What do you dislike about Spore?

[Klunkjonm]

I cant play the BLOODY game since it demands an internet connection and my computer att home dosent have one.
So thanks for screwing me ower EA.

[andurilmat]

3 activations and SecuROM, it makes me feel like EA have took my money laughed and told me to go F*** myself

[vissia]

wow this thread is getting full fast i wonder if ea noticed it T_T

[itsmoirob]

@Vissia I hope EA do pay attention or at least Maxis.

I agree with everyone regarding the Space Age that the constant attention to stop your home planet being destroyed--by highly unadvantaged and out numbered ships--takes away from what could be a good exploration beginning. I could deal with the constant 2 minute attacks IF the game allowed me to progress to a certain point FIRST or at least allow me to upgrade my weapons/allies to be able to deal with the encounters.
Also what's the point of the turrets at my bases?

Also the number of aliens wanting money from me is INSANE. I've received in one instance four message from aliens all demanding a small sum but a sum that is way out of my grasp as I cannot make money. Everything sells too low and costs way too much. And when I decline everyone then hates me which leads to SEE ABOVE.

If they removed the constant homeworld attacks I wouldn't mind dealing with the occasional pirate or diseased aliens but as high frequenced as they are.

Someone pointed out a good feature that the Galaxy view could 'pause' when you were on a planet--for those 'hardcore' a feature that could be disabled when playing Hard mode.

At the moment I've given up hope of defending my home planet to make some attempt at improving interstellar relations but I know this is going to bite me in the but when I return to an empty planet.

I do hope that the game is patched to make the first few hours of Space exploration fun and to give you time to adopt your way of Space exploration, ie peace, missions, trade or war and to get to grips with Space before it starts to show you some hostile space ships.

[SamuelDurkin]

Making a sporecast using things that I've already found in the game is extremely difficult. Why is it that I cant just click a button on a creature to add it to a sporecast? Instead when i want to add something to a sporecast, I have to actually find the thing again, and invariably there are 200 other creations all named the same thing, so finding that one gem, takes for ever.

If I've found something already, adding it to a sporecast should be easy. I shouldn't need to find it all over again.

[Kyle1000]

Watch this video of the 2006 version
it looks so much better to me so why has it changed?

Spore Gameplay Video

say if you agree with me

and i want the developers to tell us why it was changed to make it worse not better

It looks amazing the only thing that is better in the 2008 version is the cell stage and possibly some of the graphics thats it

[Dajmin]

I think people's biggest problem with constant attacks is that they're not told about the factions. This is how I understand it now: if you improve your standing with a planet that has enemies, you will automatically decrease it with those they are at war with. Keep doing that and obviously you end up at a stage where you are at war with one species without even knowing why.

The early stages have a lot of help available and I think that's where the problems are with the Space stage. A little more info might be useful in that aspect.
You get the progress bar to show how friendly that species is already. How about automatically popping that up along with bars showing each species you are decreasing at the same time? Then you'd be able to tell when you were about to inadvertently start a war and stop before you got to that stage. There's so much to keep an eye on, it's a massive learning curve at that point.
I love it, but I can see where people are having trouble.

I also have to agree with the constant ransom demands - that is just crazy, especially if you're trying to advance as a peaceful species.

[LeCramp]

What I dislike the most.. Well, I feel the game has alot of untapped potential.

Besides phase 1+2, your designs have no real impact on gameplay. So you got alot of editors thats only for show. Would it not have been much much better, if the weapons you outfitted your airplanes with, actually meant something? If extra engines on your spacecraft made it more maneuverable? If you could add more cargo-space and abilities per design instead of simply buying stuff in a trade window? As it is now, enen though you add more speed, etc, the effect is minimal. And in the space stage, it has no effect what so ever. It's a damn shame, if you ask me.

But as so many have said before (and this seems to be Typical of a Will Wright game) - for some reason, the designers are of the belief, that we like being swamped with constant alarms and emergencies.

My usual game in the space phase is: Pick up spice - Sell spice - Get warning (pirates, eco disaster, etc) - scramble to solve this disaster - Pick up mission (usually its timed) - Get 3 warnings about attacks (disasters) - scramble to fend off attackers - Possibly lose mission because lack of time - desperately trying to get allies to help me (which is pretty expensive at the stage in the game - over 400k was the asking price last time i asked) - start over. And this is on Easy mode - since I figured I'd try that, as I had the same problems on Hard.

This is not fun for very long. And it certainly is not fun for 5 hours now.

