Lest we forget: SPORE

[Zazazu]

I did finish Creature as a predator.  No choice really, because no matter what parts I equipped, I never managed more than 25% on the charm bar.  Or is that 50%, since half way is success?  In any case, even with perfect mimcry and +5 socials they weren't impressed.

Numbers improve things. Having more creatures in your pack and less in theirs helps. Babies are more easily impressed than adult and Alphas. They are also very tasty. Mmm. Babies.

Recruiting a rogue creature can be fantastic, too. I almost got Fwoggie on my side last run through last night (straight blue), but instead ended up with one of my own race and two carnivore rogues. The rogues generally have high stats and fantastic HP, so you can pretty much sic them on a nest by themselves. They help exponentially with socials.

As an economic civ, it is crucial that your first vehicle emphasize SPEED ABOVE ALL ELSE. Forget entirely about armor (you don't have weapons anyway, so who cares?), and go for SPEED, so you can raid those remaining tribal villages and claim the spice before they can. This will choke their expansion and allow you to buy out a military or religious civ, and thus have some means of defending yourself.

Ditto that. I love econ just for the fact that as long as you are on top of it and prioritize vehicles first, you can dominate your continent by taking all geysers before other cities appear. Then, buying out the ones that do appear cost me only $4k as they had no resources. After that, I was rolling in it and taking over the other cities was simple. I just bombarded them with four or five planes at once trading, hitting with an advertising blitz when available.

I'm still playing on Easy, but we know I suck. I want to hit the end goal, then play through Normal and then through Hard. I definitely feel like I can handle cell-civ on Hard, but not space.

[syberspunk]

Just wanted to let everyone know.  According to this online article (don't know how reliable this information is) if you are using a no-cd crack you can install Spore as many times as you want.  This suggests that a crack bypasses the 3 install limitation.

Umm, simple reading here will indicate that using the no-cd.exe means just that, and also means you don't get SecuROM on your system. This is not news. 

I was just passing this information on, as people were asking about this earlier in the week.  Of course I knew that you don't get SecuROM on your system with a crack, but there has still been some uncertainty whether or not using a crack would specifically bypass the 3 install limit and allow you to reinstall as many times as you want. 

With the no-cd, you don't have to activate your game. It's the activation that locks up after three installs, far as I've heard.

The real question is "Can you use the no-cd AND activate online without having securom installed?"

Yes, because you'll be activating a legitimate serial number if you buy it.

Ok, I installed Spore.  I haven't run the game yet because I haven't put the no-cd patch in yet.  I actually still have SecuROM from BV, which I haven't had time to remove yet either.  But, just to clarify...

Can you play the game online without activating it?  OR... does going online, in effect, "activate" the game (or rather... does it require you to "activate" the game in order to go online)?

I'm a bit confused about this activation limitation thing.  I haven't been keeping up with the happenings and all, but from what I vaguely recall, I think Hellyes said they were able to go online fine with a no-cd.  But, I'm confused as to whether the no-cd crack bypasses activation altogether... meaning you can run the game and go online, all without having to activate?

Or, it just lets you run the game locally/offline without activation.  And... the only way to get online, is to activate, regardless of whether you use the no-cd crack or not?


Ste


PS.  I also saw some rumblings about Sporn and servers and crap being disabled and what not.  Previously, I had the Spore Creature Creator installed.  When I first played around with it, I'm pretty sure I was able to see the 30 EAxis made creatures, and I think I was able to see random peeps creatures too.  But recently, just before I installed the full game, I went into the Creature Creator and I could only see my single creation and the 30 Maxis ones.  I tried to look through the settings/options, and I didn't see anything related to privacy or what not, that would prevent me from seeing other people's stuff.  I thought the whole point of the game was that you should be able to see other people's creations and download them. 

Was this recently changed?  Or is this just something isolated to the creature creator?  Or possibly isolated to my PC/install?  And is there some setting that I would have to change in order to see other player's custom created content?

[cwieberdink]

Ste I'm also having trouble seeing other people's creatures that I've downloaded.  I opened up the sporepedia in game, dragged the .png to the window.  It shuffled the thumbnails like it was adding them, but I can't find them back in game now.  Where did they go?  when I try to sort them by creator, I get nada.  sorting by name gets only those few maxis ones.  It shows on the left side that there are some thousands of creatures, but I can only see a handful.

