You could pilot a capital ship, fighter or even drive on the surface of a planet.? It all changed due to the job you selected at the beginning of the game. You could pick Captain and man a capital ship. Our a fighter pilot and control a small fighter and land on those larger ships or solder and be on ground and pilot Vtol's and other land vehicles,
It was all real-time and took forever to say, fly from the surface of a planet to space and gave you no instruction on how to control anything.....