@martinz, on 10 December 2014 - 09:00 PM, said in EVO Questions:
The last few times I've played, and it has been a while, I've been frustrated with how hard it seems to be to get the first mission in the UE Cruiser string - I go to New Taranto straight after rescuing the scoutship crew, but nada. In fact, it has kind of put me off continuing in those instances ... not because I want the ship necessarily (and btw isn't it 14.5m credits? :)/>) but for completeness's sake!
You can't actually get that first mission until you have a combat rating of 6400 or Dangerous. Most players wouldn't have a rating that high by the time you rescue the scoutship crew, especially since that mission only requires a combat rating of 800 or Competent. Essentially, unless you spend a lot of time fighting Voinians/human renegades, you won't unlock the UE Cruiser till after traveling to the Crescent.
As for the price of the UE Cruiser, according to Guy's (unofficial but vastly superior) port of EVO to EVN, the price is 10,500,000 credits. I don't currently have a copy of original EVO or the official port on me so I can't say what those list the price as, but I generally consider Guy's port to be what EVO was always meant to be.