This is a fun topic to discuss.
For me, my long term gameplay plans were to acquire myself a single ship, in my case a Python, and fully outfit it with a full rack of A-Grade equipment, and the best weapons loadout that works for me. I acquired three rebuys worth of credits to enable me to roam freely (roughly 45m) and enjoy the game with a little bit of buffer room. I assumed I'd not have to worry about rebuys for quite awhile as I never intended to die very often.
At this point I started just doing whatever I wanted, Exploration, Smuggling, Combat Zones, CG's and yes, even Bulletin Board Missions. As someone who only plays in Open the randomness of human encounters is an important part of the game to me. I had thought, that I had gotten to a point where I no longer needed to worry about rebuys, as I had even gained an additional rebuy worth of liquid credits. However when things went south, they went south and I very quickly lost my entire wallets worth of backup funds dropping back down to 2mil.
I've taken advantage of the Zaonce discount for my hull, and the 78 Ursae Majoris discount for my shields and have managed to drop my rebuy from 14.2m to 13.6m, and I'm still actively peeping discounts to further lower that rebuy cost, and indeed my next goal is to gain access to the pilots federation worlds for the 10% discount on equipment to further reduce my rebuy as many of my components have rather high costs.
I will probably achieve my goal of Elite through Exploration, and yes, I will do so in my Python. I've already done a 5Kylie dry run in my Python and despite being unable to handle very large gaps between stars in fringe and edge areas of the galaxy, a 6A fuel scoop completely makes up for any lack of "speed" when compared to an Asp with a "normal" scoop.
Because of the fact that I have limited myself to one, multi role ship my playstyle revolves around swapping out my internal compartments equipment if I want to switch to a pure trading role, or exploration role. I don't minmax my ships weight for jump distance, and instead rather enjoy having a very combat capable all-rounder.
Typically I will only modify my utility slots and and internal compartments, and even then unless I am switching to a pure-trade loadout, I usually only ever replace my Class 3 internals and one of my Class 5 internals as I like to keep a relatively high defensive combat rating.
My ship fit is
here. I'm very happy with my fitting, and I'm even accepting of my inordinately high rebuy, even when you consider I don't have a trade ship to counter that.
This next section is
not meant to derail, so readers please don't derail this thread over this comment! My only conerns at this point are the incoming 10% resale penalty on modules and the fact that without item storage it will be prohibitive in terms of allowing me to swap out my 28m fuel scoop for a cargo rack on a temporary basis without incurring ridiculous losses. However on the flip side of that, I'm hoping that a 10% penalty to module resale, read as a "10% reduction in module value once purchase and equipped" translates into an additional 10% reduction in ship rebuy. So overall, I may wind up more stable despite a lack of being able to swap to a trade configuration whenever I want.
Honestly in a nutshell though I'm very happy with my single ship gameplay. I can't stand being bound to one particular location in Elite which is why the gameplay style of having a small personal fleet doesn't suit me.
I've also not really found myself able to "attach" to any one player group in online mode, especially considering that being a Python pilot... Group combat usually results with me being the primary target, especially considering I'm actually rather good at landing hits with my rails and especially my plasma accelerator.
Despite loving to PVP, I'm rather "PVP Shy". I don't like pirating as its not really cost effective and a big fat wanted tag doesn't really make me feel comfortable when I lose 13.6m every time I die. The only times I've really died are a direct result of being severely outnumbered by unskilled players in combat zones for CG's, and by equally or greater skilled players when outnumbered 3v1 and making the mistake of low-waking instead of high-waking. In most instances of 2v1 I can usually kill at least one target unless both players are exceptionally skilled and flying well equipped large ships.
I've yet to come across an equally equipped Python or Anaconda in PVP, and as such have never lost a 1v1 with my current ship fitting. I am more than happy to let pirates limp away if they choose to run, especially since the Pythons speed doesn't really encourage pursuit. I really do enjoy spanking them with my C3 turrets as they skedaddle. The last time I let a pirate run however, his pride demanded revenge and I found myself facing a his Python, a Clipper and some other ship I can't remember. I was victimized by repeated ramming to drop my shields (and thus counter my SCB's) and then promptly powerplant sniped by the group. Survival would have been assured... If I had high-waked, but I didn't.
Anyways, over all I'm very happy with my choice in playstyle, albeit I've been a little inactive lately due to sitting at a credit balance of 2m (a little over 5m since I got to take advantage of the discount on a 6A shield! Yay!) and am a little adverse to dying and having to resell my fuel scoop to afford insurance. I've also been distracted with the release of Witcher 3 and replaying the entire series so there's also that.
