Yea I seem to be having better luck fighting first before trading, but it's just luck. I am still in no shape to actually take on actual bounty missions. Right now I have my wolf and two escorts and a SCY freighter, my burn speed is decent and I've been winning larger fights vs crap pirates in Corvus, and when I can, I will try to use SCY ships for trade. But I am pretty disappointed, not in SS+, but just in the experience in general. For example, since I am using all of the faction mods that are up to date, it's very hard to have any reason to bother with factions that use older ships when I can get these better nearly OP faction ships. Burn speed especially. Thats like, the biggest issue to me. I can have a big lumbering fleet, but I can't afford it- I can't even find enough fuel for such a venture let alone afford it. (not to imply I should be able to do this right away of course.)
I was talking to my Skype group about it, and a lot of people are telling me that the game (SS+) sounds far too difficult. With so many factions having locked content like capital ships so far away, the rogue like being so difficult, how am I supposed to ever make use of any of that content? I'm having extreme problems finding and affording fuel and supplies in my game. I know you said in the past that this can be related to the balance of markets, but what about the tolls? Why is it that when I trade, I make a profit only to have it removed by the guards? This is vanilla, yes, but did you consider it when making SS+ more difficult?
I love this game, but my friends who listen to me play it are right, and all I ever really talk about is how stunted I am and how I have to constantly restart so early. I can't seem to /have/ a play through.