Hi, I grew up with Elite I dunno why I didnt play this before, is as similiar as I think it is?, you have trading and mining, etc just with more ppl in mmo fashion?

How is the population these days?, did they game have improved a lot since launch?, I remember reading mixed reviews back there.

Also, I'm using an aviator saitek, but seems faster to use mouse?, is a disvantage to aim with joystick?

Is this game open exploration like elite or mission based like wing commander?

Population is fairly active, not too crowded. Joysticks work as well and some times better, depends on play style. It is open exploration, no such thing as safe. Reviews have improved as has the game. You can mine, trade, fight, etc. you decide where you go, little hand holding. Improvements are never ceasing.

Welcome!

Many of us grew up with Elite and found home here.

Welcome to VO!

I've been playing a year now and like the game a lot. The population is okay, I've found people were more active during witner than they are in summer right now. Generally weekends are busier than mid-week days.

I fly with kb/mouse and am completely happy with it. I got myself a gamin mouse and keyboard and found my way into combat (PvP aswell as Anti Hive). You'll improve yourself by fighting a lot, the more you get blown up, the better you get eventually. (And you'll always have bad and good days)
Fly with what suits you!

As Surbius commented, it is open Exploration. You can stumble upon another player at any time and if you're in unmonitored space, chances are high to meet somebody who wants to destroy your ship. Watch out!

You may be confused about how the mouselook mode works. When enabled, it does let you rotate your view much faster with a mouse than with a joystick. However, your ship continues rotating at the same speed it always does -- meaning it lags behind and has to catch up with the camera. Some people like the freedom to look around like that, but I find it detrimental to actual combat and prefer having direct control over the rotation of my ship. So when I do use a mouse, I usually leave mouselook turned off unless I'm trying to look around and find something.

Usually though, I use a joystick. Two reasons. The biggest one is that it feels more fun with a joystick. The secondary reason is that with a stick, you don't get that "I've moved my mouse as far as I have space to move, so now I have to pick it up and move it back before I can continue rotating" problem.

On the flip side, I do feel like the mouse (with mouselook turned off) gives better precision and reactiveness when aiming.

Thanks for your answer, I have far less doubts now.

Loving this game.