Hey everyone. I just started independence war 2, currently at the beginning of the free-roaming part of the game.

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the difficulty of the game, spending most of my time in my Tug, hanging around the Alexander and Blackeye LaGrange points and getting destroyed by missiles in most of my attempts at piracy... Did you also feel that way at this point in the game or is IW2 just not for me?

You might want to do some storymissions until you get a better ship which evens the odd a little.
But yes I did like it from the beginning and this game is difficult in a good way, so when things are getting too hard it is mostly a case of re-evaluating the tactics used.

Really enjoyed it from the start.

Be sure to check some of the other threads for combat tips - they'll suggest ways to deal with missiles.

Yeah, love this game from start to end. Played it from scratch many times. First playthrough didn't cheat at all. Subsequent playthrus i used a souped up Nova Cruiser (self-made mod) to make piracy much more efficient.

Otherwise, yeah, the game's not easy. Easy to get shot up in the Tug even w/ max equipment.
Enjoy the game!

Thanks for the answers!

I should definitely give it another go. I have such a huge backlog of games that it's easy to jump from one to the other. I also have I-War-1 installed and that I want to check out. I'll learn to dodge those damn missiles.

I'm a little like you.

In fact I had this game pretty much after it was released.
There is a big learning curve. You need to have a good stick too.
I-War 1 is even more difficult I think.

As Elite Dangerous & Star Citizen are coming I have bought a Thrustmaster Wrthog HOTAS and I will go back on I-War 1 & 2 to finish to two wonderful games, witness of an erea where players liked to be challenged, even if it was frustrating some times.
But victory was rewarding.

It is very hard to do piracy at first. Hang around the L-Points and wait for unescorted ships to come through (the most common are those flat-bed tugs) A few shots ought to persuade them to drop their cargo. Get Jafs to grab them and nip back to base. After a few successful runs, the plot will advance and you'll gain access to better equipment, which will make your life a little easier.

Equip your tug with as many quad-PBCs as possible. You'll be deadly up close as the flurry of shots overwhelms the shields of your opponents. Keep moving in combat, and run away if you need to.

Note: the game only autosaves your progress when you LEAVE your base, not when you land.

You can also get lucky sometimes and pick up the debris from a collision between AI ships. This often happens when two of those massive superfreighters come through the L Point and get stuck trying to manouevre away. More ships then come through and slam into them. The extra large shipping containers they carry can be shot to releases clusters of pods whicg often contain high value goods.

I remembered when I first started I-War II I was a little disappointed. I did find the Tutorial Missions with young Kal a bit of a grind and until I worked out how to pirate properly, I was a bit lost.

Half way through Act 1 however I was in Space Sim Heaven.

It's definitely a slow burner.

Oh yeah!
Hooked from the I-War 1 demo CD on the cover of Computer Gaming World till today, more than a decade later.

By the way, anyone knows any other game that has the same sense of realism and depth and didn't look like WWII planes in space?

I took a quick look and couldn't find anything. I-War spoiled me to the point I'm really not that excited about Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous and even No Man's Sky. (and tat from a guy who played to death Elite on the MSX and Frontier on the Amiga).


One strategy I found out just yesterday that make pirating REALLY easy (tho it can be thought as kind of a cheat) is as follow:
Leave your base and keep wandering through space (a cold beer and nice music in real life help pass the time) sooner than later someone will radio for help. When that happens select the distress waypoint and press F3 two times to take the camera there and see what is asking for help. If it is something worthy (and sometimes it's 3-4 loaded transport ships) select the waypoint and press F6 (approach autopilot) but cancel as soon as your ship is pointed there. Make a mental note of the distance and wait for the waypoint vanish. When it does it means the attacking ships had left. You cannot see it but the transport sips are still there, just select something for reference, turn on your LDS and move the distance you saw to the place the waypoint was. The ships will be there, stopped and unguarded. Sometimes you can get up to 40 cargo for free (although you have little control of the contents).
If you choose not to wait for the wayponit to disappear, you can go straight to the distress signal and stop at about 70km form the kerfuffle (as soon as the ships appear in your hud) and wait till the attacking ships destroy the transports (they'll release their cargo) and go away. The pods will be there ready to pickup, sans transports. I think there are two drawbacks from this approach. First, some cargo could be destroyed by the transports explosion blast, and more important, you get to be sitting there while the innocent transports are blown to smithereens. I prefer to be able to save those lives if I can :P

Cheers.

Thanks for the tips!

I finally went back to the game and I have to say that something finally clicked. While I'm still working out the best ways to get the fire-and-forget missiles to hit their targets (they often miss, for some reason), I'm definitely enjoying myself a lot more now and no longer dying every 5 minutes.

The first mission is terrible.

I reckon that stopped this game getting elite status ,the difficulty level of that first mission makes you go bald.

The intro movie is absolutely brilliant though and the graphics and sound still hold up to anything today.
I reckon the difficulty is a touch too hard.
That's why my over ten year old game has never been finished.
I just got killed so many times then ended up shelving it for good.
Had the potential to be bigger than Wing Commander and be elite but for the difficulty.

It is way ahead of it's time .
I mean the physics are approaching full flight sim in fidelity.

The feeling with a nice joystick is fantastic.

I hate getting smashed though and go through the same thing 10 times.

That first mission odear.

Particle Systems really shot them selves in the foot with that mission.

If they eased players in,then IW 2 would have sold an absolute truck load but the game started too hardcore for it's own good.

That's when I start thinking of other games to fire up and I forget playing this.

But this is a true sim of space and revolutionary in many aspects.
The hat system of selecting menus is so intuitive and a stroke of genius.

The music is top notch so are the sounds.

This sim really has that atmospheric thing down MORE THAN ANY OTHER SPACE SIM.

The starmap ,the way it zooms into another level,such scope and all the different areas are different and exciting.

Maybe ED Dangerous is now above but IW2 is a ten year old game that still holds up.

I really wish I dug in the first time I played this.

You have to be patient and don't let getting killed twenty million times get to you.
Just jump back into the cockpit and face the elements again and when you finish at least you will be pumping your fist in the air.

That's What I did when I finally finished the opening sortie.


P.S. I think I'm finally seeing the light with this sim.AFTER TEN YEARS. (caressing my old IW 2 jewell case and paper manual with colour key card.) :-))