Topic: Please post your Spore questions for me here...

[Gandysampras]

Can creatures that have legs swim on the surface of the water? ie. like a doggy paddle sort of thing?

[whirlyboy]

Steve, does the game have an advanced physics engine (i.e. walls falling down realistically etc.)?

im not steve but i saw in the video that when the tanks destroyed the building belonging to Will, i didnt see any falling over of the building or it crumbling from the top to the bottom.

[Sporeaholicomg99]

sorry if this has already been posted i juast couldn't be bothered to read the 5 pages of posts

How do cities/vehicles/ work for flying creatures?

Are weapons customisable for sure (read my thread 'weapon customisation rationally confirmed Steve??)

some dude said something about satellites is that true

are ufo's definately customisable because in the demo he just gets one he doesn't show an editor screen my computer doesn't have sound at the moment so i couldn't hear what he was saying

[Gandysampras]

UFO's are completely customisable, just like all other vehicles, so you neednt worry about that, however im not sure about your other questions.

[Quantum Burrito]

any idea if planets will have moons?

Look closely at the video, just before going out to solar system view 

[TheNewGuy]

Steve, does the game have an advanced physics engine (i.e. walls falling down realistically etc.)?

im not steve but i saw in the video that when the tanks destroyed the building belonging to Will, i didnt see any falling over of the building or it crumbling from the top to the bottom.

Chances are, none of that is programmed yet.  The game is still in relatively early stages.  I'll bet there will be some kind of physics engine (that fits really well with the whole procedural programming base already in the game), it's just not yet implemented.

[Gandysampras]

Did Will Mention anything about the intricacies (sp?) of the cross breeding in your interview?
I was just wondering if its going to be the same sorta thing, ie. go into the creature editor and make what you want, or is it going to be a random B*stard offspring of the two parents?

[Gaming Steve]

Hmm... one of the things that I didn't see in the demo (aside from the title screen, and so on and so forth) were the "time controls" (i.e. pause, normal speed, double speed and so forth) and a location for the options menu. Now, one can assume that the options menu will be there, with whatever options are required, but about the time controls... Is there any insight into the existence of a pause and/or fast-forward feature for when the game is released?

Haven't seen anything directly, but I imagine the game will work in a similar manner as The Sims. Basic time controls.

Keep in mind that the interface you have all seen to date is not nearly the final one, I know that they're still working on it.

[Quantum Burrito]

Is it possible to terraform moons? Or blow them up and make Saturn-style rings?

[Gandysampras]

Yep, both were on the GDC video!

[Gaming Steve]

Does the game decide where in the creature's body it puts all the squishy organ stuff or can you manually decide you, say, want to put his brain in the tail?

I believe there are two "types" of parts for all creatures -- parts you can control the directly placement and parts you can't. Most parts you can directly control the placement, such as legs, arms, eyes, mouth, etc. But some items you can't directly control, such as the backbone (you can control the size of the backbone, but not the placement, it needs to be in the back).

However, the only item I saw which "needed" to be in a certain place was the backbone. Everything else seemed to be fair game. Since dinos had brains in their tails I would imagine that it might be an option to place a brain in a different part of the body.

However (again) if the brain placement doesn't directly figure into the gameplay (i.e. the creature will behave the exact same if the brain is in the head or the tail) then I don't think you'll get an option for brain placement.

[Gaming Steve]

Can you change how the creature sounds(as in speaking)? Will we hear and be able to decipher what the creatures say?

I do not know about this one. I would think that you can indirectly control the sound of the creature as this is such a vitial element to the game.

You will be able to decipher what creatures say, but I do not think you can "directly" understand them. It will probably be indirect such as in The Sims where you get an "idea" of what they're talking about, but you won't hear exact speech and the like.

Except for the missions, those will probably be a bit more clear (but probably still use icons such as in The Sims 2).

[Gaming Steve]

- will it be possible to remain in a certain stage of evolution?
- will there be ice planets?
- how big can cities become?
- will we have planets with really (!!) dense forests?

-- There is a "point" in which you will change to the next stage of evolution. So until you grow a backbone you can't evolve past a certain stage of the game. However, I believe they are still working out if this will be "forced" upon the player or if they can just hang out in a single stage forever. That is more of a game design question, and most of those sort of questions are still undetermined.

-- Probably.

-- Not 100% sure, I have never seen a city larger than those in the GDC video.

-- Probably (there will be many different types of terrain in the game).

[Gaming Steve]

are the creatures going to need to drink water? If they don't than their wouldn't be much point in making a crocodile-like animal.

also if you move onto land, can you maove back to the water, and if so would you still breathe air?

Edit: Can you colonize a gas planet with floeting cities?

       Can you have twin suns? planets?

-- Not sure, I have only seen "eating" to date.

-- Unknown.

-- No floating cities.

-- Haven't seen twin suns yet, but the engine can appear to handle them no problem (the engine has an advanced gravity simulator built in for just about any type of solar system).

[Gaming Steve]

Will there be infantry combat?

Is there going to be pets, or slavery?

And what about genetic resp. cybernetic engineering? Will you be able to customise your species in the civ or the space era, ie. make it stronger or more intelligent, using genetics or implants?

Oh and: can you make floating creatures (with some kinda gas-sack inside, like a flying meduse)? Will there be flying cities?

-- Probably, but I haven't seen this directly.

-- Perhaps.

-- Not sure about your species, you can change other creatures (you basically get the ability to use the creature editor for free on any other creature).

-- No floating cities.