More Awesome Than You!

In a typical move (http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6199305.html), EA has shocked and startled the world with their surprise announcement that they plan to milk the Spore series until they leave it for dead.

It's barely been out a month and Spore's first expansion pack has been announced. Apparently it will "expand the space stage and give space-borne civilizations Star Trek-esque teleportation technology, letting players beam down to distant planets and undertake new missions. The expansion will also add in the Adventure Creator, which will let gamers build and share their own missions."

They're also doing the stuff pack thing, this time called "parts packs". Spore: Creepy & Cute Parts will add "in excess of 100 new creature-building parts that will fall in line with the titular theme. The parts, available in the game's Creature Creator, include components for the body, as well as paint options, animations, and backgrounds."

Parts packs = Epic phail.

As for the expansion, the space stage is fleshed out enough as it is. They should be focusing on making the other stages halfway decent and playable. Anything they do add in this expansion should have been in the game in the first place anyway.

As I've uninstalled Spore, I am definitely not getting involved in this series. Such a shame how greedy evil publishers can ruin something that had the potential to become very, very good.

I'd be, at least, satisfied if they just gave us an ability to start in space with something other than Wanderer, and especially the ability to get the carnivore/social/etc. abilities. But really, even that's too much to ask from EAxis - and it's still the easy/lazy/FAIL way out. In fact, I think that a bork pool for Spore expansions would be hilarious. And probably depressing.

Bloody hell.

But, why? It was an uphill battle convincing my 12 brother to play all the stages (but in the end he had no choice, that's needed to unlock future stages) and, I just don't get it. Why wouldn't you want to play them all? Cell and creature are my two favourite stages, including space.

As to the topic, is anyone here honestly surprised that there'll be expansions for Spore? In fact, didn't they already confirm that there would be, even before the game itself was close to release?

Knowing they'll come is one thing.  That's just a natural extension of the life of a game that's been around for a while.  Officially announcing development one month after a game releases is just greedy and insulting.  That's basically admitting that you withheld features from the release version so you could make an expansion.

Agreed.  At least let us enjoy the game you had THREE YEARS to finish before you start telling us you're going to sell us more crap the game will be "incomplete" without.  It pisses me off that they basically kept these features out so that they could milk more than $50 out of us.

I don't like this game enough to buy the expansions yet and no one I know who has played this game thinks it was worth the $50 they shelled out.  So hopefully this will backfire in their money-grubbing little faces.

I guess you don't know me, because I thought it was worth the $50.  Sure, it has lots of flaws, and ultimately ends up getting repetitive, but I got several hundred hours out of it before I moved on.  That's well above what you get for $50 from most games these days.

Faizah, cell is one of your favorite stages?  I know this is tough to do, but could you share why?  It seems really, really limited to me.  And repetitive.  Every time I've played, I've ended up with pretty much the same creature pretty quickly, just for practical reasons.  Doesn't matter if it's a herbivore or carnivore, the weapons and positioning is pretty much the same.

Heck, Cell is really the stage that needs a Parts Pack.  Something to throw some variety into it.

Creature grew on me with time.  If you enjoy making stuff and fiddling with the creature editor in general, the limitations of having only those parts you've found, and the need to maximize stats adds something, pushing your creatures in directions you don't go if you have an unlimited budget and parts.  I still prefer Space, but it's probably 2nd for me.

I don't see myself buying expansion packs for it either.

 - Gus

Before, I only mildly disliked EA...but lately it seems every time I turn around, EA is doing something else to treat their customers like shit.

I'm so happy I didn't give them any of my money for this game.

Don't you think this says something about the game?  Obviously the people who didn't think it was worth buying won't be interested in an EP.  Personally, I find it too dull to even arr the EP.  If they can't entice you either, that's pretty damning.

Yeah, I quite like cell. I'm not exactly sure why, but, yeah. I do like the fact that, in order to get a part from a creature, you need to find a creature with that part. No getting arms from limbless slugs, like in creature stage, for example. And it's pretty simple, swim into X to attack/kill/eat it. The best part is after you've put the omnivore mouth on there. And the lack of parts is made up for by the fact that, here, bonuses stack. (For speed at least, being the only thing in cell with a point value.)

