Qvadriga

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 8:56 am

Gasundheit.

New Roman chariot racing/management sim from Matrix games.

There's a demo, which just allows you to play individual races. Races are turn based or real time, with each pulse equaling 10 seconds. At the end of a pulse you can issue a command to shake the reigns, whip your horses, whip or crash into the guy in the lane next to you, slow down on turns, etc. Graphics are rudimentary, and there isn't a whole lot of depth to the racing, but it is kind of fun the first time you see one of your drivers falling out of a chariot and being dragged along the track.

I'd like to see more of the campaign, which allows for moving from racing in one city to another, purchasing upgrades for your horses, chariots, and drivers, betting on races, and random events. The goal of the campaign is to make it to the big leagues (Circus Maximus!) and win 3 races there.

If the campaign looks good this may well be worth the $20 Matrix is asking for.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:27 pm

I've had my eye on this one for a while. I've been waiting for a good Ben Hur type chariot racing game/sim for a long time now. I've always been fascinated by Roman history. Maybe it was those years in high school translating Caesar's Gaelic Wars from Latin to English. Whatever, any games with Rome involved always get my interest. I've been waiting for some hands on impressions for this one but it sure sounds good so far.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:02 pm

There's some positive feedback on Q2Three, and I'm pretty sure I will be picking it up later today. If I can, I'll attempt an AAR, but one of the negative comments I keep reading is there is no post-race summary (yet).

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:23 pm

I like the idea but I think I'd prefer it as a small part of larger $50 Rome management game. I'm not sure I could get $20 out of working my way toward winning the Circus. But then maybe there's more to it than it sounds.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:58 pm

Well, team Biggus Dickus crashed the first two races of the campaign. I think I better read the tips (no pun intended) in the manual.

Mr Bismarck · Post by **Mr Bismarck** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 4:15 pm

tgb wrote:There's some positive feedback on Q2Three

I don't know if it's proper etiquette to link to my post over there or just C&P it, so I'm doing the latter, to save those exhausting mouse clicks.

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I picked this up immediately and I'm having a lot of fun with it.

After a couple single races with Purpura and their strong horses and cars I switched over the Priests for an "Epic" Campaign. As I understand it, the differences between the normal and epic campaigns are that you need to win more races on epic to gain fame and dead Aurigas, (drivers), remain dead. On normal there's a chance you can get them back, seriously wounded.

My experience with the campaign thus far is that it's not drenched in features, but it is considerably more than just a chain of single races. I got off to a very good start in Hispania, going 2nd-3rd-1st-3rd in my first four races, but now I'm engaged in quite a lot of management and risk decision.

My primary Auriga's chariot has an imperfect left wheel and the only way to fix it will be to sell the damaged chariot and buy a new one, but the local charioteer only has a sub-standard chariot available right now, as the big teams keep snapping up the better ones before I get a look in. My secondary Auriga is the guy who actually won the race, but in his second race a team in front just exploded in a corner... the horse team separated from the chariot and veered left, forcing one of the big Legionnaire chariots to swing into my lane and their car is made out of diamonds and titanium while mine is more a papier maché affair, so we got slammed into an outer lane and hit the remains of the destroyed chariot that had been in front. The Auriga was stunned and one of our competitors repeatedly hit him with their whip as they moved around the outside, so he's wounded.

Then the third Auriga had one of those races. He got the top most starting gate which meant he had to whip the horses just to squeeze into a gap at the first turn rather than be plastered into the wall. This meant we were super tight on the inside for the first 180 bend, so I had him slow a little and a competitor behind swerved in front of us onto the straight. Our team of horses ran up the back of that chariot and we ended up pinned on the rail again and on the next bend the inside horse, (which is the most important), fell and we ran him over.

With only three horses pulling we fell back and back but there had been a massive scrap of chariots on the outside of the next turn and so pretty much everyone had either lost a horse or was riding with damaged wheels, or a wounded driver, so I kept going, on the hope of stealing third place when everyone else exploded into a mist of blood and splinters. Instead of which, coming around the final turn the inside wheel of the chariot gave way and my Auriga was left being dragged along the dirt by three frightened horses. Behind him was a team of horses with no chariot or rider attached, so I couldn't tell my guy to let go, as he'd be trampled. He eventually crossed the line and was credited with fifth place, because apparently you don't need a chariot to finish a chariot race, just to start one.

The track at the end of that race was madness, with horses, riders, wheels and blood everywhere.

