The premise is interesting, but I think it will be a *very* long time before I pick it up, if ever.
The developer doesn't have a great track record, so I'm more than a bit skeptical. They previously made the underwhelming Dawn of Andromeda, and before that, the poorly-rated Lords of the Black Sun (under a different name, but it was the same guy). In both cases, they didn't do a great job with post-release support, nor were they great at communicating with the player-base regarding feedback and/or post-release roadmap. I've also consistently read that the AI in Pax Nova is anemic, and in particular doesn't know how to handle the space portion of the game.
To be fair, I've heard the dev has done a much better job this time around with communication, support, and player feedback, so perhaps Pax Nova will be a new beginning for him. But I personally wouldn't purchase the game until after it's been thoroughly patched and polished.