[CP5670]

I'm playing through this game for the first time, even though I got it some years ago. I love many things about the game, especially the 6DOF inertial flying mechanics and the rich and detailed game universe, but it has several frustrating aspects and bad design decisions too, with the biggest issue being the lack of proper savegames. It feels like a grognard version of Freelancer, with an open, freeform game world but slow paced gameplay and tough combat with lots of things to keep track of. This is the first game where I'm using all the extra keys on my G15.

I know several of you have played IW2, so my question is how are you supposed to dodge missiles? I keep getting destroyed by these more than anything else. Your ship is very slow to turn or change heading, at least the tug you get early on, and I can't figure out how to use the countermeasures either. I just end up flying around randomly for a while, trying to tri-chord like in Descent and waiting for the missile to stop tracking, but that isn't working very well.

The AI behavior is odd too. I'm about halfway through Act I and you apparently have to attack random ships and steal their cargo to get ship/weapon upgrades. I can sometimes do this and nobody else in the area notices, even the target's allies. At other times, the nearby ships get angry and own me with their missiles.

[Commander Zane]

I have a thread of this up already I believe.

But anyway, easiest way to evade missiles (Countermeasures are automatic and rubbish anyway) is to turn so your ship's path would be perpendicular with the missile's current trajectory, and double-tap L, it will instantly change your course to your heading and put you at 1,000 m/s, forcing the missiles to have to turn around after passing you, great way for fighting just about anything.

[CP5670]

If you mean activate the LDS during a fight, that's a great idea. I'll need to try it. I doubt that's what the game expects you to do, but it's the sort of exploit that I like.

There are many threads about this game (we even had a dedicated forum section for it at one point), but I couldn't find any recent ones.

[Demitri]

I'd normally just accelerate without using LDS until missile detonates then turn back. Effective for evading missiles, but also effective in turning dogfights into 3 hour borefests! I only ever completed the game using the Buda5 mod and replacing one of the ships (shuttle?) with a B5 Bluestar.

[carbine7]

If you're feeling tactical, you can always try and get crafty with thrusters and rapid direction changes, which often leaves you as a sitting duck for someone's PBC. Usually the best strategy is to either engage your LDS or use the manual acceleration if you don't feel like running (Or you're in an LDSi field due to a station or some jerk with a pack of LDSi Missiles).

I did beat the game with the standard ships first, but then I went back and used some cruiser that replaces the command section. Oh, the sweet heavy PBCs and beam cannons o' doom....

[CP5670]

Well, the LDS idea is not working so well. I was often getting hit by LDSI missiles when I tried it, and even when it works it doesn't go at the warp-like speed that you get with the autopilot LDS.

[zookeeper]

Huh? It's my favourite space sim/shooter, and I don't recall ever having major problems with missiles specifically. It's been a few years since I last played it though, so I don't know how I dealt with those. I guess I just generally tried to keep up enough speed to be able to dodge them.

[Flaser]

I just keep using my lateral thrusters along with twisting the ship on its longitudinal axis.... missiles rarely ever hit me.

[Tyrian]

My trick to evading missiles is to heavily use the lateral thrusters combined with yaw rotation.  The effect is that you slide away from the missile's flight path by a small margin.  You also can use the momentum to turn while moving on an odd vector to face your attacker, which will throw off their aim.  Countermeasures also seem more effective when using this maneuver.

Another trick is to use the same slide and rotate maneuver to face the missile.  Then you can use your shields to "catch" it.

The most important thing to remember about shields in IW2 though, is that they only cover about 5/6ths of your ship, with one shield covering about 1/6th at a time.  To compensate, the shields are designed to move.  As a result, they'll cover the areas of your ship which are facing an attacker.  The only caveat is that they *don't* cover the rear and once they move, it'll be a few tenths of a second before they can move again.  But that's what the flip and thrust reverse maneuver is for. 

[Kszyhu]

As people said, there are few ways to dodge missiles. First, LDS. Don't use it continuously in a combat, just double tap L. No matter how fast were you flying, your speed will be set to 1k m/s in the direction you are facing. You can also set yourself in direction perpendicular to your flight path and fire main thrusters. It's far easier on a Patcom, though. The easiest way is burning in one direction (of course using 'thruster override'), leaving missiles behind.


And one more thing - LDSi will blow up any missile caught in its shockwave.

EDIT:

The AI behavior is odd too. I'm about halfway through Act I and you apparently have to attack random ships and steal their cargo to get ship/weapon upgrades. I can sometimes do this and nobody else in the area notices, even the target's allies. At other times, the nearby ships get angry and own me with their missiles.

IIRC only ships that will react to attacking a target are its escorts, unless you're shooting near a station, which will summon defence forces. Hitting a transport once or twice won't catch much attention, but anything more is the best way to get shot down.

[phatosealpha]

IIRC, and it's been a long time, Kszyhu gave you the best tactic in his final sentence.  LDSi missiles are cheap, plentiful, and have large shockwaves which will blow up any and all missiles in their wake.  Have them and spam them when necessary, especially when you're in the tug.  Once you get the second ship, it's much less of an issue, but the tug really needs some extra protection.

[CP5670]

Yes, the tug turns and accelerates extremely slowly. It feels like you're flying a destroyer in FS2. I'll try out the LDSI missiles. When do you get a new ship? I'm near the end of Act I and have been using this tug for a while now.

The missions in this game are not that well balanced and the difficulty is highly variable. Some are very easy and others are brutal. I added in the warp cheat to cut down on the time wasted in moving between places, but it took me at least two hours and numerous replays to beat the one where you have to dock with the gun platforms.

[phatosealpha]

You get the best one middle of act 2, and a third, but less useful one at the end of act 3.

Act 2 gets you much of the best stuff - turret fighters, the vette, cutting beams.

[Flaser]

I usually already get turret fighters in Act 1.

[Kszyhu]

Warp cheat? You mean the one with tapping L key? And about new ship - after getting to act II, do M.C.A missions ASAP.

[Commander Zane]

Ctrl + Alt + G or whatever, it takes instantly places you at whatever you have targeted, as long as it's in the same system as you.

[MP-Ryan]

Where can one actually buy a copy of IW2 these days?  This game is on my need-to-play list  but I can't find it anywhere.

[Kszyhu]

You can try this: http://www.atari.com/games/iwar2/pc-download

[carbine7]

Just be warned that on some systems a particular mission causes a memory leak (or something like that, I don't remember what it was exactly) that causes the game to crash. So far, I haven't been able to find a fix for it, meaning I can't actually beat the campaign on my new system. Worked fine for XP though, so I suspect its Vista-related.