So now I have three teams with one good chariot, one healthy Auriga and two sets of good horses to play with. I can reallocate my stuff around, but that means I either ask one guy to run every race, or I have to switch stuff up after every event to try to keep a healthy guy with healthy horses in the one good car left. The town I'm in now has good veterinarian services, so I can keep the horses healthy, (at least the ones that aren't dead), but I may need to take advantage of the fame my early results earned me to move somewhere with better carpenters so that I can get a chariot that doesn't fall apart. The problem being that those places are more prestigious, meaning tougher races and I'm not sure my collection of wounded sportsmen and animals can handle that at the moment.

The glaring omission so far is no sort of post race feedback - I'd like to see a riders list before the race and a finishing order afterwards, but that isn't there. You're given the winner's name and the names of any Aurigas wounded or killed, but that side of things could be really filled out to enable much better AAR.

Baroquen · Post by **Baroquen** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 11:02 pm

Thanks for the feedback. This looks interesting. Have the devs made any indication that they might expand/revamp the post race info? Or is that just wishful thinking?

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 6:14 am

I was a bit under the weather yesterday so didn't spend the time with this that I would have liked, but I found the campaign challenging - moreso than the demo. Definitely worth $20, and not the casual game it appears to be on the surface.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Fri Mar 07, 2014 9:39 am

The first Let's Play is up.

I haven't watched it yet, so no guarantees as to the quality.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:31 am

Damn you. Buying now....

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:47 am

Normally I wouldn't give this a second thought, but then I read Mr Bismarck's post... dammit.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Sat Mar 08, 2014 9:02 am

This looks like a ton of fun. I wish my budget weren't dry.

Moreimpressionsplease!

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sat Mar 08, 2014 8:30 pm

I'm playing way too much. Chariots do get fixed over time. It is just one race after another but the races are challenging and budgeting is big ole fun pain in the ass. I've won about 1/3 of my races in my current campaign and every race has a great competitive feel. I bombed out of a lot of campaigns due to no funding and I've never had a charioteer live to win more than 7 matches so far. I'm guessing I'm some where shy of half the campaign right now. I've won at least one race 3 of the 7 regions so far.

One of the really cool management aspects is figuring out where to go to get your next upgrades and then waiting for the right ones to show up while also building the cash, which is hard to do. You can bet on yourself to get cash quicker but winning is really hard. Most of the time I'm content to place or show... or just finish with my chariot, driver, and horses mostly in tact.

I'm playing the blue faction and I think I have one max upgraded horse group, 4 max upgraded chariots and one max up graded driver.... I think... It's hard to say because I got batter chariots and a better driver with a different faction but I think that was due to what faction it was. However, I not got horses nearly as cool as the horse team I have now.

I may just finish the campaign this weekend (or have everything go horribly wrong and have start over again.

) Twice now I've lost horses from my elite horse team and each horse costs more than an entire purse from winning elite events against 11 other players.

And I love how have to figure out a winning strategy to each track... and then work against the computer totally screwing with that strategy. You wouldn't there would be that many different ways to compete to in circles three times, but there sure are.

I can't see me playing much more after I finish the campaign but I'm happy to say I already got my $20 worth of a game.

If you like dig on racing board games like Formula D, you will love this. Five minutes at a time again and again and again.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:40 pm

I won on epic. 546 points and I wasn't ready for it to be over. That was a solid $20

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 9:06 am

I dont think I am nearly as far into the game as Mortis. But my experience so far is pretty similar, right down to winning a third of the time. 10 wins in 30 races (10 eliminations in the same 30 races).

It bugs me that sometimes your race (mostly meaning your chariot) can fall apart when you (mostly) did nothing wrong. A yellow turn can roll your cart and get your driver killed. You prtty much can't win with just green turns so you have to take small chances at least and often bigger chances. Every choice is a gamble. If you accelerate, someone will move in front of you. If you choose stability, someone will attack you. If you change lanes, the guy in front of you will change too. If you choose vigilance, nobody will touch you. If you attack, they will change lanes. The amazing thing is it doesn't feel like the game is screwing with you. It all feels right. It is almost always tense. Finishing a race feels like victory. Victory feels amazing. Grabbing that big purse and then seeing a 3 upgrade horse team for sale is awesome.

I don't know if it has legs, but I am really enjoying it in bite size chunks.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 9:32 am

coopasonic wrote:It bugs me that sometimes your race (mostly meaning your chariot) can fall apart when you (mostly) did nothing wrong. A yellow turn can roll your cart and get your driver killed.

An incredibly crappy roll of the dice. They happen. It made me want to cry when I had a guy at 14 wins die to this phenomenon. A similar crying situation was when two drivers ganged up on me. One jumped in front of me to slow me down while another came up from behind and whipped my driver to death. Nothing I could do, except be less aggressive about trying to win and stay away from the pack or stay away from dangerous curves.

