Mr. Kool wrote:

Oom Shnibble wrote:

I'm trying to think whether I want to keep it more of a story based game or incorporate elements of trading but the story I have in mind is kind of a Wall-E story of a lone droid exploring an almost empty area of the galaxy trying to figure out what has happened with only sporadic encounters with automated defences and non-advanced civilizations.

The web game Orbital Decay did something like that. You could go the route of picking up where Neuromancer left off with the AI getting brain-dumped into a crappy ship, only to find the advanced AI he was looking for damaged/broken. Please don't leave in the whole super-advanced race that disappeared a bajillion years ago.
Trading could be simple too, like in Strange and Infinite Space, where it's a one-for-one trade for any item (regardless of value).

-Mr. Kool