~sighs~ Kittani I really don't know what your problem is. I, and everyone else around here, has no problem flying a fighter, not getting dock-raped, raising sufficient money, and obtaining an ID. Myself, I fly a Rhino in Rheinland and the zone worlds, with those guys shooting at me all the time, and I get by ok. I've never heard anyone complaining about NPC's being too hard.
I suggest you need a little more practice in the SP sandbox before playing with the big boys. Did you finish the original storyline, for example?
This mod has speed-docking enabled, and it's really not very hard finding the docking points on each base -- then you zoom up in your fighter on cruise, hit F3 and *bam* instantly in the base. Just takes a little practice. Hint: Speed-docking points for planets are the mooring fixtures (not the dock rings).
The monetary thing is quite balanced. Stuff in Discovery is more expensive, sure, but you also are given a lot more money. Missions give about 2x over vanilla Freelancer, and they also drop much more loot, including pilot which fetch $1000's. Starting money of $8500 is spot on.... what, you want to go to an Eagle straight away?
Asteroid fields also drop much more loot. One Q&D (quick & dirty) strategy for raising cash, is simply go to the Colorado fields and collect silver and sell at Manhattan. It can be done in under a minute to fill a Starflier, to sell for $13,000. After a couple of runs *bam* you can upgrade to a much better ship.
Oh but wait, there are level 1 Xenos in Colorado.... you may have too much trouble.
As for the thruster thing.... complete rubbish. I regularly take Centurions/Titans apart in my Drake in exactly that manner, and I can tell you shooting off the thruster (and other equipment) does work.
I occasionally have issues with the starting rep, if I'm making a pirate character. But it just takes a bit more work (and bribery cash) to get your rep right.
Well sorry for being so long winded, but honestly Kittani I've never seen such a bunch of complaining. Maybe you should stick to cruising into asteroids at 3600 m/s.
