I played my first ever multiplayer version of Freelancer here, on this new release. I have a few observations from a completely new player:
1st: the level 1 difficulty missions are extremely hard. It's easy not to die, but it takes several minutes to kill even 1 rookie rogue. To kill all 4 to 6 in the average difficulty 1 or 2 missions means more time than running 3 cargo runs.
2nd: You guys removed ALL of the Rhino freighters, so carrying cargo sucks really bad for a new player. I have to save up to 130k (from the 8k base money) in order to purchase the cheapest freighter I can find. I can do this, but it is very tedious. In the single player, I could switch to the Rhino instantly.
3rd: Generally, I think I like this way of playing. It is neat to talk to others, and I really enjoy the Freelancer universe, so this is fun.
So my only real complaints are that low level starting out is extremely difficult, and basically just really tedious. I ran a few cargo runs in the basic starter ship, bought a Heavy Fighter from a battleship. It improves things a little, but ships still take a very long time to knock down.
Lastly, as a suggestion: I can't find any sort of "new player guide" where new players could get info easily. Is there such a beast?