There’s a very good chance that I’ll have the time this weekend to take a look at it.
Yeah, Tycho’s entries on Penny Arcade are a goldmine for games like these (which is where I first heard about it). A few days back he mentioned a kid-oriented word game that’s simultaneously managed to completely addict and emasculate me. http://www.viquagames.com/games/thomas/
It’s good. It’s reeeaaaaallly good. I mean good enough that I’m planning on forking over the twenty clams for it soon because the 60 minute demo expired on me and I keep getting itches to play it.
Tried it. Enjoyed it. Reminded me of Microprose’s Lightspeed a bit, Didn’t care for the ten-year time limit.
I did not play Lightspeed. It reminds me of Star Fleet Battles, although less detailed and more eye candy.
The full game offers different map sizes with different time limits, and is mod-able to open up the time limit.
I find that the time limit is not a major barrier for me. There are several methods of fast travel that render the time limit moot:
- Hyperdrive
- Zorg Helmsman
- Aethric Mirror (combined with either the Hyperwave Filter Array or the Continuum Renderer)
And of course finding the fast drives helps as well. Anyone else out there tried it and want to talk strategy and tactics? I am a veritable Font o’ Wisdom. 
Lightspeed was excellent. You were a Trader, not a pirate - and the combat was 3D first-person stuff. But you were dealing with alien races, wheeling and dealing, and trying to make a new home for humanity. The most similar element is the interior of the ship - the component/slot system for ship equipment.
I’d be intrigued to hear about any strategies you have for the demo - I managed to get two thirds of the galaxy explored on my best run, after snagging the hyperdrive that works just fine in nebulae from those trader folks. I realized too late that I could ‘use’ the Aethric mirror that I’d picked up to hop around.
I wanted to use the time-bottle thing, but it said to use it, I’d be breaking it, and it was valuable.
I also lost every combat I entered, even with upgrades and the little fighter pilot guy. And enemies on ‘easy’.
First, getting ready for combat.
Your starting ship has starting weapons, shields and drives. I heartily recommend avoiding combat until you get your ride pimped out with at least a few of the nicer devices. In particular, shields and weapons are essential. Recruiting pals to help you and upgrading their weapons and shields as well is very useful.
Weapons
Pay attention to the descriptions and the coin value. The higher-value weapons are usually better. The best weapon in the game (in my opinion) is the Particle Vortex Cannon, although my buddy Nihilix (another Fearless Tester) prefers the Multi-Missile Launcher. There are three medium-range beam weapons – Tachyon Ray, Anti-Graviton Beam and another one I forget right now. Those are very good. If your weapons work at longer range than the enemy, you are in good shape.
Shields
The best is the Temporal Flux shield. Its downside is that it does not regenerate during battle, but it starts with a HUGE amount of points. Second best is the Meson Lattice Shield, third is the Proton Matrix.
Drives
Combat in WW is about maneuvering, and the better your drives, the faster you go. The best is the Inertialess Drive, second is the Ion Impulsor. Bigger ships are slower than small ones.
Targeting Computers
These are really nice. They increase rate of fire, accuracy and (I think) range. Best one is the Sardion Optimizer, second is the Eidetic Matrix Bubble.
Repair devices
The Multibot or Hyperfoam Injector repair damage to systems and your ship’s hull. Very handy.
Stealth devices
The Signature Projector and another device make you harder to hit. The Plasma Coil Cloaker lets you become invisible. Very nice.
Second, actually doing the combat thing.
Before you enter combat, take a look at your formation – the little circle with three triangles in it next to the ship display. This allows you to decide how you want to be set up entering battle. I usually have one or two ships well-equipped for battle, and put those up front. The others I put at the back, and when I enter, I immediately pause (spacebar) and set them to drive for the nearest edge of the map to escape. The number keys work to select your ships in the tactical map, BTW.
Ships enter in formation on the leader. This is initially your starting ship, but you can change it if desired in the formation window. If I am using the Survey Ship, I will often change the leader to another ship if I pick up the Bloodfang, Kuti or the Muktian Frigate.
Firing arcs and weapon range matters a lot. If the enemy has range on you, then you are going to get hit before you hit them, unless you can distract them.
Nihilix is very fond of fighters, using them as a distraction. Enemies will focus on the nearest ship to them, so you can get a fighter close enough that they begin targeting it (but not firing, hopefully!) and lead them off to one side, while your capital ships come in and broadside them.
Take a minute next time you are in combat and try clicking and holding on empty space when you have a ship selected. You’ll see options pop up (you get this if you click, hold and move the mouse; if you click and hold and wait; and if you right-click): Move, Turn, Fire.
*Move *will go the selected point in space directly. *Turn *will stop the ship and face that direction – very useful when you want to bring weapons to bear but do not want to get any closer (into range of enemy weapons, for example). Fire will begin firing weapons at that point. This is extremely handy when dealing with cloaked enemies (the Urluqai Deep Hunters) or when you have a Particle Vortex Cannon, which spits balls of whirling lightning-bolt emitting death. Firing the PVC at an approaching cloud of fighters results in the fighters dying before they get to you, a quite salutary outcome. If you wait for the PVC to begin firing as the fighters come into range, the chance that they will live to get into range of their weapons increases greatly.
By the way, you do indeed have to break the Timeless Bauble, and it is quite valuable. It’s usually worth breaking, though. You get a wish. 
Good things to wish for:
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The Hyperdrive. It’s unique, so if it’s already in the game, you get a random lifeform instead, but if it’s not already in the game, you get the best drive. Very nice.
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Temporal Flux Shield. Really good shield.
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Particle Vortex Cannon. Not unique, so you will always get it, and it’s my favorite weapon.
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Plasma Coil Cloaker. Sub warfare, yay!
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The Mantle of Babulon. Try this sometime. It’s fun.
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The Aethric Mirror. You already know about this one.
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The Chromium Gong. This has the power to summon the Five Flaming Furies, who can destroy any ship. It can only be used once per combat, but is near-unbalancingly powerful.
Can you tell I have played a lot of Weird Worlds? 
I originally came back to this thread to post a link to the Modmaker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the modding guide from Digital Eel. It’s fascinating how much of the game is modifiable. I created three little mods during beta testing, mostly to see how well it worked (really well, all of them work with the release version just fine).
I was simply messing about with the starting equipment for the most part, but I also changed the briefing text and other messages. I haven’t even touched creating new ships, races or weapon effects, but it’s all there for the modding. Amazing stuff.
Well, thanks for the info. Perhaps I’ll give it another go…