Quadradius is an online, multiplayer, turn-based Flash game that takes the skeleton of the board game, checkers, and pumps it up with a massive list of power-ups and new strategies. In fact, calling it checkers is an oversimplification that does not do it much justice.
The objective of Quadradius is to eliminate all of your opponent's pieces by jumping on top of them with your own. Basic movement in the game is restricted to one space forward or back, right or left; but this is where the simplicity ends, since power-ups can be used to get around that limitation.
As you play power-ups are randomly placed on the board at set intervals as small metallic domes. To capture a power-up simply move one of your pieces onto the same space as one. Power-ups stay with the piece that collects it, and you may collect multiple power-ups with a single piece.
Power-ups may only be used before moving a piece during your turn, and you may use any number of them. At first, power-ups like 'move diagonal' and 'move again' might seem like standard fare, but if you take a look at the game FAQ you will see the list is pretty extensive allowing for many combo possibilities. Some of the more advanced power-ups at your disposal: recruit opposing pieces, destroy opposing pieces, drop bombs, steal opponent's powers, learn copies of your own powers, and so on. Some act on entire rows, columns, or the spaces around a piece (radial), and some can even be used to raise or lower the tiles of the board to restrict movement and/or protect pieces.
Players continue taking turns until one player has captured all opponent pieces.
Quadradius is free to play for anyone that logs on, but you will be limited to guest status and be unable to set up any custom options for the game. Full access to Quadradius is offered through subscription plans—you can try it out for a month, a few months, or a year.
Analysis: The graphics in Quadradius are very professional looking and suit the game well. A lot of the power-ups in the game affect the appearance of the pieces and the tiles on the board, so a lot of time was spent to ensure that they not only look nice, but can be easily distinguished from other pieces by the powers they have activated (and combined, for that matter). I only have one minor complaint with the graphics—when playing a custom game with lots of pieces, the frame rate can slow down sometimes due to the massive effect that certain power-ups have on areas of the board. When someone uses a scramble column and it affects three different columns with twenty pieces each, it can be a long wait for everything to take effect.
Quadradius is a deep strategy game that is a lot of fun to play and guarantees a unique game play experience each time. As balanced as the game is there is a small element of randomness to it. Random is ok, but in some cases the random factor can throw a game off too much. Opponents can receive an unfair amount of power-ups sometimes, even when they're clearly at an advantage. Also, with the combination of certain power-ups you can clear off entire sections of the board in a single turn. Even then comebacks are possible, so it's always any one's game.
In terms of the pay-to-play model, if you're going to pay ten bucks for a yearly account, you might as well just pay fifteen for a lifetime membership. I rarely ever decide to subscribe to an online game, but Quadradius convinced me pretty fast. With a paid account you can register a username and your win/loss stats will be tracked and ranked. You can also set up custom games and change options such as board size, squadron size, squadron color, and time limits. You will even be eligible to use new power-ups, for members only, introduced on the first Tuesday of every month. Cool stuff.
The power-up scenarios and combinations I've mentioned so far hardly scratch the surface of what can occur in this game, so head over to the site and try it out for yourself. Quadradius is still a very small project run by a couple of college guys—so if you like it, go ahead and toss some money their way and enjoy the benefit of bragging rights and unlimited replay value.
Whoo-hoo! Sweet game!
wow, this game is intense. all the powerups make the endgame pretty tricky..
Fun stuff. 100% win rate!
This was.... Amazingly cool!
But MoSoGI's right, the end is a bit tricky. and sometimes you can turn it all around in one power. =)
I just stole an invincible piece =)
This game is so much fun and so unpredictable.
The first macth i played, i found someone else that was new and we started learning together. But, i took the lead and..well..the score ended up 12-5 to me with the terrain in pieces. but then using a powerup to turn my pieces to his side the score went to 9-8! Then he blew up my best 2 pieces! But in the ends i won with 3 pieces left.
Since then i have been hooked. I would recomend this game to others and its a great game once you get past the large ammount of powerups.
Great game!
p.s. theres an announcement welcoming jayisgames fans!
Excellent game! Great graphics, slick interface, very neat concept. Tactically it's really interesting; the continuous influx of new powers means the situation can change very rapidly, and even if you're losing you can mount a ferocious defense and make a comeback. I'll definitely be playing more of this..
Good implmentation of an interesting game.
While the game starts of pretty boring, the powerups can get soon get it to a very intersting board, with mountains and vallies.
The implementation is done really good. Starting myself tinkering with a game just a time ago, I notice for example some more technical details, like this game scales! Something only a few games can do.
The game itself... for my personal taste its a bit too much random, since winning/loosing mostly depends how gets more and the better powerups.
