SOME NEW FEATURES AS OF 12/03/14

Game starts with trippy space trip like end of 2001. You just appear on a random planet, everyone will start on a different one. It could be very difficult with tough monsters, or have rare items or be boring. It will be different for everyone.

A beacon on your mini map leads you to your ship, you can leave at any time. Map shows the entire galaxy, different zoom level lets you see stars up close. Stars have a color that indicate the kind of resources they may have. You can scan their solar systems to see if there is a space station or a planet with points of interest, if it is previously explored you will see exactly what is on the planet.

At first you need a new hyperdrive and fuel so you cant go far. you need money to buy upgrades and fuel, basically everything you do deposits currency into your account. So you can blow up rocks to gather resources, blow up other ships, discovering new areas ect all give currency.

Every solar systems has a trading post or space station where you can cash this stuff in. The trading post is on the planet so you don't have to jump to space every time you want to cash in. Each post will have ships coming in and generally active. You can view ships you would like to buy, see upgrades ect.

You can attack incoming ships and steal their cargo as well, doing so will get the local police on you. If you escape they will put a bounty on you so that you can't go around the base without being attacked.

Each solar system has a space station, depending on how big it is shows the level of items in it. Large stations have much better ships and upgrades to buy. You can attack the station, can't blow it up but you can lower its ranking. You get nothing for it, they simply allow you to be an ass if you want.

Combat is standard FPS stuff. Some planets have robots (bipedal ones shown, mini at-st's kinda lol) they want to keep a good balance to the universe. So the more you get resources or kill alien animals the more these things will come at you. They will come in teams, flank, etc. But they will not be procedural! there are different models, as we hav seen a four legged one! but their behavior can be learned and can be predictable! 
Space combat is arcadey pick up and play style. They describe the combat like halo, you will need to determine which enemy to attack first. The smaller easy to kill ships or the bigger ones with shields which they describe as elites. Some ships will give shields to other smaller ones. Some you won't be able to stand up against until you upgrade.

Traveling to the center is the main goal but devs don't care if you don't care to go there. They say it could take 40-100 hours to reach there depending on how much you focus on getting to the center. Some planets have temples with portals that will randomly transport you closer to the center, you never know what you will find on the other side. But you cant take your ship with you!

If you lose your ship, you will respawn in a life pod ship. You lose what items you had on the ship but keep your personal upgrades and your bank account. Your goal is to buy another ship. If you die on land you get taken back to your ship, and lose everything you gathered since leaving your ship. Dieing closer to the center of the galaxy is far tougher as planets, enemies, and lifeforms could be brutal to escape.

With multiplayer they don't want people to meet up, no voice chat. They talk about how you don't know what you look like so someone else seeing you will be the one way to see what you look like.
They have a chart of possible upgrades for your suit, your ship and your multitool. Standard stuff like shields, jet pack, armor, power, fuel capacity, hyperdrive, etc.