So is this truly a role playing game?
 

I can tell that it is a combat simulator, and it appears that you can make money and upgrade your ship, but is there truly a storyline? Can you make decisions that affect the storyline? I am trying to determine if the RPG element of this game is strong, or if the focus is the combat simulator with minor RPG elements added.

Re: So is this truly a role playing game?
 

Think of it like morrowind in space, but with more, randomly generated, miniquests and less character interaction. The main quests work like this, you get a quest from your contacts, play around wit hthe miniquests till you meet the conditions in the main quests, then you do whatever the main quest says to next. The other ships will "talk" to you, but you can't really interact with them much, other then mercilessly blowing them to smitherines and looting their contents. After you blow stuff to smitherines you get EXP which can make your crew better. If you get creative you could make a good mod with a new "quest" and storyline.

I's say it's about 70% strategy space sim, 30% RPG, depending on the scenario.

Re: So is this truly a role playing game?
 

There is a storyline, but I don't think you can affect it significantly except by failing certain crucial missions and dooming the galaxy. I think there is some potential in the game mechanics for the player to make decisions that actually affect the story, but I don't think the stock game actually has any branches set up beyond whether you get praised or scolded after succeeding or failing a non-crucial mission. Some mods might have branching storylines, but I haven't played anything but stock.