OT - Multiplayer horseracing?

[QuikSand]

Some time ago, we had a group of people who got together and tried to play some Hooves of Thunder in a multiplayer environment. As I recall, it went pretty well... we set some basic ground rules, and then each had one horse in our "stable" to start with. Over a few months of game time, we claimed horses, made entries, and started developing on from there. We got into a rotation of different people taking turns as the "manager" for the game - and then posting the results on the board here. As I recall, it was a pretty decent exercise.


I'm wondering if there might be interest in trying to gin up these engines again? With the heightened interest in the Triple Crown races this year, and perhaps some more buzz coming with the Seabiscuit, maybe we could capitalize and get the fires burning again.

I'd be perfectly willing to play with Hooves of Thunder, or else with the more recent release Quarterpole Plus. The latter lends itself a bit better to the "dynasty thread" here, as things can be posted directly from the game into a thread - but I don't know how many people here have QPP.

Anyway - I'll toss out the idea. Anyone interested in starting up a minor multiplayer venture here? I'd think that about six players would be optimum (though the games can handle a few more)... if we get that far, we can start setting round rules.

[Marmel]

I have not fired up HoT in quite some time, and I was never very good at it, but I will wouldn't mind giving it a try.

[FishFan]

I would be interested and happy with either game.

[QuikSand]

Hmmmm... maybe not the big seller that I had hoped for.

[dacman]

I'm up for it if we go the HoT route.

[Honolulu Blue]

I'm interested, subject to rules, time, etc.

Prefer QP+, but willing to grab HOT out of the back of the closet if there's enough interest in that direction.

[QuikSand]

My preference woudl be to play QP+ also - I have installed the patch, but haven't really played it much since doing so. If they made some advances in the game (especially in the "background") it might actually be a superior product to the 7-year-old predecessor.

[JeeberD]

I'll be sure to read the dynasty (I loved your original HoT dynasty from oh so long ago, QS), but I don't have the horse racing knowledge or the time to participate. Sorry...

[dacman]

If you do go the QPP route -- I may be persuaded to get it.

I'd still be interested in your take in a review, QS, because your initial ones seemed rather lukewarm on QPP.

[dacman]

Dola: You know it's funny you mentioned this QS, because I was seriously considering starting a new HoT dynasty and doing a dynasty report.

[QuikSand]

I played one short career in QP+ after its patch... and still felt pretty lukewarm. There are, as nearly as I can tell, HUGE problems in teh background of this game, which make it very difficult to enjoy. I recall frequently seeing high-caliber horses suddenly dropping down to enter races at *very* low levels - like low-level claiming races.

If you're playing the game - how do you respond to that? You're just not going to see Funny Cide running in a $15,000 claiming race this week. But when that happens in this game - how do you deal with it?

It really screws up the continuity of the game, too- eliminates any sense of rivalry that ought to exist among horses in the same class. I take my nice stakes-level sprinter, and beat another horse by a nose in a $100,000 stakes race. I point my guy to another big money sprint a month later. The other horse will run seven races in that same month, including two on turf, and two at distances over a mile and a quarter. He'll run three times for low claiming prices, getting claimed each time, and might never try another stakes race. Or, he might run in ALL the stakes races that month, at every distance and surface, even on back-to-back days.

There' something very screwy in the game's engine that assigns horses to races... and without a vast improvement there, you have to suspend an awful lot of disbelief to get enjoyment out of the game. A shame, really.

I end up playing both HoT and QP+ with a "strawman stable" - which I use to go out and buy top-quality horses every year, and manually decide where they get entered. That's the only way I found to make sure that the good horses stay in some reasonable pattern, and face off against one another in the big races. It adds a ton of work to the game, and reduces the sense that I'm playing against a field of other owners... but that's the best we seem to be able to do.


Limited revioew, focusing on the game's shortfalls... but there's a quick thought.

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by dacman
Dola: You know it's funny you mentioned this QS, because I was seriously considering starting a new HoT dynasty and doing a dynasty report.

Maybe you could/should still do so... I wonder if perhaps we could do a sort of "GroupThink" idea there, rather than a multiplayer competition. We could try to cooperatively manage a barn in Hooves of Thunder... with the new forum's file-sharing capability, that might be pretty easy to do.

Just a thought...

[dacman]

I'm not sure my dynasty idea is very conducive to a "groupthink" as my house rules will be fairly structured. MP would probably work, though.

Basically my idea was to get a group of 2 year olds every year and shoot for a "triple crown" for one of them as a 3 yo. Lots of house rules, needless to say.

[Anrhydeddu]

I would join in this again if it was a groupthink project.

[QuikSand]

A, do you have both games? Or just Hooves?

[Foothill Falcon]

According to some members, we cant talk about any form of racing. So that really sucks.

[Anrhydeddu]

QS, I have both.