Spore Community Day (Fansites get an invite!)

[Gorman Conall]

Haha I'm glad you had so much fun. Reading that got me excited!. I'm also happy that i probably wont have to buy two copy's.

I'm not going to bombard you with questions. I just have one since its really the only thing i have been worried about recently. Here ill quote it from earlier.

I wonder if someone can answer this.

The bigger your creature is the more complexity meter it takes up. It may be obvious but i just want to be sure since this is seriously the only issue that could actually kill the game for me.

Does size make a difference in a creatures performance during the creature stage?. For example are bigger creatures gifted with higher defense, Attack or health like they should?.

If a mouse sized creature and an elephant creature with the same parts were to fight the elephant would have the advantage right?.

I was hoping you might know since you were in the creature stage for the most part.

[LadyM]

I don't mind answering questions and I'll go back and try to answer the ones posted earlier but not tonight. I'm still tired and it took alot to get those to articles written and posted tonight. I'll be crashing soon.

As far as your question, I didn't notice that size made that much of a difference however as my creature grew so did the other creatures I encountered. I could go back and kill creatures I met when I was smaller and weaker. The parts seem to have levels 1-4. So a level 4 part seemed to work better over a level 2 part. Also each creature had a number over it's head when you attacked it. Hit points I guess. If your creature had a higher number then there was a better chance of winning.

To fight you click the attack button then click on the creature and then select the type of attack at the bottom. A little meter window showed when you could click it again. I had to continue to click the boxes to make sure it stayed fighting. It was hard to see around me when I was attacking someone and that's usually when I got attacked.

[Speussipus]

Thanks for all your hard work here, LadyM. I think you're the only Community Day participant who has actually posted their report yet. That makes you awesome.

sP

[Gorman Conall]

Hmm sounds like it could go ether way then. To really know you would have to face a much bigger creature or a much smaller one. Obviously with only 3 hours to play i wouldn't of really noticed that ether and would of just been trying to have fun  . So i don't blame ya.

Thanks for the answer!.

But on a good note you seemed to be less hyped then many of us and the game blew you away so thats an excellent sign in my eyes!

[ProfPendragon]

Something is bothering me. 

What is that drink sitting on Will's desk?  It looks like a Coke can from a distance but there's some kind of funky lettering on it. >.>

[Hydromancerx]

I don't mind answering questions and I'll go back and try to answer the ones posted earlier but not tonight. I'm still tired and it took alot to get those to articles written and posted tonight. I'll be crashing soon.

Yeah there was just so much we experienced its hard to recall everything. Just going over you blog posts LadyM reminded me of the parts such as the little pods which hatched like eggs or the many creatures we found that were our own. For instance i encounter one of my African Elephants but they were super tiny!

I can try to answer questions too, though i already have been as people ask. All you need to know is that all i have been thinking about is playing Spore again. It dominates my mind and its going to be an extremely long 2 weeks for all of us who tried it out. Getting a small taste of it and then not being able to play is terrible. However i would not trade my experience for anything! It was all i hoped for plus more!

Thanks for all your hard work here, LadyM. I think you're the only Community Day participant who has actually posted their report yet. That makes you awesome.

sP

Other have been posting all day. Also i posted my experiences earlier in the thread.

http://www.gamingsteve.com/blab/index.php?topic=13668.msg595884#msg595884

[Gzillafan1]

You were the one playing mostly space stage right? If so could you answer the question I posted earlier about planets having more than one moon? If not then this question can be directed towards anybody.Does anyone know or is this a noobish question due to it being settled long ago?

[Ondaderthad]

 All you need to know is that all i have been thinking about is playing Spore again. It dominates my mind and its going to be an extremely long 2 weeks for all of us who tried it out. Getting a small taste of it and then not being able to play is terrible. However i would not trade my experience for anything! It was all i hoped for plus more!

That's the price to pay for the early hands-on....     

   One Easy Question:

How does the UI feel ?  You were playing on laptops. Probably not the top of the range computers. So is the game running smoothly?

I was playing Simcity Society Demo this week and it is a bit choppy and slow response. Is Spore better than that?

[LoneStarSage]

Great report LadyM!  It is sad to hear that they get upset over the negatives on forums.

I wish people would wait for the game to come out to start nit picking.   Even then we should remember the hard work the Maxis team put in and give gentle suggestions for improvements instead of complaining.

