I thought this was an april fool's joke.. a troll even... I hope it's not a troll. I couldn't be arsed to read past page 4.
I mean, there has not been a really good space game since star control 2 and starflight/alpha flight. I mean really good, not the shite you kids get. Fuck eve too.
It's up there in the top games I'd like to make. Like one of 3.
I'd really like a nav computor something like Celestia.
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/I hope you've seen that.
Spore really dropped the ball in the space act, all that trouble making a cool ship, then explore space - so you encounter many different races but they are one of 7 archetypes. So yes, I got to the center of the universe without dying. I had no desire to explore the hundreds of other worlds.. just to do the same ol same ol.
If you really are serious let me know, check my moddb, as I am working on a mecha project when not goofing off in cRPG.