Opening moves?

[Psimon]

Yeah, I don't yet understand hulls.

I've got about 12+ hours into the game. I've read the manual (and I'm re-reading it), and I've also got two "FAQ-Walkthroughs" bookmarked.

I'm doing fairly well, or so I think, although I'm in the bottom five of all ranked rangers. For the most part I'm doing quests only, along with a bit of trading if I see a bargain at a planet or space station.

I'm also trying to use the information center, as many people suggest.

My biggest problem right now seems to be getting a new hull. I started out as a Human fighter, and from what I can tell looking at the hulls offered, my original hull is still better. I've got like 25K in credits, but although I can afford "better" weapons and equipment, I can't fit any of it on my ship! It seems like the better weapons are always heavier. I'm not sure how or where to look for a better hull.

Ideally, what I want is a fighting ship, that after the battles, has enough cargo space for me to grab loot (components, cargo, nodes, etc). Right now I've only got about 35-30 units of cargo available.

I'm mostly afraid I'm going to run out of quests and then be scraping for money again. . . . . I need to understand the basics about hulls and what hull I should be going for. Maybe a pirate hull. I dunno . . .

========================
EDITED

D'oh! Yet another time where I post some questions, go into the game,and the light bulb turns on.

Spaceship layout as follows:
Top-most slots are weaponry slots.
Left-most are propulsion slots, notably, engine & fuel tank
Right-most are scanning slots: radar and ship scanner
Bottom slots: Additional equipment: Droid, Grappler, Shielding

When mousing over the hulls for sale at trading centers, the hull's piccie shows what slots are available on that particular type of hull.

Cladding:
1. A metal coating bonded onto another metal under high pressure and temperature.
2. The process of forming such a coating.
3. A protective or insulating layer fixed to the outside of a building or another structure

A droid is required to repair cladding in mid-battle/in space (?). (so far I haven't gotten any, no room for them)

Finding a good hull is a matter of using the Information center, getting to the planet/station selling it in time (thus, needing good engines). Or luck. Having the necessary funds is of course a good idea.

So far I've avoided buying anything of Maroq or Peleng manufacture . . supposedly the first is inefficient/low quality, the second degrades the fastest of any races equipment.

Boy, a SR2 Wiki would be nice . . . tried googling for one, so far, no luck.