Well, you're expecting a bit much in some of these complaints... Allow me relate an example.

Say you are playing an RPG (FL in your case) and your current weapon (ship) is the shortsword (how about we make this the Patriot) and you are interested in obtaining the longsword (Dagger as you explained). The longsword is better than what you have now and you think it is much cooler than your crappy shortsword. Well you can have that longsword, but there's a catch: in order to attain that longsword you must first defeat the dragon (i.e. make the rogues be at least neutral with you). You can very well skip the quest to get the longsword and move on with the weapon you have now, eventually obtaining weapons far stronger than than your current shortsword and the longsword as well, but thats the choice.

So in closing: getting ahold of the Dagger might take more work and will be surpassed by other ships in the long run, but I personally would think that FL would have a much lower replay value if you didn't have to work for the ship that happens to tickle your fancy at present. You are asking for a bit much in just wanting the ship you are interested in to be just handed to you with no trouble whatsoever. Just to show you're not the only one having frustrating problems in obtaining the ship you want, I had a big problem a while back getting the Dromedary from the Hackers due to their allies the Outcast (who hated my guts :/). I recommend hitting shipping companies going through the tradelanes and running away from battles (non-story) with rogues who might decide to pick a fight with you.

Adui made a strong point that should have been related earlier, OpenSP is your best bet if you are interested in experiencing FL's full ability of open-endeness. But if you play your cards right and know what you are doing in clean Vanilla, you can very well have the open-endedness you long for.

Hope this adjusts your thinking and gives new life to your FL play.

When you're going through the story line and get to Leeds, the universe is pretty much open to explore by then.

Yeah, thats usually when I buy it if I feel like it. You can get it as soon as you reach level 4, however it takes more fore-thought as I mentioned before.

And just because the ship might be a bit worse than what you could have, that doesn't make flying it any less fun. I prefer using ships a little weaker than my opposition's just for the added difficulty.

I once made the mistake of popping through a jump hole to see where it would go when I was flying a Crusader. It went into an Outcast system and I was suddenly up against half a dozen Sabres! I was lucky to get back through the jump hole before they blew me to bits. So much for flying against stronger ships. :p

I've been there and back lolz

The main thing to do when you're exploring: don't rely on autosave. Make an explicit save of your game before you venture forth. You don't want to get into a position where you have to reload for half an hour before you can make it back home. The game sometimes doesn't allow a graceful exit from a bad situation.

I'll never forget the first time I came across the Unknown-2 jump hole. Oddly enough, I wasn't accosted by nomads before I found it. So, out of my usual curiosity, I took the jump. First thing I saw was all the weired crystals, then the planet on the right (Gammu) . A few seconds later, next to pop up was nomads.
Since I didn't see any of them in front of me, I assumed they were cloaked and I could swear one of them was a nomad battleship and my HUD lit up full of nomads too, just before I vaporized.
I have to admit, nomads honestly scared and intimidated me for a long time.
I've never forgotten that first experience with the higher level nomads.

Well I am beginning my third go-around and I guess I will settle for the ships that are generally available....I'll just play it the way it was meant to be played....
Manually changing your rep to nuetrality after the first story mission is taking forever...so without modding the game, I'll just make do with the ships I can buy....

Once you finish the storyline, you are free to go where you want. I suggest the Corsairs or the Rhienland police. Or you could start a LAN game and just play that way with no storyline to worry about.

"I'll just play it the way it was meant to be played...."

Not true.

The game is meant to be played however you want. Choosing the simplest ships to buy isn't how the game was meant to be played. Just the path with the least amount of trouble.

I have no problem with you playing however you want to, but please do not judge the game out of your own personal concept of ease and difficulty.

Thank you.

Orin_Hasting -- I agree with you that the game wasn't "meant to be played" along the path of least resistance, but I would also point out that the game was extremely cleverly crafted, and the designers were very well aware of the paths they were laying out, and their relative resistances.

I think we can understand phrases like "how the game was meant to be played" to mean, you know, how the game was expected to be played (typically) the first time through. Indeed, I think we can pretty easily list the typical order of ships, but I'll give only their first letters, so it's not too spoilery:

Starflier, P, D, C, B, A

Well although what you're getting at is true in a way. I believe there is no path whatsoever. There are ships set out to be easily obtained by novice players, but Trent never apparently aligns himself with any factions (until the Order of course) and therefore no ships are set for him to fly in.

Trent is a mercenary to the core, therefore alliances are not set in stone. The only thing restricting his ship choice is his level.

It's all up to your perception, but there is no concrete way to play the game. Even the game box encourages you to do anything you want.

@njagent: I trust that all in here have made it as far as Leeds and that this is no spoiler. Simply put I was like you (about 4 or 5 years ago though ) and wanted to use the Dagger. I made it as far as Leeds where you are told by Juni if I recall to go and make some creds. I went back to Liberty and killed a handfull of Liberty Navy and Police and in a matter of minutes was able to buy the Dagger.

I continued the game in it to a point in the story well after the Order ship is introduced. For some reason I never quite finished that save game and never went back to the SP missions but you can use a Dagger well into the game. Radiation in later systems may be a problem but I certainly made it as far as encounters with the "real" enemy in the game and was able to do missions which involved destroying their battleships.

So YES you can get one early enough to enjoy it and YES it is a good enough ship to use well into the game.

Also YES it is open ended otherwise I would not still be playing 4 years later.

Word