Parias
02-20-2004, 06:44 PM
A little out of date, but this should tide us over until the backups are restored, or something. *Ahem*
Okay. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who's noticing the quickly-increasing number of "How do I get the Maas Fighters" or "I'm stuck in the junkyard" posts. While I'm all for more posts and community backflow coming through our forums, I'm sure I'm not the only one getting a bit tired of answering the same question over and over again. Hence, I've thrown together this FAQ, which, thanks to my constant stealth-bumping, will hopefully remain on the front page for some time to come. I'll be definately updating it as time goes on, to either correct errors or add in new content. Post your comments below if you have any questions or know something you want added. So, lets get started!
I'm splitting this up into 2 sections: Mission Questions and General Questions, but it might be expanded later. As always, I'll add to it as comments come in or by necessity. Also, note that this is a GAMEPLAY FAQ. Due to this, there are, as you probably guessed, spoilers, and tons of 'em.
Oh, and one other important thing to note: There's a search function available on this forum. If you don't find the answers you seek here, try utilizing it. Chances are, someone's probably already asked your question a few billion times already anyways.
And for cripe's sake, make sure you're running the latest patch before you read any further! If you're not, none of us will take any responsibility for the "Well.. duh!" situations that might follow :p
Onwards!
09/07/2008 Update: How to get Independence War 2 to play nice with Windows Vista and modern-day graphics cards.
I'm adding this to the top as I figure it will become more and more of a question as time goes on, and as I just spent the better part of the last 24 hours trying to get the game to work on my end.
SYMPTOM: I try and launch the game, but keep getting a message that says "Unable to find a suitable driver to run the game. This means the game will not run."
This seems to happen just because the Flux engine doesn't have a clue what in Zeus' name to make of your graphics card. To fix this, go to the folder you installed the game to. You'll see an executable - IW2EoCGS.exe. Everyone's mileage seems to vary a little in getting this to work, but I've personally found simply right-clicking on it and hitting "Run As Administrator" is enough to get it to launch. EoC should then launch as normal without this message appearing.
SYMPTOM: I got the game to run fine, but every time I try to launch into the physical game engine (i.e. launch an "Instant Action" scenario), my game crashes! The error details also place dx7graph.dll as being at fault.
Again, the explanation for this probably ties into the one above, and again, your mileage may vary on what exactly fixes this for you. The best fix I found was to open up Flux.ini and manually set the "bit_depth" line to 16, instead of 32 (or just set the in-game resolution to 16-bit color via the in-game menus if you're able). You'll have to deal with some hideous color-banding on the background nebula textures, but the game should actually run until a better solution is found.
Failing that, try rolling back your display drivers as old as possible - nVidia cards in particular seem to be notorious for triggering this crash unless older display drivers are used (although that may not be an option for those of us with the fancy 8800GT cards).
If you want some additional tips, please check out this thread (http://www.i-war2.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2558&whichpage=1) on the I-War2.Com forums, as this is where I found a good deal of suggestions that helped get the game working for me.
Mission FAQ
I'm stuck on the mission where I have to get the Maas Fighters. Help!
Without a doubt one of the most sought-after mission-help-requests thus far. The mission where you have to retrieve a pair of prototype Maas fighters suffers from vagueness, confusion, and some massive tightness in the scripting that fails you if you don't do everything JUST right. Based on experience of going through this mission at least 6 times successfully (both in the demo and full version), I offer the following information:
First, one area of confusion is what exactly one should bring the trader in the junkyard in exchange for the Maas IFF. Head back to your base and search for a piece of cargo in your inventory that has a recycling value of at least 60. If you don't have one.... aquire one ;) Attach it to your ship (through the Loadout menu's rather obvious "Add Cargo" button) and haul it off to the good lad to get your shiny new IFF.
Now, once you reach the Maas Base and Jafs has come to a full stop, remote link to the tug called "Drone" (Shift+R) and have it dock with the cargo pod called "Useful Looking Cargo". Fly the pod over to the other pod called "Fighters'. This is the part where most people get lost. You need to hit the F2 key from here (making sure the "Fighters" pod is targetted) and line up the aft of your ship to be facing the "Fighters" pod. Get as close as possible to it, then smack "U". This should all be set up so that the "Useful Looking Cargo" pod smacks into the "Fighters" pod and takes it's place. Then, dock with the "Fighters" pod, and, taking a round-about route back to your ship (not sure if this is entirely necessary, but better safe than sorry), unload the pod into the Refuse Dump. If all goes to plan, you should be able to terminate the REM link safely. Jafs will undock your tug and pick up the "Fighters" pod. Formate with him as he jumps out, and head on home. Congrats, you did it!
I'm stuck on the "Get Fuel Rods" mission.
Most likely you're either having trouble getting to the reactor core itself, or are getting your arse pounded on the way out of the area. I'll cover on how to appropriately handle both.
To get near the core, play it stealthy and careful. As you approach your target, note carefully the positions of the patrol ships in relation to the core. They should be at least 2 KM from it, more if possible of course. Also try to position your approach so that the core is between you and the station, precisely.
Your getaway is simple. So simple, in fact, that you barely need anything aside from your basic thrusters, drive, and LDS system. Once Clay says that you've got the shiny new Fuel Rods, hit "U", aim away from the reactor (preferably also away from the nearby station), and hold down the "W" key. Oh, and I'd advise you to have your barf-bags handy, because your little Storm Petrel's got one hell of a kick to it. Once you're clear of the LDSI field (which should be roughly 3-5 seconds), target your home base and fly off to install your new toys and turn off those depressing emergency lights.
