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Author
Topic: Spore!
Khyron
Hello, my mushy friend...
posted 09-08-2008 08:41:38 AM
I picked it up yesterday, and went through my first game. Got all the way through to space age before I stopped. Very fun

I did end up with a lot of other people's critters roaming my world, and aside from one creature named 'lolwut' (Which I subsequently banned) I didn't run into any oddities. Not one penis creature.

Cell phase is kind of meh but it's over with so quickly that who cares. Creature phase is fun, but towards the end it kinda sucked - I couldn't find any meat to eat and all the end-phase creatures were too tough for me to take on solo, and my charm/dance/whatever skills were too low to try to get them to join my pack.

The civilization phase is ridiculously easy if you're an economist. Every trade route you set up gives you money and makes the other civ happy with you. So long as you set up a trade route with everyone, you'll eventually win just through alliances. I haven't tried being aggressive with it yet.

Space is extremely cool - you get a 'Seti' ability which lets you point your mouse at a planet and hear the background radio noise You use this to find civilization or space age planets. My biggest gripe with the game is that once you reach space, you hardly ever see your buildings or creatures, and 95% of your time you are staring only at your spaceship. All the previous customization and shit is barely noticable.

I wish I were more creative with the editor, though. My creature was pretty 'meh'. (http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=sast-500025815594)

Mortious
Gluttonous Overlard
posted 09-08-2008 09:33:06 AM
Downloading now.

I won't see anyone elses creatures, but really, who cares about that part.

Ghost of Forums Past
Pancake
posted 09-08-2008 10:55:37 AM
Does your creature's appearance effect gameplay or is it just basically a mesh of skins and animations? Can you give your creatures abilities (like an octopus spraying ink, a bird's flight, a cheetah's speed, or a cobra's venom)? Do you have to balance out how much they consume and mate based on the available resources? Can you decide what type of foods they eat?

Ghost of Forums Past fucked around with this message on 09-08-2008 at 10:56 AM.

Blackened
posted 09-08-2008 10:56:42 AM
quote:
Mortious.
Downloading now.

I won't see anyone elses creatures, but really, who cares about that part.


There's a way to add a ton of creatures to your game and it's relatively easy.

Increase your cache size to something like 200 or 300 mb, go to the sporepedia and view the creations sorted by newest/hottest or whatever you want. Flip through about 30 pages and let each creature thumbnail load (the thumbs have all the creature info you need). Then open your catch, drag/drop all of it into the in-game sporepedia. The game will freeze up for a minute or two, but give it time. Eventually the program will sort out which files it can and can't use and add all the creatures you viewed.


Although my distaste for you as a human being is brobdingnagian,
what I'm about to do isn't personal.
Vorago
A completely different kind of Buckethead
posted 09-08-2008 11:35:07 AM
Torrent finished this morning, playing it right now =D

Friggin UFO came by and snagged one of my pack while I was migrating to a new nest

Khyron
Hello, my mushy friend...
posted 09-08-2008 12:26:06 PM
quote:
Ghost of Forums Past had this to say about dark elf butts:
Does your creature's appearance effect gameplay or is it just basically a mesh of skins and animations? Can you give your creatures abilities (like an octopus spraying ink, a bird's flight, a cheetah's speed, or a cobra's venom)? Do you have to balance out how much they consume and mate based on the available resources? Can you decide what type of foods they eat?

Yes to most of that.

You start out cellular deciding if you're a carnivore or herbivore. You can also hunt down a third kind of mouth which lets you be an Omnivore, but to do so requires taking out a fairly large and hard-hitting enemy cell (NOTE : Still very easy to do!). Whatever mouth you pick and stick with is how you'll end up evolving once you reach creature phase.

From there, you go to creature phase where you pick parts. There are 4 'social' skills you can use, 4 movement skills, and 4 attacks.

The social skills allow you to try to befriend other creatures. Friendly creatures let you heal at their nest, and you can invite them to become part of your pack. They're sing, charm, dance, and pose.

The movement skills allow you to jump, glide, sneak, or sprint which is all very self explanitory.