I loved it! It was a bit random: it was about 15-14, I used kamikaze row and it became 15-9, and then he quit. I like the raising, and I will definately play for a while.
I just played a game where one of my pieces learned 10 powers from all the other pieces in the row, then taught all of them to everyone in the radius, then they all hit 2x. I gained a ridiculous amount of powers!
benefactory/2x/teach row combo seems to be godly
WOW. This game is fun!
I just played against another JIG user. We were sorta even-ish when I discovered what is probably the most fun thing ever. If you get several of wall row and/or snake, or one of those and a teach row/radial, MAKE A CASTLE!
I formed a huge raised area controlling over half the map.
Then I beneficiaried everything onto one piece, sphered around behind him, and took him down from the back with a flurry of powers. XD
Favorite powers I've seen so far:
Energy Snake thing (Random movement, raises tiles and kills enemies)
Beneficiary (Ueber-piece!)
Flat-to-sphere (Pacman piece!)
Teach radial/row (Combo with beneficiary and a few other good powers [like the other ones I mentioned liking] = instant win)
here's one I pulled off last night... ended the game in 55 moves.
picked up recruit column with one piece, then lucked out and picked up teach row. While staying on the defensive, I lined up a full row of pieces, taught them all recruit column, and proceeded to take over the entire board. my opponent was NOT amused
Yes, this game is entirely luck, no strategy. So if you notice you are getting terrible powerups like three times in a row "learn" and nothing to actually learn, while your opponent fires off three rounds of smart bombs, don't torture yourself and just click "new opponent." The game tries to make you feel smart, but its really just the powerup randomizer that determines the winner.
That said, its quite amusing if you don't mind the luck factor. Actually, programmers usually have to make a decision between luck and player control. They chose luck with this one, and dressed it up as strategy. Nice but not worth a t-shirt or a lifetime (?!?!) membership.
OK, is there just nobody on this morning? I login as zxo GUEST, and I can get to all the menu items like NEWS, MEMBERS, etc., but I can't figure out how to start playing. Nobody seems to be around, and when I try to chat, it doesn't show up anywhere.
I completely disagree with the above poster. This game is one of the deepest I have ever played. Although the power-ups are random, the more "territory" you occupy, the better chance of getting one. And each power-up requires re-evaluating the entire situation. And, unlike chess, you almost always have a chance at winning, rather than the game being decided halfway through.
If I am the "above poster" then you might as well call poker a strategy game. Yes you need to be able to count, and have spatial intelligence, but there is not enough control in the player's decisions. It is good that chess can be decideable in the first few moves because one must think every move through. This game still has too much chance, which is why it is neat but lacking for the chessplayers. Dofus-Arena (beta) recently revamped their game to remove a big chunk of chance, which made it a bit more enjoyable, if you like to think way ahead.
All I really want to say is don't kick yourself for losing at this one, because seriously, triple grow quad plus teach plus acid column is just a bit absurd. Laughable and fun, yes, but not a thinker's moment.
another update...
was down 5-16 and thought I was doomed. My opponent had just hit beneficiary, teach radial(to 4 other pieces) and they all hit 2x and became very very scary. Desperate for some luck, I made a move along a row and picked up a swap column. What luck! I moved over one more and swapped, picking up 2 of those powerhouse pieces. They had 6 smart bombs each! Well didn't I just go and use all 12 of those bad boys. reduced his numbers down to 2, jumped one of those and then chased down the last one for a hard earned victory.
I'm in the same boat as zxo. The game worked fine when I played it at my parents' house, but it won't work on my computer. The interface loads, but no names show up in the opponents box or "recent matches" or anything; I also spoke with a friend who had the same problem. I have the latest version of Flash Player and tried on several different browsers. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?
I love this game!
Best I've gotten in 92 power ups in one piece,about 16 were beneficiary :D
I gotta admit, it is a pretty fun and interesting skill game. Thank you for the guys who designed it.
If anybody wants to play against me (secret_player) ahead of time, just contact me in the jig chat and schedule a match. Good luck!
Nothing says "you're going down" more than a beneficiary to get a jump proof, an acidic row, a quadradius growthing and 3 2x's... the range is huge!
<3 this game, and got addicted to it...
ARGH! I can't seem to win. Still a great game
I see lots of adverts in front of the interface and can't dismiss them ... ?
Cupstar, the adverts were an April Fools joke.
For those of you having access problems, it more than likely has to do with your anti-virus program, or firewall blocking the port. Some programs work fine, others do not. I use Avast!, and it blocks logging on. The creator is aware of it, and working on a fix. For now, if it doesnt work, you just have to disable your antivirus software before playing.
