Seeing how this thread pops up when people are googling SR1 and the lack of any dedicated SR1 forums or strategy guides, I decided to answer this post even if it's 5 months old...
1) Getting into fights:
Early in the game you shouldn't start any fights (there are players out there who manage to pull this off, but for a beginning player this won't work at all)
The easiest is probably to start as a human so your relations with other races are ok. If not, avoid early trips into systems mostly controlled by races who hate/dislike you.
As soon as you have some cash, buy some weapons (and consider selling the industrial laser to save space) as a deterrent against pirates. Still it may happen that you have to give in to their extortion a couple of times until you've got a stronger hull, better weapons and a droid.
2) Getting money. Trade?
First thing I do is to replace some of the standard equipment by smaller items with otherwise similar characteristics though I only choose cheap stuff. E.g. I'll replace an engine with 400 speed that takes up 60 space by one with 400 speed that only uses 40 space. In case the game gives me a really small hull to start with (300 space or less) I might go for a bigger hull first. Of course, always keep some cash available to be able to buy trading goods.
For me sufficient cargo space is essential because in the early game I make half of my money trading. Typically the best goods to trade are luxuries and equipment. Check the prices on planet A, fly to planet B and check the prices there. See if there is any good that yields a decent profit. The information screen will also tell you of surpluses and shortages on certain planets.
It's sometimes counter-intuitive that agricultural planets may be paying less for equipment than industrial planets in the same star system (or vice versa for food) so if you don't get a decent price on one planet, check the others and if necessary travel to a different star system.
The other half of my income I'm getting from Fedex missions (always check how many jumps you'll have to make to reach your destination, and depending on that either choose the normal difficulty or the easier one).
3) Getting missions.
At the very beginning I only take Fedex missions or the occasional text mission. Visit other star systems to find more missions. You may only get a handful Fedex missions this early but they yield good money (often more than 3K per mission)
Once you've got a faster engine with a longer jump range, consider upping the difficulty on Fedex missions to get paid more. For a while, don't buy star maps as that increases the chances of getting a mission that involves some far-away planet.
This is basically the very start of the game. As soon as you have more cash, you can buy better weapons, a better engine, a larger hull, etc. which in turn provides more opportunities to make money.
To anyone coming across this topic: feel free to ask more questions...
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