2 Questions: Upgrades & Recycling

Been playing this game for a bit now and decided to spend a lot of time pirating so I can trade for some better items.

My first question is whether there is some sort of FAQ out there that outlines all of the upgrades in the game, and gives real-world descriptions of them and recommendations as to their usefullness. I was about to trade for a Coolant Pod earlier tonight, and then I checked the encyclopedia and realized it sounded rather crappy. Other items don't have such descriptive entries and it's difficult to tell whether it's worth the trade or not.

The other question I had was about Recycling. Does anyone know if there are certain cargo items that are NEVER traded, and would only be usefull as recycling matter? I've held off recycling so far since I'm unsure what items to keep and which to scrap, but it would be a good start if I knew which items(if any) are not traded for and can be sent straight to the recycler. No point in crowding my cargo screen with items I could be recycling.

I think I have a good advice for your second question. As you make progress in the game you will get a lot of trade offers so guessing what cargo you will need then right from the start is a very hard question to ask.
So my advice is to look in the trade screen first to see what you need and also after you come back to your base. Now to the point, If you see you have many pods of high value cargo, i suggest you keep about 3 or 4 pods only in your inventory(most of the trades that requiers high value cargo ask for up to 3 pods a trade) and recycle the rest for a good amount of menufacture units. I don't believe there are usless pods for trade besides sewege pods(sewege is usless? what a shock!) but I only finished the game twice so i might missed some.

Typically, you won't need to trade more than two or three pods for anything in the game, so everything else is overhead. Add to that, a single pod of missiles or decoys lasts a long time.

I tended to use my Rare Metals when recycling. I get hoards of them while pirating and they return a good recycle rate.

As far as I know, no master list of upgrades exists for the game. But I'd advise to grab what's new whenever it's offered... some of the simpler systems look like they would have a minimal effect, but when installed they dramatically increase the player's power. The loadout screen will keep you using the good stuff; it tries to enforce the most powerful loadout possible.

Try to avoid recycling terraforming materials until later in the game (late act 2 or so); you can get several nifty things for them - such as heavy PBCs - earlier on if you can get 'em, but they seem to avoid me ^^,

Coolant pods are only useful, really, if you jack yer power tri WAY over to weapons, AFAIK. I run an anitmatter pod and NEVER overheat, although I tend to keep the tri close to the middle. I'm a gadget freak, so I got a coolant pod ANYWAY

To be honest, except to make some seeker missiles, I hardly have had to USE recycling I tend to be an energy-weapon whore.

I'm guessing Hull Plates are ripe for recycling since you can't put em' on your ship. At leasts I don't think so since they don't show in my loadout screen.

Dammit Cal...

You cant recycle anything that you can mount on your ship anyway. Hull plates are merely another cargo type, I dont recall trading any but that dosent mean there arent trades.