Argh, these stupid Gunstars keep blowing me off before I can de-activate them!
Stay docked to the station and just take in the pattern of the power failures. You will notice that they all arm and then one by one go offline until they are all offline and then repeat (and rinse if needed).
Just before they all go offline undock (this give an extra few seconds), use W to accelerate, let go of W when you about 1/2 to 3/4 way there, swing behind the gunstar (ie make the gun star between you and the station). Engage auto dock.
Select the next gun star and wait till they're nearly all offline, Fly towards that one and do the same. You might want to fire a disruptor at it, just in case it comes online again.
Repeat the above, make sure you're fully repaired before you zot off again.
If you get hit while docking to a GS push the joystick up, it seems to work! Dunno why.
(Contributed by FAMS)
In the mission where you team up with a bunch of wingmates to take out the Marauder base, I can't figure out how to destroy it! And that Gunstar doesn't help matters either...
It all comes down to your basics. See the cargo cache of cute high explosive thingies nearby? Gee golly, certainly would be a shame if they went off nearby the Station, wouldn't it? ..Okay, enough screwing around, dock to one of those suckers. Get a good line-up on the Station, back up a little if you need to, then fly STRAIGHT for the station. Make sure your speed is at least... oh, 800km/s (just to be safe). When you're just about on top of the station, smack the U key, aim down (or up), and watch that sucker blow!
Repeat the process if you need for the Gunstar (assuming it wasn't taken out already), or just do what I did and use your T-Fighters to knock the thing out from range.
Argh! I'm trying to get the Sheriff in Firefrost to help me, but the game keeps crashing/locking up during the mission! What's wrong?
While this problem is supposedly fixed in the patch, some people just possibly might still have it. Here's how I got through it. I went to the Blue Note in Firefrost. Chatted with the girl. I then returned to my base and saved, re-launched, and moved on to the Sheriff's place at Gefjon. After getting a waypoint to the Posse meeting, I went back home and saved AGAIN, then went to the Posse. I completed the mission provided there, went home, and managed to successfully save. It's a lot of trouble, I know, but if the patch didn't fix it for you, this is the best fix I've got.
Okay, I'm stumped, how the hell do I knock out the LDAs on this @&$(* Jump Accelerator?
Simple. See the blue glow thingies? Zoom in on them, and you'll notice a bunch of little objects in the middle of them. Whip out your biggest gun (A Cutting Beam did the trick for me) and unload into it untill it explodes. Move on to the next one, and the next, untill they're all gone. Of course, if you haven't figured it out already, these are located on the INSIDE of the jump accelerator :)
Another tactic that others have suggested/adopted (including the infamous Stephen Robertson, who you should all bow down to right this second) is to try using Deathblow REM missiles on the thing if your best beam weapon is somehow proving defective and just isn't doing the trick.
This "Oman Wisdom Trial" is making my head hurt.
You're not the only one. Fortunately, here's the solution to it. Note that you'll probably have to rotate your craft in order to get the proper perspective on how this should be. The abbreviations should be self-explanitory:
CWYG
GACW
WYGA
ACWY
(Credit to The Merciful)
Damnit Jim, I'm a space pirate, not a stellar cartographer! How the hell do I triagulate the location of Lucretia's hidden stash?
Lucretia took the means of finding it's location to her death. But, however, she DID give you a little speech from beyond the grave when you first found the base, didn't she? On a completely unrelated note, it's sure a good thing she stuck a date and time on that Will of hers...
How do I find the hidden Marauder base?
Remeber your e-mails? Go to Firefrost system, and head for the closest distress signal to find some Marauders to follow. Do not engage, but formate one to follow it to a L-point. Keep it targeted while it jumps, and you should get its destaination due your capsule space tracker. Make sure your ship has the tracker. You get it with the advanced patcom. (Credit to The Merciful)
What's up with this MCA Freighter Escort mission? I'm getting two waypoints and two convoys.. what the hell?
Make sure you nabbed the patch (info below).
Uncut Jemstones? How do I get those? Please help keep Big Jack away!
Obviously this mission might be a bit confusing for some, as they would often jump to the Ursus Metals Mine, only to find nothing there except a ship called "Prospector" floating around. Turns out this little ship is your actual target. Pump it full of hot steaming plasma for a bit and watch as it coughs up the cargo!
I'm sneaking around behind enemy lines in the "Find the backdoor L-Point" mission, but I can't figure out how to get ahold of a comms array!
The comms array you seek is at the Marauder HQ. Searching through a couple of the nearest FTL Relay waypoints will reveal it's location. However, the problem lies in how exactly to GRAB the transmitter, as getting close to the HQ means detection, and ultimately death. So, take off again, searching through the remaining FTL waypoints untill you find the shipyard. Notice the crapload of Flitters sitting off a good distance from the base, with the IFF of "Independent"? Sneak up on them and dock with one. Haul it back to the Marauder HQ and undock it, then use the sluggish thing to grab the transmitter you need and slowly haul it towards your ship (or if your ship is so uber-stealthy that the Flitter's radar can't pick it up, just get the thing at least 15km from the Marauder base, 20 to be safe). Then simply haul the transmitter to the L-Point and watch what happens! Hint for the next part: Find the Supply Depot.
General FAQ
Are there any really awesome mods I should get for this game now that I've beaten singleplayer?
Yes. (http://www.ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=497228)
I'm confused, where do I get this "patch" thing everyone is talking about?
The lates patch as of now is F14, and it can be obtained here (http://www.avault.com/pcrl/patches_temp.asp?patch=iwar2eoc).