The attack skills are bite (Fast & Weak), charge (Stun but only from a distance), strike (Slow & Strong), and spit venom (Ranged).

Different parts cost different amounts of DNA, and provide different benefits. One mouth may sing very well but do very little bite damage, another may be decent but not good at both. Feet control dancing, charge, and overall movement speed.

You do not start with any parts unlocked except very, very basic hands and feet. Everything else you earn by befriending or hunting other animals to extinction, or by finding dead skeletons on the ground which are free parts.

By the time you complete creature phase, you should have a huge variety of parts and tons and tons of DNA so you can pretty much just max out your creature and make him look however you want. You don't have to advance to tribal instantly so you can stay as a creature and earn as much DNA as you want, and customize your critter to whatever you want him to be like.

Your special abilities in creature phase carry over to Tribal phase; I had good 'Sneak' as a creature, so I was able to do stealth missions to raid other tribe's food.

One other fun little bit : You can domesticate animals and eat their eggs in tribal phase. Since ALL critters in spore lay eggs, and I had a very tall humanoid creature nearby, I domesticated them (As well as some nearby gorilla creatures) to eat their eggs. It was somewhat disturbing.


Oh, also, depending on what path you take you get special skills. An omnivore gets the ability to call other members of his nest to him, a carnivore gets a roar that frightens away enemies, things like that. The same thing happens to tribes - they get various special abilities. My tribe got Fire Bomb and Rain of Fish, but I didn't try them out much (Conquering by music was so easy that I didn't bother to try anything else) so I'm not 100% sure what they do, other than the obvious.

Khyron fucked around with this message on 09-08-2008 at 12:29 PM.

Vorago
A completely different kind of Buckethead
posted 09-08-2008 05:36:41 PM
So my amazing girlfriend totally grabbed Spore after she got off work as a surprise gift for me... glee. Can totally go legit and hop online for creatures and such. I approve!
Y.O.T.C
No longer a Towel Girl
posted 09-11-2008 01:27:08 AM
The space part of this game makes me want to go play the Urr-Quan masters or whatever it was called. I have it on my hard drive somewhere. much better space game. Especially since all you get from all your work in cell/creature/tribe/civ stages are like 4 abilities that are mostly passive. and after you have 90 systems under your control the bombardment of pirates is just constant.
Captain Tarquinn
Don't Ask
posted 09-11-2008 12:11:09 PM
quote:
Y.O.T.C stumbled drunkenly to the keyboard and typed:
The space part of this game makes me want to go play the Urr-Quan masters or whatever it was called.

Star Control 2.

One of the best games ever.

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
Ghost of Forums Past
Pancake
posted 09-17-2008 06:24:32 PM
Now that the honeymoon period is over, what are everyone's thoughts on the game?
Talonus
Loner
posted 09-17-2008 07:02:00 PM
Shit sucks.
Azakias
Never wore the pants, thus still wields the power of unused (_|_)
posted 09-17-2008 07:45:22 PM
I made an Umberhulk.

But yeah, after about a week I got pretty bored. Making your own creature is fun and all, but there's not much that makes me want to keep playing.

I was pretty apathetic towards Sims, too, but I thought that there would be more to Spore.

I think if there were more customization options and more to the game in the creature creation mode, it would have been awesome. That, and I REALLY wanted to make an aquatic city.

Is it bad that the game felt a little too... sandboxy?

"Age by age have men stood up and said to the world, 'From what has come before me, I was forged, but I am new and greater than my forebears.' And so each man walks the world in ruin, abandoned and untried. Less than the whole of his being"
Greenlit
posted 09-18-2008 01:58:50 AM
It's not even a game. It's 3DSMax for beginners.

In short, \/\/\/\/

quote:
Talonus had this to say about Cuba:
Shit sucks.
Mortious
Gluttonous Overlard
posted 09-18-2008 04:40:57 AM
It'll still make millions by selling from hype alone, no matter how terrible it is. Then the developers will be convinced they're development gods that no one can best.

Just like Halo.

