Oh man, this brings back memories. Loved this game, Maelstrom, and the Escape Velocity series of games which augmented this style of gameplay with an open world. So much fun. I pine for games that don’t need half and hour of cutscenes and a tutorial to learn to play.

Might I recommend Star Sector? There's a lot of Escape Velocity copycats out there, but Star Sector feels more like the natural evolution of EV:Nova or as I recently described it: "It's EV:Nova where you sell crack." It's really good, and it leans into the scale a lot more than the Escape Velocity series. You command a fleet, later a faction, and your actions have interesting consequences! For example, you can blockade a planet by killing enough traders, and this affects prices throughout the galaxy! Also the mod scene popped off and hasn't stopped.

The only counterargument I can make is that the developers refuse to put it on Steam until it's ready so you need to use some sketchy 90s era payment site to buy a copy. Or just grab a key from the forums.

https://fractalsoftworks.com/

I have yet to try out Endless Sky, the open source EV tribute act. Could be good.

https://endless-sky.github.io