[syberspunk]

I don't even mean ones that have been downloaded.  I didn't download anything yet.  I thought you were supposed to be able to access other people's content in game.  In the Creature Creator, when you created stuff, you could start off by building from scratch, or choosing something that's already been built.  I could have sworn I used to be able to see other people's stuff under the "Community" part (or whatevs it's called).  But last week, all I could see was just the 30 pre-made EAxis content.

Are we supposed to go through a website then?  I either imagined that I could see other people's stuff, or something changed on the server side.  As I am pretty sure that I haven't adjusted any of the options since I last created that single creature I made, which was like during the first week the creature creator came out. 

Anyhew.  I've also herd/read complaints about people downloading stuff and it still doesn't show up.  I also remember peeps mentioning something about an adult server that's supposably separate and hosts the Sporn stuff.  I thought that the reason why I couldn't see anything else was related to that.  But it can't all be considered Sporn?  Lol.    I thought maybe they added like privacy options for people to check whether they wanted to see other users' custom content, and/or the adult server (if there is one), and that maybe they set defaults to not have any access.  But I couldn't figure it out.    I hope that, when I finally do get Spore running, I'll be able to see other peeps stuff.  Unless that was never supposed to be an option to do it in game, and the only way to add content is by downloading things outside of the game, from a website?  And then importing them I guess?


Ste

[photo]

I'm still confused as to how you download other people's creatures?

[Hellyes]

I'm still confused as to how you download other people's creatures?

There is two ways.  At the Spore website in the Sporepedia you right click on what you want and save it to the creatures folder.  The other way is in the game if you are able to go online.  Go to the Sporepedia, and under creatures click Search Online.  There is a link under each creation for downloading.

[Alex]

Having now played the game, I can actually form an opinion on it.

I quite like the cell and space stages, but the other three are a bit linear and dull. The cell stage is just fun and focused (plus seeing the scale of creatures evolving and growing and shrinking is amazing), and the space stage is that magical sandbox we all know and love. The other stages have potential, so I hope they flesh them out a lot more in the future.

I did admittedly cheat, but only because the game froze FOUR times in the Space Stage, and I got sick of losing my Sporebuckaroos over and over again. I did get a shiny new Joker badge though, so all is well.

[Zazazu]

It's odd that you only get Joker'ed in Space. It's like the creators decided that cheating on the earlier levels doesn't matter, since we all know the game's about space.

[Solowren]

Huzzah! I have obtained Space stage. This thing is HUGE.

[Ellatrue]

I'm a bit confused about the whole going online thing, as well. The instructions for the reloaded crack seemed to indicate that doing so is not possible.

[jsalemi]

If you use the no-cd.exe and a keygened key, then you can't go online.  If you use it with a legitimate key, you can go online, but you're subject to the 3-installation restriction (I believe).  But you won't have suckrot on your machine.

But I don't think there's any real advantage to going online -- you can search the Sporepedia on the website, and save the creatures/vehicles/whatever that interest you.  Just plop them in the proper sub-directory under 'My Spore Creations' and they'll show up in your game.  They don't always show up in your game's off-line Sporepedia, but I've seen them actually show up in the game itself. But at least that way you have complete control over your game, and aren't stuck with random crap it decides to download on its own.

I decided to start a new planet today (still downloading a new copy in case my original was damaged), and while my carnivores were in creature stage, the pack chased some prey into the ocean.  Didn't get to far when suddenly something BIG came up out of the water and ate them all!  Surprised the hell out of me...

[kuronue]

From what I can see, to get online you need an online account, which would be tied to your serial number. Because the cracked game comes with a pregenned serial number, using it to try and set up an online account is a bad idea because the odds are a lot of people have the same serial number (I don't recall if there's one or three or what). Thus, you can only play online if you have a copy of the real game with a legit serial number.

However, the three-install thing seems (from what I hear) to be negated by the crack even if you have a legit number, because the cracked exe won't phone home to reduce your install count on their server.

[jsalemi]

No, the cracked exe doesn't come with a pre-genned number; you still have to gen one (or get one) and enter it in during install.  Others in this tread have reported going online successfully with a legitimate game with the no-cd.exe to keep it from installing SecuROM.