Just as a bit of an aside, poker *is* a strategy game. World Champions don't win 15 tournaments on luck - it's a game of skill. Sure, you get a bad hand every now and again, but it's not about the every now and again - It's making the right move for the situation you're in. The strategy lies in coping with that bad hand, and being able to lessen the blow - Knowing when to do what is vital, and playing well with the powers that you have is just as important as playing around what your opponent has. It's a matter of maximising your gains, and minimising your losses. Situational strategy is still very much strategy, and if it weren't, then every game with any ounce of randomness would be laughable. Take Magic: the Gathering, for example. The thought that the cards are randomized has such little impact upon the actual play-state that it really doesn't matter. Yes, it's a game of probability and of randomness, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a game of luck.
And yes, there is some ridiculous stuff. My win rate hovers just above 50% - Right where it should be for a game like this for a player of my skill level.
I love making good combos
beneficiary+teach radial=win
I had like 10 powerups (including a quadradius and a destroy column), and five of my pieces around me. I used teach radius. 6 quadradiuses and destroy columns? PWNT!
That's a terrific game. Great.
Played like 10 game and lost them all... In like half of them my opponent quickly got a "jump proof" piece and erased 80% of my army... That power seems to me a bit too powerful. Maybe because i lost so many games because of it? :)
Oh, yeah, won one (got all the usable powers at last...) and then one more - two in a row!
I rock :DDD
I cant believe it... I lost like 90% of ay games, and like 90% of these defeats came after having (sometimes a LOT) more pieces than my opp for the most of the game - and then he releases some power combo that results in me losing most of my pieces in 1 or 2 turns... I'm fed up with that.
But still, this game rocks.
Oh, one more, my favourite defeat of mine: I have 8 or 9 pieces, he has only 1 left. I have a jump proof piece with which i manage to trap his only piece in a corner. OK, an easy win, right?
NO! He has 2 powers remain: a relocate and a pilfer row. He relocates - just next to my jump proof, in the same row. Then he pilfers the row, taking the jump proof power of another piece of mine plus a purify row. He purifies my jump proof, makes himself jump proof woth the pilfered power and then butchers my now defenseless piece. Then he goes on collecting 3 or 4 more powers - all of them rather destructive ones. I get some powers too - all of them terraforming and pretty much useless.
I got beaten in a couple of moves.
It's not an urban legend - it really happened.
To me...
I had to realize i'm probably the worst player of Quadradius on earth... I lose like 9 of every 10 game i play, sometimes with good powers, sometimes with useless ones.
The Luck <> Skill debate will go on and on since it HAS gone on and on for over a year on the game's forum.
MtG is a good comparison, I usually mention that game (we actually had Richard Garfield hooked for a while last summer - search the forum for threads) and, as everyone on the forum knows, I relate a lot of the skill and positioning part of this game to what advanced backgammon players deal with.
Also, you can have a huge advantage in backgammon but a few bad rolls of the dice can turn the game around. Yet, really good players almost always beat average players since they take advantage of the luck they get and the mistakes the weaker player makes. And create more 'luck' by better positioning. Bad players usually always scream they lost by luck while the good players look for the parts of the game they had choices in and re-evaluate if they could of played differently and thus improve their defense/offense odds.
of course if two opponents just sit back and wait until someone gets beni-teach, then just blame yourself. The more you attack the better you have a say in your fate. But, attacking with low rewards gets you in no mans land. Just like in backgammon.
driven2sin
PS - that comment pictocrap is really annoying
I don't know why, but I can't play this game. I log in as a guest, find someone to play, click and, they accept. Then it goes to a "waiting for opponent screen" where it stays... I eventually give up.
It just stays on that screen, for whatever length of time.
Any help would be great, but oh well...
A bit more on what I just posted:
If I wait long enough, a little box will pop up with the options to:
"Play Again"
"New Opponent"
"Void Score"
"Quit / Disconnect"
And Void Score is grayed out. All the while, it's still doing the little animation for "Waiting for opponent".
This occurs every time I try to play, and is very frustrating.
Almost,
sometimes the same happens to me but only sometimes, it's way too scarce to be a nuisence. I don't know what causes it, maybe the server's too busy? Or maybe bandwidth issues? Or simply a bug?
I'm still not a good player of Quadradius, but I slowly keep getting better. I still lose more than I win but it's not that worse now...