Kegwen
Sonyfag
posted 09-18-2008 07:41:40 AM
At least Halo has its basic mechanics right. People are only bitter about Halo because console kids like it and it's nowhere as good as our precious Half-Lifes and System Shocks despite all their praise
Alidane
Urinary Tract Infection
posted 09-18-2008 12:46:30 PM
quote:
Mortious posted

It'll still make millions by selling from hype alone, no matter how terrible it is. Then the developers will be convinced they're development gods that no one can best.

Just like Halo.


It's fucking Will Wright, he already thinks that.

Steven Steve
posted 09-18-2008 01:03:31 PM
Every game designer thinks that they're some kind of genius even though games have largely been shit for the past 8 years, obviously. The only games that are really innovative anymore tend to be independent and are usually acquired by people like Valve to make a derivative game.
"Absolutely NOTHING [will stop me from buying Diablo III]. I will buy it regardless of what they do."
- Grawbad, Battle.net forums

"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums

Vorago
A completely different kind of Buckethead
posted 09-18-2008 01:16:46 PM
I enjoy it but it very much isn't a game to be played hardcore or form really, extended periods of time. I play for an hour, you know, make some funky buildings, take something over and have fun, But yeah, if you are going into it expecting to play 6 hours a day and really pound it out you are going to find it lacking in that regard.

But for what it is, I am really enjoying it, Space pirates need to go eat a cock though

Mortious
Gluttonous Overlard
posted 09-18-2008 05:26:13 PM
Greenlit
posted 09-19-2008 01:40:58 AM
He's rarely wrong. This was not one of those times.
Karnaj
Road Warrior Queef
posted 09-22-2008 04:16:46 PM
I dunno, I'm enjoying it.

But that's probably because I'm firmly in the "casual" camp of people who play video games now.

That's the American Dream: to make your life into something you can sell. - Chuck Palahniuk, Haunted

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. - John Kenneth Galbraith



Beer.

Steven Steve
posted 09-22-2008 05:28:29 PM
I'm a casual gamer also, as in I only download games and play ones from 10 years ago for 1 hour a week
"Absolutely NOTHING [will stop me from buying Diablo III]. I will buy it regardless of what they do."
- Grawbad, Battle.net forums

"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums

Karnaj
Road Warrior Queef
posted 09-22-2008 09:22:18 PM
quote:
Steven Steve put down Tada! magazine long enough to type:
I'm a casual gamer also, as in I only download games and play ones from 10 years ago for 1 hour a week

Well, one can't expect a man with your busy murder and branle regimen to have any more time left over for video games. Totally understandable, old bean.

That's the American Dream: to make your life into something you can sell. - Chuck Palahniuk, Haunted

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. - John Kenneth Galbraith



Beer.

Steven Steve
posted 09-22-2008 10:08:56 PM
It's true
"Absolutely NOTHING [will stop me from buying Diablo III]. I will buy it regardless of what they do."
- Grawbad, Battle.net forums

"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums

Suddar
posted 09-22-2008 10:16:59 PM
I don't think it's fair to say that this game sucks, but it does have quite a few design flaws. Most of the phases could use some fleshing out, and the transitions between them really need some work. But overall I liked the game and I played it exclusively for a couple of weeks.
Kennatsu
hu�mor 1. That which is intended to induce laughter or amusement: a writer skilled at crafting humor.
posted 09-22-2008 10:24:13 PM
Wow... I guess I'll wait a while before I buy this game. Too many other games out there that will keep my interest as well as The Sims 3 coming out March of next year. Looks interesting though. Would Spore: Creatures for the Nintendo DS be a good game investment?
Mortious
Gluttonous Overlard
posted 09-23-2008 06:33:48 AM
EA have said they're going to treat this just like The Sims, producing a full -price addon pack every so often that adds barely any more functionality with just a few colours/bodyparts etc on.

EA really knows how to milk money from stupid people, you have to give them that.

Steven Steve
posted 09-23-2008 07:53:33 AM
It just works.
"Absolutely NOTHING [will stop me from buying Diablo III]. I will buy it regardless of what they do."
- Grawbad, Battle.net forums

"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums

Skaw
posted 09-23-2008 09:22:28 PM
quote:
From the book of Mortious, chapter 3, verse 16:
EA have said they're going to treat this just like The Sims, producing a full -price addon pack every so often that adds barely any more functionality with just a few colours/bodyparts etc on.

