Topic: Gormans Impressions snd suggestions of Spore

[Gorman Conall]

i'm back for a few hours. I'm on a laptop in a marketplace currently and i thought i would share my thoughts on the game. And offer a few suggestions to Maxis if they should read it. Note that i play on the NORMAL difficulty setting.

Cell Stage:

Its simple but fun and i really like the whole time line consequence feature. Theres not much i can say about cell since it is so simple. Its put together well and works the way it should. I have encountered a problem however. Every time i play the cell stage i never get see any cells except the same ones by maxis. Even though i have many of my own my girlfriends and some i pulled off the sporepedia.

Suggestions: If that last line is a bug it needs fixed. If its supposed to be that way then it needs changed.

Creature Stage:

My favorite stage its almost what i expected with a few flaws. Its very fun to explore and get the parts you need to build your creature.
And i personally find it even more fun when i pick a creature personality in my mind and play it out. For example i always only eat when i am hungry i have played as a carnivore that only eats eggs. Solitary predators, Skittish pack herbivores. To me its more fun that way, i also find it more fun to shut off the mini map in that stage.

Suggestions. I love it when i see a group of creatures roaming and hunting, Drinking water and fighting others etc. The thing is its rare. I think creatures need to do this more they need to act more animal like as opposed to mobs waiting to be attacked or socialized. I think there needs to be some parts that let a non biped swipe with their front paws like a lion does. And the random meteor shower and UFO showing up aren't so random. They happen every game. This needs to be changed as well as more events added.

Tribal: My least favorite stage due to the fact in my game theres no competition. The tribes rarely gather food or replenish their lost tribe members. It may be a bug in my game and it needs to be addressed. Its way way to easy to socialize. On easy its understandable but not above that. And the other tribe ought to have the consequence ability's. The other tribes should also be able to socialize with your tribe to steal members away. At the moment the only thing they can do against the player is attack.

Suggestions look up .

Civ stage. Civ stage is fun but horribly unbalanced. The CPU civs NEED to have the consequence ability's in this stage. Outside of the ones that take over all citys instantly. The economic CPU cannot beat the player period.  If they initiate trade with you you can buy out THIER citys??? That needs to be fixed. Whats more without the consequence ability the Economic CPUS can not defend themselves from any other civ be it player or CPU. The civ stage seriously needs fixing. But it some how remains fun through it all.

Suggestions: All the above and ...why does every epic from civ onward automatically have the ability to spit fireballs?.

Space: My second favorite phase and here comes an unpopular opinion. I have taken at least 5 races to the space stage. I have not encountered this relentless aggressiveness that everyone whines about. I play each of those races differently too. I have had war declared on me one time and only one time. Any other time was my doing. If you play carelessly jumping from star to star without a care in the world then yeah you might get overwhelmed. If you play carefully introduce yourself when contacted (even if ships are shooting you in space) and use your seti device to figure out where you should and should not go you wont have this problem.

In my opinion its not a *bug* that everyone claims should be fixed. Its fine the way it is and its the people causing their own problems.
Begging maxis to fix it will mess up the balance of the space stage and possibly make it too easy. Maxis listens to the fans so please be careful what you wish for.

Suggestions: I think their should be way to see in the sporepedia what plants and animals are on what planets when you look at the planet cards once you have scanned them.

Overall Spore matched my expectations and i cant wait to see all the stuff Maxis adds to it. I would give it a 9.0 out of 10.

[eleazar]

And the random meteor shower and UFO showing up aren't so random. They happen every game.

Not for me.  I've played creature without seeing a UFO. Even if you are not looking in the right direction, the music gives them away.  I'm not so sure about the meteors, but i don't think it's happened every time.

[Gorman Conall]

And the random meteor shower and UFO showing up aren't so random. They happen every game.

Not for me.  I've played creature without seeing a UFO. Even if you are not looking in the right direction, the music gives them away.  I'm not so sure about the meteors, but i don't think it's happened every time.

Its possible i have just been really lucky (or unlucky). But i have had them every creature stage. It also seems like the UFO follows me around.

