StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Just perusing some old sites when I came across a link to Link place which seemed rather neat. I admire the dedication that goes into such things, especially in light of the fact that I-War 3 is about as likely as FreeSpace 3, only the former was a far, far better game (the best space sim, actually. And yes, I own the SW sims).

I'm sure Shep will like this given I recall him mentioning his adoration for Capt. Jefferson Clay on ASVS years back.

I also found that the Muse video Sing For Absolution that came out last year was made by the former development team of these games, I knew the ship style looked familiar.

Stephen Robertson was responsible for the models, IIRC. Class act, that guy.

Didn't know about that video. Got any more information on it?

You can download a low-res version here. I never could find a decent copy of it, I had expected a better version on the album when I bought it last year, but that was only on special editions.

I don't know, for gameplay and storyline FS2 rocked my socks, moreso than IW2. But I'm not saying it wasn't excellent, it was probably the best Newtonian combat engine ever devised and had beautifully rendered and designed ships. They are among my favorite games, though FS2 is just easier and more fun to play in my opinion.
IW2 would have been lengths better had it been more open ended about gameplay, if you could do more with your pirated good than make missles and turret fighters, and buy the odd upgrade. That and had a more usable wingman AI and command system.

Far as the open-ended part, there's a TC project called the Middle States which is doing just that. They also are putting in a fleet command system based on the iFleet mod, IIRC.

When it's done, it will likely kick large amounts of ass.

SyntaxVorlon wrote:I don't know, for gameplay and storyline FS2 rocked my socks, moreso than IW2. But I'm not saying it wasn't excellent, it was probably the best Newtonian combat engine ever devised and had beautifully rendered and designed ships. They are among my favorite games, though FS2 is just easier and more fun to play in my opinion.
IW2 would have been lengths better had it been more open ended about gameplay, if you could do more with your pirated good than make missles and turret fighters, and buy the odd upgrade. That and had a more usable wingman AI and command system.

I-War 2 was an excellent game, but the first game was much better. A true classic. Learning curve was fairly steep, but the combat was possibly the deepest ever. I expect that it's pretty hard to find now, but you should give it a shot.

Don't forget the Buda5 project which is still going on ever since a certain B5 space-sim was canned indefinitely. I really need to get a new joystick and check some of the new mods for I-War 2. And I never did get my own copy of the original in special edition.

I remember the first Buda 5 project, wish I could have done more to help out, but in the end, I think Martian Beach Babes was worth it.

Haven't heard much from them on the EoC project, I think a few of them went over to Middle States.

I believe so. There are a few new mods I've not heard much about before popping up.

By the way, Middle States has apparently been released

It's about all I can do to NOT reload I-War 2 and give it a spin.

If only I had a damn joystick now. Tempting, but I've just gotten used to playing CS: S over Steam.

Well, looks like I picked a good time to finally pick that game up. Are there any other good mods I ought to look out for after I finish the game besides the open-ended patch and Middle States?

Check the I-War forum on the Atari site. It used to be bigger and they had another board on the Particle Systems site before the company was liquidated after Infogrames bought them. The die hards and even former PS employees post around and develop these mods.

There's a series of "official" patches and mods you'll want to pick up, you'll find them all at the perhaps largest fan-based site I-War 2 has. There you'll find just about every mod ever developed, tactics, manuevers, and so on. Plus it's the home site for the Middle States team.

I'd have a few recommendations, but one in particular is really only worthwhile once you've played through the game once, and desire a bit more of a challenge.

They are working on a SW mod too, last I heard. No idea how that will work, especially since, unlike B5, SW goes the Trek route with atmospheric flight rather than Newtonian mechanics.

Actually, it's very easy to mod I-War to a more "traditional" space sim model. There is an auto-pilot computer system which applies thrust in the opposite direction in which you're travelling if you are no longer applying thrust, eventually bringing you back to "zero". Just increase the power of those thrusters to be equal or greater than normal thrusters, disallow speeding above a certain amount, and there you go.

I forget the specific areas of code involved, but I'm pretty sure it was almost all .ini file hacking.

That's true. Also, when using the LDS drive, since it basically acts as a pseudo-teleporter removing inertia, you can fly like a plane too, albeit, without using weapons unless special LDSi missiles.

Hotfoot wrote:There's a series of "official" patches and mods you'll want to pick up, you'll find them all at the perhaps largest fan-based site I-War 2 has. There you'll find just about every mod ever developed, tactics, manuevers, and so on. Plus it's the home site for the Middle States team.

I'd have a few recommendations, but one in particular is really only worthwhile once you've played through the game once, and desire a bit more of a challenge.

Cool site. They even still have my Defiance mod from 4 years ago.