverine, located in Omega Transport HQ in Mycaena space(somewhere on the path of campaign). It has dedicated 4-turret frontal battery, whooping 36 crew and solid 15 transporter capacity. The downsides are very cargo hold(30 units) and thin hull, weak shields. It's the kind of ship where you rush in, blow stuff up and then go "avast ye scurvy dogs". And pretty much a prerequisite to capture your own frigate later(only Luna can achieve similar results).
A similar Corvette, Vantage, is much heavier and more expensive, but it's produced by hostile-only faction, Empire, and therefore can only be captured in very hostile space. I personally can't recall seeing it very often, so it's not a reliable progress choice for a beginner.
Another option is Aquila, with similar stats to Wolverine, but trading cloak, fourth turret and crew quarters for mere cargo hold. It's a cheap option to buy south of Trinity in New Delhi space.
Finally, if you want convenient improvement to your durability, you can try to capture Adharra corvette, which is very frequent north of Trinity. It has fairly small crew and is almost useless for capturing purposes, due to 8 transporter capacity, but it's thick hull and steady shield is one of the best of this ship class, also sporting cloak and phenomenal, one of a kind instantaneous PTE charge time of *1* second. You can dive in and out of combat in a blink of an eye.

[MeepdragonVII]

I also really enjoyed the Wolverine and just got fond of the Adhara recently.

It really depends on your playstyle though and the shiplist above will certainly be useful.

Cheers and enjoy Gemini!

[Khyron]

For rank 5, I'd get the Corsair from Laguardia.

It's quick and nimble, and all batteries can shoot straight forward.
This means that when you chase targets, you get a hell of a lot more concentrated firepower than any other Corvette can manage (and even many frigates)

It's not very good for capturing other ships due to poor transporter and small capacity, but it's plenty good for capturing other corvettes which net you 500k credits a pop.

Buy the Philadelphia frigate for 2.2m (Trinity system).
A very good all-round frigate which you can use to capture any destroyer, saving you the 5-6 million purchase.

I can recommend the Ronin destroyer. Easy to cap, stealth and awesome damage potential. Use it to hunt heros and missions to rank up. Although possibly the worst ship in it's class for capturing other ships.

In my current game, i have 35 million credits at lvl 24. I have a long way to go in terms of xp, but i can already afford any ship in the game.. easy as goblin pie :)

I will be skipping the Cruiser class entirely, as those ships are just as expensive as Battleships and not much of an improvement over Destroyers.

My next ship will be the Reliant since that ship, just like the Corsair, can aim 3 batteries straight forward. 4+4+4 Barracuda III Railguns is just ridiculous :D

Enjoy space, captain ^^

[Skala]

There is some great info. here. Thanks everyone!