This game is a massive undertaking and will be completed and released in steps possibly spread out over a few years. It will be under active development for the forseeable future and I will be accepting bug reports and feature requests, and releasing playable demos and eventually client/server updates frequently. While the majority of these features will not be present in early releases of the game, feel free to browse the list below for an ever-expanding list of planned awesome game features and click on them for a more detailed description.


Modular Ship Configurations
A player's ship is stored in a simple way, an array of "modules", each containing information about the module -- it's type, assigned tech, stats, health, power, and other information. Module information can be viewed through various viewscreen interfaces, and can be similarly configured. You may also upgrade the equipment installed to modules of your ship to improve aspects of your ship.
Ruined Technology
One of two ways to acquire new technology for your ship. Ruined technology is leftover technology from a ship or other construct that has been destroyed. A ship or starbase destroyed in combat has a chance of leaving behind a ruined version of one of the systems it was equipped with. A ruined technology can be installed to a compatible module, repaired and then used on your ship. Note: Acquiring ruined technology does not enable you to build that technology yourself, if you lose that tech, you will not be able to replace it.
Tech Blueprints
The second method of acquiring new technology is to acquire a blueprint for it. Blueprints will usually be found in ground-based missions (when implemented) and occasionally within the ruins left after combat with server-controlled entities. Blueprints allow you to build that specific technology at any time if you have the resources required.
Planets and Terrain
Players can control planets throughout space, giving you access to resources and population. Resources allow you to construct your ships and technology, and population allows you to fulfill the crewing requirements of launching a ship you own. Owning a planet also gives you (and any faction you are aligned with) combat boosts when fighting in the space around that planet. Players may capture unaligned or owned planets, and then defend them with their own ships or by building starbases.
Population and Crewing Ships
Population is the occupancy of a planet you own. Population is mostly used as part of a calculation for a planet's base defense if a player attempts to take the planet by force. However, population also serves another important function -- crewing ships. Every ship has a crewing requirement in order to "use" the ship. This number is calculated based on the class of ship and the tech installed. In order to launch a ship, the planet you are launching from must have enough population to crew the ship.
Abandoned Ships
As explained in the last feature if you clicked on it, ships require a certain amount of population to crew them. After launching, that number becomes your crew size, which gives rise to another mechanic in the game. Every time your ship is damaged in any way (shield damage not included) you will lose crewmembers proportional to the amount of damage you took. If your ship runs out of crewmembers, you lose control of the ship and are forced to restart with a new ship, or a different ship you own. The old ship becomes abandoned and is able to be salvaged by any player able to return it to a planet they own using a tractor beam.
Borg "Space"
The quintessential enemy, a "boss", so to speak, of this game is the Borg. The Borg are a server-controlled force, controlling a significant portion of the map from the time it launches. Just like the Borg in real Star Trek, they are a force to be reckoned with. The Borg will not harass you much when the map itself is new but after a certain amount of time passes, Borg ships will begin spawning near players. This will occur rarely at first and become more common over time. Additionally, after a certain amount of time, the Borg will also begin becoming more powerful, proportional to the age of the map from from that point on. They have extremely advanced weapons and technology capable of neutralizing most of the technology you would have fairly quickly. This makes them the endgame for the life of a map, and you will almost assuredly be unable fight them alone. To complete the "map" you must invade Borg space and capture it completely. At this point, winners for that map iteration are declared and the map is reset using a new seed.
Temporal Weapons / Temporal Agents
Rare and extremely powerful weapons, chroniton torpedoes will be able to be created and used in combat. Just like in Star Trek lure, chroniton torpedoes can pass through shields without interference and inflict significant damage to a ship, making them extremely powerful. However, using them repeatedly causes an increasing chance that a temporal agent ship (also server-controlled) will spawn on you and attack you. Once you have attracted a temporal agent, it will not let up until either you are destroyed or it is. These ships can spawn on you no matter where in the map you go and can follow you at any warp speed. They also have a phase cloaking device, which means they can become invisible, undetectable, and unhittable at will. They use chroniton torpedoes on you, which can only be deflected by a special class of shielding.