orbital mechanics?

this being a space-themed sandbox, one would be safe in assuming there's going to be solar systems, yes? here's my question: are the planets going to be static or will they orbit their parent stars? will we be able to plot a course from planet to planet? or are we just going to have a navigation computer we tell to "go there" and we just go?

The game takes places within the Stoddarian Sector which has several systems within it and varying numbers of planets within each of those systems.

As far as development goes currently each planet will be static as you approach it and will not orbit. There will however be other dynamic objects in space such as asteroids, nebula's and other anomalies which will move about and create varying game play scenarios.

However when flying to and from different planets you have complete control over your ship and which direction you fly it in. If you wish to travel to a new system there are "Slipstreams" that act as tunnels within space and upon entering your ship is transported into the corresponding system

darn. one of the games i spend most of my time on presently is kerbal space program (awesome game, check it out if you haven't already) and you have to wait for phase angles to match up and very carefully adjust your trajectory, aiming for where the planet's going to be rather than where it is to get a successful interplanetary transfer because everything is dynamic.

on one hand i can see how that could create tons of trouble in development, basically designing two games in one, and make it very hard for people who don't know anything about orbital mechanics, but on the other hand it could make competent pilots valuable and sought after but i understand you'd want to make the game fun for everybody rather than fun for some people and more like math homework for others.

We want to make this game as fun as possible and from the get go we decided that we didn't want to make a "space sim" sure there are some elements within the game that help to immerse the player and create the experience but we didn't want to have endless amounts of complicated actions that needed to be performed to ensure the game ran smoothly.

So yea you won't have to make complex orbital calculations upon entering the atmosphere of a planet but you will however have to check basic things like speed to ensure that you have a safe re-entry

one more semi-related question: when you tell the engines "stop" will your velocity slowly fall to 0 or will you continue to coast until you hit reverse thrusters(or a wall)?

Do you mean Newtonian physics? If so, no. We're not aiming for a completely realistic simulation. If you cut power to the engines then yes your velocity will gradually reduce to 0. However it is possible to set the thrusters to maintain a steady velocity, leaving you free to wander about your ship during flight.

ok last one for today. i don't want the ask the devs forum to be like a thousand threads created by me so i'll ask it here:
are celestial bodies going to be correctly scaled in terms of size and distance? i.e., bloody massive and zillions of miles away from each other with lots of empty space in between?

Haha I love the choice of words. But no, the game world will be scaled to what feels good to play rather than what's realistic. You will still get the impression of a vast open space and huge celestial bodies, but it will be more rewarding in terms of what you will encounter whilst venturing between worlds.