Guided missiles and kamikaze craft can also damage capital ships. While this weapon (along with the weapons equipped on a fighter-variant chassis) cannot penetrate capital ship armor, the Trailblazer is also equipped with a powerful front-mounted main gun to deal with larger threats. In addition, the Trailblazer is also equipped with a fast moving turret with which to shoot down lightly armored fighter craft. Radar lower right, current target lower left L/R displays show engineering status and engine speed/fuel. The player can also launch an escape pod when their Trailblazer is hopelessly crippled. The player-controllable vehicles consist of the main Trailblazer-class cruiser (top left screenshot on box back) and small spacecraft chassis that can be quickly reconfigured for three different roles (that of a space superiority fighter, a powerful self-guided kamikaze missile with poor maneuverability or a weak homing missile with excellent maneuverability). The player may also choose to launch an unguided probe to initiate communications with neutral or friendly species. The player can then choose to attack or hold their fire, which can influence future relations with that species. Most races initially adopt a neutral stance towards the player, unless they ambush the player in between star systems. Spaceflight is similar in style to the Wing Commander or X-Wing titles. The player may also deem it necessary to destroy a friendly race in order to secure enough resources to successfully complete the objectives. The mission's success requires diplomacy to acquire allies and the elimination of races that may be potentially hostile to humanity.
In addition, the player must contend with the alien races living in the area that the player is exploring. The player is allowed limited time to accomplish this goal. The entire human race is being housed in huge Conestoga-class colony ships, which are waiting for the player to secure at least one planet with an Earth-like environment and to also acquire enough material resources to ensure that the colony or colonies in question can build a fledgling industrial base as soon as possible.
The player must help recolonize the human race after the Earth's habitability is critically reduced by an ecological catastrophe.