Hi, hangar18 ... yours is a common query, and there's not really any good answer to it. Well, there is an answer to "if anyone had compiled a number of these into a massive pack": no. Too complicated, too many different people involved, too many different things to keep up-to-date.
Recommendations really depend on roughly what level you're at, at the moment (there are some ships you really don't want to meet in your ooniverse until you're ready for them); what sort of ooniverse you'd prefer to inhabit (just canonical Elite; broader-based but no TV or film interlopers; anything up to and including Santa; etc.); the capabilities of your computer.
Some things are common sense, e.g. there's no point installing a mission set in Galaxy 4 when you're in Galaxy 1. There's a useful breakdown of various missions on the
wiki, giving rough skill levels as well as where they're set. Pick one or two and see how it goes.
A good (I think – other peoples' opinions will vary) starting ship expansion pack is
Old Ships; nine new ship types, all canonical to various versions of Elite, and none of them diverge too far from the core game in terms of stats and performance.
For extra dockables, there's
Your Ad Here (convenience stores) ... as a starting point this is worth looking at, as although it adds an extra trading opportunity it doesn't change the gameplay.
Feudal States adds hunting lodges, and the chance to take part in tournaments,
Random Hits adds Seedy Space Bars and bounty hunting missions,
Galactic Navy adds navy bases, ships, and the chance to become a reservist ...
Really, the problem with making recommendations is that what one person loves another might not like at all (this is also another problem with the idea of bundling OXPs). My advice is to pick a few and see how you like them. If they don't suit you, just take them out again for no damage (unless you buy an OXP-only ship, then you're stuck with it until you either buy a core-game ship or edit your save file).
