Lest we forget: SPORE

[kewian]

I found having more than one member playing the same instrument helps.  I had 2 wooden horns, 2 digraridoos, 2 marachas and I found it a lot easier to impress them when on previous attempts kept failing.

[Zazazu]

Two on an instrument is definitely ideal. From my experience with Tribal (I've ran it through four times now), you're better off having two players for each of two instruments than only one player for all three.

[Ryslin]

The clothes in tribal add to your score. If you are going out to impress dress accordingly. There is a Social mask (I usually use it as shoulder cover).. wile you are there pick up the gathering backpack and put it on your guys somewhere. It helps with the whole food collection.

If you are a carnivore hunting a bunch of critters as a tribe works well. If you can pull it off .. the epic monsters have plenty of meat on them. Either way stock up on the foods before deciding what to do about your neighbors. If they get angry, click the green social button to get the social options and wander over and right click their food mat. There you go , insta neutral.

For your first social when you have one instrument, and possibly a low social score with clothes, I recommend going with three tribal members with your one instrument. Easiest way to select is to click them one by one on the side menu, you hold down shift or cntrl and they will stay in a "group" for you. This allows you to choose them based on task, leaving say one or two gathering food.

I cannot stress domesticating enough. It should be the first thing you do. When you get to the last two tribes to befriend/remove you may not even need food gathering if you have collected the eggs from your domesticated animals.
You can have three different animals domesticated, if for some reason they die capture a new one. You must have 15 food , but it only costs 10 to lure them into slavery. (this might be a factor of easy/normal I have played both ways but I cannot remember if normal is 15food or not)

My tribal phase starts as such. I send shaman guy to go befriend first domestic animal. I set the other two gathering/killing/fishing depending on what kind of creature they are and where I want to take them. Shaman returns with his first slave, I promptly send him out gathering food as well.  Now I play the waiting game to get enough to pop out an egg , and the Shaman to return. This "should" leave me with just enough to get another animal. The second slave returns around the same time as the new egg grows up, the other two return with food baskets and I should be able to get the third animal. One more brief round , and the first other tribe has shown up, I have three animals now producing eggs. I take one gatherer and stick them on get eggs duty and grab three guys and my shaman heading to the "new" people. I equip them with a weapon/instrument depending on what I am doing and get them dressed for the occasion.

After this it is a matter of keeping that egg basket empty, and handling the tribes as they show up in turn. I often have the shaman gift aggressive tribes on the way home from the first win as they are triggered then.

....
In a related way here is something I am sure you will all be curious about when you hit space.
If you play as three or four of the same color trait, you will end up with one of these:
Green: Shaman
Blue: Trader
Red: Warrior

If you play as half and half, you will end up this way:
Green and Blue: Diplomat
Green and Red: Zealot
Blue and Red: Scientist

If you play as all colors at least once, depending on which one you played twice:
Green: Ecologist
Blue: Bard
Red: Knight

Bard:             Soothing Song - Calming effect on other races
Ecologist:    Safari Vacuum - Abduct multiple animals from planet
Zealot:    Fanatical Frenzy - Take over a Planet Religiously
Diplomat:    Static Cling - Stun all ships and turrets on a planet
Scientist:    Graviton Wave - Destroy all structures on a planet
Trader:    Cash Infusion - Buy any planet you're trading with
Shaman:    Return Ticket - Instantly return to your home system
Warrior:    Raider Rally - Flood an enemy planet with pirates
Knight:    Summon Mini-U - Warp in a friendly spaceship to help
Wanderer:    None - Default trait if you start in the Space game

[Hellyes]

I got to the space stage, but I couldn't leave the planet or save.  I was stuck.  I was forced to quit the game without saving and now I am back at civ stage. I've been reading on some other sites that this is a bug or glitch with the game.  Anyone else have this problem or know what the solution is?

[kewian]

Well you may not need to domesticate if you enter the tribal stage with pack members.. they become your pets.

[sirnh]

Did anyone notice a space ship in the second stage? I mean, I was playing the second stage and I was busy fighting an enemy and only had 2 more to go, when suddenly the shadow of an (alien)-space ship was visible on the ground. It shot (or abduct...) 1 enemy (and it got killed). The ship a few more minutes and then left. Next thing I did was kill the last 1 of the enemy, but the game still seems to think there is 1 more enemy (the message top left said somthing simular to: 'destroy 1 more of the xxxxx  to get ??dna points'), but the map shows them as extinguished .

