Noob's guide to SC

Okay, so i've been seeing all this SC talk and all of the dogfighting module and blahblah. while i'm extremely wary about preordering games, nevermind getting all psyched and into divisions and such, I WANT TO DO SC WITH YOU LOT. but it's more than a bit confusing when the game's all up in the air and i'm seeing all these application threads and i have no idea what i'll be flying or what i'll suck less at, soooo. where do i start? buy a ship, obviously. haven't done that, yet. like i said, nervous about plopping money down for pre-orders. but i WILL plop maybe $40 down if you guys can point me to as good buy which you or somebody in NNG has bought and are happy with. the game's still so far away, and not that i really think they can muck up the game with $1029329342838, but you never know. so.
tl;dr
what's a good cheap ship or whatever
what are all these divisions? are they IN the game to be? can i just check all of them?
who should i get to know better, like who's leading, who's in and who should i say hi to?

also, fucking mega excited for this, ever since i watched Star Wars, BSG, and other stuff.

 

Good cheap ship is the Aurora, although you could look at any of the 300 series or an Avenger.

There's several divisions in NNG:

The overall leader is Sotet.

ISIS (Exploration) led by RaveMonkey
The Legion (Military.. .I'd say PvP gg) led by Phaedo
BARD (Bounty Hunting) led by Ajax
The Cartel (Finance) led by Jaam

If you have any questions on each of the divisions ask any of the leaders listed above. As far as I know you can join only one division.

In terms of being limited to "only" to NNG, you're not. You can join multiple orgs, but as far as I understand what NNG's policies on this is that you can be in multiple, but if you're only an affiliate, your chances of taking leadership roles is somewhat limited.

Someone can kick me for being wrong. 8D

 

I have it downloaded but I'm scared to even play it because the controls look so daunting. lol. Are they more noob friendly than they seem?
http://imgur.com/r/starcitizen/hymyshJ

 

It's actually not that complex, there are only a handful of keys you actually need

 

What about all those yellow keys?

 

keys associated with the radar, there is a legend on the top right

 

You don't have to join a Division right away correct? Too early for me to say what aspect of the game I will excel in.

 

Not at all, wait till you know for sure, but you can always switch.

 

Perfect. Thanks.