[kuronue]

No, the cracked exe doesn't come with a pre-genned number; you still have to gen one (or get one) and enter it in during install.  Others in this tread have reported going online successfully with a legitimate game with the no-cd.exe to keep it from installing SecuROM.

Maybe someone tossed one into the torrent I used or posted it in the comments or something.

[rufio]

I finally broke down and went to look for promo stuff on youtube for Spore, but I'm not real impressed.  I was kind of hoping it'd be possible to custom design tools and dwellings and whatnot based on your creatures' physiology, but it looks like they all get basically the same stock tools and instruments and buildings and social whatsits.  And there doesn't seem to be an option to make it a hunter-gatherer society rather than an agricultural/city-building one.  Don't they know that there are real honest-to-god hunter-gatherer societies in the 21st century?  And that from all appearances the switch over to an agricultural lifestyle was a bad one?

It looks mostly like the earlier stages are about sticking bits and pieces of things together to make funny-looking creatures and the later stages are sort of a clone of civilization.  Am I wrong?

[Zazazu]

Didn't get to far when suddenly something BIG came up out of the water and ate them all!  Surprised the hell out of me...

Epic creatures. The Morekin were plagued by them last night. I was chased down by at least six different ones. I seriously was regretting making the Lillo. He'd fly in from nowhere:



Oh, and for Pescado:


Creature link in my sig with most of my keepers. Cry for the Songie, who pissed off the Grox much too early.

[rohina]

Fwoggie installed fine in my game, but the Pumpkin creatures did not. Are you doing it rong?

[photo]

I'm still confused as to how you download other people's creatures?

There is two ways.  At the Spore website in the Sporepedia you right click on what you want and save it to the creatures folder.  The other way is in the game if you are able to go online.  Go to the Sporepedia, and under creatures click Search Online.  There is a link under each creation for downloading.

So since I have an arr'ed game I probably shouldn't do the second one?

[Gus Smedstad]

Don't they know that there are real honest-to-god hunter-gatherer societies in the 21st century?  And that from all appearances the switch over to an agricultural lifestyle was a bad one?

And just to demonstrate how bad the switch to agriculture was, look at all those high-tech hunter-gatherer societies.  I know I'd rather be living in a mud hunt and worrying about whether I was going to starve in winter than sitting around in a 2.5 story house playing computer games.

 - Gus

[BastDawn]

Question: how many creatures and other content should I download or make to have a pleasingly diverse enough game?  So far I've collected around 360 (many of those came from the 1000 creatures torrent; I discarded the rest), and I have 29 things that seem to be buildings and vehicles.   How many do you guys recommend I collect before I get around to installing the game?

[Zazazu]

Fwoggie installed fine in my game, but the Pumpkin creatures did not. Are you doing it rong?

I don't know how I could do it wrong. They are .pngs. You just shove them in a folder and there you go. I swapped one or two before from my test account, and they show up in my main.

[rufio]

Don't they know that there are real honest-to-god hunter-gatherer societies in the 21st century?  And that from all appearances the switch over to an agricultural lifestyle was a bad one?

And just to demonstrate how bad the switch to agriculture was, look at all those high-tech hunter-gatherer societies.  I know I'd rather be living in a mud hunt and worrying about whether I was going to starve in winter than sitting around in a 2.5 story house playing computer games.

 - Gus

Not saying it was bad in the long run, just that there wasn't anything to recommend it at the time that anyone can tell.  In other words, not a logical evolutionary step.

Also, hunter-gatherers wouldn't have mud huts - too hard to pack up and take with you.  Hunter-gatherer cultures also tend to involve smaller numbers of people, who are thus less likely to starve to death, and work together more efficiently and thus have more free time than in agriculture-based communities.  Raising crops is more work than killing animals that happen to be in the area, and requires more manhours.  In the meantime, you have to somehow keep the larger, sedentary population clothed and fed and avoid being overrun by human waste.

Regardless, I think it would have been interesting to see settled cities having to deal with more advanced nomadic cultures.

[Faizah]

Fwoggie installed fine in my game, but the Pumpkin creatures did not. Are you doing it rong?

