Originally posted by dacis2
seriously! i don't know!
The most important thing in Privateer, and tattoo this on the insides of your eyelids, is:
"A fully loaded Tarsus is better than a bare bones Centurion."
In fact, a fully-loaded Tarsus is better than anything but a fully-loaded Centurion. Forget the tractor beam until you've got a ship with a turret (either an Orion or a Centurion, I never got the hang of piloting a Galaxy).
The first three things you want to do:
1) Get an afterburner. You really, really, REALLY want an afterburner.
2) Upgrade your guns first to meson guns, then to tachyon cannons. These guns have a better power-to-damage curve than just about anything else in the game. I'm not kidding.
3) Get tungsten armor and keep it. Tungsten armor is more than worth the extra cost on plassteel. You WILL thank me for this.
After that, wait until your Tarsus is well-equipped and you are comfortable behind the controls before you start taking interstellar jobs, or you'll be dead before you know it.