This is basicly a very simple and easy game made hard by throwing tons of stuff at the player. Constantly. With no breaks what so ever. This is not well designed at all, gameplay wise.

As I said. This game has so much potential. But a few too many corners have been cut here. It's sad. I'm left with a game I've bought, that I'm already regretting ever buying. And I had so big hopes for it ever since it was announced 3'ish years ago.

[Wirk]

Well the whole space stage needs a bit of dedication and i understand that may frustrate thousands of players so i do agree that the easy level should be easy not hard
for me all the difficulty levels didnt make much difference though.
heres some tips for your gameplay > the cash is not important so you have to decide if 1) you wanna have 11250 HP and every single weapon you use will deal more damage and the pirates raid your home planet less often < then be carnivore and military all red goals. thats the easiest to finish the game and includes lots of action and agression
OR
2) you want to be 10% more liked by all races and have some ecological bonuses
for peaceful space stage < then be herbivore and try to ally throughout all stages instead of fighting all green goal . this option is best for peaceful trading and planetbuilding.
either way you gotta stick to the green line from beginning to the end or the red line from beginning to the end , i played it through 3 times and i failed to keep steady blue line but seems as cash has no meaning later on its seems useless option anyways.
!!! IF you find the game overwhelming - then dont do any missions , dont steal artifacts from habitated planets , make frequent gifts and use happy ray and embassy on agressive empires around you even if you dont like them just bear with it and wait til you have better ship and lots of money , using passive strategy may lead being isolated into tiny spot and its tough to get to center of theuniverse also < against being "wrapped" by tens of empires buy their capitals (10 mil ) or other good resource planets T2= about 5 mil and others 3mil , im not sure but you prolly wont get any planets for less cash.
when you have enough cash to start wrangling around with terraforming and so then find closest free system with nice resources terraform it into T3 and use the monolith to let it evolve to space stage, when they are ready make trade route and buy them for 10 mil - and you get REALLY nice income with 10 city T3 good resource planet
i managed to make all 6 resources planets in one fly range and all with 10 cities
superfast income ! then you buy hundreds of energy and repair packs (remember the AOE seems good but are useless when trying to fly into the center , so use the normal ones with healing sign not with wrench sign)
i hope this post helps you guys to enjoy this great game

[nin9abadga]

i echo everyone else - the space stage. i can handle the enemy and pirate attacks (though annoying admittedly) as they do give me cash. however i have played a zenophobic, destroy not ally, mega aggressive lalalalalala lalalala from the start based on strength and numbers. why the fudge do i have to ally with people in order to get more than 1 ship that is weak as anything at the start?

that's my major gripe. unless im missing something obvious.

[hardtofi]

The copyright '"protection" by far. Having three installs is a big no go for me. I'd like to be able to play this game in a couple of years as well but I'm not ready to keep dishing out $50 every third computer switch / OS reinstall / game reinstall.

I've been waiting for this game for ages and I always buy games I play. Now I'm forced to either pirate or not play the game. Sucks big time.

[Wirk]

i agree that the fleet building system sucks , though what good are the allied ships anyways ?
1) they shoot the wrong things at the wrong time (messing up my relationship with Grox from blue to orange)
2)they "help" to take over 10 city capital and i end up with 6-7 city planet
3) they cut off your transport beam sometimes causing total mess again
maybe at the start of the space starge youll need them to fight bad guys but i really prefer the solo.
the space stage misses lots of overviews about diplomatics , its sick i have to fly over to planet orbit to find out whats the relationship score is
and what if im on the other side of the galaxy ?
also the tribal and civ stages were way too easy id say the cell stage was more challenging than that.
still most fun stage for me was creature stage , what im missing there is some physics impact on how flexible and heavy you are (i made fat hippo with uber tiny wings and i could fly about 50m high for over 400 meters)
also the direction of spitting limbs should matter,
i could kill almost any Epic creature in creature stage with spitting spikes
thats not much of a challenge
still theres something that binds me to the game - going to play it from scratch for 4th time.

[musKeter]

well look at these links u would be supprised
Digg - Do you think people hate Spore's DRM a little?
and this
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Spore
game feedback costumer support

[Pyritie]

I dislike the transitions. From tribal with stone axes suddenly you have cities with robotic legs.

They could've made it more Age of Empires-like, where you have to advance through each "age".

[AnnoyedDragon]

Four calls for help at once, I know they are all systems being attacked because I reloaded my save.

