It's Time for Another Spore Thread. Again.

[Stark]

Honestly, any way to stop the Grox harassment once you reach the core would have been nice.

You mean like actually having a space fleet, allies, military operations and such? LOL! It's just you baby!

[Covenant]

Honestly, any way to stop the Grox harassment once you reach the core would have been nice.

You mean like actually having a space fleet, allies, military operations and such? LOL! It's just you baby!

Even without a space fleet, think how easy it would be, even with the EXISTING stuff. Okay. As you fly to the center of the galaxy, the Grox continually message you. "Don't go in there!" "We're warning you!" "You won't like what you find!" And so forth. You go in, and you get the SOL, and you head out. The Grox message you again:

"You've been to the Core! Our sensors detect the Staff of Light in your posession! We, the Grox, implore you to use Mercy! We offer you a treaty of noninterference, and acknowledge your power. We give you our word--no world of yours or your allies will come under attack by Grox so long as you keep this peace. Think of our little Groxlings and Groxpups! Do you comply? We await your input."

And then you can either agree--and get +1500 "You Spared Us" happiness bonus with the Grox or declare a neverending war against them (and get a big bonus with everyone else), or ask them to join you in destroying everyone else (and get a big negative with everyone else). So that's the sandbox option, and the two other infinite war options.

All it requires is ONE message to be added to the game. Goddamn!

[Molyneux]

Umm. If you zoom out a bit, when you're in the main galactic view, you can see this big circle around your ship? That's a compass. The arrow on it ALWAYS points towards galactic center.

What I'm planning on doing now, is either a) finding a cheat to let myself use the SOL endlessly, or b) taking the slightly longer route and forgoing use of the SOL, and taking the Grox down one by one. Thankfully I still have one colony pack left on me, so when I take down a Grox system I can set up shop right there at the center of the galaxy and move out from there.

[Stark]

I don't understand the motivation to do so. You're seriously planning on spending dozen of hours doing something repetitive as hell for... some reason? Crazy talk.

[Ohma]

*snip*

All it requires is ONE message to be added to the game. Goddamn!

That's just something I can't believe they didn't do, and it's just really...bizzare. Though, knowing the EA/Maxis modus operandi for games, that (and amphibious creatures, galactic coordinates, course plotter, planet bookmarks, etc.) will probably get put in with an expansion, or sequel (it did take them 'till The Sims 2 to put weekends and vacations in the game after all)

*sigh*

[Molyneux]

I don't understand the motivation to do so. You're seriously planning on spending dozen of hours doing something repetitive as hell for... some reason? Crazy talk.

Well, how else am I going to spread my empire 'cross the galaxy?
Also, I just plain don't like the li'l buggers. I'm gonna have fun blowing the hell out of 'em.

[Ohma]

So, apparently the first expansion is going to be the equivalent of a Stuff Pack for the Sims 2 at least according to various fan sites and online retailers.

It will apparently be called Cute and Creepy Parts Pack and I'd assume it would have more parts...yup.

The community reaction is hilarious though, lots of "OHEMGEE WORST EXPANSION EVAR I WISH I COULD RETURN MY $80 SUPAR DUPAR SPECIAL EDITION VERSION AND GAME GUIDE I HAT WILL RIGHT AND WISH HED DYE!!" over the top hypocritical impotent nerd rage followed by comments about $20 being way too much without any hint that they've even considered at least waiting for the price to drop before buying it (not to mention just passing on it altogether).

EDIT: Oh and also lots of "RAWR NOT TEH CUTES!! I HAET TEH CUTES! IF EVERYTHING ISN'T COVERED IN WHORE BLOOD FROM THEIR BLEEDING BREASTS THAN I AM NOT COMPANSATING RAWR!!"

[DPDarkPrimus]

Spore is "The Sims Galactic Edition". Anyone who didn't expect to see a slew of expansion packs is a moron.

[Stark]

Spore is "The Sims Galactic Edition". Anyone who didn't expect to see a slew of expansion packs is a moron.

Which is why it has no management, little stat management, and primitive interaction with no emergent behaviours, right? I love how in the different stages you can stop providing input and watch fun things happen!

Otherwise, you'd be A MORON.

Whoops! LOL! They -wanted- it to be 'Sims in space', but it sucks too bad, and the expansions are hardly unique to Sims (although Sims expansions often added entire new play areas, actions etc, and not just a new couch or wall texture). Call me when they release Spore -Actual Interesting Shit Happens In Space We're Sorry Forgive Us or Tribal Spore - Not Just An Iphone Game Anymore.

[Molyneux]

So, apparently the first expansion is going to be the equivalent of a Stuff Pack for the Sims 2 at least according to various fan sites and online retailers.

It will apparently be called Cute and Creepy Parts Pack and I'd assume it would have more parts...yup.

