Impulse was having a good deal on X3 Gold - only $12.50!
Just bought it from Impulse, downloaded & installed.
For starters, where can I get a printable manual? The one that comes in game is mostly white text on black or dark background, which makes it difficult to print.
Secondly what would be a good guide for a noob to the entire series to read?

Read the X3TC sticky above, there a couple of links for mods, guides etc. in it.

I started off by following the 'Apricot Mapping Service' guide, it was a good way to get comfortable with what you can do, and controlling everything.

Links in the sticky above.

That's an amazing community over there. Says something about the quality of the sim that so many modders produce so much excellent work. The Freespace 2 modders are also still going strong.

Started as a Humble Merchant & doing the flight school lesson. When it came to targeting & shooting at the dropped cargo pod, (click RMB) nothing happened. I understand that the Mercury is a cargo ship, and hence unarmed?
And I'm still looking for a printable manual...

To do the flight training, you need an armed ship, I just started a career as a fighter pilot (can't remember which one), just to do the training, and then restarted as the 'humble merchant'.

Now, stop talking about the game, I haven't played it in a couple months, and if I fire it up again, all of my free time will be gone.

It's really addicting

Cheers!