Voidspace

Voidspace takes place in The Void, which is an area of space the player's character has been unwittingly catapulted into via a network of wormholes that exist in the universe. Characters cannot escape it and are forced to live among eachother in The Void, fighting for the few available resources that manage to find their way into this desolate place through the wormholes.

The Void is also a place where the very physical nature of the universe is somehow different. The most obvious difference when you enter The Void is the drag your ship experiences as it moves about. The drag increases as you speed up, thus limiting the maximum speed of your ship. Energy weapons also seem to be impacted by this strange phenomenon as energy dissipates quickly as it travels through space.

Not much is known about The Void, and your character will need to perform research to study it and unlock its secrets. In doing this, you may uncover properties of The Void that you can use to your advantage, allowing for inventions that will aid you in your survival. Who knows, one day your character may even discover a way to leave.
Explore

Upon arrival, you will find that The Void is not as empty as it's name suggests. The wormholes have filled it with asteroids, gases, wreckage from civilizations, and even other players. Search The Void to find the materials you will need for energy and construction of your own ship equipment, buildings, outposts, and ammunition.

Find ancient abandoned player-made civilizations that you can research and study, acquire, or disassemble and recycle. There are no NPCs in Voidspace, instead, every man-made structure has to be built by a real player. There are circumstances that could occur to force players to leave an outpost they had constructed and for it to become abandoned permanently. This would allow other players to discover the abandoned facilities and begin to overtake and/or perform research on the technology the players created.

Certainly, one of the most powerful aspects of the game will be alliances made with other players. There is power in numbers. Discover other player outposts and possibly join another group in order to maintain your own security. Even if you don't want to join another group, having a safe place to trade goods can only help.

There are no maps given for the game, instead, players will be forced to create their own map of the area by exploring. Once an area has been explored, a player can then sell the map to another player, or share it freely. Established civilizations may want to make map sharing as part of their initiation process for new players.
Character Design

All players enter The Void through a wormhole and in a ship. You will generally start with only the basics although a new character spawning in a random location will generally need to work to survive for the first few minutes of the game. You will need to establish an oxygen supply, power supply, and generally repair your equipment as the passage through the wormhole will have been a violent one. Your character is actually a man inside the ship and you can exit your ship and enter another. Players will be able to dock with any space stations or outposts, and if the character has the appropriate permissions, they can take command of the structure's defenses.

Your character can even learn skills that give you an edge in the world. In addition to being able to research and develop ships, equipment, base structures, and weapons, your character will be able to learn other specialized skills. For example, your character might learn the ability to hack certain types of equipment or base structures. This could be used to disable key base structures in preparation for an attack from the rest of the character's group.

It is for this reason that it is important to keep your character alive and share your skills with others. Characters that have been around for a while could focus on research to boost the character's aptitude for invention. The more a character knows, the better he will be at creating something new.

Players are able to form groups in order to better manage their social systems. Groups can be created within groups to create ranks.

There is no single leveling system in a Universe Project. Instead, characters become more skilled at certain tasks through practice, and can train themselves into improving a set of base stats. The only way to improve a particular skill is by practicing it, or by practicing something very similar to it.

Players will be given a number of options when spawning a new character. In general, the options will be as follows:

Spawn close to a small, medium, or large civilization
Spawn far from a small, medium, or large civilization
Spawn near friends
Spawn into a major player organization

Each spawn setting will give a new player a different experience. Spawning close to civilization can and up being good or bad, depending on who they happen to spawn beside. Spawning far from civilization will give the game more of a single player type feel. While it's not impossible for you to be found, this setting will make it quite unlikely to be found for some time. Spawning near friends will allow you to choose who you spawn near. They will have to already be in your friends list for this option to work.

Spawning into a major player organization will be one of the more interesting options later in the game. Once players have established some infrastructure and government around their settlements, they may opt to accept new players into their organization automatically. Special spawning locations can be setup to allow this to work seamlessly within the player organization. The player org can then create an environment that is suitable for new players to learn the game and even to give them a head start with some basic skills and resources.