In the middle of a mission, I return to my base to save, but when I relaunch, the mission doesn't work anymore!
Considering the way the scripting system works, returning to base in the middle of a mission will more often than not end up screwing you over. What's the answer? Don't :)
UPDATE: In the case where you have accidentally saved during an active mission, you can get a complete list of downloadable third-party save games here (http://i-war2.com/downloads_6.htm).
Screw the traffic, how can I go faster than a speed of 250 when I'm inside of a speed limited zone?
Hold down the "thrust override (forward)" key (by default it's W.. of course, if you were man enough to change your configuration, you're probably not even reading this) and take off! Watch for small, fast moving objects, they tend to leave a nasty smear.
My flying skills are so crappy that my ship spontaneously combusts every time I try to take it out of the hangar! Any tips?
"Jet_Uk", of the UK EOC forums has created a thread providing tips in general on handling the various weapons and ships in the game... too large to copy and paste into here, but you can find it at http://www.uk.infogrames.com/forums...p?topic_id=3142 if you need some tips.
How the hell do I launch flares/ECM?
As you no doubt have noticed by now, you see funny sparkly blue thingies launching out behind you in the middle of combat. Those are your DECOYS, or COUNTERMEASURES, or FLARES, or FUNNY LOOKING GLOWY THINGIES, or whatever you call them. Since they launched without any input from you whatsoever, that means that they're automated. However, if you're a control freak and want to have absolute control over your ECM systems, load the countermeasures into one of your standard missile slots instead of the "Countermeasures" slot, and then select the ECM normally as a missile, then start flinging your electronics-confusing goodies around. Personally I can't see the point, the automated system works fine enough for me and it's one less slot available to cram more disruptors onto my ship, but hey, up to you...
What's this shield synchronizer thingie for? How do I add a second LDA onto it?
Here's the official word on this front from James Moore:
"Originally the shield synchroniser was going to allow you to mount a second Light LDA in parallel with an existing shield (actually giving you a reason to trade for light LDA's :) ) so you could see you had multiple shields, but this was simplified to the syncronsier automatically adding a second lighter shield, making that facing better defended ( basically altering the base shields hold and reliability)."
How the hay-doodle do I use this whacko cap-sule space tracker gizmo?
Target your victim and stare at the lower left. When he jumps into Capsule space, it'll display where he jumped to. Hint: This comes in handy during one or two campaign missions.
Okay, so lemme get this straight.. the better heat sink is the BETA one, right?
Nope! The heat sinks are quality in this order:
Alpha
Beta
Gamma
Delta
Omega
From worst to best, respectively. The Sealed Heat Sink naturally does a poor job at heat mangement, but it's special function is that it enhances your ship's stealth capabilities. Not that it really matters much..
These movies load too slow!
Aside from going out and getting a faster CDROM drive, you could cough up the 600MB price tag (which really isn't all that much) and copy the /movies dir from your EOC Disc 2 to the Independence War 2 directory on your hard drive. Put it right into IWar2's root dir, and the game will automatically stream the movies directly from your hard drive the next time you start it up.
Do I REALLY have to travel through X number of systems every time I want to get back to base? I mean, geez, there's seeing the sights, and then there's getting SICK of the sights!
Never fear! Thanks to the brilliant dev team, they implemented code that takes you back to your base very quickly. Simply target the "Lucrecia's Base" waypoint, and, presuming you're a large distance from the nearest L-Point or from the base itself, hit the F8 key. You'll immediately teleport home shortly after your LDS drive engages. Handy!
I want to go loot some sexy-looking cargo pods from the local Maas Security Station, but every time I start shooting, they call for security, and I'm unable to call in Jafs! Help!
There's a nice little trick to this, but you'll need to have your T-Fighters handy in order to take advantage of it. Essentially, the game only measures a hostile response to PLAYER-fired shots, nothing from NPCs. And as your T-Fighters are technically NPC units docked to your hull (as turrets), having them fire won't invoke a hostile response. Hence, if you order your T-Fighters to fire upon your target freighter (and it's escorts), while completely avoiding firing your own weaponry, you'll end up getting off scott-free.
Is there any way to get the original Independence War to run properly under Windows XP, especially when I'm having "skipping" problems?
Yes - the following informative post from Jinto has some handy tips:
Originally posted by Jinto
One thing you could try is to use the Windows Application Compatability Toolkit (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows/appcompatibility/default.mspx) to force the computer to emulate a slow CPU. Exact instructions follow:
1. If you don't have the compatability toolkit, get it from the above link.
2. Open the Commpatability Administrator Tool.
3. On the left side of the window, under "Custom Databases", there should be an entry entitled "New Database" or something similar. Right-click on it, click on it and select "Create New/Application Fix" from the menu.
3a. If there is not a new database entry already present, create one by selecting "File/New" from the menu bar, then continue as above.
4. Enter the appropriate information in the dialog box. The program should be located at "C:\Program Files\Particle Systems\Independence War\IWar.exe", assuming you followed the default options at installation. Click Next.
5. Where it asks you to select compatability modes to be applied to the program, don't select anything. Just hit Next.
6. You should be at the compatability fixes screen. Scroll down until you find "EmulateSlowCPU", and click the check box next to it. If you are going to run the game in software mode, also click the check box next to "ForceDirectDrawEmulation", otherwise leave it blank. Leave everything else blank. Click Next.
Note: Setting "ForceDirectDrawEmulation" will turn off 3d acceleration automatically when launching the program, thus relieving you of the difficulty of opening dxdiag every single time you want to run I-war.
7. On the matching information screen, just accept the default options. Click the Finish button. The dialog box should close.