I find that when possible in yellow or red situations it's better to (What's the opposite of apex?) steer out of the curves then it is to ensure stability. Ensuring stability is strictly for gaining, getting, or maintaining a tight edge. I am consistently impressed/upset with computer players that steer into the curves or accelerate coming out. I always seems to wipe out when I try, no matter the combined skill level... Of course the computer flips a lot of chariots around corners so maybe it's just me feeling a persecution complex.

I may actually play through again. I really liked the racing dynamic. It was a great implementation of board game campaign experience on computer for single player. Probably the best I've played since Solium Infernum. Perhaps better.

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:45 pm

OO Effect: Activate!

Having only played a half dozen single races, I really wish there were some sort of post-race stats. Even if it were just a scoreboard of who finished and what place. Am I just missing this because I click back to the main menu or is there really nothing at the end other than "Finish", "Died", etc.?

I also saw Bismark's post over at the official forum, and from the response it appears that this is a one-man developed game, and it seems like he maxed out his programming knowledge in the making of it. Just my impression. So while I hope we see some improvements to the game, I'm not holding my breath.

Guess I'll dive into the campaign game even though I can barely finish a race.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:50 pm

Stuie wrote:Having only played a half dozen single races, I really wish there were some sort of post-race stats. Even if it were just a scoreboard of who finished and what place. Am I just missing this because I click back to the main menu or is there really nothing at the end other than "Finish", "Died", etc.?

I totally agree and you are right. There is only 1st. Your place. Who was injured. Who died.

I would also like to see the race play out after I finish.

In the campaign you can see the best in your region and the best in the world known to you. Toward the end of campaign, I started to play like the computer. If I knew I wasn't going to win, place, or show early in the race then I'd head hunt the elite players, trying to kill them so my rider had a better shot of entering or advancing on the greatest riders list.

I really would have liked more stats like that. Something to really keep your competitive juices flowing. I could see me playing the campaign again and again with a more aggressive presentation of stats.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 7:55 pm

Stuie wrote:I also saw Bismark's post over at the official forum, and from the response it appears that this is a one-man developed game, and it seems like he maxed out his programming knowledge in the making of it. Just my impression. So while I hope we see some improvements to the game, I'm not holding my breath.

Over on the Matrix Games forum for this game (Matrix is a big distributor for Slitherine) the developer has been replying to posts making suggestions. He also has proposed a change to the track interface to continuously show your chariot/driver/horses stats on the screen right behind the chariot.

The general mood on the Matrix forum is that folks are pretty pleased with the game.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:46 pm

Picked this up and have been playing around with single races in dynamic mode. I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing, but it's fun. I seem to be winning more often than I think I should, but maybe that's because it's not in the campaign. I'll give that a try next.

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:09 am

jztemple2 wrote:Picked this up and have been playing around with single races in dynamic mode. I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing, but it's fun. I seem to be winning more often than I think I should, but maybe that's because it's not in the campaign. I'll give that a try next.

I didn't win a race until I started a campaign... then I won two in a row! So I got all cocky thinking I knew what was what, and proceded to wreck three chariots in the next three races. Luckily the winnings from the first two races are replacing my rigs.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 9:57 am

Stuie wrote:
jztemple2 wrote:Picked this up and have been playing around with single races in dynamic mode. I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing, but it's fun. I seem to be winning more often than I think I should, but maybe that's because it's not in the campaign. I'll give that a try next.
I didn't win a race until I started a campaign... then I won two in a row! So I got all cocky thinking I knew what was what, and proceded to wreck three chariots in the next three races. Luckily the winnings from the first two races are replacing my rigs.

I don't know how many times I restarted the campaign from early and bad bomb outs. I may have to see what changes they make and start again and see if I do better after learning from the more than 100 races I played in last weekend.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 11:26 am

LordMortis wrote:
Stuie wrote:
jztemple2 wrote:Picked this up and have been playing around with single races in dynamic mode. I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing, but it's fun. I seem to be winning more often than I think I should, but maybe that's because it's not in the campaign. I'll give that a try next.
I didn't win a race until I started a campaign... then I won two in a row! So I got all cocky thinking I knew what was what, and proceded to wreck three chariots in the next three races. Luckily the winnings from the first two races are replacing my rigs.
I don't know how many times I restarted the campaign from early and bad bomb outs. I may have to see what changes they make and start again and see if I do better after learning from the more than 100 races I played in last weekend.

This. After having every campaign eventually fall apart and starting another, I think I'm going to wait for the patch/improvements before diving in again.

One thing I like about Qvadriga is that is almost plays like a casual game. I can always fit a race or two in right before bed in the evening or starting work in the morning. 5 minutes with the game can mean a significant advance (or in my case, setback) in your campaign.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 11:30 am

I hate to say this, but my 7 year old pointed out you can X out of the game mid-race and it's like the race never happened.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 11:56 am

coopasonic wrote:I hate to say this, but my 7 year old pointed out you can X out of the game mid-race and it's like the race never happened.

