Was #1 really good enough to make #2?
On-rails space shooter with average story and almost pointless trading elements.
Don't get me wrong, I had fun, completed it in just a few days and cracked it out twice since then because it's possibly better than playing Freespace 1 + 2 for the 6th time but it wasn't *all that*.
Not really. As you said, more than half of the game is pretty much pointless fluff. Talking to people on starbases, trading etc... none of it added to the game.
I think wanting a sequel is in hopes that depth would be added and that the general design of the game is revamped. (since nobody else is trying to keep this genre alive)
Imagine if a space shooter game could be geared-up to be as competitive as most FPS's are online... Capture the 'starbase' matches. I'd prefer if they went with a complicated approach rather than a 'shoot and reload' ala COD approach.
A FPS in space could be a badass move forward in computer gaming if one was to be made and not console-simplified.
EDIT: I just realized after I had posted that this has kind of been done before. 'Tachyon: The Fringe' had multiplayer capture the flag with resource gathering and such. That was years ago. Unfortunately I found the game after it was passed its time and the online servers were mostly dead.