As for creature, I've been known to keep a creature game running for weeks, getting parts (over pretty quickly), accumulating DNA, and tweaking my creature. One I had played so long that everyone on the map was either my bestest friends or dead. (I started out going for green, before I decided I wanted the red benefit. I literally had to kill every remaining creature in order to scrape in at the top of red.)

I didn't buy it, and I won't buy any EPs, but I'll certainly acquire them. (Part packs are more iffy, though the creating is my favourite part, above all of the stages.)

My stage preferences has to go something like this: Space, Cell, Creature, Civilization, Tribe.

Tribe is long, boring and tedious, but Space is really pretty.

Mine are creature, space, cell, then civ & tribal coming equal last.  I find civ & tribal are both pretty much play by numbers.

In civ, for example, it's make fast vehicles, run over the tribes, grab the spice, then send a ton of vehicles (or, for the first city, the one or two vehicles of the right type that you got from the tribes) to the next city you're going to take.  Repeat the final step until the stage is over.  Do the same the next game you play, and the next, and the next.  There's no variety in it, and it really makes little difference whether your goal is military, religious or economic.

Creature has more variety, and as Gus mentioned, it forces you to make choices that are limited by the parts you've found so far.  It also has some playful elements in it that can be fun to do sometimes (e.g. winged creatures & geysers).  And it's fun to see your previous creatures or downloaded creatures and interact with them (whether you ally them or wipe them out).

While I like Space, I think it gets a little repetitive after a while.  Once you're ready to head off to the galactic core the game is pretty much over.  I'd like more to do in Space.

I kind of like Cell. It's oddly relaxing.

This is why they are making this EP, to modify space. They will probably do the same for the other stages (tribal and civ need major improvement!)
While I hate EA, this may be a smart move, even if such an early announcement is suspicious, they are probably filling the gaps they had leftover making the game. After all, if they added everything they wanted in one blow, the game would take up 20 gigs. At least this way you can choose what you want, and what you don't. This is why I love the fact The Sims games have EP's, you get to pick and choose what you want. The biggest problems I see here are the mounds of glitches & securom.

While it does say something about the game, that's not the same as "not worth $50."

Some games have considerably more replay value than others.  Spore is one that had a couple of hundred hours in it, but after that, it was pretty much done.  I don't see an expansion pack changing that, particularly given the history EAxis has with Sims expansion packs.

What Spore would need to inject new life into the game would be random situations that require serious decision making.  Spore has some randomness in it that forces decision making, like what parts are available in Creature and what planets are nearby in Space, but for the most part they're fairly easy decisions.  To make it interesting again would require the expansion make the game harder, and EAxis doesn't do that.

 - Gus

I think most people saw this coming, right? My reaction to this is similar to my reaction to TS3 ads: Eaxis fail.

I can see Spore expansions causing major problems requiring new game instals, using up the limited number of instals, and forcing die-hard players to either pirate or re-buy the whole shebang.

Honestly, the combination of bug-riddled games, instal limits, and expansion packs that have history of further breaking the game = greedy lazy game company.

I'm done with EA, and pretty disappointed/disenchanted as well.

Is it really an "install" limit or is it a "computer" limit?

i.e. Is there a server somewhere that ticks off a count each time the game installs or does it just track hardware profile a la Windows or iTunes?

Agreed.

More decisions with meaningful consequences are needed.  There are really only 4 decisions with consequences that you can't avoid/change in the game - and those are choosing which path you take in the pre-space stages.

I'd also like to see different results for the choices in earlier stages, to make the choices more meaningful.  For example, going "red in creature" is pretty much the only choice for creature stage as the other options just don't compare with the 50% HP bonus.  Not to mention that those cheaper tool results available in cell & tribal are pointless, as stuff is still cheaper from other empires.

