What is IFF

IFF comes from the military world and stands for Identification Friendly or Foe. It is nothing new from the game, and does exactly that: it is a system to identify which of the other craft in the arena are on your side (friendly) and which are on the enemy's side (foe). This is very handy, because when used right, it will keep you from destroying friendly ships. It also means you are not limited to having all non-Imerial craft be designated Rebel.

You can call up the IFF menu by selecting the IFF option in the mission menu. There are a total of six IFF codes available (although some editors offer 7). Two of these codes have been reserved. IFF 1 is for the Rebels, and is colored green. IFF 1 is always hostile. IFF 2 is for the Imperials, is colored red, and is always friendly. The other four IFF codes are completely at your choosing. In some editors, the IFF red has been reserved by default for Imperial traitor, but not in TFW.

In this menu, you can assign names to the different IFF codes, and check whether or not they are hostile. Hostiles can be targetted in the game by hitting the 'R' key, friendlies can not. An excellent example of the use of IFF codes is battle 2 in the game, where you intervene in the war between the Ripoblus and the Dimok. In mission 1 of this battle, the Dimok forces are blue and hostile, while the Ripoblus are purple/magenta and friendly. In the image above, you can see how it's done.

Also, the name you give here is important. If your global goal involves the IFF code, the name you give the IFF code group will show up in the mission goals screen. You can see here how that works.