Length of games.

[Skirmisher]

Hi folks,

I tried the demo yesterday,and today. I like this game.It's different and interesting how the old 2D is used for combat.

I found the demo to be to short. Sure you can play it over and over (I have)
In the full game when you select medium length how long does that last? And when you chose a long game,how long do they last?

Also when in combat with other ships,does it all happen automatically or can you directly effect the combat somehow?

Thanks for the interesting game!

ps- I though Frunobulax was a gigantic poodle dog.

[jab2565]

I found that on a long game for me, I usually spend 20 to thirty minutes, less depending on items. Combat can be controlled somewhat, you can tell your ships where to move and who to attack, plus you can select items, but the ships automattically fire what weapons it has once in range.

[Shadowcat]

Skirmisher said:
Also when in combat with other ships,does it all happen automatically or can you directly effect the combat somehow?

Oh my... did you not even try clicking the mouse somewhere??! (or read the readme file??)

This surely must be in the demo's readme file, but in short...

Click the top-left ship icons or use the keyboard numbers 1-5 to select which of your ships you wish to control.

Click the background to set a move-to destination.

Click an enemy to set a target to move to and attack.

Click and hold (or click and drag) to bring up a contextual menu allowing you to do things like turn and face in the direction of the mouse pointer, but not actually move in that direction. Useful for attacking without closing the distance.

If you bring up this menu on another one of your own ships, you can set the 'escort' command which makes the ship follow the target ship at the specified position.

You can also pre-set your formation outside of combat from the star-map, via the icon in your ship display window.

And finally, you can pause the combat at any time to issue orders by pressing the space bar (or use the icons at the top left).

So you see, you have a great deal of control over combat!

[Skirmisher]

Yes I tried clicking the mouse,lol,I still got owned by the enemy. I hope that more powerful ships are availible in the full version,otherwise "avoid" will be very popular.
I have to admit,I'm dissapointed that long games only last 20-30 minutes.
The puse combat is a good thing.

[Phoenix-D]

There's powerful 'ships' (really upgrades for your ship) in the demo.

I've taken out eight enemy ships by myself once. Gotta love Multi-Missiles and Particle Vortex Cannons. Don't just leave that loot sitting in your cargo hold..strap it on!

[Skirmisher]

I have done that,I use every piece of equipment I can find.
It's tough though when the game last only 5 minutes.

You took these 8 ships out in the demo?

[Phoenix-D]

Yep. I had the enemy density set to "high" and there were two Ta Ru fleets at the same star.

The cloaker is your friend, also..

[Fingers]

The medium and large maps are two and three times the size of the small one (ie. the demo). Of course with the full game's mod support it's possible to create a mod with even more stars, but at some point it starts to get less interesting as cool events and alien fleets etc become too spread out. I usually play on the medium setting myself.

[James Sterrett]

Skirmisher - don't engage the enemy unless you're fairly sure you can handle them. Run away from a fight and come back better equipped.

WW, like SAIS,has a definite learning curve regarding what aliens are what level of threat, just how amazing a given device really is, etc. And because of the random setups, you can get dropped onto maps that can't be won - and maps you just can't lose on. Sometimes they're the same map with diffrent decisions on where to go!

[Skirmisher]

I don't anymore James,theres no point in it. The game(demo) doesn't last long enough. I mean you need to get back to base before times up,so usually by the time you have some goods on your your ship and feel good about maybe fighting,your boss is telling you not to forget to come home on time.
I generally look at the small map,plan out a course of action,avoiding the nebulas(to much time it takes to go through)and stick to it,avoiding enemy fleets.
If I was lucky enough to get good equipment right away,then maybe I might think about taking them on,but that doesn't usually happen.
It's really all about collecting as much stuff as you can to get the highest score.
In my last game, I got a lot of upgrades that where highly rated,but it was close to the home planet as I was headed back with days rapidly running out.