Sick of being attacked every five minutes? You can fix it! Spore mods work!

[BinaryDigit]

Yes thats right.  Its not just a rumor any more.  I tried this myself tonight, and it really works!  You too can mod spore, and lessen the frequency of attacks, bio-disasters, and more.

Everything you need to know can be found here:

http://www.cheathappens.com/show_board2.asp?headID=71722&titleID=12378&onPage=1

EDIT:

Yep, it really works.  The instructions provided by Geo at the end of the first page clearly outline exactly what you need to do.  I've tested this myself, and it works.  The only catch is that you need to create a new game before the new parameters take effect.

I'll do my best to paraphrase what needs to be done:

1.  Download SPView from here: http://www.customsims3.com/forum1/wbin/SpViewDL.html

NOTE: You will need .RAR extraction software to install SPView.  If you don't have one already, there are a number of free tools out there.  I downloaded this one tonight, and it worked like a charm.  http://www.techsono.com/supernzb/index.html

2.  Download the latest C++ runtime libraries from Windows Update here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/results.aspx?pocId=&freetext=VC%208&DisplayLang=en
3.  Download the latest Direct X runtime libraries from Windows Update here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/results.aspx?pocId=&freetext=DirectX&DisplayLang=en
4.  Open SPView, Click Tools, Unpack DBPF, Browse to C:/Electronic Arts/SPORE/Data, double click Spore_Game.package
5.  SPView "unpacks" the package into a bunch of text files.

NOTE:  At this point I had some difficulty.  The SPView program is supposed to unpack the package in the same directory, but Vista didn't like this on my machine, instead it was extracted to here: C:\Users\Dawson\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Electronic Arts\SPORE\Data\Spore_Game.

6.  Open the unpacked file entitled SP-_CHT-024A0E52-00000000-658B0AB2.txt
7.  Change the values of these parameters:
     property universeSimulatorPirateRaidFrequency 0x031e7620 float 4800
     property universeSimulatorWarAttackFrequency 0x031e94b8 float 1800
     property universeSimulatorBiosphereCollapseFrequency 0x044881a3 float 4800

NOTE: the numbers at the end of each string are seconds.  The higher the number, the more seconds between attacks.  The default values in the file were 600 for each of these items.  The numbers listed above are what I configured in my personal mod.  You can choose your own difficulty.  If you still want a challenge, try 1200 for attacks every 10 minutes instead of every 5.  Personally, I went for 1800 (15 minutes) as I would still like a challenge, but I also want an opportunity to breathe between attacks, disasters, etc.

8.  Save the text file.
9.  Go back to SPView, and click Tools, Pack DBPF, Browse to the location of your unpacked txt files, double click on any one of the txt files, choose a location for the packed files to be saved, click OK.

NOTE: You can call the new .package file whatever you want.  Spore simply reads every .package file in the SPORE/Data folder.  As long as your modded file is in the right folder, and the Date Changed is later than your game files, you're all set.

10.  Allow the software to do its thing.
11.  Open My Computer and Browse to C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/SPORE/Data
12.  Cut the Spore_Game.package file, and paste it into a backup directory in your My Documents.

NOTE:  If you do not remove the old version of the parameter file (Spore_Game.package) you will notice some odd duplication behavior.

13.  Open up Spore and start a new game (old saves won't inherit your changes).
14.  Attack everything with a mouth.
11.  Have a drink, make a sandwich, trim your fingernails (they're really getting too long, you know), and sit back and watch.  You'll see that the relentless every 5 minute attacks are blissfully absent.


This may sound like a lot, but (minus my difficulties dealing with Vista's hiding of my files) the whole process took less than 20 minutes.

If you'd rather not go to all this trouble, someone has already done all of the work for you.  You can download the modified spore_game.package parameters provided by Duthos here: http://www.cheathappens.com/show_board2.asp?headID=71985&titleID=12378

Simply choose your mod, download the file, paste it into C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/SPORE/Data, remove the Spore_Game.package file, and let the fun begin.  If you download a prepackaged mod, please let us know how you make out.  Please note, that while I have thoroughly tested my own mod, I have not tested Duthos' mod.  With that said, I'm confident that it works, as Duthos used the same method that I have posted here.

[dreck345]

Thank you Binary for giving us the concise links! Although I think they have been posted before, with the influx of posts they have probably been buried at this point. I KNEW Spore would be very moddable soon, and it's only going to get better. We can really end up changing parts of the game to how we want them. I am extremely excited and positive about the future of Spore.

[BinaryDigit]

You're right Dreck, they were posted yesterday or the day before; however they were posted as a rumor, and I'd like to confirm the rumor for you all.  It really works, and its not that hard to do.

[MisterBibs]

Does it really work? In that thread they started talking about it not working, and how you needed to do something else...

[dreck345]

Yep it really does work, but please follow the directions carefully. BinaryDigit, since you've had much success with this already could I trouble you to drum up the direction and modify your original post so we can make this a good thread to have for people beginning to mod Spore? The more people who see this the better, and some of the brilliant minds out there are sure to see it and do some amazing things.

Also, BinaryDigit, could I trouble you for the values you used in your repackage to limit attacks and/or ecodisasters? Thanks!

[SeaJazz]

Duthos wrote " This mod will reduce the frequency of all space event for the purpose of allowing people to enjoy their universe, rather than babysitting their planets. " http://www.cheathappens.com/show_board2.asp?headID=71985&titleID=12378

[BinaryDigit]

EDIT:  Moved the body of this post to the original post in the thread, as per your request.  Happy gaming!

Special thanks to Geos, CyberOps, Duthos, and most especially Wes Howe.  It was Wes' tool that made all this possible.

[smjjames]

Cool, sounds like something I could really use, I'm starting to see this kind of thing in my space game and I really don't want to have to deal with attacks (unless I'm the one attacking) and enviro disasters happening alot.

I assume this does not affect the missions that relate to stuff like infected animals, etc.

Edit: has anybody tried making the delay like at least an hour or more? I want to do that, but just want to be sure making it that long won't tweak things out of poportion.

[dreck345]

Thanks, Binary! You rock! And thanks to everyone who made this possible as well. 

[BinaryDigit]

One of the posters on Cheat Happens indicated that he set the freqeuncy to 12 hours and he didn't report any problems.  I think the only concern would be if the size of your variable exceeded the capabilities of the datatype.  These three values are all integers, which means you shouldn't include a decimal, and you probably don't want to exceed 8 bytes, but an 8 byte integer is a pretty sufficiently massive number to render pirate attacks and the like as nonexistant.

[smjjames]

cool, thanks. I'm in the proccess of downloading the SPview, which is a Rar file apparently. I do have a rar file unpacker, so that is not a problem.

[Coolant]

Apparently if you set it to 0 then they won't attack at all. That is.. if I'm reading this right..

Arg.

[MisterBibs]

Duthos wrote " This mod will reduce the frequency of all space event for the purpose of allowing people to enjoy their universe, rather than babysitting their planets. " http://www.cheathappens.com/show_board2.asp?headID=71985&titleID=12378

Awesome, this is exactly what I wanted. No having to mess around with any third-party programs, just a single file... ah...

[BinaryDigit]

Apparently if you set it to 0 then they won't attack at all. That is.. if I'm reading this right..

Arg.

I read this as well, but I cannot confirm the truth of it.  I've not tested the game with 0 values for those parameters, but the logic seems sound.  If anybody tests it out, please let us know your results.

[Logan Felipe]

After dealing with the modding disasters of the Empire at war series, I've learned to generally avoid most mods.

Is it easy to remove the mod if it causes issues?