8. Repeat instructions 3-7 for Defiance.
9. Click the save button at the top of the window. Name your new database, and save it somewhere on your hard drive (it really doesn't matter where).
10. Right-click on the database you just saved, and choose "Install" from the drop-down menu.
11. You're done! Close the compatability administrator and run I-war. Hopefully without the skipping.
Note: If you have enabled Win 95/98/ME compatability, disable it before applying this fix.As of July 14th, 2005, community member Shadowcat SFC has contributed the following basic guide for getting the game running in 3D-accelerated mode using an available Glide wrapper utility:
Originally posted by Shadowcat SFC
dgVoodoo (http://dege.freeweb.hu/) Glide wrapper.
Both I-War and Defiance appear to work perfectly (pre-rendered in-game movies included) with v1.40 of the dgVoodoo wrapper (and hopefully all subsequent releases as well).
To use this wrapper with either game, extract/copy the following files from the dgVoodoo archive into the root game directory (whereever you installed the game to; e.g. C:\games\I-War )
glide2x.dll
glide2x.ovl
dgVoodoo.vxd
dgVoodooSetup.exe
Only these four files are needed. Next run dgVoodooSetup.exe (the new copy in the I-War directory!), select the "Glide" tab, and under "LFB Access" select the "Closer to real hardware" checkbox. This will prevent some confusing 'ghosting' problems that can occur with the HUD in the game's full-screen (TAB) mode.
You may in addition wish to enable dgVoodoo's "windowed mode" option. This enables the entire game to run in a window, which can be invaluable if you have CTD (crash to desktop) issues with the game, as your desktop resolution and colour depth will not be affected by a CTD. To enable windowed mode, go to the "Global" tab in dgVoodooSetup, and select the "Windowed mode" checkbox.
Now run the game! You can choose both the 640x480 and 800x600 Glide/3Dfx video modes, or for the best possible display quality, try setting the Resolution (under the Glide tab in dgVoodooSetup) to 1600x1200 and then using the 800x600 shortcut to run the game (if doing this in Windowed mode, you will of course also need to set a desktop resolution of at least 1600x1200!). Some aspects of the game such as the menus and the in-game HUD will still render at an effective 800x600, but as the consequent scaling is by a factor of exactly two, there are no resulting artifacts. On-screen 3D objects will benefit from the higher resolution, however! Having said that, the scaling can cause the pre-rendered video performance to suffer quite noticeably, so you may still prefer to stick to 800x600.
The game appears to run perfectly with the above settings, so I do not recommend further modifications to the default configuration. In particular, do NOT force triple buffering (under Glide - Miscellaneous) or you will likely suffer problems with the in-game movies. The information given here is based on testing performed under Win98SE with a GeForce4 Ti4200 and nVidia's 56.64 drivers. Community veteran Hoom adds his two cents into the field as well:
Originally posted by hoom
Get Zeckensacks Glide Wrapper here:
http://www.zeckensack.de/glide/index.html
Set pagefile/virtual memory to 512MB or less.
Apparently 1GB system RAM is max that works.
May need older Nvidia drivers.
May not be possible to get it to work with Geforce 6 series as drivers that work with 5 (FX) series are from before 6 series were supported. [I'm actually unsure about this bit, I may have been confusing EoC issues???]
No known problems with ATI drivers.
Game will crash to desktop after ctrl + q at mission end, currently unfixable (apparently an invalid Directsound call) but progress is saved. You can just load again & continue.
If performance is poor, turn off motion blur in glide wrapper settings. How about Linux?
Yes, it's apparently possible, though it's a little unstable and your mileage may vary. Jessica00 pointed out this URL (http://digital-conquest.ath.cx/wiki/index.php/Independence_War), which has some helpful information on the matter.
How do I get rid of the rainbow effect in I-War's cutscenes?
Nigh****ch reports: "Set your desktop to 256 colour mode prior to running the game."
What's this "Hostile Waters" game people keep babbling about?
The simple answer lies here. Do not openly diss Hostile Waters, or claim in some indirect manner that it is anything other than a high quality game. Doing so would result in the opening of the proverbial "hornet's nest". Refer to my signature to purchase the title. Like, right now.
Who the hell is this "Parias" guy, and why should I listen to what he says?
Because I am, quite frankly, the greatest human being this side of Alpha Centauri, and if you don't follow my advice, thousands of tiny purple ants will swarm over your house and chew through your network cables. Also, I am a Seniour Executive of the Illuminati High Command, and it is not wise to displease us.
Your FAQ sucks! Where can I see something more official?
Normally in this situation I'd tell you to "go launch yourself into space", but it looks like Stephen Robertson has come to your rescue! Click here to read a much more official FAQ if you can't find what you're looking for here (http://www.independencewar.com/downloadsandsupport/IWAR2/gameplay_faq.htm).
UPDATE: Since the above link is now defunct due to the official website for the game being taken offline, commuity member akula65 helpfully offered this alternative link: http://web.archive.org/web/20040213121950/www.independencewar.com/downloadsandsupport/IWAR2/gameplay_faq.htm
God bless you, Archive.org.
That FAQ sucks too! It doesn't answer my questions!
Then you can either A) Slit your wrists with a knife, or B) follow one of the links below that other members have contributed in hopes that you might find what you're looking for.
Weapons Loadout Tips (Contributed by Jet_Uk)
Mod Information (Info on .FTU and .FTC files too, contributed by Jet_Uk)
Saved Game HEX Editing Info (Props again to Jet_Uk)
Edit: I'd just like to point out that the UK forums, while not exactly dead, have changed severely over the past number of months, and, as hence, every link I've provided to them is probably no longer valid. Apologies.
