2nd patch released

[jsalemi]

The 2nd spore patch was released sometime today.  No sign of it or a new no-cd.exe on TPB yet.  Here's what it fixes:

Features

    * Hold down the Control key in Sporepedia to select multiple creations for deleting or banning.
    * Hold down the Shift key in Sporepedia to select a range of creations for deleting or banning.
    * New planet style: Cubes.

Graphics/Aesthetics

    * Fix for game entry screen turning black when banning a creature in a Saved game.
    * Fixed issue with flora card in Sporepedia.
    * Space phase: Fixed graphic issue with water levels not updating properly with terraform tools so that visible water and atmosphere levels will now correspond in the Atmosphere monitor.
    * Fixed problems introduced via atmospheric and drought terraforming tools.
    * Improved gaits for multi-legged creatures.
    *  Improved gaits for creatures with 2 limbs, but without any feet.

Audio

    * Space phase: Fixed missing VOX in some animations in Comm Screen.
    * Fixed audio issue with switching mode to 5.1 breaking music and VOX.
    * Fixed audio syncing issue when minimizing and/or maximizing Spore before opening video.
    * Fixed crash with city music player when Save and Load dialogs are present.
    * Fix for audio lag and missing models due background loading slow-down on certain single-processor machine configurations. This fix improved overall stability on this machine configuration.

Tuning

    * Space phase: Tuned relationship status to update in communication window after completing a mission.
    * Tribe phase: Tuned Normal difficulty mode to make social game easier.

Miscellaneous

    * Fixed the ESC key to consistently skip the Spore introduction movie.
    * Creators: YouTube video uploads are set to private. Go to YouTube.com and log in. Then go to Account >> My Videos to set them to Public if you want to share your videos with the world.
    * Creators: Fixed limb joints not being selectable behind other limbs.
    * Tribe phase: Fixed crash while harvesting fruit and fish.
    * Space phase: Fixed timing bug using Planet Buster during Grox invasion.
    * Space phase: Fixed destroyed turrets mission.
    * Space phase: Fixed crash when zooming out to full galactic view from the center of the galaxy.
    * Fixed for game entry screen staying zoomed in after deleting a game and entering/exiting Sporepedia.
    * Space phase: Fixed City Hall updating bug. City Hall will now update to correct version if player has chosen a new City Hall during the transition from Civilization phase to Space phase.
    * Space phase: Fixed Vehicles updating bug. Vehicles chosen in the Colony planner will now update without requiring the player to leave and re-enter a planet's atmosphere.
    * Fixed crash when transitioning from Tribe phase to Civilization phase
    * Discontinued the Bad Baby Achievement.

[notovny]

Ah. Bad Baby. Acquired by having one of your assets banned  in the Sporopedia. Wondered why they even put that one in.

[Insanity Prelude]

Social victory in Tribal was already pretty easy. 

[raptureswild]

So... pardon my n00bness, but should I or shouldn't I install this patch?
FYI I am not smart and/or devious enough to have gotten the game in any creative way.  I paid $50 for it, and it makes me sad to think that I spent over 6 hours' pay on this STUPID GAME.

[Milhouse Trixibelle Saltfucker III]

One need be neither smart nor devious to acquire one's games, one merely needs to dock one's galleon at the Pirate Bay. One will need, however, a program of the BitTorrent-client variety. Consider uTorrent (Properly speaking, it should perhaps be mTorrent, considering it uses the letter "Mu", but that is beside the point.)

[J. M. Pescado]

Except for the minor problem of there being no such key on the keyboard, yes.

[jsalemi]

And it looks like the new no-cd (plus the patch itself, because the file is pretty big) is up on TPB. It's from loder so it's probably legit.

[kewian]

Beware the first patch CAN bugger up your game... I dont know about the second one. It gave me invisible critters and lag times for sound and animation. OH  and inevitable crashes.

[Alex]

Beware the first patch CAN bugger up your game... I dont know about the second one. It gave me invisible critters and lag times for sound and animation. OH  and inevitable crashes.

Knowing EA, I think those are features.

[jsalemi]

Apparently the second patch fixes the invisible creatures issue, from what I've seen on the forums.

[raptureswild]

I guess it's more like too paranoid to arr the game, since anything other than a traffic ticket puts my future career in jeopardy.  And I'm not smart enough to be sneaky enough to not get caught.  I do stupid things like put my real name on my computer (justifying in my mind that I use it for school).  Again, as JMP says, don't do that.