I'd like to see a death penalty.  I know that this would probably be unpopular with people who wanted a sandbox - but we didn't get the sandbox anyway.  Even when you're early in space stage with just a minibomb (and maybe the small health upgrade), capturing a homeworld is no big deal due to the lack of a death penalty.  Take a city or two, die, go back and take another city or two, die again, rinse and repeat until the planet is yours.

What would have made the "cheaper tool results" meaningful is if you ALSO got the "archetype discount" on domestic purchases, *AND* the discounts stacked. This would have made the archetype-choices actually MEANINGFUL, rather than there being a straightforward tier of progression over which are the best (In order: Zealot, Trader, Scientist, Diplomat for the no-contest top-4.), since then the archetypes would provide more tangible bonii than just the superpower (of which most are useless).

Meh. I can take a homeworld without dying at all, with no health upgrades at all, USING ONLY MAH LAZOR! A death penalty would be meaningless since I never die anyway. :P I am invincible!

And there actually is a death penalty in creature. If you die, look closely and you will notice your progress bar losing points. The penalty isn't very large, though. The fact that there appears to *BE* one suggests it can be MADE larger, though.

But then there wouldn't be any reason to make FRIENDS. Everything in space stage is about making FRIENDS. Spore teaches life lessons here.

I did read about the 2 expansions... and http://cinemablend.com/games/Wait-There-s-TWO-Spore-Expansions-On-the-Way-12769.html (http://cinemablend.com/games/Wait-There-s-TWO-Spore-Expansions-On-the-Way-12769.html) said this about the ep "The unnamed expansion, due in Spring 2009, will allow players' creatures to beam down to new planets to explore and complete missions. Players will also get a new Adventure Creator so they can create missions of their own and share them with friends."
(edit: or maybe creatures can get out of the space ship and do stuff on a planet?)

I wonder what they mean with 'new planets', are they making the galaxy bigger or something? Maybe they've done that so, it will take longer to get to the 'center'... (because they don't know, how to make the game more difficult)

Sure there would be. Don't think I didn't think of that. If, for instance, you were the "Warrior" archetype, you'd receive discounts on all the cheap things that the "Force" races normally sell, and buy them at that price...but then you'd still have to pay the regular price (with any card-discounts) that you'd have to pay for other items. So you'd have to go meet some of the cheaper colony-pack races if you wanted those, as the Force races don't offer colony packs at all) or pay full price. The point being that your discount bonuses would be USEFUL in this event, whereas if they are merely discounted from BASE price, they are worthless because the other races sell them cheaper than your discounts ever will. But if you got that bonus for your philosophy *AND* your discount, you could get them EVEN CHEAPER, and thus the perks would be useful again. Example: You are a Warrior. Warriors are Force. NPC empires which are Force normally sell planetbusters at 2.5M. With an "Arms Dealer" discount, you normally get -20% off. By default, full price for busters is $5M, so when you purchase at your homeworld, you can buy for $4M. Except this is *USELESS*, because $4M is still massively more than the 2.5M you'd be able to purchase for regardless of if you had the discount bonus or not. Under MY idea, as a Force race, you'd be able to buy 2.5M pbusters from yourself, AND if you had the -20% discount,  you would be able to snarf them for a mere $2M. Since Force races do not gain an intrinsic bonus to colony packs, however, you'd still have to pay $150K for a colony pack, or shop around for the cheap aliens.

I was thinking more along the lines of being free to demolish any irritating force empires you come across because you don't need their weapon discounts. They shoot at my ship and then demand 1000000 sporebucks?

Are you going to apply your modding talents to Spore and make mods to do stuff like this?

I'm fairly certain that "new planets" means "planets what aren't your home".

If possible. Splotch is nowhere near as responsive to mods as Sims is, though, given the lack of any apparent internal scripting: Everything is hardcoded with only numerical properties being tweakable.

I doubt this will change unless you personally care to subscribe to the Force philosophy yourself: Given that the superpowers of the Force philosophy range from "Meh"(Mini-U) to "Totally Useless"(Raider Rally), this may be the ONLY perk of subscribing to Force if such a thing could be made! Mini-U isn't the worst perk out there, but it's hardly amongst the upper perks. At least it's useful in a space dogfight, since it's an allied ship that doesn't bitch at you when it dies.