Okay. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who's noticing the quickly-increasing number of "How do I get the Maas Fighters" or "I'm stuck in the junkyard" posts. While I'm all for more posts and community backflow coming through our forums, I'm sure I'm not the only one getting a bit tired of answering the same question over and over again. Hence, I've thrown together this FAQ, which, thanks to my constant stealth-bumping, will hopefully remain on the front page for some time to come. I'll be definately updating it as time goes on, to either correct errors or add in new content. Post your comments below if you have any questions or know something you want added. So, lets get started!
I'm splitting this up into 2 sections: Mission Questions and General Questions, but it might be expanded later. As always, I'll add to it as comments come in or by necessity. Also, note that this is a GAMEPLAY FAQ. Due to this, there are, as you probably guessed, spoilers, and tons of 'em.
Oh, and one other important thing to note: There's a search function available on this forum. If you don't find the answers you seek here, try utilizing it. Chances are, someone's probably already asked your question a few billion times already anyways.
And for cripe's sake, make sure you're running the latest patch before you read any further! If you're not, none of us will take any responsibility for the "Well.. duh!" situations that might follow :p
Onwards!
09/07/2008 Update: How to get Independence War 2 to play nice with Windows Vista and modern-day graphics cards.
I'm adding this to the top as I figure it will become more and more of a question as time goes on, and as I just spent the better part of the last 24 hours trying to get the game to work on my end.
SYMPTOM: I try and launch the game, but keep getting a message that says "Unable to find a suitable driver to run the game. This means the game will not run."
This seems to happen just because the Flux engine doesn't have a clue what in Zeus' name to make of your graphics card. To fix this, go to the folder you installed the game to. You'll see an executable - IW2EoCGS.exe. Everyone's mileage seems to vary a little in getting this to work, but I've personally found simply right-clicking on it and hitting "Run As Administrator" is enough to get it to launch. EoC should then launch as normal without this message appearing.
SYMPTOM: I got the game to run fine, but every time I try to launch into the physical game engine (i.e. launch an "Instant Action" scenario), my game crashes! The error details also place dx7graph.dll as being at fault.
Again, the explanation for this probably ties into the one above, and again, your mileage may vary on what exactly fixes this for you. The best fix I found was to open up Flux.ini and manually set the "bit_depth" line to 16, instead of 32 (or just set the in-game resolution to 16-bit color via the in-game menus if you're able). You'll have to deal with some hideous color-banding on the background nebula textures, but the game should actually run until a better solution is found.
Failing that, try rolling back your display drivers as old as possible - nVidia cards in particular seem to be notorious for triggering this crash unless older display drivers are used (although that may not be an option for those of us with the fancy 8800GT cards).
If you want some additional tips, please check out this thread (http://www.i-war2.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2558&whichpage=1) on the I-War2.Com forums, as this is where I found a good deal of suggestions that helped get the game working for me.
Mission FAQ
I'm stuck on the mission where I have to get the Maas Fighters. Help!
Without a doubt one of the most sought-after mission-help-requests thus far. The mission where you have to retrieve a pair of prototype Maas fighters suffers from vagueness, confusion, and some massive tightness in the scripting that fails you if you don't do everything JUST right. Based on experience of going through this mission at least 6 times successfully (both in the demo and full version), I offer the following information:
First, one area of confusion is what exactly one should bring the trader in the junkyard in exchange for the Maas IFF. Head back to your base and search for a piece of cargo in your inventory that has a recycling value of at least 60. If you don't have one.... aquire one ;) Attach it to your ship (through the Loadout menu's rather obvious "Add Cargo" button) and haul it off to the good lad to get your shiny new IFF.
Now, once you reach the Maas Base and Jafs has come to a full stop, remote link to the tug called "Drone" (Shift+R) and have it dock with the cargo pod called "Useful Looking Cargo". Fly the pod over to the other pod called "Fighters'. This is the part where most people get lost. You need to hit the F2 key from here (making sure the "Fighters" pod is targetted) and line up the aft of your ship to be facing the "Fighters" pod. Get as close as possible to it, then smack "U". This should all be set up so that the "Useful Looking Cargo" pod smacks into the "Fighters" pod and takes it's place. Then, dock with the "Fighters" pod, and, taking a round-about route back to your ship (not sure if this is entirely necessary, but better safe than sorry), unload the pod into the Refuse Dump. If all goes to plan, you should be able to terminate the REM link safely. Jafs will undock your tug and pick up the "Fighters" pod. Formate with him as he jumps out, and head on home. Congrats, you did it!
I'm stuck on the "Get Fuel Rods" mission.
Most likely you're either having trouble getting to the reactor core itself, or are getting your arse pounded on the way out of the area. I'll cover on how to appropriately handle both.
To get near the core, play it stealthy and careful. As you approach your target, note carefully the positions of the patrol ships in relation to the core. They should be at least 2 KM from it, more if possible of course. Also try to position your approach so that the core is between you and the station, precisely.
Your getaway is simple. So simple, in fact, that you barely need anything aside from your basic thrusters, drive, and LDS system. Once Clay says that you've got the shiny new Fuel Rods, hit "U", aim away from the reactor (preferably also away from the nearby station), and hold down the "W" key. Oh, and I'd advise you to have your barf-bags handy, because your little Storm Petrel's got one hell of a kick to it. Once you're clear of the LDSI field (which should be roughly 3-5 seconds), target your home base and fly off to install your new toys and turn off those depressing emergency lights.
Argh, these stupid Gunstars keep blowing me off before I can de-activate them!
