1) Set up a quad tree for terrain. Using frustum culling to narrow down what we draw.
2) Make a data structure ( most likely quad tree ) for occlusion culling for objects in the game ( trees, lakes, bolders, etc ).
3) Level of detail for the ships.
4) Figure out a way to include stencil shadows and stencil reflections.
5) Start work on the physics model for the ships.