This game seems to have slipped under the radar after its release on iOS / Android, which is a shame because it’s really well done. The interface, multi-player, and AI are all among the best of mobile boardgame ports. And the game itself is very well suited for digital.
If anyone wants to play, feel free to add your player code to the thread. Mine is PUBK8NMM, which sounds vaguely raunchy when read aloud.
I didn’t even know an official release of this had come out (I played a very well-made fan-made version a few years ago on PC). I own the physical game and a couple expansions, but I haven’t played in years. I’ll have to try it out with my wife.
I haven’t looked yet, but I hope it isn’t monetized in some ridiculous fashion.
EDIT: Just looked, $7 for what looks like a complete game. Wondering what the $3.99 in-app purchases are though.
Yes, it’s a premium game without any ads or timers.
Two of the official expansions are already available as IAP. Gathering Storm adds goals and a bunch of cards. Rebels vs Imperium adds takeovers and a bunch more cards.
Ahh, if it’s just expansions, and not some randomized booster packs (No idea how that would even work in this game), then I am totally set.
Purchased and am currently downloading. Will be getting a second copy for my wife after I test it out.
Time to learn how to play again. It should go much easier this time around, the physical game had unrelenting translation issues in the rulebook.
Guys, get on over to the Qt3 Slack! We’ve been all over that there, @Dave_Perkins, @fire, @CaseyRobinson, and others are playing it all crazy like.
https://qt3-leagues.slack.com/
just join the RFTG channel :)
One of the nice things about the app is that you can long press any card to get a full explanation of its abilities, which helps if you are confused by the iconography in the boardgame.
Thanks! Do I need an invite to make an account?
Umm, I’m not certain? If you do then I can probably help with that. See if you can set up a Slack account and log in. If you need an invite into the group then PM me your email and I’ll hook that up for you.
Also tagging in @Nightgaunt since he had expressed some interest in RFTG in the ‘what are you playing this weekend’ thread.
I don’t consider Space Game purchases until Brian Rubin has weighed in :)
It’s a board game. You know Brian.
Instead ask me ;)
In which case Race for the Galaxy is in my personal top 10 board games, though it’s dropped a few rankings since it came out. But it is a good, varied, fast game that plays from 2-7 well. Strong recommend.
And it has asynchronous play, and we’ve got a crew of regulars. There is no reason to pass it up if you like mid weight games.
Somebody (I forget who, sorry) pointed me to a freeware version a while back, and while I enjoyed it the amateur feel and lack of production values kind of got in the way.
I’ll have to check this out.
Possibly me! I know I pegged that a few years back. It was fine, but definitely nowhere near the same quality, and if you didn’t already know the game it didn’t do much to help you figure out what’s going on.
You might be referring to Keldon’s freeware Rftg program, which was known for its very challenging AI. It turns out that the app developers reached out to Keldon and incorporated his AI into the mobile version.
Keldron had the best AI I’ve ever seen, except chess programs.
Launching the traditionnal “does it crash every couple minutes on an iPad 2” inquiry!
Also, the interface looks extremely busy. Anybody who is not coming from the board game tried it?
I’ve played a few games in the last day or so, and I’ve relearned enough to take on the AI at medium difficulty and win most of the time. I don’t own the expansions yet, so this is all base game.
My gamer code is GGAMI633 if someone wants to face off against a relative n00b.
Hi, I’m one of the folks that made this game and stumbled upon this thread. I did 50% of our iOS dev on an iPad2. There are some graphics fx that knock perf down to 30fps on that device but there’s an option to toggle them off to get back to 60. So things should be good on iPad2.
I’ll let others comment on the subjective questions since I’m obviously biased, but there are some reviews/youtubes out there if you’re looking for that sort of thing.
I heard there’s no hotseat support. How come? Is it because of the simultaneous card selection?
Irl you all pick a card and then play the round out. Only the action picking is interactive. The round playing is mostly automatic. So I reckon you could do two rounds of passing the game around. First to get a card and second to play your turn?
I have been playing this game ALL DAY LONG. I’ve played about a dozen games (minus expansions) vs the AI (1 v 3) at medium difficulty, and have been having a great time. Then I created a 1v1 multiplayer game and wrapped that up in about 20 minutes (I barely won thanks to my very last card played, yay), and it was fun because the person at the other end was actively playing “real time” with me for the duration.
The game seems rock solid, except in that 1v1 multi-player match, where it crashed 3 times. But thanks to the asynchronous turn-based nature of the game, and the fact you can very quickly re-load and rejoin the game precisely where you left off, the crashes didn’t hinder the experience much at all. I’m sure they’ll be addressed, and they don’t worry me. And like I said, I didn’t have a single crash in all dozen+ games I’ve been blitzing through with the AI.
This is a wonderful translation of the game on tablets. it took a few games for me to figure out the answers to a couple questions I had (mostly while learning the UI), but as far as the base game is concerned, I’ve got everything but unfaltering game-winning strategic decisions all figured out.
I ended up buying both expansions a few minutes ago. I will probably ease into them, if only because I’m still learning the best moves and strategies of the base game, and I don’t want to distract myself with new bells and whistles.
Someone from here added me to their friend’s list, but I’m not sure who. I changed my in-game handle to kerzain so people have an idea who i am going forward.
I also noticed Soren Johnson in the credits as one of the testers/feedbackers. That guy gets around.
I really enjoyed my table-top copy of the game, but only stopped playing after a move a few years ago where I took too long to unpack and and moved on to console gaming. This version of the game is such a delight, very welcome addition to my Google Play library.
Yeah the simultaneous play makes pass and play a pretty big challenge. If you play strictly to the rules (which is what the app implements for both single and multiplayer) the ratio of Pass to Play is pretty unwieldy. The cadence of the game switches from “Do Stuff -> Get info -> Do stuff…” to “Do Stuff -> Pass -> forget about what was going on -> Do (a much less informed version of) Stuff”. You can end up passing as many as 10 times a round, it can get pretty nutso. Of course, not all folks/scenarios care about the strict interpretation, which lets IRL play often feel pretty fast and loose, but the app really has to stick to the rules for folks that want it.
It does seem possible to make a variant where players have maybe only one sync point per round. We’ve investigated that a bit and concluded that’s a fairly big change with a lot of design/testing iteration to do well. Lots of folks seem interested in pass an play so that might be something we look into investing in for the future.