How do you start a game?

[LucasG234]

I am new to FTL, and I just want to know how different people start their games. Where do you man your first crew? What do you upgrade first? That sort of thing.

[5thHorseman]

Rockman in pilot. Zoltan in shields. Second Zoltan keeps him company if I ever get one. Engi in the least useful thing to man (Shields is good, else doors or scanners). Never put a Mantis in doors, when he goes to fight the bad guys your doors get weaker.

Here is my personal checklist of things to do. I try to follow it with most every ship:

Before the end of sector 1, 2 shields (4 bars. And in fact my first 50 scrap usually goes to shields)
Before the end of sector 2, 4 engines (I frequently buy these before I can power them. Depending on enemies, you can take 1 shield down to power engines up)
Before the end of sector 3, 5 engines.
Before the end of sector 4, 3 shields (6 bars)

Note: This is for NORMAL mode. For HARD mode, I try to shift everything up one sector though it's pretty hard, especially with the below requirements:

Also, you need to have a way to get through:
Before the end of Sector 2: 2 shields (Most ships can do this)
Before the end of Sector 4: 3 shields (This usually means you need to buy weapons or something tricky (teleporter, hacking) in sector 3 or 4)
Before the end of Sector 7: 4 shields (or the Boss is gonna suck)

Note: to get through 2 shields, you need to do 3 laser shots. Or have 2 ions and a laser/beam/whatever. Or have a teleporter. Or a bomb. Doesn't matter what.

After I have the above, I start thinking about upgrading other things, like doors and O2 and medbay and stuff.

Most of the time I don't reach these milestones, and I end up not getting my 4th engine until midway through sector 3 or something. No biggie, as long as you keep trying.