How's my ship doing so far? Just want some suggestions.

Race: Sillixx
Profession: Mercant
Rank: 20

Decks: 111
Attack: 28
Defense: 30
Scan: 1 (I don't install scanners unless I have to scan for planets)
Cloak: 36
Cargo: 221
Upkeep: 2.7K

Engineers: 100
Tactical Officers: 13
Helmsmen: 16
Scientists: 28
(Note: My number of Helmsmen and Scientists are increased through artifacts, not through rank points. I've a great legion that helps me with Artifact points)

Energy: 157
Hull: 145
Shields: 65

Production Stats
Minerals: 68/hour
Artifact: 51/hour
Research: 137/hour

Research
Laser Focusing: 2/3
Graviton Induction: 0/4
Hull Polarization: 2/3
Sensor Jamming: 2/3
Whipple Plating: 1/3
Motion Compensation: 1/3
Wideband Scanner: 2/3
Nano Assembly: 0/3
Spacial Docking: 0/2

My planets
2 Mining planets
1. Toxic, Average, Abundant
2. Toxic, Large, Average

1 Artifact planet
1. Oceanic, Average, Rich

2 Research planets
1. Gas, Very Large, Abundant
2. Gas, Very Massive, Rich

Player Kills: 1
Deaths from players: 3
Non-player kills: 3
Planets found: 45 (Through Scan-increasing artifacts, scanning planets suddenly becomes easier)
Missions Completed: 101
Scan performed: 81
Successful Hacks: 17
Successful Raids: 0

Any advice?

you are too low rank to tell tbh. change from silixx asap and change to either konq or aerlen I would say.

both the toxics and 1st gas are not very good planets, try aim for things above ultra rich and size above large for arti and mining....for research only gasses you should take should be VM and rich +

don't let them deaths creep up early on

Why should I change from Sillixx? Besides I don't have any artifacts that change my race...
But what do I do if the planets I scanned are (Almost all) just Abundant or Very Abundant? And should I colonise the Small Rich planets or the Very Large Sparse planets?

(IMO) Sillix is not a very good race because you become dependent upon its bonus for the deck space, despite that decks are boosted by increasing your artifact production (i.e. through ship bots) and NPC hunting (e.g. Lazuli parts vaults).
I don't think it's a -terrible- race to start out with, but as Dreadlost says, Konqul and Aerlen both better.

As for planets... don't colonize either. Do more scanner research... it's better for people just starting out to join a research legion (for their first 20 ranks), to get ahead on weapons/defense/scanner/planetary production stuff. Afterward, artifact production to produce scientists can help with research

Ok, any other suggestions on how I can make my ship better?

depends on how quickly you want to rank up.

if slow-ranking, build up your hull. if speed-ranking, go for energy or attack. join up with a legion where you can pick up their cast-offs ... most of which will be better than what you have already scanned.

that said, if you want to help the community out, you could assist us with a scanning test.

in this topic:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=30474

we have a lot of folks scanning at the higher levels, but we need some more data under 500 scan, and between 600 and 978 scan. if you could help fill in those numbers, that would be excellent !

this wiki page outlines the procedure:

http://galaxylegion.com/wiki/index.php/ ... s_Per_Scan