Straight in with the $350 Carrack?
I also think its probably best to clarify 'Will go on sale' means its not being sold now and will at some point go back to being sold. 'Sale' is a little too ambiguous and occasionally misleading if you dont know the situation. Nowt misleading about what you were saying, just best to clarify it when its someone unfamiliar with CIG's on & off approach with selling many ships.
Now to think about what I may want to do in the PU when the time comes, I was a pretty unscrupulous pirate in EvE but I don't want to go down that route in SC. Exploration in a properly fleshed out universe sounds very appealing so a 315i or if money allows a freelancer?
Although... the Vanguard is calling to me, the Mrs's can go without flowers this valentine's day can't she?!
Within the realms of somewhat reasonably priced ships, theres a few options (all prices will be 'standalone' not packages, and excluding tax)...
315P ($65) - Small solo explorer, the 300 series ships are due an overhaul to make them compliant to more recent changes and more purposeful.
Reliant SEN ($75) - Dual seater - More research orientated but should still be useful for exploration.
Mustang Beta ($40) - The VW Camper of Star Citizen. Near enough identical to the Mustang you have, except this has a living space in the back. Its intended for long journeys rather than exploration specifically.
Beyond that, you're into the $100+ ships (so £100+ after package & tax) which would be things like:
Freelancer ($110) - Decent cargo space, able to cope solo flight but probably better with 2 or 3+ people (Pilot, Gunner, + comms/radar/ship management if you wish).
Freelancer DUR ($125) - Explorer version of the Freelancer above. Slightly less cargo, but systems intended for exploration.
Cutlass ($100) - A ship best known for being popular with pirates. Not exactly exploration orientated (no more or less than the Freelancer) but another 2-3man ship for many purposes.
Carrack ($350) - Top of the line explorer. Everything you'd expect, with a price tag to match.
Whats important to highlight with EVERY single ship sold in SC is that the ship you buy is far from being close to its potential. They're all filled with stock gear, theres nothing in any of them which you'd not consider replacing. Nothing that cant be removed and role/mission orientated gear being put in its place.
To give you an idea of how drastic it is, the rough idea is that the cost of buying the ship in-game would be about 1/4 of the cost of getting it up to top-spec. The best thrusters, best shields, best powerplant, guns, role-related-hardware etc.
Also, with something like the base Freelancer vs Freelancer DUR, essentially what you'd be paying the difference for is pretty much system rack space. The DUR might be able to fit 50% more hardware, like scanning hardware. If the best items take up more space in the racks, then you might only be able to fit a decent shield and decent scanning suite, where the DUR can put the best of both in. Thats in exchange for the added cost and the loss of cargo space. Everything has a valid trade-off, but nothing is absolutely fixed in its role, only better suited to it.
That said, so was the Reclaimer & Gladius, the intention was to wait for the tali & MM but they came along and im excited for the possibility of salvage and the Gladius is a stunning ship, fun to fly now and can be used in escort roles.
