1 bn indebtedness. I'm not know to grind happily. But since this is a free form game I can pick up any time again - who cares when the immediate gear progression is OK? In fact the whole thing sets the stage and immersion quite well. It's EA, so I hope they do some work with the writing - so far I like being little cog with ridiculous debt and cutting million dolla ships to pieces while the corp tries to squeeze every credit outa me they can.
The Gecko is kinda far back in the berth - I lost both port and starbord nano hull plate chunks as they got sucked into the foundry. Apply tethers liberally, the foundries are hungry monstrosities. I haven't yet figured a streamlined workflow yet, but it's good practice to tackle ECU and piping first. I tend to blow up stuff if I don't remember to do that first. Then maybe gut the underside and make way for the innards to the barge. Anyway, cutpoints to front should be fine without any piping there. Actually I don't really cut very much - mostly going for cut joints and then janking stuff into the gaping mouths of the berth.