[Hugh Manatee]

1. After trying out some games, I am unsure as to the game's lasting replayability, because it seemed from the demo that there are basically two things you need to do: (a) Find those bird-traders (the ones with the beacon) for easy trading, and then (b) get that teleporting warp drive (which for some odd reason also teleports your entire fleet, if you have other ships, but perhaps that is a bug of the demo). Completing a and b as soon as possible means scoring big, and you can finish the entire map without exception in 7-8 years (including boosting up your ship to take on all but the toughest aliens and smacking their ship down). Completing a and b fast has a lot to do with luck, it seems to me. So the question, I suppose, is this: Am I missing something? What big strategic factors are there to "think" about? Besides "more", what will the full version be offering?

Finding the trader aliens and the hyper drive are important parts of "beating" the game but thats not all there is to it. The game randomly generates itself and there are some very interesting surprises and MUCH more challenging enemies to fight in the larger harder glaxies(I don't want to spoil the suprises but they can cut you're timetable for exploration from years to days, they have super weapons that you can't get access to, they can cloak and hide, and launch limitless fighters, you'll need to develope tactics to counter each). The hyper drive is unique, only 1 in the entire galaxy, you won't always find it just lying around, and with the nebulas turn up to max there are fewer "lanes" for you to explore.

2. At least in the demo, the lightspeed engine my main starting ship has determines the speed of the fleet -- regardless of the engine(s) of any other ships in the fleet I may later hire. Maybe this is a feature, but if so, does it mean that I can sell the hyperwarp engines of hired ships?

Technically yes, but it's a bad idea, you could lose your main ship to a fleet of baddies and then you'll be straned. Also (i'm not sure but I think I've seen experienced this) each ship has an affect on your top speed, you can see it in the green and purple bars near the fleet display(green for normal space, purple fo nebula, you'll especially notice it when going through nebula)

3. I can't tell for sure, but does the final score count the quality of your ship(s), or just their number, when you return to port? That is, if I upgrade my ships with tons of new weapons and engines, will that give me the same score as if I demount them and put them in my cargo hold?

Everything in the fleet counts, even stuff on the ships,so mount as much as you can and the fill up the cargo.

4. Modding. How difficult is it? (I am a computer idiot.) I cant check out any, so I dont know what is out there, but just curious if you need a degree in computing to get anything done.

It looks relatively simple, theres a bunch of text files in te directory, in addition to art, once you figure out the syntax of the scripting moding isn't that difficult I'd immagine. Furthermore there are useful guides around.

5. Combat. I guess I just didnt understand this very well. From what I gather, I am supposed to be able to just point and aim. Nice. But
- why must all of our ships always seem to converge on one another, regardless of my attempts to move in different directions?

Ships can be set to "escort" you main ship, you can break this be ordering them to flank on their own, and while the pathing isn't that great and the game exists in a 2D plane you can pausethe game and click the ships where you want them to go.

- when I select an enemy ship to fire upon, even with long-range weapons, why must I always seem to swing around to face that ship and fly towards it, regardless of my "firing arc"?
- (Is "firing arc" broken in the demo? Seems I can only fire head on)

Your weapons will fire automatically when they are in range , to shoot from your broadsides so to speak, just maneuver yourself alongside the enemy, and your guns will light it up. When you actually target the enemy and attack it youre telling your ship to charge it.

- Sometimes I dont seem to fire on enemy ships at all, despite long-range weapons.

Sometimes the weapon sprites go farther then their effective range, manually target and fire at empty space, you'll see certain weapons travel on forever without hitting the enemes further away, but when they close they'll start to hit.

- I think I accidentally had "ram" instead of "attack" on once; fine. But I couldnt figure out what happened. How does ramming work?

Your ship charges in and plows into the enemy. Your ship has a better chance of surviving the ram if it's shields are strong, and if it's "ram hardened"(certain allies will have ram hardened ships, stick a cloading device, ubershied and fastengine andlet em rip)

- I had imagined that having different types of weapons (lasers, guns, etc.) and different ranges (short, medium, long) would make for different tactical possibilities: and I am sure that all that happens "behind the scenes" with hidden dice roles and whatnot. But since the game (at least the demo) gives us no information on that, it is hard to tell what tactical features are being used here and what is just pure cosmetic without funcitonality.

Theres not really any behind the scenes dice rolls that I'm aware of, you're stuff either hits or it doesn't. I will tell you that certain guns are bettr for point defense, some are better for fighters, some are better for blasting enemy ships and some are vunerable to enemy point defenses.

Wouldnt the point of having, say, long-range weapons be to fire at enemies who cannot hit you, running away, and staying out of range?

You need the realy fast and smaller corvet ships to do that but it can work against a few enemies.

If so, why are we always converging and why cannot I shoot without moving toward my enemy?

Their AI says charge, as I said above your guns will start attacing enemy ships automatically when they get in range. "Harrying" doesn't work well in this game, but flanking, and firing lines do.

So I suppose my question here is: Are there any "tactics" or rather tactical elements requiring thought (such as in games like SPMBT) that I am (quite obviously) missing?

Yes definitely, but most "cat and mouse" game start when you get the cloaking device and start fighting the top tier enemies(red tan ru, Gargathan Carriers, green urquali, Kuwangi, and vent mothers). I like to have a "firing line" set 2 of my ships to unload micrometeorite and neutronium rail guns in a defensive pattern, then have 1 ship cloak and use it's shields to bash te crap out of the enemy while my bigger frigates unload missiles and super guns. But hit and fade cloaking device games are fun too, also bait and kill, bait with a strongly shielded ship, then kill with a cloaked rammer or something with bg guns.

6. Engines. Not the light-speed engines, but the standard ones. I suppose they are supposed to be good for combat speed? But considering question 5 above -- what use is that exactly?

You retreat faster, ram better, and are better able to maneuver into postion behind your enemies.