I’m not an expert on the others here, but these are my thoughts.
- Should I be taking both the Wolf and Hammerhead along as escorts? Yes, particularly early on.
- What’s a good early fleet makeup to scare off or outrun pirates? I focused on not having any ship that was slower than a burn speed of 8. Generally, regardless of the type of ship, that would be enough to escape with judicious use of emergency burns. Keep in mind, the slowest ship in your fleet determines the max speed of your entire fleet.
- How should I go about acquiring more ships, either escorts or tankers? Is it worth trying to salvage and use ships with dmods? Generally, I have found trying to fix up salvages ships not worthwhile, particularly if they are damaged. You’re better off salvaging their components and saving up for non-damaged ships.
- Are the preset ship loadouts effective or should I be customizing them with scavenged components? I was usually fine with pre-sets, but enjoy kitting them out myself, particularly when I started accumulating cash and some fine higher end weapons. So, you don’t need to customize them yourself, but it can be fun.