Some Questions

[Cody]

First up - the Green Gecko is only recommended for very experienced pilots flying iron-assed ships, so I'd remove it.
No doubt, more will follow from other users - those more knowledgeable than this dumb pilot.

[Huntress]

Again, I need some help here. How do I remove it?

[Cody]

In the expansion pack manager, find the OXP and click 'Remove expansion pack'.

[Huntress]

<whew> It's done.

[Huntress]

Anything else that I should get rid of right off the bat?

[Smivs]

Anything else that I should get rid of right off the bat?

Probably most of them
You have a lot of OXZs which may not be suitable for a relative newcomer. Many will make the game too hard, but you also have a lot of 'cheat' OXZs there as well, which will distort the gameplay and could in some ways make things too easy. This is NOT a good thing as it may prevent you from learning and developing skills that you need.
Seriously, the recommendation is to play the 'vanilla' game for a while when starting so that you can get familiar with the basic game. It's OK to add in some eye-candy right from the start, so planet re-textures etc and many of the ambience OXZs are fine as well. Once you know the game, add other OXZs slowly. Choose those which look as though they will enhance the game as you play it, install them one at a time and play each for a while (again just to learn what they do and how they affect the game) then add another, and so on.
Many of us 'old hands' actually have very few OXZs installed. We have found that the basic game is so good it doesn't need changing much, and that messing with it actually detracts from the experience and enjoyment.
This is particularly true for the player ship. The default Cobra Mk III is a fine ship - when 'iron-assed' it is about the toughest ship out there (from the core set) - and is well balanced and very versatile. The temptation to 'up-grade' can be great, but a 'better' ship (and this is particularly true of some of the silly uber-ships available) will again distort the gameplay and can prevent the acquisition of necessary skills. You won't learn much sitting there in your impregnable uber-ship picking off the 'baddies' with your super-weapons.

[Cody]

What Smivs said! Others may have different opinions, of course - but the core game itself has so much to offer, as regards gameplay!

[Huntress]

Okay, thanks. I'll make sure to delete a bunch of them.

[Cody]

As an example, I have only twenty-nine OXPs installed - nearly all of which are eye-candy of one sort or another.
When you become more experienced in-game, then you can experiment - even add OXPs that make life harder.

Most OXPs have a Wiki page - there you can get a better idea of what each one does. The  OXP list is your friend.

[Huntress]

Also, I was reading one of the read me files and it said that you can pilot your ship by using your mouse while in fullscreen. I tried it but it didn't work. Is it possible to do this?

[Cody]

I was reading one of the read me files and it said that you can pilot your ship by using your mouse while in fullscreen.

Yep, that should work - in flight, hit 'M', then use the mouse to pilot, right-button to centre, left-button to fire.

[Huntress]

Okay, thanks. I would prefer to use the mouse because I don't want to keep having to look at my keyboard to see what buttons I'm pushing.

[Huntress]

Also, do you know what types of defences the Andromeda has?

[Norby]

[wiki]Andromeda[/wiki] has good equipments by default but no turrets or extra defenses (at least until someone modify it). You can try it if you unzip and load the included savegame - in this case you will see that the extra large hull size is how big handicap in combat, so I think this is not an ubership but something different than the mainstream.

[Huntress]

Oh, I have another question. I like fast ships, anything that's over .4 LM, and I'd like to have a ship that has a lot of missile slots. Any idea on what I should get?