Is it possible to "acquire" "free" weapons and shields?

[Thrake]

Outside of getting them from bailed or boarded ships? Whenever I find a transport ship with a full cargo of weapons I couldn't get any ejected or from crates after destruction. Even bailed ships seem to lose most of their cargo and equipment when bailing at high health.

[Cycrow]

If they are traders you can comm them to surrender their freight and they might eject some.

Otherwise, you can use the Cargo Bay Hacker to steal them

[Hwitvlf]

As Cycrow says, I've found the Cargo Bay Hacker to be a fun and effective way to fill in a ship's equipment in early game. It works much better on non-hostile ships, and if you don't shoot the ship during the process, you don't even lose the police license if they detect the attempt and go hostile. You can even hack stations, but it's harder to turn them friendly again if they detect the hack.

The weapons a ships drop when you destroy it seems to be dependent on your combat rank. I've never seen any weapons drop when you're at starting levels, but it's common to see stacks of them at higher ranks. I don't think destroyed ships ever drop equipped shields - only when they're hauled as cargo. It seems to be very rare for a bailed/captured ship to retain any good equipment, regardless of your ranks.

[Jimmy C]

It seems to be very rare for a bailed/captured ship to retain any good equipment, regardless of your ranks.

I've captured hundreds of ships. It's possible to get the biggest guns on the ship. It's random and decided by factors well before you board the target and won't change even if you reload at the end of the boarding process, unlike in AP.

[BrigandPhantos77]

Free weapons and loot in general> Best places I've found are hot spots. Places frequented by Xenon attacks, or in the pirate sectors.

Try these for Xenon > Scale Plate Green, Black Hole Sun, Grand Exchange Delta

For Pirate > Hatikvah's Faith, and any sector directly south of Ceo's Doubt.

Placement of Xenon Hub > Holy Vision / The Void alpha, Neptune / Brennan's Triumph Delta, Unseen Domain / Unclaimed Sector
- Keep TS ships running collect wares and be prepared to need to empty them frequently. You'll get a ton of loot this way. Paranid are aggressive in the hub with these gate choices, and the Terran's will be in there constantly too. You'll also cause carnage in Brennan's Triumph due to Boron and Argon attempting to access the hub through the pirate sectors next door.