Stay docked to the station and just take in the pattern of the power failures. You will notice that they all arm and then one by one go offline until they are all offline and then repeat (and rinse if needed).
Just before they all go offline undock (this give an extra few seconds), use W to accelerate, let go of W when you about 1/2 to 3/4 way there, swing behind the gunstar (ie make the gun star between you and the station). Engage auto dock.
Select the next gun star and wait till they're nearly all offline, Fly towards that one and do the same. You might want to fire a disruptor at it, just in case it comes online again.
Repeat the above, make sure you're fully repaired before you zot off again.
If you get hit while docking to a GS push the joystick up, it seems to work! Dunno why.
(Contributed by FAMS)
In the mission where you team up with a bunch of wingmates to take out the Marauder base, I can't figure out how to destroy it! And that Gunstar doesn't help matters either...
It all comes down to your basics. See the cargo cache of cute high explosive thingies nearby? Gee golly, certainly would be a shame if they went off nearby the Station, wouldn't it? ..Okay, enough screwing around, dock to one of those suckers. Get a good line-up on the Station, back up a little if you need to, then fly STRAIGHT for the station. Make sure your speed is at least... oh, 800km/s (just to be safe). When you're just about on top of the station, smack the U key, aim down (or up), and watch that sucker blow!
Repeat the process if you need for the Gunstar (assuming it wasn't taken out already), or just do what I did and use your T-Fighters to knock the thing out from range.
Argh! I'm trying to get the Sheriff in Firefrost to help me, but the game keeps crashing/locking up during the mission! What's wrong?
While this problem is supposedly fixed in the patch, some people just possibly might still have it. Here's how I got through it. I went to the Blue Note in Firefrost. Chatted with the girl. I then returned to my base and saved, re-launched, and moved on to the Sheriff's place at Gefjon. After getting a waypoint to the Posse meeting, I went back home and saved AGAIN, then went to the Posse. I completed the mission provided there, went home, and managed to successfully save. It's a lot of trouble, I know, but if the patch didn't fix it for you, this is the best fix I've got.
Okay, I'm stumped, how the hell do I knock out the LDAs on this @&$(* Jump Accelerator?
Simple. See the blue glow thingies? Zoom in on them, and you'll notice a bunch of little objects in the middle of them. Whip out your biggest gun (A Cutting Beam did the trick for me) and unload into it untill it explodes. Move on to the next one, and the next, untill they're all gone. Of course, if you haven't figured it out already, these are located on the INSIDE of the jump accelerator :)
Another tactic that others have suggested/adopted (including the infamous Stephen Robertson, who you should all bow down to right this second) is to try using Deathblow REM missiles on the thing if your best beam weapon is somehow proving defective and just isn't doing the trick.
This "Oman Wisdom Trial" is making my head hurt.
You're not the only one. Fortunately, here's the solution to it. Note that you'll probably have to rotate your craft in order to get the proper perspective on how this should be. The abbreviations should be self-explanitory:
CWYG
GACW
WYGA
ACWY
(Credit to The Merciful)
Damnit Jim, I'm a space pirate, not a stellar cartographer! How the hell do I triagulate the location of Lucretia's hidden stash?
Lucretia took the means of finding it's location to her death. But, however, she DID give you a little speech from beyond the grave when you first found the base, didn't she? On a completely unrelated note, it's sure a good thing she stuck a date and time on that Will of hers...
How do I find the hidden Marauder base?
Remeber your e-mails? Go to Firefrost system, and head for the closest distress signal to find some Marauders to follow. Do not engage, but formate one to follow it to a L-point. Keep it targeted while it jumps, and you should get its destaination due your capsule space tracker. Make sure your ship has the tracker. You get it with the advanced patcom. (Credit to The Merciful)
What's up with this MCA Freighter Escort mission? I'm getting two waypoints and two convoys.. what the hell?
Make sure you nabbed the patch (info below).
Uncut Jemstones? How do I get those? Please help keep Big Jack away!
Obviously this mission might be a bit confusing for some, as they would often jump to the Ursus Metals Mine, only to find nothing there except a ship called "Prospector" floating around. Turns out this little ship is your actual target. Pump it full of hot steaming plasma for a bit and watch as it coughs up the cargo!
I'm sneaking around behind enemy lines in the "Find the backdoor L-Point" mission, but I can't figure out how to get ahold of a comms array!
The comms array you seek is at the Marauder HQ. Searching through a couple of the nearest FTL Relay waypoints will reveal it's location. However, the problem lies in how exactly to GRAB the transmitter, as getting close to the HQ means detection, and ultimately death. So, take off again, searching through the remaining FTL waypoints untill you find the shipyard. Notice the crapload of Flitters sitting off a good distance from the base, with the IFF of "Independent"? Sneak up on them and dock with one. Haul it back to the Marauder HQ and undock it, then use the sluggish thing to grab the transmitter you need and slowly haul it towards your ship (or if your ship is so uber-stealthy that the Flitter's radar can't pick it up, just get the thing at least 15km from the Marauder base, 20 to be safe). Then simply haul the transmitter to the L-Point and watch what happens! Hint for the next part: Find the Supply Depot.
General FAQ
Are there any really awesome mods I should get for this game now that I've beaten singleplayer?
Yes. (http://www.ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=497228)
I'm confused, where do I get this "patch" thing everyone is talking about?
The lates patch as of now is F14, and it can be obtained here (http://www.avault.com/pcrl/patches_temp.asp?patch=iwar2eoc).
In the middle of a mission, I return to my base to save, but when I relaunch, the mission doesn't work anymore!
