"Play missions randomly or follow the storyline". How is this possible? It seems that you cannot gain levels unless you complete the SP missions first. I've played through the SP missions once already, but it seems that I'm limited unless I follow the path. Am I missing something.
Oh, ok. Lets back up a minute.
Yes, there are times you HAVE to advance in the single player campaign to go up a level. If you want a ship or piece of equipment that is only available at level 13 and you are at level 10, you will NEED to complete some story missions. SOMETIMES you will be able to break away from the SP story and do your own thing.
If your goal is to get to the highest levels, you MUST complete the single player storylines, or, you can download a hack from this site that gets rid of the single player story entirely and you can then just fly around, doing random missions or making money to go up in levels.
You say you completed the SP story so you have no restrictions now. Go, be free. See the universe.
But, there are times in SP when you can do the same thing, EXCEPT that you will be restricted by what ships/equipment you can buy.
To recap this dead horse:
1. If you want to gain levels for whatever reason, you need to complete the SP story to advance, or download the hack tool here.
2. If you want to "do your own thing", then after you and Juni leave Liberty space, you have no restrictions OTHER than level. There are pleanty of ships to buy, missions to perform, cargo to haul, places to see, people to meet, wreakage to find at level 11.
Me no gun