Will they do a hard reset upon release? Or do I get to keep my progress?
They will reset.
might have to organize squads into unofficial clans to grab 20 or 30 peeps and put them all on the same path
I can definitely see some alliances forming.
The cost of traveling somewhere specific to attack a system versus just trying to find a good system of your own will be high so while it might be hardcore I don't think we will see a lot of this before many months into the game.