[fingers in ears]nyingnyingnyingnyingnyingnyingnying

I am going to pretend I never heard this. Save scrumming seems like it would ruin this game way more than it would hurt most others. Iron man nature of managing Roman Games just seems integral.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 12:30 pm

LordMortis wrote:
coopasonic wrote:I hate to say this, but my 7 year old pointed out you can X out of the game mid-race and it's like the race never happened.
[fingers in ears]nyingnyingnyingnyingnyingnyingnying

I am going to pretend I never heard this. Save scrumming seems like it would ruin this game way more than it would hurt most others. Iron man nature of managing Roman Games just seems integral.

Agreed. I'm tempted to pass that along to the developer and hope he fixes it.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 1:09 pm

tgb wrote:
LordMortis wrote:
coopasonic wrote:I hate to say this, but my 7 year old pointed out you can X out of the game mid-race and it's like the race never happened.
[fingers in ears]nyingnyingnyingnyingnyingnyingnying

I am going to pretend I never heard this. Save scrumming seems like it would ruin this game way more than it would hurt most others. Iron man nature of managing Roman Games just seems integral.
Agreed. I'm tempted to pass that along to the developer and hope he fixes it.

I'll just say what I always say about single player games; if you don't like an optional feature, don't use it, but respect that some folks are going to want to use that function some time. Perhaps what you can request, instead of "fixing" thus feature, is that an "Iron Man" mode be added as an option before starting a campaign which would remove the "X" option.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 2:06 pm

Won my first race of the campaign, at Aquileia. It wasn't an easy one; for instance, the start. And it got pretty nasty. Ultimately I was in third and the two guys ahead of me rammed each other and then crashed going over debris. It's an ugly win, but still a win.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 2:40 pm

I swear the more victories a driver has, the more others gun for him. I like that dynamic, even if it is made up in my head and completely untrue.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 3:55 pm

I'm just happy to see A.I. aurigas attacking each other, and not just dogpiling on the human player.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 3:57 pm

tgb wrote:I'm just happy to see A.I. aurigas attacking each other, and not just dogpiling on the human player.

Yeah, I have seen 3 horses go down in the same move and none of them mine. Those guys are brutal.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:12 pm

coopasonic wrote:
tgb wrote:I'm just happy to see A.I. aurigas attacking each other, and not just dogpiling on the human player.
Yeah, I have seen 3 horses go down in the same move and none of them mine. Those guys are brutal.

One of the requested features posted over at the Matrix forum is for a replay feature, which would be pretty good.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:21 pm

The worst is when you see stuff coming and you can't get out of it... but it's funny when you see stuff coming to another computer player and they can't get out of it.

It's a totally different game when you see "Hey that guy in front of me to my right is going to cut me off really slowly why the guy to the left rams me and kills one of my horses" than "Hey that guy in front of the computer player is falling into that trap where a guy to his right is going to cut him off really slowly why the guy to his left rams him and kills one of his horses"

The only frustrating thing about all of that fun, it inevitably one or two or three guys get out to the lead are immune to all of that nonsense and there's not a damned thing you can do about it... Probably like real life... But then it's all "HA HA" when you are one of those or two or three guys.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 11:04 pm

[deleted]

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 11:48 pm

But can I get it on Steam / GOG / Humble?

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 12:32 am

Kelric wrote:But can I get it on Steam / GOG / Humble?

Probably not. It's being distributed through Matrix Games and I don't think I've even seen one of their games being distributed through one of those other outlets.

However, the Matrix version is DRM free, you just get a code to unlock when you buy, so you can install anywhere to your heart's content.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 1:07 am

[deleted]

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 11:01 am

Couldn't help myself. Started playing again as the purple faction. Want to see if more upgrades to the carts will make me better. Going to try playing exclusively where they Alexandria Hipodrome is at and try to get through campaign as quickly as I can. So far so good. I'm up to 40% wins so far which is better than the 30% or so I ended up with last time. Of course that's after only 10 races. My starting driver is still alive!!!

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 2:14 pm

LordMortis wrote:My starting driver is still alive!!!

Well, that jinxed it.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 2:19 pm

The following question was posted over on the Matrix Qvadriga forum, with the developer giving the following answer:

Q. Does using Avoid, Stability or the Attacks orders decrease your potential speed? I was wondering if there was a trade off- for instance using the Avoid Attack order but at the cost of speed.

A. No they don't reduce speed, current speed will always be maintained unless you brake, collide with another team, suffer an injury to the horse team or other team brakes you due to a laceration attack.