I don't know how I could do it wrong. They are .pngs. You just shove them in a folder and there you go. I swapped one or two before from my test account, and they show up in my main.

They worked in my game. I've even run across a couple.

The most interesting thing I discovered last night, when I went through and 'dressed up' a bunch of my creatures for tribal, civ, and space, was that I suddenly had three new space races surrounding my planet, in the very next space-level game I loaded. I'm glad I only chose to do three of each, now...

[Gus Smedstad]

Not saying it was bad in the long run, just that there wasn't anything to recommend it at the time that anyone can tell.  In other words, not a logical evolutionary step.

I think it's self-evident that it did have an advantage, or it wouldn't have happened over and over again in different parts of the world, and the agricultural societies wouldn't have overrun their hunter-gatherer neighbors.  I've read authors who've held forth on how great it was to be a hunter-gatherer, but I think it's a lot of starry-eye hoo-haw that ignores history.  Even if the resulting diet was inferior to a hunting culture, as people like Stephen Baxter have argued, it's fairly clear that it yielded more food overall, and the sedentary lifestyle you're deriding allowed the accumulation of wealth that wasn't possible in hunter-gatherer societies.

The people who praise the virtues of living in a hunter-gatherer society remind me of socialists from the 1920's talking about how great the Soviet revolution was, and how we should all go live in that worker's paradise.  Except that the evidence as to what works and what doesn't is even more dramatic today, since the handful of cultures that have stayed in that mode are even poorer than a citizen of Soviet Russia.

In the meantime, Spore is a game.  Instead of thinking about how it doesn't explore anthropology in ways you'd like, you'd be better off thinking about it on its own terms.  IMHO the only really interesting stage is Space, which isn't much like Civilization at all.  It's more like Space Rangers or Starflight.  It's primarily about you and your ship, and the colonies you found are more for your support than an end in themselves.

 - Gus

[rufio]

I think it's self-evident that it did have an advantage, or it wouldn't have happened over and over again in different parts of the world, and the agricultural societies wouldn't have overrun their hunter-gatherer neighbors.

Human beings were hunter-gatherers for two million years, and it was originally employed by all humans, which cannot be said at all for agriculture.  The neolithic revolution (the first transition to agriculture) was only 10-12 thousand years ago.  Just because it happened later doesn't mean it was better.  Have you forgotten how evolution works?  The reason agriculture overran the hunter-gatherer societies is that agriculture takes up (and uses up) a stupendous amount of land compared to hunting and gathering.

Even if the resulting diet was inferior to a hunting culture, as people like Stephen Baxter have argued, it's fairly clear that it yielded more food overall,

There are also a lot more people to feed.  At a certain point the production starts to overtake the demand, but you have to get a pretty sizable population for that to work.  The main mystery is what made it seem like a good idea up to that point.

and the sedentary lifestyle you're deriding allowed the accumulation of wealth that wasn't possible in hunter-gatherer societies.

I'm not deriding anything.  I enjoy my sedentary lifestyle.  It's just that hunting and gathering was a lot easier then, and probably would be easier now if not for the huge population we now have.  If you don't have a large population with multiple levels of social hierarchy and division of labor, there isn't much need for "wealth".

Except that the evidence as to what works and what doesn't is even more dramatic today, since the handful of cultures that have stayed in that mode are even poorer than a citizen of Soviet Russia.

I think some of it probably has to do with encroachment by agricultural societies, and probably also differing ideas about what poor/rich is.  I don't doubt that today it's much better to live in a settled city, though.  But from the point of view of a culture evolving in a vacuum (as in the case in Spore), hunting and gathering is a more logical approach.

In the meantime, Spore is a game.  Instead of thinking about how it doesn't explore anthropology in ways you'd like, you'd be better off thinking about it on its own terms.

Indeed.  And I think a small, self-contained hunter-gatherer culture would be more interesting to play than a space-age culture that goes flying around the galaxy blowing up planets.  I guess it's just me.

IMHO the only really interesting stage is Space, which isn't much like Civilization at all.  It's more like Space Rangers or Starflight.  It's primarily about you and your ship, and the colonies you found are more for your support than an end in themselves.

Ah, thanks.  Doesn't really sound like what I was hoping for, then.