Patch weirdness

[Gus Smedstad]

I just ran my first Space game with the cracked patch, and the missions refused to update properly.  They all behaved as if they were minimized, with nothing more than the bare details showing in the tracking boxes.  I had to open the "lockbox" menu and view the details there, which is really clumsy compared to just seeing the target planet / star name on the main screen.

 - Gus

[Insanity Prelude]

It's working fine for me.

[jsalemi]

There were two no-cd.exes floating around on Pirate Bay for the patch, and I think one of them is/was bad.  The good one I have is named 'Crack SPORE ((v1.1.0.358)).rar', and I haven't had any problems with it (other than the problems the patch introduced, anyway).

[Gus Smedstad]

I was using the .358 version from GameFixes (no, not the version with the trojan,that's been pulled).  I just grabbed the version you mentioned and it's doing the same thing.

 - Gus

[jsalemi]

Maybe it's one of those patch glitches, which seem to be different for different folks.  The main patch glitch I've seen is excessive lag or outright screen freeze when I'm on-planet in a battle, like the game can't handle all the screen action.  The only way to free it is to switch to the other screen mode (i.e., from fullscreen to windowed). I've seen other reports of this since the patch.  I know it's not my video card or system, since both are WAY over the specs for the game.

[kewian]

Does anyone else's animals disappear sometimes?  They are there but you just cant see them or scan them?

[Hellyes]

Is it a game that was started before the patch?  I wonder if it's one of those cases where you have to start all over with a new game/the old game isn't able to be fixed or changed by the patch.

[Dopp]

Did you try deleting the package files in the Spore directory to force the game to properly generate new ones?

[jsalemi]

Did you try deleting the package files in the Spore directory to force the game to properly generate new ones?

Especially 'GraphicCache.package', which can get corrupted very easily.  Gee, that sounds familiar to Sims players, eh?

(Oh, and stupidly, EA has 'hidden' all these game-related files, in case you don't know -- they're under your 'C:\Documents and Settings\<your id>\Application Data\Spore' directory, instead of being in a logical place like, oh say, My Documents.  If you have system folders hidden, you'll have to unhide them to see this directory.)

[kewian]

Hell my system keeps on hiding them despite having them unhidden and I have to type it in . Stupid windows.

[Gus Smedstad]

I just discovered that with the patch, transiting a black hole causes the game to lock up.  Cool.

And yeah, I did delete the GraphicsCache.package.

 - Gus

[jsalemi]

Hmm, I was about to do that for the first time tonight -- I'll see if I have the same problem.

[Gus Smedstad]

I'm really screwed now.

I "completed" the game as a Diplomat, and started a new Cell stage with the idea that I'd try Piscado's Red / Reg / Green / Blue approach, to see how practical it was.  And the game never showed me a cell.  The meteorite cracked open, and there was nothing there.  There was nothing to move, and I never transitioned to the point where you can see stuff floating in the water.

I tried reverting at that point, but the old EXE crashes with a pure virtual call if you try and run it with new data files.

So that's it.  Until they patch it again, I'm done with Spore.

EDIT: I thought of a workaround.  I deleted my entire AppData directory, and started the pre-patch .EXE.  Now I can start Cell creatures again, but the game doesn't classify any of the stuff I made under "my creations."  It's in the "everything" pool instead, even though it's in My Spore Creations folder.

 - Gus

[Dopp]

Happened with me too. Just edit your creations and make some minor change, the game will then allow you to save it as 'your' creation again.

[Tyyppi]

The only weird thing I've encountered after patching is that I can no longer skip the intro screen.

[jsalemi]

You can skip the intro screen; they just changed the point where you have to hit escape to do it.  You have to wait until the EA logo explodes, and then hit escape.  If you do it before, you're stuck watching the whole thing.

I went through wormholes no problem last night, so on my game the patch is ok, at least.  The only real problem I have is extreme lag and screen freezing while in a battle.  I've learned that spore doesn't like high resolutions, as the problem had gotten better the lower I set the resolution. Even windowed, resolutions higher than 1280 have problems, which is nuts for a game in this day and age.