Switching from X2 to I-war2

I've been playing X2 for the better part of a year now and I'm tired of it for a few reasons:
1. the economy and factory building/managing is tedious
2. the sectors are small and unrealistic, and ships and weapons aren't fast enough
3. the physics... or lack thereof.

I'm thinking about starting up an I-War2 game (and I've never played any other I-War, or X series game for that matter). My question to experienced I-war folk is this:

1. How open-ended is this game? I liked X2 because it didn't really ever end, and I could do what I wanted. Does I-war have this flexibility and freedom?

2. Is there a sense of ownership, not just in my personal ship, but in a small fleet of ships and/or stations?

3. Does the game allow the player to take on different roles? i.e. merchant/trader, pirate, government agent/police

4. How dynamic is the universe? Can I alter it? Are NPC ships always the same with the same equip? If I kill and/or loot it, what happens to the ship? Is it replaced? Identically?

5. If there is a plot with scripted missions for me to follow, is the game over when I reach the end?

6. How smart is the enemy?

I appreciate any help you can give me, as it may convert me into a new I-war believer.

thanks

/eric

The short answers:

1. Not very.

2. No.

3. No.

4. Not very, no, yes, it is gone forever, yes, yes.

5. Yes.

6. Pretty smart.

Now, all these answers should be qualified. For one thing, I-war2 is not X2. It is not even remotely the same thing. X2 is essentially a 4x style game masquerading as a space-sim, I-War2 is purely a space-sim with very limited trading. I-War2 is all about being a pirate (more or less), and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. You won't be building an empire or a fleet of ships or other third-person endeavors. What you will be doing is getting up close and personal with a lot dangerous people. I-War2 is definitely a first-person perspective game.

So now for the long answers:

1. The game is not open-ended. There are only X-number of scripted missions directly related to the plot. What you can do between those missions is pirate, a lot. Piracy is the way in which you will acquire the various resources needed to trade for, or build, some of the cool stuff you'll use on your missions. But you'll never get any of this cool stuff if you don't go on the scripted missions required to aquire it (including new ships). So basically, if you don't follow the missions in the game story, you'll be flying the Storm-Petrel forever.

2. I'm not sure what you mean by a sense of ownership. You'll "own" the five player ship types by the end of the game, but that's it. Yes, there are only five ships available to the player. And if one of them gets destroyed, well, that's the one you're on. So you're dead. I-War2 is about action, and flying your ship into dangerous situations. It's not about working out trade routes, building factories or commanding fleets.

3. No roles. You are Cal, space-pirate. So go forth and plunder some shipping lanes!

4. The game universe has dynamic qualities only to the point of providing a more realistic environment. But you cannot affect it beyond what the story calls for. All NPC ships are created from standard templates with no random variations. There are a few very specific ship variants, for example; the Navy has 3 variants of one type of fighter (read: one 3D model, with some different specs for each variant), but these variants will never change, ever.

5. As mentioned, the game does have a scripted plot, with an end. But there is a free-form mod that will allow you to continue from where you finished with all of your belongings intact. For more pirating! But there is also another mod, either released or in progress, that adds an online trading component to the game.

6. The enemy is very smart. It doesn't randomly crash into you, or have generally stupid tactics. In fact, if the player didn't have "player versions" of the ships (read: superior), the AI would wipe the floor with you. This is a critical difference between games like X2 and I-War. The space-sim aspect of the game is heavily engineered to do what it's supposed to. In X2, first-person interaction with the game (mainly through the ship's cockpit) feels almost like an after-thought.

Please understand, I don't dislike X2. As a 4x style game it's innovative gameplay is amazing, and quite impressive. But as a first-person space-sim, it fails miserably to deliver an immersive experience. That's why you need to remember that I-War2 and X2 cannot be compared. They are not the same style of game. X2 handles all that micro-management stuff very well, but it's a lousy flight-sim. I-War2 has a great feel for flying and space combat, with an immersive environment, but it has no use for micro-management.

I hope that helps. I tried to be as objective as possible, and I'm sure at least someone here will disagree with me (or at least correct me) on something. But the truth is, if X2 is what you're looking for, you won't find it in I-War2. Conversely, X2 would be a big disappointment for flight-sim fans coming from games like I-War.

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