I Kinda wonder, since there has been little information on to what degree we will have in exploring a given area of space, for example are we going to be able hit full impulse and explore the Sol solar system or will it be simply a predefined course that will only allow us to travel between given hot spots within the solar system. I for 1 would like to see the Utopia Plenetia Shipyards and see what new ships or ship designs are being built, this may also be an opportunity for the devs to give us a preview of what kinds of ships will be come available in future expansions, another place of interest I think would be Jupiter Station. This is a place we hear so much about in the canon but rarely see.

On the other hand being able to see each of these location on a astrometrics display so as a option if we wanted they are there to explore while still affording us the ability to see and appreciate a fully realised solar system with (for us) all 8 planets and oh yeah that poor little Dwarf Planet Pluto while allowing me the chance to navigate through the Astroid belt and Kieper belt

One of the things to remember about space is, that it is very very big!

This vast size can be both an advantage and disadvantage at the same time:

The disadvantage is that you have to have a huge database of unique content to keep things exciting, dynamic and not too repetative.

The advantage however, is that once you have built a large database of content, you can just use that content over and over again with SMALL variations to quickly develop new star systems and areas of space. In addition, its worth noting that there are, of course, large areas of space with nothing in it.

It would be very easy for the devlopers of STO to create a large and exciting universe, it just depends how much work they want to put into it - and given that space will be the primary playing field for STO, i think they will work very hard to make it interesting.

i think that there should be 'clusters' of content, ie a galaxy, or a couple of systems and a nebula and asteroid belt etc. these could be navigated around at warp or impulse dependant on relative distance. but to travel to a seperate cluster you would need to use a faster form of travel. poss transwarp, slipstream or coaxial warp. this would also make it easier for hardware to handle, little-big areas rather than a ruddy-great-big-mother of an area.

we talk abit about ways of faster forms of travel in the gen discussion bit. in 'warp theory. discuss'.

so i think a cluster map sort of layout would be the best way to go. if you were travelling transwarp for example it may mean a max of 20 mins mucking about on your ship instead of hours/days at warp.

i think the main issues here are how well the hardware can cope, ease of navigation, and also a chance to go to the holodeck without worrying!

Nova has a valid point.

But, bajoran berrrie, I disagree, i want to use standard warp.

I would personaly hope that STO  features fully explorable Star Systems, and space in general. The only thing I could see them doing is similar to EVE Online, where players mainly "jump" from System to System, and generaly hang out inside a star system.

I would think that each Star System would be a fully explorable "box" shaped zone that would be highly detailed and quite large. If you wan't to travel from Earth to Jupiter on a casual flight, then why not. If your lazy you could also click on a planet or POI in the map of the system and set a course for it and let your ship fly itself there.

As for deep space I don't stress that as much, I think the "known space" map could have highlights of POIs that lead out into deep space. Possibly DS12 (or some random station) and you'd have a smilar "box" style zone just out in deep space with possible objecst such as nebula or dabrie feilds.

Just my thought, if they do have space 100% (as in non zone based, which would be nice) I could see them doing a "server line" system, this is a series of quick load/unload points built into the world map of a game that alow you to seamlesslly travel from one section of the world to another. UO, Asheron's Call and WoW are just some examples of games that employ a "server line" tactic to solve the zone issue.