Spored out of your mind?

[Soln]

an other question: 

when you refer to others are these other players MMO style, or only players on your buddy list?  Or NPC's?

[WindupAtheist]

I've just started stomping empires that piss me off.  I just zoom in low over their cities, weather their fire while my auto-cannon shoots back, and dump bombs on the city center until the whole thing blows up.  Once they're all dead I drop a colony and repair myself.

[Yoru]

I find antimatter bombs dropped from low orbit take care of belligerents quite nicely if your aim is anywhere near decent. Or mega-bombs if they're not a big enough threat to spend money on antimatter.

I just wish you could buy more than 2 antimatter bombs at a time from a single colony. Flying between colonies to stock up sucks.

The real wart in the space phase is that more planets = more tedious micromanagement/less time for fun. The "optimal" strategy involves getting a small cluster of systems that are very high-value and a small set of allies (to buy shit cheaply and act as a buffer zone), then clearing out any warlike races you encounter before they can become a threat. Neutral and happy races you can just leave be; they won't demand shit of you.

With better management tools, a realistic way to stop the endless Grox invasions after you make contact with them, and addition of ways to curtail minimission generation, the late space phase would be a lot better as a sandbox.

[climbjtree]

I seem to be having trouble with the advanced tools in the creature creator. Holding down tab doesn't do let me truncate limbs, and whatever other things I try don't work either. Halp?

[Samwise]

Tab is for the extra rotate/resize handles, not for limb-tearing.  Select a part and hold down Tab, and you should see a bunch of extra circles and arrows spring up around it.

To tear a limb, hold down Ctrl, grab one of the sections by the middle (not the joint, the space between the joints), and pull it off.

If you can't figure it out, go to Youtube and find a tutorial to see it in action.

[WindupAtheist]

Being able to make any creature you can imagine and have it walk around and emote and fight in a logical manner is brilliant.  Being able to zoom, in a matter of seconds, from a shot of the entire galaxy all the way down to a view Bob on planet Flemdark chasing a space deer is brilliant.  Either of these things could be the hook for an entire game all by itself.  I don't know why Wright tried to do both at once while also making you sit through a heaping shitpile of RTS-lite crap.

[Surlyboi]

Eh, I like it. Well, I sort of liked it before I jumped through a wormhole and got lost on the other side of the galaxy, suddenly turning my game of spore into the worst of the Star Trek series. 

[climbjtree]

Has anyone run into my creations? I have a lot of people added, but I *always* run into Lantyssa's and Samwise's creations.

[Reg]

I just ran into the Space Cat civilization this morning.  They have the oddest little space ship. It looks like a big white refrigerator.

[Moaner]

I was having a great time last night.  I made a little race of snake people and finished the first RTS part.  I was particularly proud of my snake people as I had unlocked all the bull shit in creature mode and they look pretty damn cool if I don't say so myself.  Then, about half way through the civ stage my game crashed.  I didn't realize the game doesn't autosave at the end of each of the stages so now I'm back at the beginning of creature mode, with nothing unlocked.

So, I may be done with Spore for a while.  I have NO desire to unlock all the bullshit again and the RTS and Civ parts are boring.  I'd really like to see the space stage but I'm too angry at the game right now. 

Is there any way to skip all the bullshit, create your stuff in the editor, and import it all directly into the space part without trudging through all the boring crap?

[climbjtree]

I just ran into the Space Cat civilization this morning.  They have the oddest little space ship. It looks like a big white refrigerator.

Heh, the Cats! I was messing around last night trying to create some sort of feline creature. I wasn't pleased with the result, and was kind of bummed that there aren't any good feline mouths or eyes.

[WindupAtheist]

Moaner, I think you should be able to start a new game directly at the civilization phase since you've unlocked it, and design a fresh creature with all parts available.

[Moaner]

Awesome.  Thanks WUA!  I kept trying to continue on with my old planet.  It didn't occur to me to try to start on another one.  I guess it's time to create a new race and continue on towards space.

[WindupAtheist]

Oh, I know a cheat for space mode.

CTRL+SHIFT+C = open console
moreMoney = adds like a million bucks

This takes a lot of the grind out of it, and you do still have to do stuff to unlock badges before you have the right to buy the better items, so it's not like the game is instantly trivialized.  Though I kinda wish it were.  I wanna play this like a toy, not a game.

[Moaner]

I too want to play it as a toy, not a game.  What I really want is something like an aquarium.  I want to be able to casually create stuff, plunk it in my galaxy, sit back, and just watch what happens.  I'll get my gamey bits elsewhere, thanks.

What's odd is that I blew off Spore because I didn't think it was going to be enough of an actual game to suit my tastes.  It turned out that, even though I've never been a fan of non-games or creating visual art, I'm more interested in the social interactions between the races/critters and creating new ones than I am 'playing the game'.  Will Wright is frickin brilliant.

[climbjtree]

Behold, ze jackalope!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vQ8tD0Ql8k

Really, I'm just impressed that you can upload video directly to youtube from in-game.

[Reg]

I'm sure I'll be seeing him soon. I've already run across the sentient version of Aez's Zoz.  It's a good thing they didn't look in my cargo hold and see that missing ancestor that I've been using to terraform half the galaxy.

[Aez]

Creature sharing is my favorite feature.  It's funny meeting all your creatures.

I restarted my space game today, I'm doing so much better on my second run. I started a war way too soon in the other one.  It's really hard to conquer a planet with  basic weaponry.

