It's Time for Another Spore Thread. Again.

[Covenant]

Ooh, I do have to admit, the idea of making big-clawed Crabbies would be pretty fun. What would be great is some sort of way to activate it the same way you turn on the advanced controls by holding down Tab. Perhaps in an expansion! As for now though... I'm just going to have to put it aside.

[Alferd Packer]

Well, I picked this game up this weekend instead of going see Burn After Reading, and I'm glad I did. Because I'm a married shmuck who actually enjoys spending time with his wife, and because of my long commute, I'm not really interesting in spending a ton of time to play video games anymore. For once, the simplistic nature of the game appeals to me. I actually find the Space Stage to be the least appealing of all the stages, what with all its running about silliness. Maybe I'll get bored after running through the game a couple times, but honestly, that's gonna take me a while. In all, I'm satisfied with the purchase.

[Covenant]

Well, I picked this game up this weekend instead of going see Burn After Reading, and I'm glad I did. Because I'm a married shmuck who actually enjoys spending time with his wife, and because of my long commute, I'm not really interesting in spending a ton of time to play video games anymore. For once, the simplistic nature of the game appeals to me. I actually find the Space Stage to be the least appealing of all the stages, what with all its running about silliness. Maybe I'll get bored after running through the game a couple times, but honestly, that's gonna take me a while. In all, I'm satisfied with the purchase.

You can avoid the running about by either installing one of the "Less Hassle" patches to allow you to play with fewer random events, or decrease your spice-trading woes by just cheating to give yourself more money using in-game cheat engine. That does carry a negative side effect, as you can't get achievements in that game anymore, but it does make things easier.

Basically though, once you unlock the space game, you can basically just start a new creature and then make a new one that's purpose-built for space stuff. It'll let you dally about in the more enjoyable periods without the pressure of needing to worry about being invaded by aliens.

Also, once you get enough creatures made you can make themed worlds of your own stuff, so if you don't want to face down ravening hordes, just make a lot of happy, cute monsters and populate a world with them instead.

[Alferd Packer]

So I was able to locate and colonize Earth, which I thought was pretty cool. Now I just have to figure out how to get to the center of the galaxy without getting into an impossible war with the Grox.

[Molyneux]

I've been building up my little empire bit by bit; had to eliminate a few factions (two religious, one military) that were aggressive towards me or my allies, but mostly it's been smooth sailing, especially now that I have a decent pulse weapon. Generally I can whittle away at colony worlds just be finding the T-0 ones, running past the defending ships and capturing the colony itself before they can seriously damage me.

As for the T-2 and T-3-score enemy planets...well...I probably could have captured them city by city, but there's something enjoyable about just turning the Heat Ray on them 'til the seas boil and rocks start to melt.

For those further in the game than me, just how powerful ARE the Grox? Is it feasible to take them on colony by colony like most of the other enemies you face?

Also, I've heard tell of a "Planet Buster" or something like that...does it make it easier to handle them, or are they somehow immune?

[PeZook]

For those further in the game than me, just how powerful ARE the Grox? Is it feasible to take them on colony by colony like most of the other enemies you face?

They have between 600-1000 planets. Yeah, it's possible to take them out (there's a badge waiting for anyone who manages that), but you have to be seriously OCD to do that.

Also, I've heard tell of a "Planet Buster" or something like that...does it make it easier to handle them, or are they somehow immune?

Yeah, it makes it easier, except one planet buster costs IIRC 4 million bucks.

[Joviwan]

It's cheaper just to swoop down to planet level and fly around hitting the surface with a terraforming ray. I was watching my friend take the fight to some grok systems, and it took literally less than ten seconds to completely wipe out the grok population on a planet. All he did then was hold still while his auto-defenses ripped the other ships apart. I don't know how far along the game he was, admittedly.

[Vanas]

I generally find the best way to deal with pretty much anyone is to keep a big stock of asteroid drops at all times and if someone gets uppity, start plastering their colonies with asteroids. Sure, you'll ruin the planet, but there's something satisfying about it. Then sink all the land into the magma and finish off by signing the planet with an initial.

If you've got a free cargo bay, I quite like picking up samples of all the life on Uppity Planet, then cranking up the heat and/or antimatter bombing the last colony. Then cool it back down and repopulate. Planet looks the same, but without that blemishing civilisation.

