[stcredzero]

It will be like Second Life, but everything will be a Ship, an inert object in space, or an Item to be used aboard a ship. Users will be able to design Ships and Items, but only after they have built and supplied a special ship outfitted as a Research Facility and operated it for a certain period of time. Designs will be vetted at first, but this will transition to a Slashdot-like moderation system.

The galaxy will be procedurally generated. There will be millions if not billions of star systems. You will not be able to bookmark arbitrary locations in space, however. (Hyperspace is extremely chaotic and changing, so any jump to a coordinate in "Real" space will always be randomized and never precise.) You must drop an item called a "beacon" to be able to warp back to a specific location. A user will only be able to afford a certain number of beacons.

[brentr]

Do you intend to code a realistic physics system into this game? If so, will you be using a physics engine that has the concept of relativity built into it?

[stcredzero]

Relativity? Not right now. You will be able to fly a ship in "Newtonian" mode, but with a speed limit (due to collision implementation issues.) The ship will also fly in "inertialess" mode which will be like the way ships fly in Star Wars. Performance of ships in "inertialess" mode will be comparable to that in Newtonian, just with less flexibility.

One interesting twist to ship design, will be that the shape of your ship will actually change its stats in meaningful ways. For example, if you have a ship that uses armor for protection, then having the hull of your ship angled like an arrowhead will give you higher armor values from the forward direction. (And much weaker from the sides and rear.) Having a ship which is longer will also improve the performance of axial mount weapons. However, increased length, size and mass also have drawbacks, as it will reduce your maximum turning rate and the rate at which you can change angular momentum. Components will require some internal volume, so you won't be able to make an invulnerable Death Pencil.

The game will have elements of "space opry" and not just have hard science fiction. I want people to experience the thrill of epic space battles. There will also be exploration and trade.