Two screenshots:
this one was may most exciting game so far (altho for months now I've been playing at least 4-5 games per day in average) was this, that I won 1:0, my only remaining piece being a tripwired one that got immobile in like the 15th turn and this game went on for like 40 minutes (continuous gameplay) so that piece of mine spent 95% of the game on that very spot doing nothing but surviving :DDD. You can see by the RATHER battered playfield that it was a looooong one :)))
http://supremacy.hu/groundzero/pix/quadradius.jpg
The second one I played about 10 minutes ago and was my luckiest game so far. Not enough that my opponent was very probably a novice and played like I used to when I was one, but more, I got just the proper powers at just the right moment and place. The result: 24:1 when the opponent resigned.
http://supremacy.hu/groundzero/pix/Quadradius_bigwin.jpg
I have no screenshot of that, but once I was beaten 34:0 (2 grown quadradius+recruit row/column combos...) :)
One weird thing, tough, with Quadradius is some of the players... I had a probably German guy who wrote me that he wants to have anal sex with me - bad luck I understand some German :)
There are some others who try to verbally intimidate, writing rude and oppressive things - too bad I'm a high school teacher and know damn well how to handle guys like that :) (The only guy I remember by nick is a certain "Steve (GUEST)" who's primary strategy seems to be that - beware if you see this name on the waiting list...
The third type I "like" a lot is what i call extreme quitters. OK, it happens to me sometimes that I still got a lot of pieces but I feel that I'm no way gonna win the game and resign - but I had two guys who quit after about the 5-6th move, having been their very first pieces removed... Now that is hard to understand...
Then there are those who can't stand losing (why then do they play a game that depends for some extent on luck - beats me...) I had a guy who wrote "luck" "f*cking luck" after every move of mine that resulted in removing/getting/tripwiring one of his peaces. Another guy didn't even bother to say hello or gl at the beginning and wrote not a word during the game, only after losing he wrote: "Die slow" and then left the game.
Are these guys masochists? If they can't stand losing why do they play in the first place???
Hard to understand...
Erratum:
who's -> whose.
Sorry.
Who is Driven2Sin?
To BioLarzen... It's given me the waiting for opponent message every time I've tried to play, which is a good dozen tries, so Either my computer/internet connection can't handle it, or I'm just extremely unlucky : (
If it's really every time than there must be something wrong... I get that sometimes, but nowhere near every time...
What are the criteria for a game of getting to the "top Rated" list? The two tp rated ones (Submachine 5 and Vision) are both rated 4.9 while Quadradius is rated 5.0 still it's not on the list. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the number of votes, this game got only 5 votes which really doesn't seem to be a thorough opinion poll :)
So, how many votes does a game need for qualifying for the top rated list?
9 votes, not 5, but it's not a difference :)
is it just me or is quadradius.com down or removed? im really annoyed cus i just bought the year subscription
The computers that run quadradius.com are having some trouble. Usually this is just a temporary problem, so you might want to try again in a little while.
This game is very cool! I love it!
No problem if you won't belive this - i wouldn't if it didn't happen to me...
Imagine: you're 18:1 up, with some really powerful pieces left, your opp's only piece is stuck in a 3 tile valley far from you. it has 2 powers and your kamikaze piece is going to get there in 2 moves. Game over, right?
NO!!! Neew power orbs come, one next to his piece, he gets it. I move on his next row with my kamikaze row. and what happens?
Miracle#1:
his 3 powers: 1 recruit radial, 1 2* and the new power, a relocate. He doubles, relocates - to a spot where he can recruit 5 of my pieces. Relocates again and recruits 4 other pieces of mine - 9 in one turn, with some rather powerful ones. So, within 1 move he goes from 1:18 down to 10:9 up! OK, harsh blow but i manage to come back somehow, now I'm 13:4 up, each of his pieces with 1 power, one quadded with two powers. What comes now?
Miracle#2:
His double power piece has a *2 and a grow quad. Activates both. It already was quad powered, so now it's double quad. His other power's a learn radial. Since now has all his other pieces are within double quad zone, he learns their powers - one of which is a recruit column, the other is a relocate. Relocates - to the best possible place, recruits 9 of my 12 pieces - so, within one move he, from 4:13 down is 13:4 up. All 4 of my pieces powerless and close together - what can I do? Resign since i know his next move would be destroying all my pieces left.
And this, my friends, is all absolutely true - happened to me like 10 minutes ago.
This is one of the most addicting games I've found. Thanks Jay is Games.
There is both luck and skill. But like in many such games, skill will win out over the long haul i.e. a series of games.
Its about thinking on your feet and reevaluating what is happening as you play. It is also about bluffing and guessing what your players has by the way he moves.
There is the obvious and there is what runs beneath the surface.
Definitely worth giving it a try.
I seem to get no orbs on my side at all at the start of the game :(
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