Strange, once I moved from my first nest to the second I couldn't find anything <.<
It might be because I had the brilliant idea of starting on a planet with no water
With the bigger planets mod you just have to have survival strategies to stay alive. Don't try to move to a new area unless your hunger is completely satisfied. Don't head towards rocks, because creatures rarely nest near them. Water can fool you too, you don't really want to follow the shore like you would in regular Spore as creatures don't nest right along the water anymore.
The T1 planets are just that, barren, you have to travel a LONG way to find anything, on those planets you're better off staying close to your nest. But T2 planets at least have plant life, more often than no where you can find some plants you can find some creatures nearby them. That's how I was surviving on my desert planet as the Rhynidon, small-medium plants had lots of nests clustered around them and trees had a few spread out all around them.
A strategy I haven't tried yet is playing as a flying creature on a T1 planet but it'd probably let you cover a larger area.
Other features like rocks and such are misleading in that you'll rarely find anything living near them, so if you head in the opposite direction from a large rock you stand a better chance of finding creatures.