Considering the way the scripting system works, returning to base in the middle of a mission will more often than not end up screwing you over. What's the answer? Don't :)
UPDATE: In the case where you have accidentally saved during an active mission, you can get a complete list of downloadable third-party save games here (http://i-war2.com/downloads_6.htm).
Screw the traffic, how can I go faster than a speed of 250 when I'm inside of a speed limited zone?
Hold down the "thrust override (forward)" key (by default it's W.. of course, if you were man enough to change your configuration, you're probably not even reading this) and take off! Watch for small, fast moving objects, they tend to leave a nasty smear.
My flying skills are so crappy that my ship spontaneously combusts every time I try to take it out of the hangar! Any tips?
"Jet_Uk", of the UK EOC forums has created a thread providing tips in general on handling the various weapons and ships in the game... too large to copy and paste into here, but you can find it at http://www.uk.infogrames.com/forums...p?topic_id=3142 if you need some tips.
How the hell do I launch flares/ECM?
As you no doubt have noticed by now, you see funny sparkly blue thingies launching out behind you in the middle of combat. Those are your DECOYS, or COUNTERMEASURES, or FLARES, or FUNNY LOOKING GLOWY THINGIES, or whatever you call them. Since they launched without any input from you whatsoever, that means that they're automated. However, if you're a control freak and want to have absolute control over your ECM systems, load the countermeasures into one of your standard missile slots instead of the "Countermeasures" slot, and then select the ECM normally as a missile, then start flinging your electronics-confusing goodies around. Personally I can't see the point, the automated system works fine enough for me and it's one less slot available to cram more disruptors onto my ship, but hey, up to you...
What's this shield synchronizer thingie for? How do I add a second LDA onto it?
Here's the official word on this front from James Moore:
"Originally the shield synchroniser was going to allow you to mount a second Light LDA in parallel with an existing shield (actually giving you a reason to trade for light LDA's :) ) so you could see you had multiple shields, but this was simplified to the syncronsier automatically adding a second lighter shield, making that facing better defended ( basically altering the base shields hold and reliability)."
How the hay-doodle do I use this whacko cap-sule space tracker gizmo?
Target your victim and stare at the lower left. When he jumps into Capsule space, it'll display where he jumped to. Hint: This comes in handy during one or two campaign missions.
Okay, so lemme get this straight.. the better heat sink is the BETA one, right?
Nope! The heat sinks are quality in this order:
Alpha
Beta
Gamma
Delta
Omega
From worst to best, respectively. The Sealed Heat Sink naturally does a poor job at heat mangement, but it's special function is that it enhances your ship's stealth capabilities. Not that it really matters much..
These movies load too slow!
Aside from going out and getting a faster CDROM drive, you could cough up the 600MB price tag (which really isn't all that much) and copy the /movies dir from your EOC Disc 2 to the Independence War 2 directory on your hard drive. Put it right into IWar2's root dir, and the game will automatically stream the movies directly from your hard drive the next time you start it up.
Do I REALLY have to travel through X number of systems every time I want to get back to base? I mean, geez, there's seeing the sights, and then there's getting SICK of the sights!
Never fear! Thanks to the brilliant dev team, they implemented code that takes you back to your base very quickly. Simply target the "Lucrecia's Base" waypoint, and, presuming you're a large distance from the nearest L-Point or from the base itself, hit the F8 key. You'll immediately teleport home shortly after your LDS drive engages. Handy!
I want to go loot some sexy-looking cargo pods from the local Maas Security Station, but every time I start shooting, they call for security, and I'm unable to call in Jafs! Help!
There's a nice little trick to this, but you'll need to have your T-Fighters handy in order to take advantage of it. Essentially, the game only measures a hostile response to PLAYER-fired shots, nothing from NPCs. And as your T-Fighters are technically NPC units docked to your hull (as turrets), having them fire won't invoke a hostile response. Hence, if you order your T-Fighters to fire upon your target freighter (and it's escorts), while completely avoiding firing your own weaponry, you'll end up getting off scott-free.
Is there any way to get the original Independence War to run properly under Windows XP, especially when I'm having "skipping" problems?
Yes - the following informative post from Jinto has some handy tips:
Originally posted by Jinto
One thing you could try is to use the Windows Application Compatability Toolkit (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows/appcompatibility/default.mspx) to force the computer to emulate a slow CPU. Exact instructions follow:
1. If you don't have the compatability toolkit, get it from the above link.
2. Open the Commpatability Administrator Tool.
3. On the left side of the window, under "Custom Databases", there should be an entry entitled "New Database" or something similar. Right-click on it, click on it and select "Create New/Application Fix" from the menu.
3a. If there is not a new database entry already present, create one by selecting "File/New" from the menu bar, then continue as above.
4. Enter the appropriate information in the dialog box. The program should be located at "C:\Program Files\Particle Systems\Independence War\IWar.exe", assuming you followed the default options at installation. Click Next.
5. Where it asks you to select compatability modes to be applied to the program, don't select anything. Just hit Next.
6. You should be at the compatability fixes screen. Scroll down until you find "EmulateSlowCPU", and click the check box next to it. If you are going to run the game in software mode, also click the check box next to "ForceDirectDrawEmulation", otherwise leave it blank. Leave everything else blank. Click Next.
Note: Setting "ForceDirectDrawEmulation" will turn off 3d acceleration automatically when launching the program, thus relieving you of the difficulty of opening dxdiag every single time you want to run I-war.
7. On the matching information screen, just accept the default options. Click the Finish button. The dialog box should close.