If I respond to one call all the other systems like me less because I didn't help, most of their calls are species I am allied with attacking species I am allied with! How am I supposed to manage peace with odds like this?

The player is just one ship in a vast galaxy, we cannot be everywhere at once. There needs to be more support for multitasking, if it is like this with just a hand full of surrounding planets how are we supposed to manage an entire galactic empire?

In this case obviously you need to limit the number of simultaneous events to something the player can deal with, extend the response time to calls and events so we can get around to them. There also needs to be some sort of technology you can purchase to automatically pick up spice from a planet and deliver it to the player, with everything else going on; darting between planets to constantly pick up spice is a time best spent elsewhere.

There also needs to be an option to convince waring groups to make peace, I can avoid war myself but I cannot stop indirectly entering war from protecting allies from my own allies.

[Kyle1000]

It's odvious that Spore has done terrible, just look at how many dislike posts there are compared to what people like.

Patches need to be brought out that can save this game by improving it and making it more like the 2006 version that people were expecting and waiting all this time to play,
the thing i am most annoyed about is that we are being 'spoon fed' how to play the game
for example in the form of missions and objectives such as you must fill the bar at the bottom to advance by doing what the missions say not what you want, before in the 2006 version you spent DNA points upgrading the brain in the creature stage and advancing your own way for more information on the 2006 version follow this link to a video

Spore Gameplay Video

[Kyle1000]

I and no doubt others are expecting a reply from the Spore team on what they will be doing to greatly improve the game

[AnnoyedDragon]

*sigh* I'm at war with a species that was once my allies now, they just kept attacking my other allies.

What's really annoying is when I am trying to fend them off events are still going on around the galaxy, so I'm constantly getting transmissions asking for help while I'm fighting.

There should be no events during combat, at all!

I really did my best to avoid war this time round; but the game set it up so it was unavoidable. I'd even be willing to bribe my way to peace, but positive influence gained from gifts is capped at 50; while negative has no cap.

[RedCabbage]

Cell phase: Great. Uninspiring gameplay but very pretty, lots of nice evolution and brief enough to not get boring. 8/10.

Creature phase: I actually really liked this part. Evolving my beastie is fun and the use of four "hotbutton" attacks lent a bit of variety. A nice step forwards from the cell phase. 7/10

Tribal phase: Not bad. A pleasant increase in challenge from the creature phase. Some new things to do. Different roles of individuals. Can't really complain. I can think of several possible improvements but still tolerable. 6/10

Civilisation phase: Absolute rubbish. This is the reason I am posting in this thread and not the "things I like..." thread. I was expecting this section to be a progression of the game but it's just a pointless, stupidly easy pile of nothing. I spent considerably more time designing my vehicles and building than it took to just select all the cars I needed and just clicked on the other cities one after the other and selected "conquer". Splat. The world is mine. This section should have been MUCH more in-depth. If you're going to be a RTS then you need some interesting resource management, a build queue, a tech tree, multiple units etc. This came across as just an afterthought. I would have given up the game at this stage if I'd had time, but I figured I could afford another 5 minutes to see what space was like. 2/10

Space: Jury is out. I haven't spent long enough time in space to justify an opinion. We shall see.... ?/10

All in all we're talking about 5/10 (so far...) - and a patch isn't going to improve that unless it's monumental. Civilisation stage needs to be completely redesigned. Sorry.

[Elnicko]

I don't like how the earlier stages seem to end so so quickly, i thought space would be a smaller aspect of the game and the main part would be making your creature and playing with it individually, even tribal and city stages are extremely short which is annoying too since they are so much fun but what... 20-30 minutes tops of gameplay on them.. and not rushed either..!! horrid

[Will-ko]

I'd rather the stages be more linked...
Like creature stage, you're guy picks up a rock with your direction and starts to use it to get the fruit in the tall trees or to smash on the heads of enemies as a thrown weapon, then eventually your guy works out to attach rocks to sticks and up grade the main nest into a shack then eventually a hut.

The preset buildings and there fixed locations was a rubbish decision!

And what the hell is with all the creatures in your nest suddenly evolving after coming out of the egg?

One more thing... WHY DO I HAVE TO HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OF MY PLANET?
Why can't I have 2 or 3 nations of my creatures species on a planet each evolving at separate pace or even other creatures evolving to have cities on my planet, we could then ally.

I don't seem to recall any superpower on earth unifying humanity before going into space?