I will try to remember my own advice when I get the game though I have yet to complain about the CC or possible game play.  (OK, I did have a LOT of complaints about the EA forum but good grief it was bad, have not been back in a couple days because of it.)

[Hydromancerx]

  One Easy Question:

How does the UI feel ?  You were playing on laptops. Probably not the top of the range computers. So is the game running smoothly?

I was playing Simcity Society Demo this week and it is a bit choppy and slow response. Is Spore better than that?

Oh it was great, nothing like that at all. The full version of Sim City Societies is just as bad and is a really lame game over all in my opinion. Spore on the other hand handles very smoothly even on a laptop. It even had fast loading for the phases and smooth cut scenes for special events. There is really no comparison between those games. Even though EA owns both they were made by diffrent game developers Tiled Mills for Societies and Maxis for Spore.

Also like i said before. Get a mouse with a scroll wheel middle button cause you will be using it all the time.

[Speussipus]

Other have been posting all day. Also i posted my experiences earlier in the thread.

http://www.gamingsteve.com/blab/index.php?topic=13668.msg595884#msg595884

Sorry, I should have been more specific: She's the only one who's reported substantively on the game rather than on the visit. That makes her awesome. It doesn't make you non-awesome, however.

sP

(Though now I notice you did give a list of answers to some questions about the game in your next post, so that's not nothing. Sorry I missed that before.)

[Plasmodia]

Something is bothering me. 

What is that drink sitting on Will's desk?  It looks like a Coke can from a distance but there's some kind of funky lettering on it. >.>

Its the waters of the fountain of life. I hope that resolves the issue.

[DaMuncha]

Q:  In the newer videos, it seems that you can only have 1 land vehicle, 1 boat and 1 aircraft customized at a time….Is this the case?
A:  Yes,you are assigned only 1 type of vehicle per specialty with 3 specialties to choose from (military, religious and economic).

BOOOOOOOO!

I want different tanks that do different things, like a tank with a lazer and a tank with a cannon? Man thats taking strategy out of a strategy game. So you get one type of tank/vehicle that does one thing, which is basically "shoot". For as diverse as this game is, its starting to sound like it was made for a brainless 3 yo.

You can only install on 3 computers AND you can only use one account?

BOOOOOOOO!

Thats even worse than only being able to intall 3 times. Man that is lame. So if I give my copy of Spore to my dad, he cant make his own account? I read that EA said that they were trying to make the copy protection better, that was just a pile of crap? Is that to say that if you happen to loose your copy of Spore you cant use the same account, with all the creatures you had made? and have to make a new account? or you cant Loggin with ur account on someone elses install/computer? So once your install on 3 computers is over, you need to buy a new copy of Spore AND a new account?

This just gets worse every time I hear about the Copy Protection. = EA ARE EVIL!

[Hydromancerx]

Well i hoped around in the game from phase to phase. Most things were info we already know like how to eat, or to attack, socialize, etc. While LadyM spend almost all her time in creature phase which is why she got to learn more.

But if you want a detailed experience from me lets see...

Tribe Phase

I started out in tribal phase as my Psitaccisapien.



I have it some bracelets, a leaf loincloth and a fez hat in the outfit editor.

I then had them to go out and collect fruit and berries from the local flora. Once i had enough food i clicked on the hut and it made a baby. I gave it a throwing spear hut and didgeridoo hut. I had them pick up the spears and go out to hunt a Volcano Tiki.



Also there were other creatures of mine such as the Eagle Kachina, Indian Rhino and Malloon.



Once i got the food the game announced a new village appeared it was a Fiesta Willasaur.



I barely took over their tribe and burned down their main hut. I then pillage all their food and took it back home where i use the food to build a fishing hut and then tried to have more babies. However a scavenger Quillarian tried to come in and eat my baby! Which they did since i was not fast enough to stop them.



I fished and built my tribe up a bit. This time i gave them digerdoos and tried to domesticate a Australopithecus.



It was very funny since it was bird people with an egg laying human as a pet. Soon after i saw an epic Kachiqua walking around and eating the Eagle Kachinas.



Another tribe appeared which was of the Auyuelcliad.



Another tribe i forget attacked my village but i fought them off. However by then they were switching over computers to our own accounts so i took this time to switch phases.