[Jade Falcon]

Behold, ze jackalope!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vQ8tD0Ql8k

Really, I'm just impressed that you can upload video directly to youtube from in-game.

lol that's pretty close to the one I made Jack-a-lope

[Hutch]

Oh look what I found in My Documents / My Spore Creations / AnimatedAvatars



It must record those automatically. I asked the creature creator to record this one:

[WindupAtheist]

I too want to play it as a toy, not a game.  What I really want is something like an aquarium.  I want to be able to casually create stuff, plunk it in my galaxy, sit back, and just watch what happens.  I'll get my gamey bits elsewhere, thanks.

What's odd is that I blew off Spore because I didn't think it was going to be enough of an actual game to suit my tastes.  It turned out that, even though I've never been a fan of non-games or creating visual art, I'm more interested in the social interactions between the races/critters and creating new ones than I am 'playing the game'.  Will Wright is frickin brilliant.

Yeah, this needed fewer shitty RTS modes and one real Darwin Pond update mode.

[Xerapis]

True that. My biggest unhappy point with Spore is that I can't make the creatures BOTH look exactly the way I want AND have awesome abilities. Some of the coolest feet are the slowest, cool mouths are weak, etc.

And they need a "add as decoration" option, so it doesn't overly increase complexity (another annoying feature I wish I could shut off) or cost so much. Although, CTRL + SHIFT + C addDNA takes care of that cost thing.

[MisterNoisy]

Has anyone run into my creations? I have a lot of people added, but I *always* run into Lantyssa's and Samwise's creations.

The Tobbys had a *very* short life in one of my tribal phases, but I blame that on their decision to start stealing food. ;)

[Khaldun]

Yeah, the restarting a creation thing is not at all obvious. My second solid race of guys I was trying to make a sort of demon thing, but I wanted to do almost pure economic in the Civ phase (did military first time). I fucked it up and basically got stuck in an economic city that couldn't do anything for the moment--no one would attack me, I couldn't get enough spice bucks to buy anybody, and the only other people on my continent hated me just enough that they wouldn't trade with me and couldn't be bribed into liking me enough, and then some fucking Godzilla epic was sitting in my city slow-motion raping it. For a while, I was like, fuuuck, I don't want to have to design these assholes again. Then I realized you could just plunk them on another planet and then leave the impossible city alone.

[WindupAtheist]

Well, I'm done.  The space part kept me interested for a little while longer, but the interface is just too terrible.  The barely-visible little lines showing the connection between your systems, the total lack of text labels anywhere, the lack of a simple diplomacy screen showing a list of enemies and allies...

The whole interface is designed to look cool in a demo while conveying almost no information.  Trying to remember how many allies I have and not being able to find out easily is fucking stupid.  How about nice thick lines connecting all my systems, big green and red boxes around allied and enemy systems, and nametags over each system along with an icon indicating whether it's populated and the tech stage of the natives.  Oh, and a fixed flat map I can refer to when I click on a message, get wheeled around, and lose track of exactly which little dot I was on my way to.

But no, we're being artsy-fartsy and cool with this game.  It has to look like God's aquarium, not a lowly computer program with clearly presented information.  Bah.

Hooray for piracy.

[Murgos]

Well, I'm done.  The space part kept me interested for a little while longer, but the interface is just too terrible.

Hooray for piracy.

The game entertained you through about a week of fanbois level posting and you're actually going sit there and mouth off about how worthless the experience was?

If the game actually hadn't been reasonable you just wouldn't have played it.  The indignant self-justification act is amazing.

[Lantyssa]

I've got a new race of awesome to share.  Once I get the internet back at home.  Sporians will be delighted with it.

[Reg]

Yea really WUA, you may be done with the game now but I'd say you enjoyed it more than enough that you shouldn't be crowing about having stolen it.

[CmdrSlack]

So my first race to make it to space is already a tad gimped, so I started a new one.

Now I wish I'd spent time digging up this thread and reading the whole thing. I skimmed the manual, but missed all of the extra features and handles and junk that the alt and ctrl buttons provide. Now I'm tempted to abandon this new Civ mode race and start yet another where I can really mess with the parts and whatnot.

I have a ton of everyone's creatures in my second time through, as that's when I added the people who posted in the buddy list thread. The Mr Bart race and one of Lantyssa's were some of my allies in creature mode. I've found that if you just look at the chart in the beginning of the manual, you can plan a gamepath that gives you the stuff you want before you start. This time, I started as herbivore, then descended down to adaptable at the end of creature, and barely managed to keep myself out of a religious society and into econ for the civ mode.

I really like sending hordes of land vehicles to speed the buyout time on other cities.

[Yegolev]

Did you forget to buy the strategy guide?

[CmdrSlack]

Wasn't aware that there was one.

I like to play a bit before I go and buy a guide. It's not like starting over is that hard. You can get to Civ mode in 2 hours.

[Khaldun]

It really IS a great design tool. I was dicking around last night and made these guys, who I am just loving to bits--the way they move amuses me, and turning their hands inward just really clicked somehow.

Does the eye-dropper work on creatures as well as buildings and vehicles? I can't seem to get it to, and I'm frustrated by not being able to paint really specific small features on the creatures.

[Stephen Zepp]

I wish I could play :(

The "new" forums doesn't even have a tech support section, so I can't even see if/when it gets patched--if anyone hears of one please let the rest of us know!

[Reg]

Why can't you play Stephen?

[naum]

Broke down and bought it today… …CE (y, I a sucker for those deals that just are bundled with a harder box cover and a book of concept art…) to boot… …tried to buy at mall last weekend, but it was sold out at Apple Store and GameStop…