Great atmosphere and physics-ridiculously hard gameplay

[ProudTiger]

I love this game and bought it back in 2001 or 2 (still have the case and brilliant artwork ,map and manual) but ,by gees,this game is mind blowingly hard.
I need to shoot down a fuel hauler to get some fuel for Jaffs but as soon as I do that 3 other fighters swarm in and kill you in a few minutes.It seems your craft is way underpowered to theirs and the shields you have ,even when turning them up in engine management,does not achieve much.Had twenty goes and the more I try the worse I get.Only takes 30 seconds to get blown up now.
Also the only useful weapon is the pbc.Hardly scrape the paintwork with the other weapons.Pbc has more power but it fires really slowly which frustrates even more.
That's why my copy has gathered dudt for near on 15 years because of the awful gameplay balance.
I do love the feel of the game and it looks beautiful for a game made 15 years ago practically.

This game would have been a massive hit if the gameplay balance was achieved on release.
Otherwise players get frustrated to death and leave a game,which had so much promise back in the drawer.
Any pointers?
I've tried different engine management schemes by changing,weapons,power and shields abut all are the same,I still get shot down with regularity.
I do use the boost function which is handy for escaping the fight but I need to shake off the fighters to get the cargo.
I see you can customize your craft but I don't know how to get bettter parts for my ship.
I'm still in act 1.
Can you upgrade your ship in act 1?

This game could have been the best space sim of all time if the gameplay balance was tweaked a bit.

Also I press the L key for the faster drive but that doesn't seem to work.

P.S. btw If you think you are good enough (have those cod twitch skills lol),then I recommen d the Thrustmaster t16000m joystick.Works perfect with thisgame.
I used to own a Logitech ffb stick back in the day and that was awesome with this game.
Just prepare for the overly hard difficulty level.

[schmatzler]

Do you already have the cannons on the side of your ship? You can undock those and your buddies will help you out great in a fight. Sorry, forgot how they are called ingame.

For overpowered enemies my tactics is the slingshot approach. Get some huge distance then full power to the engines. Try to approach them from behind with ridiculous speed and fire missiles.

Do that a few times and you will turn them to dust.

Like I said in the other thread, practice makes perfect in this game. Sometimes I had a ridiculous amount of tries on a mission, too. It's kind of nice to finally get it.

[ProudTiger]

Uninstalled.Just couldn't get further.
Great game but too hard for an old bloke like me.

[Draugr]

Ok, old post, but I will add to it: Speed is EVERYTHING in newtonain space! I cannot stress that enough, even with automated correction, you cannot overspeed and expect the corevette to handle like a nimble fighter. So you need to slow down, use the entire 3 dimensional space, remember you can strafe sideways, and up/down, use all of this to navigate around and to engage foes, you can even outmanuver missiles like this. As they have the same problem as you do, overspeeding towards a target that just moved out of the turning arc of what is possible according to newtons law of movement/physics. This is, hands down, one of the best "real" space games out there. There are many good ones, but this in the top 5.

Btw, when flying the TUG, remember that everything and everyone outshoot and outgun you, plan accordingly, shoot until it drops cargo, then switch to fight the fighters and ignore all else. Expect reinforment when not doing quest line missions.

Or my favourite, find a hauler, fly up behind 1 escort, pummel it at point blank range, then before the other can react, strafe the hauler, he drops, and now you just have 1 fighter to deal with!

[rebb]

Having played through other games by Particle Systems ( Subwar 2050, I-War 1 ), and now trying to get through IWar2, i feel that they all have very similar problems.

Great ideas, cool worlds and concepts, interesting mission design - let down by insane difficulty spikes in a lot of the missions.

It feels like they are designed so you have to follow an almost perfect route, to get through certain missions.

Having to try the same mission over and over again just sucks the fun out of the experience for me, especially knowing that some of these games have a lot of missions as well.

[stevenav]

I've played this game a lot, it's far from as impossible as others make it out to be. You just have to pay attention and learn how to use what you have. Love the challenge of the game.

[dragoon8011]

The trouble with gunstars is the worst of the missions in act 1. when i first had played this game, needed cheats for it. but would recommend adding latY controls in the config options

[dewey]

it's really not that hard. it is challenging but once you understand the mechanics it's pretty reasonable (some bugs not withstanding - but that's why you should to save after every mission)

[Trumpeteer [SLO]]

In dogfights, be sure you are outside of LDSI zone, then use short bursts of LDS drive - hit L key twice and you will get a short burst of speed in direction you are facing. Very useful in dogfights and to dodge missiles.
In LDSI zone, it is best to side-slide around target. If you face more enemies, it is more difficult. Tug usually cant perform well; Patcom is excellent for dogfights.

[Awesome Possum]

tips:
LDSi Missiles destroy incoming missiles. If you have too many incoming missiles, just fire an LDSi missile at one of your targets. When the LDSi missile hits your target and the field goes across the screen any incoming missiles are destroyed.

Gunstar mission. Be prepared to reload a save, but the easiest way to do this is to target the gunstar you're flying to, hit autopilot to point in it's direction, turn off autopilot, increase speed, hit auto dock when you get near it and pray. Do this for all of them.

[ArthurDent]

Originally posted by ProudTiger:

Uninstalled.Just couldn't get further.
Great game but too hard for an old bloke like me.

Can't blame you. Friend of mine couldn't even get past the tutorial and gave up in frustration :D