[Jennifer Reitz]

The phrase 'Whining' about space is inappropriate.

Immediately after leaving my starsystem, a call came from a part of the galaxy I had not even begun to approach.

It was an empire demanding an impossible sum of Spucks that I could not pay, in order to avoid war. Extortion.

Almost immediately, wave after relentless wave of that empire besieged my homeworld, and because I had no weapons of any power, I died 24 times, my cities reduced to only four by bombers wiping them from the map - and no means exists that I can find to replace a lost homeworld city.

I had to flee my homeworld - as long as I do not return, apparently it still stands. When I died in space from a random pirate raid, I respawned on my homeworld, right in the middle of the continuing siege of my planet, and by the time I left, two more cities had been lost.

Now I dare not return, and I dare not die, the game is barely enjoyable at all, and the only way I can play it is to constantly use the cheat menu to add 'MoreMoney' over and over to pay off the constant barrage of calls from empires that want to extort money in exchange for not attacking me.

I cannot explore, or even just enjoy the scenery, because my lone colony, the only one I was able to build after I left, is constantly being raided by pirates. Fortunately the empire that originally attacked has not found me yet.

The early game was marked by gentle play. I could make friends and explore, and this was the pattern set.

The moment I entered space, I have been constantly under attack, purely because I was not wealthy enough to pay off the bullies that surround me, and my only recourse is to cheat constantly. This is not fun, and it is an abrupt change from the flow of the game up to this point.

Spore is broken in the space stage - make no mistake. Perhaps not for every player, but it is broken, and it needs, desperately, to be fixed.

I play a gentle, nonviolent race, and all I wanted was to explore the galaxy in peace, and all I did was to leave my world. Once.

This is not the way space should play out.

It is not the pattern set by the previous stages. It is a broken situation. Constant siege and no recourse but to cheat to avoid total annihilation is not good gameplay. It would not be tolerated in any other game, it is intolerable in Spore.

[munchkin5]

the main bug is the in ability to defend colonies without actually being thre, and also that the random frequency of events has a limit that is far too high. Also i've found that abot 1 in three of my games actually goes well enough early on so i'm not crippled to a point that i can't salvage myself and enjoy the rest of th game.

[Gorman Conall]

Its never happened to me nor my girlfriend with multiple species in the space stage on multiple computers.

i have never had an empire demand money right away. As soon as i receive my first call from an empire i go over right away and introduce myself. If they are unhappy with you it puts them to neutral at least for awhile. At the very least giving you time.

I was attacked one time ever and that took repeated demands of money (and the money was not entirely unreasonable).

If it was a such a big deal it would occur to everyone not just some. And i think its too much of a coincidence that none of the games me or roommate have played have had what some of you describe.

Mind you it does not matter if your peaceful or mean if you explore near territory an aggressive empire owns.

Space stage is not broken because its not what you want it to be.

Some criticisms crack me up. Its too easy. Its too hard!. Its too easy!. Its too hard!. It can not be both.

Obviously it does have some issues i myself listed some. But honestly space stage seems to have the least.

the main bug is the in ability to defend colonies without actually being thre, and also that the random frequency of events has a limit that is far too high. Also i've found that abot 1 in three of my games actually goes well enough early on so i'm not crippled to a point that i can't salvage myself and enjoy the rest of th game.

Actually i can agree the player should not have to do EVERYTHING. But actually if your planets well defended they can fight off some attacks by themselves. Ats time i would have multiple planets under attack at once. The ones i didn't defend actually fought them off but did lose a couple turrets. Of course they whined about me not showing up  .

[eleazar]

If it was a such a big deal it would occur to everyone not just some. And i think its too much of a coincidence that none of the games me or roommate have played have had what some of you describe.

I dunno, some aspects of Spore are highly random.  The unusual is possible.

[Loerelau]

I also think the space stage is not unbalanced... I never had a race declare war to me. I am surrounded by allies now and the closest enemy is many parsecs away. I've been peaceful in cell and creature and rather aggressive in tribe and civ (Had to, they attacked me right away.).