You'll find that there is occasional drama and admin angst occurring here (we're not that unique in that regard, I suppose), but overall the community is fun and the game is as well.
You can also find some background info on the wiki, although it's a bit outdated, of course.
If you're looking to establish yourself with a nest-egg for all the new ships you wanna get, we can always take good pilots in Gateway for trading.
You seem like a person that likes strategy and to shoot stuff.
My advice to you is to skip trading altogether and get into an unlawful fighter (they're dirt cheap - a fully kitted and top notch competitive VHF like the ones the best PVP'ers use won't set you back more than 25 million credits). On an Outcast ID you can pirate and that's a good way to learn how people interact within the game, and also how players behave radically different than what they'd like you to believe on the forum, when either under pressure or when they take you for an easy kill. You'll have to adopt guerrilla tactics and learn the layouts of different systems to stay alive, and you'll also find friends and allies that you can work with. Beware everyone is out to get you and usually you will have capital ships and traders shooting you with just a word of warning - sometimes no words at all.
Granted, you wont make a fortune from piracy, but the "secret" of this mod is that everything but fighters are more or less just money sinks. There's expensive Codename weaponry which in most cases won't help you one bit, and there are large capital ships that costs hundreds of millions which are totally useless sitting ducks when alone.*
Once you figure out the basics there are larger groups such as the Lane Hackers who employ guerrilla strategies or the Hellfire Legion that organizes large raids with balanced fleets, including their own capital ships.
The Outcasts or Corsairs are a good starting point as well. There's a lot of new-ish players in the respective factions, and they have weekly pew events where people just show up and press the right mouse button until either they or the enemy is dead. It isn't as organized or "serious" as it is in other PVP-heavy factions, and tactics matters less. There is a skype chat for Outcast raids and another one for Corsairs, and you don't have to be in one of the player factions to participate.
Welcome, and have fun!
*There's potential for great fleet PVP, with different ship classes travelling at different speeds and having different weapons and other gear; but unfortunately when an organized capship group pops up on the server, they are either banned or driven off in other ways due to the fact that the organized cap fleet always and without exception beat the un-organized one, and that creates copious amount of tears when at the same time there's roleplay and lore that says the losing faction ought to be winning and so on and so forth. You'll save yourself a lot of trouble by just staying clear of caps, or by learning to use them when in a coordinated / skilled faction rather than when you are on your own.
(03-27-2015, 03:54 PM)Mímir Wrote: You seem like a person that likes strategy and to shoot stuff.
I do! But ask anyone whose RPed with me and hopefully you'll come to see I really enjoy good RP... ask the Rheinlander I tried to sell OxyClean to today.
(03-27-2015, 04:21 AM)Acolyte Wrote: I'm looking for a wing-person to play with on a semi-regular basis. I've been around since 2007, but I'm recently returning from an 8-month hiatus or so. If you like, I could show you the ropes and you could help alleviate the terrible boredom and e-loneliness I feel whilst playing!
I prefer wingma'am. See you in-game. What times do you play? (+ Timezone please!)
It's fairly sporadic, but I try to play evenings - usually between 6' and 8pm, EST (GMT -5)! Right now I'm in a show, so it will probably work more toward the 8pm side of things! Is your character name Lexi? Who should I keep my eyes peeled for?
(03-27-2015, 04:21 AM)Acolyte Wrote: I'm looking for a wing-person to play with on a semi-regular basis. I've been around since 2007, but I'm recently returning from an 8-month hiatus or so. If you like, I could show you the ropes and you could help alleviate the terrible boredom and e-loneliness I feel whilst playing!
I prefer wingma'am. See you in-game. What times do you play? (+ Timezone please!)
It's fairly sporadic, but I try to play evenings - usually between 6' and 8pm, EST (GMT -5)! Right now I'm in a show, so it will probably work more toward the 8pm side of things! Is your character name Lexi? Who should I keep my eyes peeled for?
Luciana Soto. I'm GMT+0, playing early ~7am-11am and occasionally later on.