Star Apocalypse is the reinvention of the 4X genre. The game is a real time game of intergalactic civilization, using the computation power of modern computers to run advanced simulations on cultural, technological and societal interaction and development.
These pictures roughly show the structure of the current universe. From the galaxy, till the inner solar system level. In between, you'll see Oort Clouds, Stars, Kuiper Belts and Planets. If you would zoom further in, you'd see moons circling around planets.
Here you see the oort-cloud, which extends from about 30AU till 1LY from the star. Getting from these objects into another solar system is way easier than compared to the kuiper belt or inner planets. Next to the star are not only the planets, but also the kuiper belt. This gives a sense of scale of the universe.
correction: 2000AU till 5000AU (1LY).
wow