I think my favourite planet kill was flying onto one of an ally's planets and purchasing the Hot Air Vacuum (Atmospheric Depreviation Device). Then, I used it. In my defense, they were at war with a rather larger ally of mine and had been a bit arsey. I'd also paid two other empires to take the rest of their worlds.

Presently, I'm trying to shuffle both of the Philosophy of Force empires out of my sphere of influence via a string of paid for, strategic proxy wars. I hate them both and I'm getting them to kill each other while pruning them out of my territory by buying their excess worlds.

Weirdly, the second closest empire to my guys... are my guys. We're allied, though I'm buying his homeworld, post-haste. We will do science to it.

[Covenant]

A single planetbuster costs your average civ about 5 million--less to militaries and such. It's an extremely expensive way to just vaporize a planet--it's really cool, but I'd rather they just let me upgrade my ship to drop them whenever I want. What's the harm? It's basically a silly sandbox by that point anyway, why make me do the stupid spice-trading minigame when I can just terraform a world into a molten ball anyway?

Taking out the Grox is mostly just an endurance test. They have about 1000 worlds, so if you take 30 seconds flying to each system, zooming in, terraforming it to level 1, and flying away to the next world, then you're still going to be spending 30,000 seconds on them, which adds up to around 8 and a half hours of work. That's pretty lame, if you ask me, just a retarded timesink and I don't think you get anything for it.

[Singular Intellect]

So I was able to locate and colonize Earth, which I thought was pretty cool. Now I just have to figure out how to get to the center of the galaxy without getting into an impossible war with the Grox.

You may as well give up now. The Grox pretty much own every star system close to the core, so jumping to the centre of the galaxy and not encountering them is pretty much impossible, as is trying to be diplomatic with them.

[Covenant]

So I was able to locate and colonize Earth, which I thought was pretty cool. Now I just have to figure out how to get to the center of the galaxy without getting into an impossible war with the Grox.

You may as well give up now. The Grox pretty much own every star system close to the core, so jumping to the centre of the galaxy and not encountering them is pretty much impossible, as is trying to be diplomatic with them.

You can avoid WAR with them if you avoid ever destroying one of their ships or colonies. Load up on healing and recharging batteries and turn OFF your automatic defense gun and fly to the core. You'll encounter them and they'll hate you but they'll never shift to war if you avoid killing them--though this does make their raids on your colonies problematic. You can make a decoy colony though, one in or near their space, and they'll besiege that a lot... but almost never seem to kill it. They will eventually of course, but it'll take forever. It's way better than letting them raid your colonies.

Your allies will hate you though, for letting the Grox wipe out their planets. You can kinda get around that too by flying to their worlds and sitting around in combat without firing a shot, and have your turret off. The Grox will ignore you, but you'll still get a pat on the back for showing up.

The Grox really should have had a single mothership or something easier to destroy. Maybe a machine planet brain and the only way to defeat them was with the power of love and terraforming. Eh. No clue. The problem is, you want the Grox to continue to be a threat in all your games, so how do you do that if you let one savegame eliminate them? I still think the Grox were a bad idea overall. Ahh well. At least using these ideas you can minimize the negative impact they have, and eventually you COULD destroy them.

[Molyneux]

Damn it. Wonder how long it is 'til there is a patch for unlimited planetbusters?

[Stark]

By 'patch' you mean 'cheat', right? They clearly don't actually want the space mode to be a proper sandbox, or there wouldn't be so many limits on stuff (or such a hideously painful grind to get it in the first place).

[Singular Intellect]

You may as well give up now. The Grox pretty much own every star system close to the core, so jumping to the centre of the galaxy and not encountering them is pretty much impossible, as is trying to be diplomatic with them.

You can avoid WAR with them if you avoid ever destroying one of their ships or colonies. Load up on healing and recharging batteries and turn OFF your automatic defense gun and fly to the core. You'll encounter them and they'll hate you but they'll never shift to war if you avoid killing them--though this does make their raids on your colonies problematic. You can make a decoy colony though, one in or near their space, and they'll besiege that a lot... but almost never seem to kill it. They will eventually of course, but it'll take forever. It's way better than letting them raid your colonies.

Like I said, you can't avoid them or be diplomatic with them.

Generally speaking, bending over and letting the enemy fuck you in the ass with you whimpering and not fighting back because of fear of a black eye for your trouble...isn't exactly my idea of a working diplomatic solution.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I'm gonna try and do a creature stage completely without any eyes.

[Saxtonite]

I played a little of the cell stage. Chose a herbivore. It's so cute, reminds me of Pikmin and Pikmin 2 from the Nintendo gamecube.