Space Phase

Now on my own account i asked for the cheat to unlock all the phases so i went to space as my Naucean. I Named my planet Nauceanica and then made a UFO in the editor. I made it from my concept drawing of the UFO i had for them. I was able to get to look pretty accurate and it looked awesome flying.



I also got to pick a city hall so i used one of my spherical skyscrrapers complete with a flag on top and zigzag colorings on the borders of the building.



Once those were picked i started the game using my own creatures as the theme. The other buildings were sort of similar but i did not take the time to change them at all beside the city hall. The 1st mission from my little talking Naucean com guy was to fly to every city and hover closely to the city hall. This was not as easy as it appeared and really helped me learn the scroll wheel for the phase. Next we got the scanner and i went around scanning creatures such as my white rhino. Once i passed that I had to abduct some of them. Once o did that theu said they found a virus that was going through the population so i got a laser beam and had to kill them. I used the scanner to find them. Once that was done i think i got my Captains badge. However i am not sure if it was before that.



Next was to fly to nearby planet and use the radar and scanner. I went to a to volcano planet 1st and looked around. It was the wrong planet but then i went to the right one and found a crash site. Now getting that mission i got the interstellar drive. Next i went o a colony mission and set up a new colony on that planet. Then I had a new mission to go to the nearest star system. Once there i investigated some city ruins. This is where i broke the game as mentioned in the 1st over view. After saving and reloading my next mission was to meet another species in which i got a SETI device and found a new civilization. There we set up a trade route. Soon after a hostile race came which i could not trade with. So i skipped the missions and then went exploring on my own. I found out i could not get far and i ended up dying in a black hole i found.

So i opened up the cheat menu to see if i could cheat my way to the center of the galaxy. While i was able to get money i could not figure out how to get more UFO upgrades so i ended up dying each time i tried to get there. Mainly running out of fuel. Realizing i had a limited time left and getting to the center was not going to happen i decided to try a new phase.

Cell Phase

I wanted to start from the beginning like everyone else and see how far i could get before we ran out of time. I picked a planet with red oceans and then picked a carnivore microbe. This game when quick with me eating chunks of meat and growing bigger and bigger. Once i could mate i called for a mate and took off the eyes. I wanted to see that it was like without them. It was all dark and gray and limited sight range. Also i could see inside them with their spines. It was very cool.

So i went around eating anything i could eat and avoiding predators. Adding all the parts as i got them except for the omnivore mouth i never found. I was also rather slow but the poison and electric seemed to keep me well protected. Before i knew it i was so big i could leave the sea and i plopped some legs on my creature. I still had no eyes though. But i did have 3 mouths, 2 herbivore and 1 carnivore. I did not realize these were going to be uploaded without me cheing each one like in Sporepedia so i some lame names.



Creature Phase

So now with my little blind guy i went around eating things. most on the lower guys were Maxis made. I also found a lot of bones to get parts from. I mated and upgraded the feet and mouth.



I started out as a baby and learned how to use all the parts i had. Once grown up i went on and hunted some more. Then mated again. This time some ears and clawed arms.


I had to learn who to use the gaspers as a baby and I could now pick up things like rocks and shells. I have no idea what to do with them though. Sill everythign was black and white and hard to see around me.

So after feeding some more on small prey and bones went and stole an egg from a nest. There i upgrated my brain and went to go mate. I was tired of having limited sight and went and gave them eyes as well as some wings i picked up.



Now with eyes I could see all the fruit around i could not see before. I went on a herbivores feeding spree and then tried to charm other creatures. I also had to migrate to a new nesting location. Once there i was able to add one of my other guys to my pack though socialization. We hunted as a pack and it was fun. Now with more DNA i mated again and put on some more social parts.



By this time the giant epic flower monster came to attack me and my nest. It is called a Floraw. My flying did help escape from it but it ate my pack member.



It went down hill now and i had to keep watching out for the flower monster any time i mated. Some interesting things i saw was some Maxis monster eating my humans mercilessly.



It got pretty hard by now and my social and hunting were not going so well. I mated 2 more times before i ran out of time. I wish i had more time in this phase or even juping to civ to try out that and their many editors associated with it. But it was not to be. I still am glad i was able to get to play 4 out of 5 phases at least.

I hope that helps you guys understand my game experience better. And i can;t wait to play the game again.

[DaMuncha]

Its good to see theres viruses as we thought they'd taken this out due to being unable to micromanage that.