To problem is that I forgot to take pictures, but I found a (bad) youtube video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVRwzGVdmpY

[Gus Smedstad]

I saw spaceships multiple times in the Creature stage.  When I saw it I thought it was some sort of easter egg, since Maxis has a thing for alien abductions (Sim City, Sims 2).  It wasn't until I hit Space that I realized they were just showing off normal gameplay... from the victim's point of view.

 - Gus

[squish]

I got to the space stage, but I couldn't leave the planet or save.  I was stuck.  I was forced to quit the game without saving and now I am back at civ stage. I've been reading on some other sites that this is a bug or glitch with the game.  Anyone else have this problem or know what the solution is?

Did you play through the "testing" part? I couldn't quit or save the game until I had gone through the testing of ship movement and abducting animals.

After getting to the space stage, I loved the meta in the game, as throughout the creature and tribal stages I had come across space ships abducting other creatures and was wondering what they were doing 

[Faizah]

I love the early stage UFO visitors, the normal game play, but from the other side. Before I got to the space stage, I witnessed a couple of abductions and thought, gee, that looks cool. Never really thinking that I'd get to do that. I've got two races at the space stage, and I think I've got the hang of this terraforming business. (I transfomed a lava-world by my home system's sun into a T3, woo.)

The biggest time-saver I found when it comes to terraforming: You're given 10 each of three plants and three animals during the quest your home city gives you. (If you don't have them after going through the quest dialog, check your cargo bay has at least 6 spaces and try again.) You really only need to put one of each on the planet, it'll fill in the rest. That leaves 9 more of each, for 9 other planets. (Also, you can take as many plants/animals from worlds as you like, they'll repopulate.) Also, plants can be 'dropped', they'll be fine. Zip them out there. (So long as you're over land.) Animals can't, you need to be more careful when beaming them down. (When I beam something up - spice crates, etc - from within city limits, I inevitably beam up a few citizens. I just chuck them out. Heh.)

[Ryslin]

There seems to be a bug during the tutorial on space flight. Make sure when you first leave the world to plant your first colony that when you return you answer the comm before zooming into the planet.

You can't save during the space tutorial either. I have gotten in the habit of saving at the end of Civ stage for two reasons. Sometimes my neighbors are a PITA and I need to rethink what I was doing. The other is to have a recent save location due to the no saving for a small bit at the start of space.

Tips from elsewhere-
Many are stating don't waste that colony on the rock they try and make you use it on. Once you have done the tutorials a few times you have the gist of how to handle it, terraforming your moon is one of the easiest things to do. It also provides you with a quick one two of spice collection. Usually your moon has a different spice, thus buys your homeworld spice at a reasonably high price and can be reversed for the same effect.

Carry a colony in your ship at all times when possible. You never know when you will find Pink or Purple spice.. you can always come back later to make the colony viable.

[Hellyes]

I got to the space stage, but I couldn't leave the planet or save.  I was stuck.  I was forced to quit the game without saving and now I am back at civ stage. I've been reading on some other sites that this is a bug or glitch with the game.  Anyone else have this problem or know what the solution is?

Did you play through the "testing" part? I couldn't quit or save the game until I had gone through the testing of ship movement and abducting animals.

It wasn't showing me any tutorials or missions at all.  There was just nothing, I was stuck, and couldn't save.  I've been having this problem where I have to remember to save the game before I click to go to the next stage, then quit the game and restart it because otherwise upon entry to the next stage my game and the game camera is all buggy and glitched and nothings working the way it's suppose to.  It's starting to piss me off.

[photo]

I did have a question. Can you play windowed mode? Is it the same as TS2?

[Trubble]

Yeah you just need the -w on the shortcut.

[photo]

That's what I figured.

[Zazazu]

Tips from elsewhere-
Many are stating don't waste that colony on the rock they try and make you use it on. Once you have done the tutorials a few times you have the gist of how to handle it, terraforming your moon is one of the easiest things to do. It also provides you with a quick one two of spice collection. Usually your moon has a different spice, thus buys your homeworld spice at a reasonably high price and can be reversed for the same effect.

Keep a tally of what spices are being sold, too. If you find spice for a reasonable price (you can take a bit of a risk and spend up to maybe $3k), buy one. Then see what other races are paying for it. I wish I'd paid attention to that earlier. I found the closest neighbor empire to the Dodoki, which loved me on sight, was charging $2k for blue spice. My empire pays $21k for it. Short stints for big profit. I've been doing spice runs and the odd mission or two to keep the two military empires off my ass until I can afford to buy out two star systems that are ripe and ready.

Almost every creature stage I've played through has featured a UFO as well as a meteorite storm. Some tribals have had UFOs as well. Actually, last night, the Dodoki were asked by another race to abduct a Bobony (shiny buttocks creature) from a tribe...on the world I play them on!

