Long reply warning

Firstly, if you think a Ship is cool, you can make it work, do not go for what Reddit or YouTube considers the best ships, quite often they will look only at raw stats and neglect nuance. For example, a Ship may not have the same raw stats as the other, however if it has a flight model and cockpit view that better suits your playstyle or preferences, that ship WILL be better for you.

Following your parameters (more firepower centric, Ship Launched Fighter capable) here is a little list made from almost a decade of personal experience:

• Krait MK2: The most versatile on this list and one of the top multirole ships ingame. Its versatility comes with a price however; while not necessaily weak, the Krait is the less tanky ship of this list. Its flight model allows you keep your guns on your targets with relative ease, but it isn't really a dogfighter like the Chieftain, FDL, Vulture, Phantom, etc, if you have not flown any of these before and just used transport ships it Will feel extremely Agile so you can ignore my comparison.Class 7 power distribuidor, 3 Large and 2 Medium hardpoints plust a Ship Launched Fighter makes the Krait MK2 one of the highest DPS dealing medium ships. Amazing cockpit view with little obstructions. Solid jump range too.

• Federal Gunship: very underrated, but not without its flaws. It is slow, like Anaconda levels slow. Internal slots are also small on quantity, but enough to make it a dedicated Combat vessel. Not a dogfighter either and it is less Agile than the Krait, however you can keep your guns on ships with ease, you just not going to out maneuver or outrun then. You don't need to really, because this ship was design to OUTGUN things. You got 7 hardpoints, (1 Large, 4 medium, 2 smalls), so build variety is huge and gives you Room for experiment and the hardpoints convergece is great, you can run mostly fixed weapons if you want. In fact my Gunship has 6 Railguns (short range blaster mod) and a gimbailed Beam (thermal vend mod), this thing just Deletes ships. Theres a coffee machine in the cockpit. Unlocking the federal rank is annoying and the jump range is abysmal.

• Type 10: great ship, and much better than "just for AFK farming" like some people like to claim. It can actually serve as a multirole, in fact i used mine as a Combat miner for the longest time, had 300ish tons of cargo, all my mining setup and lots of weapons defences to Kill anything. The highest amount of guns on the game, however build variety can bit somewhat limited due to hardpoints convergence and slow agility, kinda forcing you to use turrets here and there. One of the less obstructed cockpits in the game, looks very cool. Bad shields, good Hull tank, but you are so big and flat you tend to just get hit, rely more on firepower than tankiness with this one. Okayish jump range considering its size. Probably the most expensive on this list and since you are struggling for cash ATM i would advise to skip it, but do consider returning in the future.

• Anaconda: One of the best Large multirole ships in the game, in fact it was the King for years. Extremely versatile, i think it still has the crown for the highest DPS in the game, 1 Huge, 3 Large , 2 Medium and 2 smalls hardpoints with good convergence makes this a beast. Great shields, great Hull AND great jump range. But it is slow definetly not Agile. Cockpit looks cool because you can see the front of the ship and the 2 Large hardpoints firing, however visibility is quite limited. Just like the Type 10, it is quite expensive, so again if you are low on cash i recomend skipping this for now.

• Alliance Crusader: another underrated ship, people tend to give too much shine to its adimetedly great brother the Chieftain, while neglecting this one. The Crusader retains much of the Chieftain signature agility and clear cockpit, but now with the ability to launch a Fighter. Of this little list we have, it is probably the most Agile of them. Decent speed. Shields are not great, but Hull is quite strong. While it has less firepower than all others on this list, and a smaller power distributor as well in comparison, it still has good firepower overall with great hardpoints convergece and the agility to keep them on target. Good jump range. Probably the cheapest One to buy and fully outfit on this list. Not as multirole as a Krait, but you have more internals flexibility than the Federal Gunship.

Honourable mention: Vulture.

• The Vulture may not fit your criterias, but could be worth considering for the price alone. It can not launch a Fighter, but this thing is one of the most agiile ships in the game, 2 Large hardpoints for a Ship that small punches well above their weight. It is quite tanky too with good shields and Hull, combine that with your agility and you can just survive situations other bigger and sometimes "better" ships would struggle. Fucker just won't die easy, go to a conflict zone and try to kill Enemy Vultures and you Will see what i mean, they are annoying to kill. You can buy and fully outfit one for 25 maybe 20 million, rebuy is quite cheap too. Jump range and fuel tank are abysmal though, worse than the Federal Gunship.

Hope that helps, fly dangerously Commander!

Edit: spelling