Your cities should be automated to repair and buy more buildings and vehicles. Why can you not have more than one Star ship? I understand the fleet bit, but you really do need more of your guys watching your six. How about designing a fighter or drones that you release to assist in 7 vs 1 battles?

The game really needs an overhaul!

I've been raving about spore since I first saw an article in PC Gamer years ago even more so from the 2005 demo vid, but I've been really let down. :/

[Tappo]

Game binary not known even to popular web security firms so blocked in firewalls by default - A crazy issue for a mainstream game.

Game requires DX9 installed to play. I am installing on a PC that has only ever run Vista and therefore only has DX10 installed. OK, fair enough that spore does not use the extra features, but the installer for DX9 is simply started. There is no indication that you might need it after all even if you have a perfectly good directX version installed already

There is too much early emphasis on getting onto the internet and not into actually playing the game and creating something. Go on - be brave and let people register later.

When I finally get to the gameplay maybe I'll actually find something nice to say...

[Will-ko]

Originally Posted by Tappo

When I finally get to the gameplay maybe I'll actually find something nice to say...

Doubt it.

[StarPaladin]

Well, I feel really bad for you all. I "heard" about Spore for years now, but I was really not going to get it. But a friend of mine (who is moving to Sweden) just bought it for me out of the blue, as an early Christmas present before he leaves.

The Creature editor, and all it's great animations get an A from me, but the game parts (excluding Cell) are like sharware games I played almost 20 years ago; I'm shocked how primative they are. And don't get too excited about a patch, cause you really don't think there's much they can patch to fix this do you? Maybe turn down the difficulty in space age at most. They can't (or won't) "patch in" more and better gameplay (at best, they will, IF, you pay $39 for a Add-On next year).

At most, a patch will be let out in a month or two, and there will be just a few bugs fixed and tweaks, but no patch they release is really going to be able to change this game.

I feel terrible for all of you that waited for so long; I'm disapointed, REALLY dispointed, and I was not even "waiting" for this game, nor did I spend my own money on it. 3 days into it, and I feel "finished" with the game already, and have no desire to replay it.

And the worst thing of all, is most reviewers are giving it a "9", so lots who don't read forums or know other people that already got the game, are going to dole out their $50 because of the hype, and find out what we did the hard way.

So very sad

[Avaggdu]

I bought Spore because I've been waiting for a game based on detailed evolution for well over 20 years. The first two stages of Spore hinted that it would finally be that game, but sadly it isn't.

I don't want to trash Spore for not being what I want, so instead I'll say what I'd like and hope Spore 2 comes closer. What I definitely don't want is a resource-management game (if I wanted that, I'd play the Total War games which are infinitely superior in that respect).

There's infinite possibilities in dominating a biosphere without messing it up with boring details like how much money you have, what tools, etc. I want to start out with amino acids (that'd be a good mini-game on its own - combining basic elements that will ultimately dictate the abilities and weaknesses of your advanced creature - do you base your lifeform on carbon, or silicon, or some other element?) and move on to single-celled animals (again with all the fun of evolutionary experimentation - do you absorb other less-advanced organisms into your cell to give you benefits as well as flaws, etc.) then basic life-forms, etc. all the while fending off viruses, other equivalent creatures and more advanced ones, as well as environmental changes. I could happily play for hours as an amoeba in a pool of volcanic slime - it reminds me of real life!

Just think - you could reach your evolutionary potential as a lichen, but still dominate a whole planet (and then go on to conquer other planets by being able to survive being blasted into space by a meteorite collision). How cool would that be? Especially online - whilst others are tromping around as big, mean dinosaurs, you are busy turning their planet mysteriously blue before releasing deadly spores that wipes them out!

There's potential for hours of gameplay expanding your biomass as a single-celled animal (or plant) before you even drag your slimy *** out of the sea. Sure, if you want to evolve into super-intelligent spacefarers and dominate the galaxy that way, go for it. All the fun for me is in the evolution and tinkering stages. Fighting for survival on a rock in a volcanic pool can be just as exciting as vapourising cities with nukes, if enough attention is paid to the details.

One major criticism of Spore though - there's no real sense of competition or struggle; once you defeat another species, you don't expand your empire and take over their territory. Similarly, there's no threat from anyone else - everyone just sits around in relative harmony, waiting for you to come along and make friends or wipe them out. Survival of the fittest (which is surely the fundamental aspect of evolution, and what Spore should be all about) just doesn't enter into the game to any meaningful degree.

I had more fun with the creature creator than I did with the game itself. Sorry guys, but must try harder. Spore isn't anything special or even challenging.