I'm a glutton for punishment and like to play on Iron Mode despite my complete inability to deal with fleet wipes.
I actually recommend a self imposed "iron man" mode where you simply limit save scumming, but have the flexibility to overcome an unintentional mistake or technical issue, if you think you have the discipline. For instance if the AI beats me fair and square I accept the loss, but if I do something absent minded like forget to assign my officers to the correct ships before a battle, I don't force a play-through to be crippled over that. I'm not sure if the game is really well designed for iron man play at present, and I'll never trust a game system with limited save files. Too many corrupted game files for one reason or another over the years. To each their own.
A 'few' things I probably do wrong are:
1 0 carriers in fleet
2 Intercepted often by more powerful fleets
3 Accepting commissions immediately
4 Expanding fleet size too quickly
5 Relying almost exclusively on space trash to bolster my forces
6 Any loss from an 'unexpected' source (like a unique yet counterable weapon/ship from a mod faction for example) feels unfair to me until after I've already ragequit and restarted (screw you, Multi-CAS Beam)
7 Focusing on getting all non-colony Industry skills ASAP to reduce my expenses
8 Buying storage at Jangala when the Abandoned Terraforming Platform is literally in the same system???
9 Saving every single weapon I salvage in storage so I can build a stock to equip my fleet better mid-game (which I never reach)
10 Probably not selling my salvage in the best places (Open Market, not looking for ideal stations to sell at)
11 Usually can't find more than 1 officer before wiping
12 Not really bothering with exploration missions despite enjoying them
1) Carriers are important. Fighters are a very efficient way of winning battles, invaluable against starbases, as long as you go all in on the various fighter/carrier related bonuses. Make sure carrier officers have all their green skills, and max out Fighter Doctrine for the fleet, otherwise you'd be better off with a more powerful conventional warship.
2) Until such point as you have enough quality large ships to make a competent warfleet, keep your fleet size under the threshold where you can still disengage from battle. Watch the max burn speed of your ships, and keep them all at or above a target number--dont put a single slowpoke in your fleet to slow everyone else down. Militarized subsystems can be placed on civilian hulls for a 1 point burn speed bump, as well as sensor bonus. Figure out what sort of activity a given fleet will be doing most of the time, and dont carry ships that dont contribute to this purpose. Keep your daily supply use under 2 per day in the early game, until such time as money is no longer a significant factor, and you can afford to carry around massive war and supply ships.
3) Accepting commissions is a tradeoff. You'll get easy access to powerful, rare warships, weapons, and tech, but you'll be at war with other factions, making travel more difficult in some instances. It's really only suitable for a hardcore combat focused game. If you want easier open ended exploration, better to stay on everyone's good side.
4) See #2
5) Salvaged ships are perfectly viable for low to medium intensity combat, exploration, and low to mid range bounties IF you invest in the associated skills to make them viable. Otherwise avoid. Certain ship types can function reliably with a few D-Mods, other ships really need to be pristine in order to work.
6) I dont recommend any sort of iron man game for players unfamiliar with the various pitfalls of the game. It's more of a challnge mode for veteran players.
7) Certain skills like the passive supply and fuel reductions are mandatory in my opinion. Taken sooner, rather than later, they amount to a massive savings over the course of the game, and just make travel around the galaxy less stressful. Personally, I think Field repairs is a must have for any combat fleet. The industry skills related to D ships should only be taken if you are, in fact, going to use D ships.
8. Sounds like youve figured this out.
9) Personally, I actually do save every weapon--even mundane weapons. You never know when you might have an odd number of weapons or OP left on a ship, and can't quite fit a preferred weapon, and must make do with another kind. Even ubiquitous Vulcan cannons can be used up quickly on the larger low tech ships, and it's frustrating to have to put a light machine gun on instead because the port you're at doesn't sell them. Storage is a slightly more complicated issue--you ideally want to store them some place with a dockyard which you'll use for all ship refitting, but you pay storage fees for that until you get your own colony. I'm unaware if the abandoned station has the facilities needed to fully refit ships. This is perhaps no longer necessary once you have a colony able to produce most weapons you need, but personally I find it tedious to have to sort through the weapons to figure out what I want to sell--they don't sell for much anyway, and it's easier to just dump them all in storage. For a newer player, it's also useful to have a wide variety of weapons available for experimentation.
10) Yes, the tariffs in the game are designed to push the player into engaging in the slightly more complex system of black markets, patrol scans and relations, and stability. You'll have to make choices about whether you want to risk dumping all your goods in a single black market and risk a relations drop or destabilization. Personally, I recommend storing the tradeable goods you find, and use them to fulfill procurement missions for better profit and relations bump, rather than outright selling them.
11) Officers are common at ports, and can often be found for free during exploration missions. They are hugely important, as they drastically increase a ships performance. Even d ships can function well if given a competent officer.
12) Exploration = Loot. You want the best loot, you have to explore. It's the only way to get the things you'll need for the colony game, and you never know what else you'll find. You can find free capital ships floating in space sometimes. Salvaged goods also make trade missions much more profitable than buying the goods with your own money. Be sure to have *some*warships even for exploration though, as the best loot is often behind a modest screen of defenders.