Spore Screenshots [Many images warning]

[Dale]

I'm one of the lucky bastards who got the game before Maxis put the hold on retailers, and opened a thread at Poly with heaps of screenies and info.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...hreadid=180182

Any questions just ask away.

Oh, and the game F***ING ROCKS!!!!!

[alex994]

I really hate you

I wish I had the game already...

[Bigfoot3814]

I am effing jealous. Cool screens, thanks for posting.

[Chieftess]

Are the brain increases automatic? (i.e., after x generations, you're forced to become sentient whether you like it or not) I was looking at some live spore streams, and I didn't see anything where the player was adding brain cells.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by Chieftess

Are the brain increases automatic? (i.e., after x generations, you're forced to become sentient whether you like it or not) I was looking at some live spore streams, and I didn't see anything where the player was adding brain cells.

Brain increases come automatically at certain milestones through the phase. For instance, for creature phase when you charm/destroy a couple of tribes you "accumulate the knowledge of those tribes" to increase your own intelligence. Same with Tribes. Your brain needs to reach a certain size for evolution to become available.

Whilst the brain increases are automatic, the evolution process is not (changing phases is called evolution).

[Genocidicbunny]

Are the minimum specs pretty accurate? Its going to be really disappointing if I cant play Spore for another 4 months..

[Dale]

Originally Posted by stickciv

Are the minimum specs pretty accurate? Its going to be really disappointing if I cant play Spore for another 4 months..

Dunno, to be honest I didn't even bother looking. I got a high-end Centrino Duo, Nvidea 8800, Vista Home Ultimate with Gigs of RAM.

But I will say this, it runs damn smooth, even on the highest graphics setting.

[Genocidicbunny]

Gah. Ive only got a P4 2.4ghz and a X1650 Pro. It seems that it should run on minimum at least.

[King of Town]

Cripes I would love to be playing. I like how your own tribe splits off into factions. Are those just the guys on your continent or is the rest of the world just your species?

[Dale]

Cell == ocean
Creature == region
Tribe == continent
Civ == planet
Space == universe

So you only need to control the size of the area required to progress.

Your Tribe doesn't split into factions, they are other creatures who evolved into tribes.

[Chieftess]

Originally Posted by Dale

Brain increases come automatically at certain milestones through the phase. For instance, for creature phase when you charm/destroy a couple of tribes you "accumulate the knowledge of those tribes" to increase your own intelligence. Same with Tribes. Your brain needs to reach a certain size for evolution to become available.

Whilst the brain increases are automatic, the evolution process is not (changing phases is called evolution).

So that means the Creature Stage is limited then in how long you can play it? (i.e., after 5 generations, you become sentient whether you like it or not) I hope a creature can be evolved longer than that once the space stage is reached (i.e., taking control of a creature on a terraformed planet).

So... lemme see if I have this right...

- No water stage (obviously confirmed eons ago, but may be in an expansion pack)
- Brain size upgrades automatically (Does this imply forced sentience? That would be a major drawback for me, IMHO. I was looking forward to the creature stage.)
- Gas giants aren't really playable (from what little info I gathered in the SPORE gameplay stream chatroom)

And can planets be created from scratch by smashing asteroids together?

Maybe my expectations were too high way back in 2005 with the 2005 GDC...

[Dale]

1. Sort of. Each phase has certain levels/generations/parts. But you can play for as long as you want. Just don't evolve.
2. Cell phase is the water phase. You start in the water, and the end of cell is landfall.
3. Partly correct. Whilst brain increases are automatic, evolution isn't. You click a button when ready after you met the requirements. So you can continue playing a phase forever if you want.
4. No idea yet.
5. I believe there's the planet designer yes (haven't explored that bit yet).

[Dale]

I have posted another 30 pics on my apolyton thread. All from the Civ phase.

[GoodGame]

So I was right. It is an Aussie thing to get games earlier than release. What do they all fall off the truck at the store or something, eh m8?

Originally Posted by Dale

I'm one of the lucky bastards who got the game before Maxis put the hold on retailers, and opened a thread at Poly with heaps of screenies and info.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...hreadid=180182

Any questions just ask away.

Oh, and the game F***ING ROCKS!!!!!

[Lord_Iggy]

'poly says that the server's too busy right now.

[Dale]

Should be fine.

Plus I've posted more pics, this time from some of the other areas of the game such as the Sporepedia, creaters, and I have some fun with the aircraft designer.

[Bigfoot3814]

Says that registered people get priority, so we're stuck on the sand.

[Chieftess]

Originally Posted by Dale

1. Sort of. Each phase has certain levels/generations/parts. But you can play for as long as you want. Just don't evolve.
2. Cell phase is the water phase. You start in the water, and the end of cell is landfall.
3. Partly correct. Whilst brain increases are automatic, evolution isn't. You click a button when ready after you met the requirements. So you can continue playing a phase forever if you want.
4. No idea yet.
5. I believe there's the planet designer yes (haven't explored that bit yet).

I know you need to click a button to evolve. What I meant was, is there a set number of evolutions before becoming sentient? i.e., 10 evolutions before becoming sentient. I know in SimLife, there were 15 "generations" (IQ levels increased by 6. I was hoping to have a long evolution path of say, maybe 20 generations (evolutions) or more.
Also, I wasn't asking about the Planet Designer, but in the actual game, if you start colliding asteroids together. I was also seperating cell and water as two seperate things (it was called water - or at least Ocean Stage back in GDC 2005).

[Dale]

Ahh okay. No there's no seperate water phase, but there is water (ships, etc). You can even have your creature swim out to sea.

As for evolving, yes there's a set number of stages before you reach the next phase. So in the Civ level for instance, you need 10 cities to move onto space. And in creature, you need to extinct a certain number of species to move to tribe. And so on.

I haven't seen anything about colliding asteroids together yet. I haven't finished Civ level. Just made it to flight.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot3814

Says that registered people get priority, so we're stuck on the sand.

I'll post the pics here too then.