Independence War FAQ
+ I have a GeForce video accelerator card. Whenever I try to run I-War, it crashes. What can I do?
+ Can I change the game language?
+ How do I activate the LaGrange point selector?
+ I'm a little stuck on the Defiance Mission "Confusion". Any help?
+ Help with Extreme Prejudice, please?
+ Having trouble with At All Costs. Any general tips?
+ How do I dock the probe to the array in "Broken Contact"?
A: The Independence War game engine is old. At the time of it's release, Voodoo cards were the most prominant form of video acceleration on the market. This was before cards such as the GeForce, TNT2, and D3D became popular or even sold! Thus, if you don't have a Voodoo card you must play the game in software mode. And don't give up the game now because you don't have the right graphics card! Software mode graphics are great as they are (especially in Defiance) and the graphics are not the only thing that I-War is about.
You can help your graphics by doing the following (special thanks to Mostly Harmless):
Modify the Genesis command in mission script. Take, for
example, the infinity mission (Mission99.scr). Find Genesis 10,L4 and replace it
with Genesis 15,L4. This of course places you in different star system, but at
least you get ship textures back.
Q: I have a GeForce video accelerator card. Whenever I try to run I-War, it crashes. What can I do?
A: There are three possible solutions to this problem:
1) Go to the control pannel and click on the Display Properties. Go to the Settings tab and click on the "Advanced" button on the lower right corner. Your GeForce proporties will now appear. In this properties window, click on the "Performance" tab and lower the hardware acceleration to none. Now try running I-War.
2) If suggestion number one doesn't work try keeping the hardware acceleration down while also putting I-War in windowed mode. This can be accomplished by right-clicking on your I-War shortcut. In the command line, add a -w to the command line outside of the quotation marks. Here's an example:
"C:\Program Files\Particle Systems\Independence War\IWar.exe" -w
3) To get Geforce to not activate it's
accelerator, you need to go to DXdiag. type Dxdiag in the run box of windows.
Located in your start button. When the
program comes on screen. Go to display and disable Direct Draw Acceleration. The game
shouldn't drop to desktop anymore.
The only thing you'll have to remember to do when you finish playing
the game is to reactivate that Button and make sure all the buttons below it change to
enable; or the games that do work for your Geforce card....will not work.
The good thing about doing it this way is that you don't have to reboot
your system for the changes to take effect.
A: The command line can be altered so that the game skips past the intro logos/movie. Right-click on your I-War or Defiance shortcut. In the command line, simply add a -nologos to the command line outside of the quotation marks. Here are two examples:
"C:\Program Files\Particle Systems\Independence War\IWar.exe" -nologos
"C:\Program Files\Particle Systems\Independence War - Defiance\IWDE.exe" -nologos
A: Defiance requires DirectX 6 to be installed. DirectX 6 is included on the Defiance CD.
A: In many cases like this the processor is actually too fast for I-War's old game engine to be able to handle. You must slow down the processor. If you know how to do this with BIOS, try it. However, there are programs available to slow down the processor. While I can't find the link someone gave me for one a while ago, I know that one can search for them with search engines.
A: Somehow, Particle Systems forgot to include some textures for the software-mode COSA fighter. However, the 3dFX textures can be used in place of the software textures.
Copy the files:
BF1_C.PIX
BF2_C.PIX
BF3_C.PIX
BF5_C.PIX
BF6_C.PIX
BF7_C.PIX
BF9_C.PIX
BF10_C.PIX
From the directory:
<INSTALL FOLDER>\psg\resource\art\textur_h\ships
To the directory:
<INSTALL FOLDER>\psg\resource\art\textures\ships
And that's all! Just run the game and you can now fear the space-black COSA fighter instead of the cutsy blue fighter. :-)
Q: Can I change the game language?
A: There is a selection of German, French, and English (default) for Independence War. However, Defiance was only made in English. To switch langauges with the original campaign, right click on your I-War shortcut. Add a "-english", "-german", or "-french" to the command line.
Here are some examples:
German: "C:\Program Files\Particle Systems\Independence War\IWar.exe" -german
French: "C:\Program Files\Particle Systems\Independence War\IWar.exe" -french
English: "C:\Program Files\Particle Systems\Independence War\IWar.exe" -english
Q: How do I enable the LaGrange point selector?
A: Right-click on your command line shortcut and click on
"properties". Go to the command line window and add -lagrange to the end
of the target line. Make sure you do this outside of the quotation marks of the
command line.
EG: "C:\Program Files\Particle Systems\Independence War -
Defiance\IWDE.exe" -lagrange
Now run the game. Go to the GSV view of at the Command Station (F1) and select a
system. At the bottom of the screen you will see a "Select LaGrange" button.
Push it and the next time you pass through a LaGrange point you will travel to the
selected system.
This feature was disabled in the release version because no Navy captain should be
wondering around when he's on a mission, right? Note that this only works with the US,
Deluxe, or Special Editions of Independence War.
A: Special thanks to Particle Systems' Steve Robertson for this answer: Turn the 'triple buffering' option off in your Voodoo card control panel.
Q: I'm a little stuck on the Defiance Mission "Confusion". Any help?
A: I only got 100% on this once, and that was a lucky one. Not even Steve ever got that
high of a score, so this one is definatly tough.