The community reaction is hilarious though, lots of "OHEMGEE WORST EXPANSION EVAR I WISH I COULD RETURN MY $80 SUPAR DUPAR SPECIAL EDITION VERSION AND GAME GUIDE I HAT WILL RIGHT AND WISH HED DYE!!" over the top hypocritical impotent nerd rage followed by comments about $20 being way too much without any hint that they've even considered at least waiting for the price to drop before buying it (not to mention just passing on it altogether).

EDIT: Oh and also lots of "RAWR NOT TEH CUTES!! I HAET TEH CUTES! IF EVERYTHING ISN'T COVERED IN WHORE BLOOD FROM THEIR BLEEDING BREASTS THAN I AM NOT COMPANSATING RAWR!!"

Only 20 bucks for an expansion? Sweet. I would have preferred some new mechanics-type stuff rather than just parts, though.

[Ohma]

Whoops! LOL! They -wanted- it to be 'Sims in space', but it sucks too bad, and the expansions are hardly unique to Sims (although Sims expansions often added entire new play areas, actions etc, and not just a new couch or wall texture). Call me when they release Spore -Actual Interesting Shit Happens In Space We're Sorry Forgive Us or Tribal Spore - Not Just An Iphone Game Anymore.

Supposedly the first actual expansion (as opposed to Sims Stuff Pack equivalent) will be modifying the tribe and civ stages, so hopefully it will add shit that makes those stages less boring.

But again, going by the Sims model we'll have to wait until Spore 2 for something as simple as a "no I do not want a powerful and hostile race taking up the whole center of my galaxy" option.

[Stark]

Remember, they're 'expansions' that are 'improving' the tribal and civ phases. Not patches that fix them, right? That's why you have to pay, lol!

[PeZook]

Call me cynical, but I suspect the "improvements" to civ and tribal stages will be more dumb minigames, rather than a fundamental change in gameplay mechanics that would fix the major problems.

I may be proven wrong, though. I'd really like that to happen.

[Oskuro]

Hmmmm, I wouldn't mind an expansion pack per game stage, to, you know, actually turn each stage into a full game of sorts, rather than a long intro sequence to the Space stage.

It would be cool to be able to play each stage independently of the rest, as a kind of stand-alone game, without needing to advance to the next stage if you don't want to. And yes, I know you can keep playing a given stage for eternity, but since there's little challenge or purpose after you reach the end of the stage, it is pointless (You know, a Civ game without opposing factions?). There's potential in there for each phase, and the whole game to be awesome, and, in fact, most of Spore feels like a preview to me. An expensive preview at that.


Edit: After playing the space stage for a while, I'd like to add... WAAAGH! It's frustrating! How the hell am I supposed to explore or socialise if empires I haven't met keep asking for ludicrous amounts of money, getting angry at my refusal, and constantly attacking my planets?! And I'm playing on EASY! I hate it when there's such a gap in gameplay from one part of the game to the rest.

[Molyneux]

Hmmmm, I wouldn't mind an expansion pack per game stage, to, you know, actually turn each stage into a full game of sorts, rather than a long intro sequence to the Space stage.

It would be cool to be able to play each stage independently of the rest, as a kind of stand-alone game, without needing to advance to the next stage if you don't want to. And yes, I know you can keep playing a given stage for eternity, but since there's little challenge or purpose after you reach the end of the stage, it is pointless (You know, a Civ game without opposing factions?). There's potential in there for each phase, and the whole game to be awesome, and, in fact, most of Spore feels like a preview to me. An expensive preview at that.


Edit: After playing the space stage for a while, I'd like to add... WAAAGH! It's frustrating! How the hell am I supposed to explore or socialise if empires I haven't met keep asking for ludicrous amounts of money, getting angry at my refusal, and constantly attacking my planets?! And I'm playing on EASY! I hate it when there's such a gap in gameplay from one part of the game to the rest.

There's at least one mod that increases the minimum time between pirate events, ecodisasters and such. But I've never had someone ATTACK me for me refusing to give them money...they don't like me, but they never actually attacked!

[Oskuro]

They don't attack in response to the refusal, but refusing to pay makes them angry at you, and they eventually declare war, thus begining a series of raids on your planets. I just had to exterminate one of the offending factions. So much for playing a peaceful pure-green race.

By the way, anyone knows what's wrong with the Homeworld? Not only are building prices the same as in Civ mode (dirt cheap), but if I max everything out, get out of the planet, and back in, some of the cities are left with no turrets, or even no buildings besides the City Hall.

[Crossroads Inc.]

So I've been playing the game since it first came out. Its been fun, its been cute, but by and large its disappointing.

It's been said before but the #1 thing the game fails to deliver on is the "sandbox" ability. When this game was still in the works, the one thing I wanted to do was create a planet and populate it with creatures I made, then watch those creatures interact and see who comes out on top.

