The story is horrible (imo, or mostly the characters), but the freeplay is great.
How to find a new ship you ask? I mostly capture pirate ships in the begining. Then sell them at shipyards (some pirate modifications are great so some are keepers, Pirate Nova Raider for example), shipyards can be found in Argon Prime, Teladi Gain for example (each race sells different ships).
A little guide in capturing: Shot them! When the shield drops and the hull drops to about 80% there is a little chance he will bail after each additional damage he takes. So be carefull to stop shoting everytime you get a com message from the one you are shooting at. When they bail they will turn blue. Fly up to the ship, eject from yours. Move close to their and claim (can't remember what menu that was in but should be easy to find). Then move back to your ship and tell your new ship to go dock at a shipyard. PS. Watch out for Nova's with their rear turret. You should be able to kill/claim the rest tho.
Otherwise you can go a traderoute, but pretty much only if you started in the "Easy" setting so you got a Mercury aswell. Otherwise capping is adviced until you get enough money for a trader (atleast!)
Once you starting to get some traders you can buy something called Trade Command Software MK3 that will allow you to get a special Merchant Pilot (i think) in the ship that allows it to autotrade without you interfering.
Oh and yeah, i too thought it was horribly complicated and found the story lacking. But i decided to stick with it and discovered the greatness in the game
