I've looked around youtube, forums, and gamer sites for the last few days and I can't seem to find a concise answer to this basic question. I've seen it compared to Eve Online, but I really have no idea how that game plays. Could somebody break this down for me in a coherent fashion, pretty please? (Feel free to redirect me to any pertinent forum posts that already answer this question)

I believe Squadron 42 is a "pre-release" campaign/storymode to lead in to the open universe, right? Once you're free to roam, what do you do? How can you spend your time in this game? Is this just a dog-fighting space sim or is that just a small part of the gameplay? When I'm exploring new planets, what exactly will I be doing? Do I get out of my ship and harvest resources, or do I press buttons and watch through my window as numbers go up and down? Are there strategic/planning elements to coordinating my ships, and will I have to wait 2 real-time hours while my ship makes an interstellar jump? Are there events in the game, or just those from the community? Is it mostly sand-box oriented gameplay that just sets me loose to float around, or do I have goals in the game?

From Strike Vector to Halo to World of Warcraft to Minecraft, where does this game fall?