Exploration is H U G E !
You get credits from the Cartographic society for scanning unknown/unscanned systems. More money for the first scan and trailing off from that. Also more money for more detail (detailed surface scanner). Stellar Parallax is your friend!
Learn your basic stellar sequence so you can plan your fuel scooping efficiently (ie don't scoop brown dwarfs or white dwarfs!).
With 400 billion star systems generated in game, you can easily find your own empty patch.
Oh and there is a story line which is about the Empire power struggle and the Federation. So lots of players will be hanging around those systems.
30-35 player instances but no mention of a limit on the NPC/AI ships
Suggest you check out the
player generated user guide/manual which has sections on player choices/paths and how tos!