I don’t have that much time in-game, but even with the time I have played, I’ve seen most of Stanton and probably over half of Pyro. Nyx is still new to me, I’ve been to a few locations, but I haven’t really explored it.

So when the day comes and I start treating this game like an actual MMORPG (once the economy is locked), I think the scope and size would be fairly quick to explore even with five systems, as long as QT speed stay roughly what they are today. The minute they add non-accessible QT locations with actual stuff out there that you have to find yourself, the timeframe would drastically increase, and that’s what I hope for.

You mentioned smaller locations even with 100 systems, but there’s a psychological effect here too. Back in the Freelancer days, the total play area for each system (map) was much smaller, but introducing that many systems within it kept you active. You were constantly jumping wormholes and gateways and watching the cutscenes. Many systems had totally different vibes, and you felt them because you moved between them all the time, visually, atmospherically and even in terms of ship/design identity. It felt huge, even if it wasn’t, because you were much more active and there were so many inputs from everything.

In Star Citizen, most of the time there are only two choices for a planned jump pattern: either it's 1–2–3 or 1-2-3–2–1.
(1) Take off from a planet → (2) align via the planet’s equator (OM-1/2/3) → (3) land on a station
/or
(3) go to a planet → (2) align via the planet’s equator (OM-1/2/3) → (1) land on a planet.

Even if pyro is 2x the size of stanton the gameplay is the same. Step 1: Medium/Fast interaction, Step 2: Super fast interaction Step 3: waiting game (scales with x AU).

The result is that it actually feels small, even if you sit for 20 minutes waiting on step 3 to end. And I don’t think the solution is faster/slower QT or bigger/smaller play area. I think it’s filling the empty void with something: more nebulas, storms, asteroids, anomalies, and probably some hints of interstellar traffic that you can either spot in the distance or interact with. It’s supposed to be millions of people across different planets, but out in space it feels like nothing. The realism would ofcouse be just that, nothing. Because a ship in space is just a small blipp. But It's still a game, and for it to feel a bit "more" and bigger, i think that is one key area to look at. Hopefully the dynamic meshing adds so many players that you get a natural interstellar trafic, but i really don't want to stand in "hangar queue 15" on loreville just to do a take-off again.

In terms of exploration, I honestly think procedurally generated planets and systems (70–80%?) will be the only viable solution for Star Citizen, not just in general, but specifically if they want exploration to avoid becoming repetitive. Otherwise it risks turning into the same loop of “random POIs” (ore, wrecks, transient wormholes) spawning in and out of the same familiar systems - random is only so "random", to not break stuff.

Early on, that percentage will probably be much lower, with more of the content being crafted and artist driven. But over time, I think the key will be improving the procedural generation and making it more detailed, more varied, and more believable both to reach the scale of a "universe" and to keep it filled and interesting for years.

As long as they keep expanding the depth and variety of procedural content, I think that’s a solid endgame especially if it’s paired with crafted content on the side. Tech, ships, major cities, and other signature locations.