First, make sure you have an assault loadout for this mission. I use
double-front PBC for all of my missions because it packs a big punch when I attack a
target. When you finish off those initial navy ships, then wait about 2k behind the
LaGrange point. When the Navy fleet comes in, give them a REM up their tails.
That takes care of that fleet. Keep on doing this until you have one
REM missile to save for an emergency later (I find doing this helpful, it's not nescesary;
you can use the REM for another incoming fleet)
Order your wingmen to attack certain targets close to the escaping
mobile-base-sections. If anyone else moves in for the attack, the wingmen will get to them
quickly when you order them.
When COSA comes in is when it gets really tough. I can't offer any help
with them, save for fight and fight hard. I sometimes just run away when COSA arrives and
the mission score is alright. However, save your Sniper shots for COSA ships and most
important about combating COSA:
DON'T LET THE COSA CORVETTES GET CLOSE! If they get close, they use those damned Gattling
cannons on you and your toast pretty fast. :)
Q: When playing WEP Advanced II, I eliminate all the Indies and am left with that carrier. I can damage it, but eventually the damage doesn't go up. Is this a bug or am I missing something?
A: This is probably a bug, although it only seems to have come up recently. Try using missiles first, if you have some.
If that doesn't work, divert anti-matter reserves to the PBCs. This can be acomplished
by going to the ENG screen then clicking on the "AM Injector" tab under the
"Power" catagory. Once you are there, you will see a small status area on the
lower left of the ENG screen. You will also see a small checkbox. Check it, and Antimatter
will bleed into your power systems, giving it a significant boost.
WARNING: AM Injector puts strain on the cooling systems. If the cooling systems are
damanged while the AM is flowin', you will overheat and die. However, once the AM is
depleted or you disengage the AM Injector, the cooling systems will do an emergency cool.
Once there, use your TRI to divert power to weapons and that should help some. If you
don't know how to use the TRI, check out http://www.independencewar.com/downloadsandsupport/gameplay_faq.htm#TRI
Q: Help with Extreme Prejudice, please?
A: Stay near the President's ship. A good tactic is to make it your nav
target and then match velocities with it (F9). That way, your ship will keep up
with it while in thruster mode and you'll be able to pivot on all or axes and fight Indies
without getting too far from King. You can adjust your location relative to the Excalabur
by applying override thrust (a and z) or lateral thrust.
Use missiles on ships that you can tell are coming towards you. Instruct your wingman,
"Force" to defend the Excalabur with wingman key 4.
Finally, as general tips- try the WEP station if you don't use it already. If you don't
like that wireframe version of the Dreadnaught, push RIGHT + SHIFT to get a
forward-facing view. Also, with the WEP station, you can utilize your aft missile
magazines on incoming ships. Simply turn your tail towards them in WEP mode until the WEP
display reads "Aft Mag- Seeker", select the targets, and fire away! It'll
conserve your forward-facing missiles for when you need them.
Q: Having trouble with At All Costs. Any general tips?
While Admiral Yarwood is making his opening dialogue, use the time to LDS to the Navy
PatComs and destroy them. I think you have aggressor shields at this time, so you can
simply ram them with the aggressor shields (tell us if you don't know how to do this) in
LDS and continue to the next PatCom.
Once you've finished them, you can go to the Marine transports and knock some of them off.
You don't usually have to get them all unless you want to, the spiderguns will usually
take care of them.
Then, LDS to the waiting Navy capital ships. I usually go to within 14k of the gathering.
Then, using the WEP station, I kill the Navy PatComs there with 2-3 missiles for each from
my aft missile magazines.
Then, I use REM missiles on each destroyer in succession until they are eliminated. Now
you only have the Excalabur, and after a while King will begin to move off. The rest is
cake.
Oh, and your wingman is unusually useless in this mission. Just to note. :-o
Q: What are Aggressor Sheilds?
A: The aggressor shield is a mod to your normal "instant
shield", which is activated by the "Insert" key or the "0" key on
your num-pad. If you engage the shield in time before you hit something (accidentally,
presumably), then the shields cause a magnetic overload in the LDA system which will repel
all mater for about three seconds. After that, the power consumption is too high and you
must wait a little bit before you can use the Instant Shield again.
With the Aggressor Shield, one can intentionally ram another ship but engage the Instant
Shield before colliding. This way, you bounce off with little or no damage and quite a lot
of damage to your opponent. Note that you do receive minor but very temporary damage to
your LDAs in Defiance depending on the relative size of the ship you ram and the shield is
available throughout the game. In regular Independence War/I-War, the Aggressor Shield is
given as Special Ordinance in later missions.
Q: How do I dock the probe to the array in "Broken Contact"?
A: The dialogue in this one is misleading, mainly the "base of the structure"
bit. Make sure that you are going towards the tip of the internal antenna
"spire", right into what looks like a little pupil in it's top.
You can either use the A key, as Anon said, or you can nudge the probe into the
"arms" of the array, select the array as your target, and use the AutoDock (F8)
to dock with it. The probe should dock all on its own and you don't need to bother with it
after that.
If you have any questions or additions to the FAQ, I implore you to send them to me at Monoliths@yahoo.com Any idea is welcome!