All very good advice. The firefly to me is the best civilian freelancer transport. For its cargo size it has excellent manoeverability and armor capability. However there are lots of options. Factions are good, and you don't even need to be in one to interact with them in a positive way, or in a combative way. Shipping can get boring, some like to smuggle, ex. artifacts or cardamine to Manhattan just for the rush of trying to get the payload past the Liberty Police and navy. Even if you don't succeed, odds are you get a good RP experience from the attempt, and rush comes from the risk of losing the cargo, which can be a pain, but no risk no gain as they say. Its the same with ore mining (or any raw material), you may want to consider starting mining ship character, mining for transports like yourself looking to be filled up. Everybody gets paid, and the RP comes from doing business, or dealing with pirates and etc. The main point of character building in this game (to me) is not just te level up, but build a reputation among the other players as a reliable and cosistent character. And yes then there is the aspect that comes from getting the best weapons, scanner, armor, thruster ect, and making yourself better performance wise. Then there is the exploration aspect. Its taken me a year to well explore the additional systems (post vanilla) and there are still many I havn't seen in detail because they are 'enemy' territory and i've never had characters in those factions. I enjoy the challenge of trying to get past the local patrols to get things documented on the map, but making money is the best way to open up your options for buying equipment, services and ships. You may want to have a combat ship as well, many miners and shippers will hire escorts to help cover them in the event of an attack.
Also, capital ships are fun, but not invincible. However i have enjoyed building characters, saving money, getting ships to try them out for their different possible purposes, and working up to the big ships. It is always satisfying to make the leap every time you get a new ship, and see how the RP experience varies depending on what you're flying.
As for space-madness from being alone out there too long, there are usually areas that are always well populated, and players have a tendancy to cluster, which atracts more players to that location, leading to some RP or battles. Sometimes what you're doing depends on keeping away from other players, sometimes it depends on finding someone to do business with or hunt down for bounty. I think in the future in order to keep interest sparked, some events will be planned, perhaps to coincide with the release of the next mod 4.87. Players that have been on the server a while know that the changes being made will change some political and travel arrangements, that should stir the pot and keep the time line of this universe flowing.
To me, Sirius is not just a virtual environment, it is a place, and it has its own characteristics that show in its residents, and the Gods are indeed watching over us all, judging us by how we carry ourselves, in peace and in war.
Safe flying, and for any help, advice, or business inquiries, feel free to pm anytime.
![[Image: G38aJ6J.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/G38aJ6J.jpg)