The game I got wont let me do this, Oh sure I can choose the "Populate world with my own creations" options, which is nice I admit... But I still have to play on that world. In the end I'm always going to have to kill or befriend everyone else.

Now I could wait till the spacestage and suck specific animals up from other worlds and populate one single world with creatures i want and then watch them... Except oh WAIT I CAN'T. Because evidently the rest of the galaxy if full of whinny colonies that can't do anything themselves and you are always the ONLY starship that can do anything.

I want to love this game, I really do, but things you would think would be so simple to include simply arn't options. these days I seldom bother doing anything beyond the Creature stage just because its the most free and open.

[PeZook]

Even if you managed to populate a world with specific creatures, watching them would be pretty boring, because the game does not simulate ecosystems at all. So if you take a planet full of nice fluffy creatures, and then introduce a min/maxed killing machine into the ecosystem...nothing at all will happen.

[Oskuro]

Min/maxing? The editor lets you create monstrosities with all the rank 5 abilities and no drawbacks. I tinkered a bit, trying to make interesting creatures, but the selection of abilities is so limited it isn't even funny.

I say it again, there is potential in this game, but it hasn't been properly exploited.

[Ohma]

Another thing that would be nice would be either reworking how the game decides you've played the tribe stage or putting another tribe there because uhh, how am I supposed to get an economic civ when there are an odd number of tribe on the map, and attempting to either befriend or exterminate an equal number of them will inevitably result in my tribe either becoming militaristic or religious?

And also, why did they want people to manage each building in each colony? I don't understand why they felt that was necessary since it's not like there are any really drastic differences in the way each colony can be set up (similar to the question of why we have to go to each colony to pick up spice individually).

[Alyrium Denryle]

I have to say, I have a sickening amount of fun in the first two stages, seeing what parts I can collect and what adorable little reptilian predators I can create. The tribe stage and space stages are boring as hell, but I like conquering the world with Ornithopters in the civ stage.

[Molyneux]

They don't attack in response to the refusal, but refusing to pay makes them angry at you, and they eventually declare war, thus begining a series of raids on your planets. I just had to exterminate one of the offending factions. So much for playing a peaceful pure-green race.

By the way, anyone knows what's wrong with the Homeworld? Not only are building prices the same as in Civ mode (dirt cheap), but if I max everything out, get out of the planet, and back in, some of the cities are left with no turrets, or even no buildings besides the City Hall.

It might not be a perfect solution, but if you a) do missions for them, b) terraform their planets for them, or c) bribe them, you can ally with them - and once they're allied, they never try to extort you, I think. They can still attack your OTHER allies, which is freaking annoying, though.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Even if you managed to populate a world with specific creatures, watching them would be pretty boring, because the game does not simulate ecosystems at all. So if you take a planet full of nice fluffy creatures, and then introduce a min/maxed killing machine into the ecosystem...nothing at all will happen.

See and THATS all I ever really wanted to do. Right now I spend time in the Creature faze watching my creatures... But for the most part they don't DO anything... theres no AI driving them, theres no urge to go forth and multiply, Ill see beast occasionally attacking one another, though I don't think I've ever seen a group try and 'befriend' another group.

I have to say, I have a sickening amount of fun in the first two stages, seeing what parts I can collect and what adorable little reptilian predators I can create. The tribe stage and space stages are boring as hell, but I like conquering the world with Ornithopters in the civ stage.

THAT By the way is my #1 gripe about civilization phase... You start the game with ALL the pieces.. In Every other phase you have to EARN pieces, Cell, Beast, Tribal and Space. But in Civ phase? shoot you START with every last piece. It basically makes it meaningless how you design something.

[Stark]

It becomes almost meaningless how you design things in the creature phase (only numbered rank of best xyz feature counts, not position or anything overall etc) and it totally meaningless by tribal phase (where nothing about the phase is affected by the construction of the creature). I spent all of creature phase walking around with legacy cell-stage shit shrunk super tiny and growing out of my ass, because it let me eat more stuff. EVOLUTION! Spikes between legs? Just as useful as giant claws, even though the animation is a simple 'punch'. Unlike Sims, most of the decisions you make have almost zero knock-on effects and the design of your creature is quickly boiled down to a few dialog box animations.

[PeZook]

Yeah, I noticed it as well: creators become a meaningless annoyance by Tribal Phase. In Civ, I don't give a shit about how my vehicles look like anymore: I just slap some parts together to get the proper statistics, paint it randomly and voila. Why give you a choice of various weapons, rockets, gun etc. if all they change is a simplistic "attack" rating?

Bleh.

The fact that your species can't actually die out in Creature doesn't help the wild claims made before the game was released, either. Want to breed? Why, there's always a wanting female in your nest! Just click a button and voila. Survival has never been easier!

There are old games called "wolf" and "lion" which modelled survival and social behavior far better than Spore could ever hope to.