Yep. Although it's still instanced (like warzones, which is what it is, a new type of pvp...) so it's not like planet-to-planet free spaceflight where you can go wander around aimlessly for hours like SWG. But they're huge maps and completely off rails. I've played matches on two of the three, Kuat Mesa which is an atmospheric map and really cool, and the Kuat Shipyards, which is in outerspace, and, well, also really cool. All screenshots I took are all still under the NDA, so I can't attach anything, but take my word for it: they look freaking awesome. There's all kinds of environmental hazards you can fly through (and into). On the shipyards you can even fly into the shells of Harrower cruisers that are under construction.These questions are connected so I'll answer them together.
There's an extremely deep system involved, which is not like or in any way connected with anything else in the game. When it launches for subs in 3 weeks, there will be 3 different types of ships available: Scouts, Strike-Fighters and Gunships, each of which eventually come in 3 different variants (both appearance and equipment loadout). There is also a Bomber class, which was in beta but won't be appearing until February for balance reasons (a good move IMO), as well as an Infiltrator class (cloacked ships), which I have not seen and know no timeline for. The word is that eventually there will be 15-20 different ship types (meaning 30-40 different models, since there's different appearances depending on whether you're pub or imp).
I have personally flown 7 different ship variants in Beta: 2 scouts, 2 strike fighters, 1 gunship and 2 bombers (and each has a different appearance based on faction). The ships all come with different loadouts, and an enormous amount of upgrade ability. Without going into too much detail, both types of strike-fighters, just as an example, had 9 different upgradable components, ranging from weapons to engines to shields to sensors to evasive maneuvers. Each of these 9 components also had 3-4 different components that you could swap out. In a more general sense, though, one strike-fighter was a blaster-centric glass cannon dogfighter, the other was a slightly more hardened ship that carried a variety of missiles that the first did not. Similarly the two available scout ships were different: one was oriented for speed, the other for combat.
In beta we started with two ships, one scout and one strike fighter, and then as you fight you gain what's called Requisition, which came in two varieties. The first was Ship Requisition, which is what you use to purchase upgrades to your components, or to change components. The second, which came at a slower rate of gain, was Fleet Requisition, which you use to purchase new ship models, to unlock cosmetic changes to your ships (paint, blaster color, engine exhaust color, etc) or to make companions from elsewhere in your legacy available (i.e. if you're on a jedi knight, you can unlock trooper companions if you so desire).
Companions actually do provide some value. They provide passive bonuses to your ship, and whichever one you select as a co-pilot gives you an activateable skill that varies from companion to companion.
I could go on-and-on, it was much more in-depth than I expected, and it's not really even close to anything that's in the game right now. It's essentially completely separate from the ground game, although it does also provide credit and experience rewards, so it can be used as an alternate way to level.
As far as the pre-existing ship models, they said today that all models will eventually be available, but that some will be skins available through the cartel market. I have no idea how that will work, as it wasn't in the beta.
In any case, I must've spent 30 hours or so in combat during the beta, and I loved it, despite the fact that at that point (and likely at launch) we only had 2 maps and one gameplay mode (Domination). There's supposed to be a 3rd map (Makeb I think, at least that's what it looked like in the video) as well as two more game modes.
I can probably answer most questions anybody might have, but if you want more in-depth info, Dulfy has it up on her site:
http://dulfy.net/2013/11/14/swtor-ga...nsion-preview/