[Ohma]

By 'patch' you mean 'cheat', right? They clearly don't actually want the space mode to be a proper sandbox, or there wouldn't be so many limits on stuff (or such a hideously painful grind to get it in the first place).

Heh, yeah, that reminds me, I should look around and see what cheats there are for Spore, stuff like boolprop and the 45 degree rotation cheats made the Sims 2 more fun for me, maybe there's some similar stuff in Spore to get rid of/around some of the more lame elements/limitations there too.

Oh also, does anyone want to exchange nicks in Spore so we can be like, buddies and stuff? (granted I'm sharing an account with my dad right now cause...yeah... ;>.> , but I'd like to see what everyone here's been making)

EDIT: err, oh yeah, Username: "Bigbitey" have shared...uhh... lots of stuff, my personal creations currently are the Clickclack Tzzt and the Ohmani, my dad's stuff tends to look like something out of some obscure 70s underground comic, also aggressive, mine tend to be...brown...and less aggressive, also the Stukons are massive jerks and I've only ever seen an epic Sharkape or Botanical Horror (which is rather fitting really).

[GuppyShark]

Spore name: Carletti

Have shared Murloc, Mudkip, GuppyShark and Typhon (red lizard puppy guys inspired by Wargods of Aegyptus).

[Covenant]

Actually, you can be diplomatic with them. Since you meet them while you're not at war, you can take missions from them. If you take the missions at the border worlds you'll be less likely to die in a gang-beating. Do enough missions, and harm enough innocent non-Grox civilizations, and you'll get the option to ally with them. Once you do, you no longer get attacked.

Such an alliance does carry other problems though.

[Molyneux]

My Spore username is "greymav"; made a run for the galactic center yesterday, found the grox, ended up getting stuck in a dead end (it REALLY sucks how your range decreases as you get closer) and blew up.

Not sure now exactly how to handle the Grox...if I attack them, then it'll take WAY too long for me to get back to my actual empire if they counterattack. I'm about halfway out on one of the spiral arms. Maybe I'll set up a secondary empire right near the Grox, and then see if I can start carving a path to the center...

[Lagmonster]

Not sure now exactly how to handle the Grox...if I attack them, then it'll take WAY too long for me to get back to my actual empire if they counterattack. I'm about halfway out on one of the spiral arms. Maybe I'll set up a secondary empire right near the Grox, and then see if I can start carving a path to the center...

I outfitted my ship with all the kit I could afford and made a beeline for the centre. With a full cargo of plants and animals, I was just able to land a few basic colonies along the way to serve as refitting depots. From there, it was just a matter of plotting a course through the maze. I found that while you couldn't make direct leaps from star to star in some cases you COULD use two or more stars to create a 'slingshot' effect to propel you close enough to grapple on to your next jump point in mid-flight. You have to get fairly creative at points, but thanks to health packs and energy packs, I made it within a half hour or so from damn near the galactic rim.

I think my username is Staufness. I've made a few creatures and ships I'm proud of, too.

[Alferd Packer]

Well, I made it through to the center of the galaxy. Took about five repair packs and a bunch of energy packs, but the Grox firing on my was more annoying than anything. Maybe I'll try to find the Grox homeworld and terraform it with the Staff of Life. We'll see.

Oh, my Spore name is Etruscor.

[Covenant]

If you SOL (yes, it's a funny acronym!) the Grox Homeworld, or planetbust it, or something else, they'll just assign a new homeworld somewhere else. There's really no benefit to taking them out. This is another place where a little more something would have been nice. What if taking out their homeworld was a way to get them to sue for peace from you? Honestly, any way to stop the Grox harassment once you reach the core would have been nice.

[DPDarkPrimus]

How do you see the coordinates of planets?

[Covenant]

How do you see the coordinates of planets?

You can only tell based on where your UFO is, so fly to the planet and then check the coordinates. The coords are down by your little UFO picture--or highlight the UFO pic. It tells you the tilt/angle and distance from the outside and such. It's not the easiest thing to navigate by, but once you get how it works, you can find your way there. I would have liked if they used the Starflight coordinate-type system with a coreward/spinward and so forth. But this works really well as a scientific-style coordinate system.

If you want to kinda get an idea which way you go, highlight the UFO and then your Home icon and find the difference so you know which way to go. It's not bad. I really wish you could, like... bookmark planets. Or set in an autopilot plotter.

Anyway, does that help?