Actually, I do play with the Warrior archetype almost all the time, despite its non-awesomeness. This is because I enjoy exterminating everything. The raiders are used on my own homeworld to get the bodyguard badge, extra sporebucks and free laughs.

Yes, but the Sporebucks from dead raiders only applies if you personally kill them, not if they are shot down by turrets. It is also not very much money, probably much less than you could get by vehicle-eating. All in all, it's a useless power that exists only for lulz. Also, it can annoyingly accidentally fire due to its occupation of slot 1, although I have an Undiscovered Shiny aimed at resolving some of that. The Bodyguard badge is basically useless.

Exterminating everyone is nice, though. I Ur-Quan-styled my way through a huge sector of space, destroying all their colonies and enslaving their homeworld. You can cover a lot of ground that way...a lot of now very desolate ground. Seems space is much smaller when you're not trying to colonize every system, and I now go for speed-kills on how fast I can wipe the floor with an empire. Average time to exterminate a Level 3 empire is about 15 minutes now. I maxed out my ship just from looting and burning. I actually got the Large Cargo Hold upgrade from COLLECTOR instead of MERCHANT! That should tell you how much BURNINATING THE COUNTRYSIDE was involved.

Bodyguard badge gives you mega photon missile with having to declare war on anybody, useful for when you do start declaring war on everybody. You can wait just outside the pirate portal and take them all out with a splash damage weapon the moment they appear. The fighters only have 50-100 hp and the bombers about twice that. 1-2 pulse/missile should do. But yeah, basically the raiders are for laughs. The first thing they do is attack you anyway. Some superweapon.

Enslaving the homeworlds? How do you keep them from recolonizing when you don't have those planetary slave shields?

Yeah, but the photon missiles themselves are basically toys. It's never actually NECESSARY to shoot at anyone when you're at war with them. In fact, this is counterproductive: It is far easier to evade a defending swarm when they are all bunched up than it is when you've killed some and they respawn piecemeal and come at you again from random directions.

By conquering them? I don't actually do anything special, I just take over the planet. All non-homeworlds are simply burned down for the cash.

Personally I ain't all that surprised that Eaxis are already pooping out a new EP/SP

Back in the days of Maxis on its own the EP's/SP's were just as useless as the newer one's but they took longer because Maxis was small. Now that its Eaxis they've got the manpower to bork the game with useless crap that much faster ;)

We can make it faster... junkier... crappier... which says a lot about me 'cause I'm ape for the game... don't it folks?

Now here are some words I never thought I'd say together in any imaginable context but 'in EA's defense' (WTFness), this game has been in development for 11 years, a lot of the stuff Maxis had planned to put into EP's is already complete or near completion. In that respect there's little or no advantage to holding back complete packs for any great length of time. I understand that the whole project ran massively over budget (not surprising being 3 years late), in that respect I can understand EA's keenness to claw back some of their investment early to help bolster their legal departments budget for dealing with the many class action lawsuits they are and will be facing over their illegal security protection.

How is that a defense?  Removing or withholding content from the base game so you can sell it seperately is not a defense.

My guess is that they had glitched content, that needed cutting, because they needed more time to fix it than they were allowed. This happened with weather and cars in The Sims 2. Can't fix it now, add it later.

I believe that the "defence" was that Spore cost more to create than EA can recoop with one release at standard game prices, so releasing it in pieces allows EA to charge more for the entire package.

Perhaps this is not a "defence".  But it is a viable business strategy.

What difference does it make? Spyware is spyware, no matter how it's packaged. Pirate Cat doesn't pay for his downloads.

You can tell that EA purposely left stuff out.  When you go to make your creatures, you'll notice A LOT of empty spaces where parts should go.

I imagine the next "parts pack" will be building/vehicle based or something.

No, all of the part slots are filled once you have played enough to have all of them unlocked.