just to continue - currently theres no way to know what place is suitable for outpost/gate before buying the hardware and checking every nook and cranny. its not bad once you have more than enough money to just afford and dump one, but early on its not that easy. but anyway
another point - im struggling with now - is that once you get into phosphorus +, mainly in titanium/platinum/iridium and probably(?) later you start to hit energy consumption/generation problem - quite seriously. assuming you are using shield. im rn running with 2 solar arrays and 3 shields, latest is booster module. i have positive generation... until shield depletes on clearing pirate nodes. than, immediately boost off and attemp to restore some energy while gathering loot. seriously, 1 node battle is guaranteed 0 energy to me, once its done. since all goes into shield replenishment. i dont know maybe i should try repair modules?! not sure even with research they ll be nearly as good
(ok, repair rocks)