EA really knows how to milk money from stupid people, you have to give them that.


Woah woah woah.

What magical land do you live in where $30 is considered "full price?" And is there available housing?

Even handheld games range $35-40 now. Not to say I disagree with the assessment of EA milking people, but they're hardly selling expansions under full title price points.

I'd say their sports titles are even worse at it. What comes out in every yearly installtion that couldn't be offered at $10 DLC prices? Wouldn't be difficult to add a handful of new face models for rookies and shuffle up traded players under new team colors and logos. And every year the same people pay $60-$70 for ultimately the same game with a new DVD case sleeve.

Skaw fucked around with this message on 09-23-2008 at 09:26 PM.

Falaanla Marr
I AM HOT CHIX
posted 09-24-2008 11:57:40 AM
quote:
The logic train ran off the tracks when Skaw said:
I'd say their sports titles are even worse at it. What comes out in every yearly installtion that couldn't be offered at $10 DLC prices? Wouldn't be difficult to add a handful of new face models for rookies and shuffle up traded players under new team colors and logos. And every year the same people pay $60-$70 for ultimately the same game with a new DVD case sleeve.

There are a lot more changes in the sports games year in and year out that those who don't really play them won't notice. Many times, there are a lot of new animations added, the way the game plays each year significantly changes, new feature(s) are added, etc.

For example, this year's Madden added what amounts to an adaptive difficulty based on how you play the game. If you're good at defending passes but suck at running the ball, the game'll make running the ball easier for you while making defending the passes harder. I've found this, as a long time Madden series player, to be one of the best additions yet. No longer do I score 100 points in every game I play on the second highest difficulty (or get my shit pounded in on the highest). It balances things out pretty effectively.

On top of that, the passing game works a good bit differently in this year's version, mainly in how throwing deep passes is far more difficult. This, among many other additions won't be noticed if you only occasionally pick up a Madden game with friends.

And they release free roster updates through the year, so players will be on the right team as it currently stands. Do I think they could stand to lower the price by 10 bucks or so? Definitely. But there is far more added each year than would be viable to add through a $10 DLC pack. It isn't 60 bucks for just a new DVD sleeve each year.

Falaanla Marr fucked around with this message on 09-24-2008 at 11:58 AM.

Addy
posted 09-24-2008 01:41:01 PM
lol football game, lol lol

PS, the Vikings beat the Panthers. Take that, Carolina fanboy.

(i'm so mean)

Karnaj
Road Warrior Queef
posted 09-28-2008 10:54:29 PM
Found Earth and colonized it. Up next: taking on the Grox. Maybe I should try allying with them.
That's the American Dream: to make your life into something you can sell. - Chuck Palahniuk, Haunted

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. - John Kenneth Galbraith



Beer.

I dun got banned
Pancake
posted 09-29-2008 12:27:02 AM
quote:
From the book of Karnaj, chapter 3, verse 16:
Found Earth and colonized it. Up next: taking on the Grox. Maybe I should try allying with them.

Everyone declares war on you if you do.

Mortious
Gluttonous Overlard
posted 09-29-2008 08:38:04 AM
I played until the civilization phase, where I became infinately bored with having to design every single fucking building and vehicle myself.
Skaw
posted 09-29-2008 10:38:31 AM
quote:
Mortious had this to say about the Spice Girls:
I played until the civilization phase, where I became infinately bored with having to design every single fucking building and vehicle myself.

You know you could've chosen the prebuilt stuff right?

Mortious
Gluttonous Overlard
posted 09-29-2008 12:40:05 PM
quote:
Skaw said:
You know you could've chosen the prebuilt stuff right?

Actually, I didn't! But it was 5am at the time and I was working on 3 brain cells.

I'll go look at those.

Skaw
posted 09-29-2008 03:25:51 PM
Yeah, click the catalog button(I guess it'd be catalogue for you?) and you can choose a bunch of maxis-built buildings and vehicles. Or just build your own set and reuse them for every creature you make.
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