I tried a Cutter last night and it's very nice for a Trade-Cutter with 536T of cargo and can defend itself against anything - only ~525-750 million. I guess I'll have to start doing missions for the Empire if I want to get one in-game. I hate running from pirates! It actually kind of reminds me of being in the space cow after being in fighters for a while, but it is much faster. I haven't had a chance of testing it against Pythons or Condas yet, but I'm sure it will do fine. No problems against smaller ships. I think I'd use all turrets in a trade setup, though I'm not sure what to do with the huge hard point - we really need more options for that.
I launched from two stations (after waiting 20 minutes for the shields to charge) and didn't even bump the shields in the slot, although I did use the DC for docking. You'd think you could charge your shields faster using station power.
Anybody know if it is possible to exit the station with gear up, or will you always get stuck?