8. Repeat instructions 3-7 for Defiance.
9. Click the save button at the top of the window. Name your new database, and save it somewhere on your hard drive (it really doesn't matter where).
10. Right-click on the database you just saved, and choose "Install" from the drop-down menu.
11. You're done! Close the compatability administrator and run I-war. Hopefully without the skipping.
Note: If you have enabled Win 95/98/ME compatability, disable it before applying this fix.As of July 14th, 2005, community member Shadowcat SFC has contributed the following basic guide for getting the game running in 3D-accelerated mode using an available Glide wrapper utility:
Originally posted by Shadowcat SFC
dgVoodoo (http://dege.freeweb.hu/) Glide wrapper.
Both I-War and Defiance appear to work perfectly (pre-rendered in-game movies included) with v1.40 of the dgVoodoo wrapper (and hopefully all subsequent releases as well).
To use this wrapper with either game, extract/copy the following files from the dgVoodoo archive into the root game directory (whereever you installed the game to; e.g. C:\games\I-War )
glide2x.dll
glide2x.ovl
dgVoodoo.vxd
dgVoodooSetup.exe
Only these four files are needed. Next run dgVoodooSetup.exe (the new copy in the I-War directory!), select the "Glide" tab, and under "LFB Access" select the "Closer to real hardware" checkbox. This will prevent some confusing 'ghosting' problems that can occur with the HUD in the game's full-screen (TAB) mode.
You may in addition wish to enable dgVoodoo's "windowed mode" option. This enables the entire game to run in a window, which can be invaluable if you have CTD (crash to desktop) issues with the game, as your desktop resolution and colour depth will not be affected by a CTD. To enable windowed mode, go to the "Global" tab in dgVoodooSetup, and select the "Windowed mode" checkbox.
Now run the game! You can choose both the 640x480 and 800x600 Glide/3Dfx video modes, or for the best possible display quality, try setting the Resolution (under the Glide tab in dgVoodooSetup) to 1600x1200 and then using the 800x600 shortcut to run the game (if doing this in Windowed mode, you will of course also need to set a desktop resolution of at least 1600x1200!). Some aspects of the game such as the menus and the in-game HUD will still render at an effective 800x600, but as the consequent scaling is by a factor of exactly two, there are no resulting artifacts. On-screen 3D objects will benefit from the higher resolution, however! Having said that, the scaling can cause the pre-rendered video performance to suffer quite noticeably, so you may still prefer to stick to 800x600.
The game appears to run perfectly with the above settings, so I do not recommend further modifications to the default configuration. In particular, do NOT force triple buffering (under Glide - Miscellaneous) or you will likely suffer problems with the in-game movies. The information given here is based on testing performed under Win98SE with a GeForce4 Ti4200 and nVidia's 56.64 drivers. Community veteran Hoom adds his two cents into the field as well:
Originally posted by hoom
Get Zeckensacks Glide Wrapper here:
http://www.zeckensack.de/glide/index.html
Set pagefile/virtual memory to 512MB or less.
Apparently 1GB system RAM is max that works.
May need older Nvidia drivers.
May not be possible to get it to work with Geforce 6 series as drivers that work with 5 (FX) series are from before 6 series were supported. [I'm actually unsure about this bit, I may have been confusing EoC issues???]
No known problems with ATI drivers.
Game will crash to desktop after ctrl + q at mission end, currently unfixable (apparently an invalid Directsound call) but progress is saved. You can just load again & continue.
If performance is poor, turn off motion blur in glide wrapper settings. How about Linux?
Yes, it's apparently possible, though it's a little unstable and your mileage may vary. Jessica00 pointed out this URL (http://digital-conquest.ath.cx/wiki/index.php/Independence_War), which has some helpful information on the matter.
How do I get rid of the rainbow effect in I-War's cutscenes?
Nigh****ch reports: "Set your desktop to 256 colour mode prior to running the game."
What's this "Hostile Waters" game people keep babbling about?
The simple answer lies here. Do not openly diss Hostile Waters, or claim in some indirect manner that it is anything other than a high quality game. Doing so would result in the opening of the proverbial "hornet's nest". Refer to my signature to purchase the title. Like, right now.
Who the hell is this "Parias" guy, and why should I listen to what he says?
Because I am, quite frankly, the greatest human being this side of Alpha Centauri, and if you don't follow my advice, thousands of tiny purple ants will swarm over your house and chew through your network cables. Also, I am a Seniour Executive of the Illuminati High Command, and it is not wise to displease us.
Your FAQ sucks! Where can I see something more official?
Normally in this situation I'd tell you to "go launch yourself into space", but it looks like Stephen Robertson has come to your rescue! Click here to read a much more official FAQ if you can't find what you're looking for here (http://www.independencewar.com/downloadsandsupport/IWAR2/gameplay_faq.htm).
UPDATE: Since the above link is now defunct due to the official website for the game being taken offline, commuity member akula65 helpfully offered this alternative link: http://web.archive.org/web/20040213121950/www.independencewar.com/downloadsandsupport/IWAR2/gameplay_faq.htm
God bless you, Archive.org.
That FAQ sucks too! It doesn't answer my questions!
Then you can either A) Slit your wrists with a knife, or B) follow one of the links below that other members have contributed in hopes that you might find what you're looking for.
Weapons Loadout Tips (Contributed by Jet_Uk)
Mod Information (Info on .FTU and .FTC files too, contributed by Jet_Uk)
Saved Game HEX Editing Info (Props again to Jet_Uk)
Edit: I'd just like to point out that the UK forums, while not exactly dead, have changed severely over the past number of months, and, as hence, every link I've provided to them is probably no longer valid. Apologies.