I just started the game (after getting interested in it from CohhCarnage's Twitch stream) and am about five hours in. Fully fitted Eagle with mostly A grade stuff and am about two jumps away from the start. I can definitely see how this game benefits from multiplayer to relieve some of the feeling of the grind.
I'm looking to put together a wing of people who are relatively new (or veterans if they want to play along) and just want to have fun in the game doing a little bit of everything. I'm not trying to find the fastest way to grind to the best ship in the game, but rather "experience" the game. I live on the east coast of the US (GMT -5 currently) so would normally be playing towards the end of the work day (6-9pm EST, 23-2 GMT), but I have a little flexibility there.
CMDR Gileon Fletcher, feel free to send an invite if you're interested