What is it exactly.. ya do here?

[FR1GHT]

I see a lot of "Simulation" stuff, and "Every crew member".. but absolutely nothing about the gameplay beyond flying a starship around. Is this game purely just exploring and meeting procedurally generated aliens? Will there actually be missions and rewards?

[ODST_General]

So the base game will be an open world sandbox. Gameplay can be sort of split into ship based on external I would say. In terms of the ship itself, the ship will have a management aspect to it. The ship will have wear and tear over time, that will need to be repaired and maintained. The crew will also need to eat, sleep, and stay entertained to some extent. So internally the ship will have a lot of minor upkeep and chores going on all the time that will need to be done.

More externally exploration is the major driver. During exploration you will potentially meet aliens, which can trigger diplomatic conversations or a combat scenario. You will also be able to find stuff like alien space stations, derelict ships, alien worlds, etc. To explore, again some of those things may have hostile creatures onboard, or may result in some other stuff. During those explorations, or while using various probes, you may find items or technology which can be integrated into your ship. So stuff like better armor for the hull, more efficient food, alternate warp drives, etc.

In terms of missions the base game will probably be fairly limited as it is an open ended sandbox. The planned DLCs will be story based content, with a specific mission or series of events that will play out and actually build the story and lore of the game.

[Tazmo]

In a nut shell my impression is this. There are three positions you can experiment with in this demo. The first being a limited engineer position to run thru the reactor start up tutorial. The second is as a pilot to traverse the galaxy. The third being the navigator who uses the scanner to gain information on interesting locations in the galaxy and plots the course for the pilot to use.

This proof of concept demo provides us a taste of what is planned to come in the Early Access release that might be ready in about one year.

[Boom Erang]

I really like the concept of not having people come in and shoot you in the back and then laugh and leave. The downfall of all pew pew games.
This demo has already expanded my mind in huge ways.
One just has to set one's own goals at this point.
Learning about the Galactic coordinate system (and wishing we had more) was eye opening as well.
Today's mission is to Start up the Reactor, power the ship, head for Mercury and then on to Pluto swinging by every planet in the Solar System.
Get at 'er.