Actually, I did get the cargo bay first, on the business principle that it will make me money faster and put the other goodies within reach quicker -- all I had to do was master docking myself PDQ!
With nav beacons it's not that hard -- go to the slot in the space station, turn and face the nav beacon and approach it dead straight, stop, turn to face the slot again, and you'll be pretty well lined up, then just tootle along and stop when you're looking down its gullet, tweak your attitude if necessary, get your rotation right, nnd slip in (humming "Blue Danube" optional!).
DC was next on my list, then WFI, extra energy unit, ECM, shield boosters, all to cover defence, and then upgraded fore and aft lasers to military.
From my early days, 20 years back, I recall that it was MUCH easier to get kills by getting the enemy to follow you and then cook them with your aft laser, using mouse rather than keyboard controls -- it was just so much easier than trying to control the fore laser with the KBD. Now, however, I find it easier using fore laser and kbd. Is it an age thing??
Must say, though, the scanner targeting enhancement helps a lot!
Now I'm looking to go for a bigger ship, so that I can make money even faster. Or is there something else I should do first?
<Faints>