Terraforming...meh. I'm finding money to be a concern mostly because of the two races that are constantly extorting me (sometimes I forget who I'm talking to and accidentally answer the message). I don't have money for the tools. I do throw the paints around a lot, making seas purple just because I can.

I did not realize how very big the space stage was until last night. I scrolled way, way out and saw how little space I'd been covering compared to how much was out there.

[Hellyes]

I did have a question. Can you play windowed mode? Is it the same as TS2?

If you press Alt-Enter you can switch quickly between windowed mode and full screen.

[kuronue]

Ok, so, WTF?

I started out as a predator, flirted with omnivore in cell stage but didn't like it much. Ended up a carnivore in creatures, ate a bunch of creatures. Ended up as an aggressive tribe, slaughtered my enemies. Ended up as a military civilization. I destroyed all cities except for one - I did convert one city. Furthermore, I allied with one nation; near the end they spooked at how big I was, so I paid them off to be my friends and said I'd ally with them, winning the planet. This is after militarily killing all but their three cities and the one I converted. The arrow firmly points to Military, near the Religous end.

So why did it brand me Economic up at the top?!

It still made me a warrior but now my bar of red is interrupted by blue... surely 16k bribes isn't enough to swing me that hard, is it? Without moving the arrow in the timeline?

[jsalemi]

Yaaaaa! Come home to find my download finally done!  Now I can find out what the hell this game is all about.

[Ryslin]

Ok, so, WTF?

-edited for clarity-
So why did it brand me Economic up at the top?!

Well.. there is no benefit from being 3red or 4 red- they both equal warrior.
It "should" have moved your arrow on things that were shifting you in your history. You can press T at anytime to see the history, even if you are at completed. (useful in say creature phase where you may be a few kills or dances from where you want to be)

I have never had a shift of philosophy in Civ stage, but then I haven't really tried.  I find it much easier to swing major arcs in creature or tribal. (say going from green to red then back again before civ)

If it changed you over with no hint of what was doing so in the history that is rather odd behavior.

....

Shiny Buttocks Creature! I should so nab that and put it in my game.
Anyone want a few of my silly guys? I seem to have a thing for monsters.


Trick with Terraforming... find a science philosophy group, befriend, trade often for the tools. Science and Spode folk are all about terraforming.

WARNING -SPODE (religious) hate it when you find artifacts. Go fig.. To avoid war with them , well leave artifacts where they are, tools (which you will find) don't bug em. It stinks as those sets can be a nice chunk of change but hey trading some pink spice will make you feel better over loosing them.

[Zazazu]

Bobony


Dodie (I call the race Dodoki)


Macard


Lillo


Spode schmode. The two empires who alternately love and hate me are Spode followers. Unfortunately, both have a lot of star systems.

[Faizah]

Anyone want a few of my silly guys? I seem to have a thing for monsters.

Sure! Always up for more, filling the game out and such.

I've been uploading more things to my photobucket every couple of days myself, I've got two folders: One pre-Spore (all creature creator) and one post-Spore that also has things like buildings and vehicles.

A favourite from the latter is this fellow here: (He's just got a randomly generated name, Kwarisses, which I later changed to Kwarissus for no real reason.)


('Just crawled out of the ooze' version.)


('Final' version, pre-tribal.)

[Solowren]

Well, seeing as we're sharing, here are my creations so far:

DOOM:


Divinia, a dragony-guy with six appendages. KILLING MACHINE:


Fuzzastripeman, my first run through the creator:


And my favorite, Griffikin:


ETA: Zazazu, you'd said before that it's possible to get creatures off of the Sporepedia without logging in. Which .png do I grab? I can't get the creatures to show up in game.

Never mind.

[Frally]

Motion Sickness update - Windowed mode helps a lot, for some reason. I've made it to tribal stage...now I've realised that the game is actually kind of boring. So, all that effort to get it working for me and I don't think I can be bothered completing Civilisation stage *shrugs*. I guess I'd like to ask those who've played it through, does it get any more exciting?

[jfade]

Motion Sickness update - Windowed mode helps a lot, for some reason. I've made it to tribal stage...now I've realised that the game is actually kind of boring. So, all that effort to get it working for me and I don't think I can be bothered completing Civilisation stage *shrugs*. I guess I'd like to ask those who've played it through, does it get any more exciting?

Yes. Space stage is what it's all about.

[Solowren]

I've hit civilization stage on both the planets I'm playing, and I must admit the fire inside me for Spore is dying. I'm making myself stick it out so I can get to space stage, though. That's all #grah talks about anymore.