Anyways, I'm installing the second patch now and I hope it will fix the invisible creatures problem (since that has been plaguing me, and I didn't put two and two together to realize the patch caused the problem).  I will update this post shortly with whether I am still having the same (frustrating) issue.

Edit: If you are having trouble getting the patch in the usual way ("log into Spore to grab the patch"), reinstall your EA download manager.  I did and my patch is now downloading in-game.

Edit (again - third time! LOL): Invisible monsters seems to be caused by Patch 1 and fixed by Patch 2, for me.

And it's not that I don't trust the instructions at all.  It's also partly because I'm lazy, and I think the box is pretty (I have a bookshelf with boxes of games going back to about '98; didn't say I wasn't a loser).  I have nothing against arr... acy?  I just don't do it.  For a number of reasons.  Sorry to come back to this and beat a dead horse but I want to clarify that I don't mean to sound condescending or judgmental in any way.

[Insanity Prelude]

Haven't heard about anyone getting caught arr'ing using the instructions here...

[grig]

EA and Maxis are too busy buggering their games to actually do anything about Pirates

[raptureswild]

True that; and screwing over their legal customers in a vain attempt to stop pirates.  Like by not allowing one to manually download the patch from the website and forcing him/her to login to the game to get it.  I said a few choice words the other night (see above post) and scared my boyfriend with my anger (he's used to most of it by now, though).
Besides, how stupid do you have to be to bork the game beyond all recognition by a PATCH which you then must fix with another patch?  Idiotic.  Though, again, I haven't come to expect much more from EA, though it does make me a little sad that they brain-slugged Will Wright as well.

[J. M. Pescado]

    * Space phase: Fixed graphic issue with water levels not updating properly with terraform tools so that visible water and atmosphere levels will now correspond in the Atmosphere monitor.

Cake is a lie. This is still borked post-patch, water still disappears the moment you leave planet.

[grig]

True that; and screwing over their legal customers in a vain attempt to stop pirates.  Like by not allowing one to manually download the patch from the website and forcing him/her to login to the game to get it.  I said a few choice words the other night (see above post) and scared my boyfriend with my anger (he's used to most of it by now, though).
Besides, how stupid do you have to be to bork the game beyond all recognition by a PATCH which you then must fix with another patch?  Idiotic.  Though, again, I haven't come to expect much more from EA, though it does make me a little sad that they brain-slugged Will Wright as well.

lol, please, the Dark Lord of Maxis is hardly free of blame here. If he actually cared about gamers or ANYTHING beyond the sacred dollar he wouldn't have used the DRM - simple as that.

[SimDebster]

I cannot believe that no one else has mentioned this, but the patch disables tools when the game is paused.  For this reason, I am going back to the original version until someone releases a mod that will enable tools while paused.

[Gus Smedstad]

You're talking about Spaceship items like weapons, right?

I'm of two minds about that.

First, I never paused to turn those on.  It never occurred to me, and I wouldn't bother now that I know you can do it.  Clicking on the weapon icons isn't a slow process.

Second, I think it's stupid they took that out.  Even though I don't use the feature, in general I approve of enabling orders while paused in most games.

 - Gus

[SimDebster]

Yes, I am talking about the spaceship items.  Not only weapons are disabled, but even the teleport up button is disabled in cargo.  I use the pause in the heat of battle because through all of the explosions and allies flying around, it is very difficult for me to know where the enemy is.  I do not usually play real time shooting games (FPS)because, basically, I suck at them.  Maybe in time I will get better, but I doubt it.  Until then, I really need my pause.  Hopefully I am not alone in this.

[kewian]

Has anyone been able to get the arred version of the second patch installed? I tried and it said I didnt have the game installed. Wtf?

[SimDebster]

Yes.  I used Loder's version.  Did you remember to replace the original executable before patching?

[kewian]

hmm. I dont think I have loder's. Put BACK the original one first?

[SimDebster]

Yes.  You need to put the original exe back in order to patch.  The patch is the Maxis patch.  Once patched, you then back up the orig exe again (patched version) and then replace with the hacked exe that bypasses SecuROM.

[kewian]

I put the original exe back in but it still says I need to have the game installed.

[SimDebster]

I really do not know what to tell you.  Maybe you have a borked patch.