Also, and somewhat related, will it be possible to exit our cockpits in space and use, say, a magnetic tether or thrust pack so as to be able to enter another ship (in particular, something like the Constellation with only a small bay?)asked by sporkwitch

The engine actually allows this to happen - so it will be a matter of how to make it fun and playable - but I want to able to let you "space walk"

There will definitely be boarding parties - Not sure on an arbitrary breach point as while the ships are built with a huge amount of detail we don't model everything, so we'll probably have to limit your entrance points