Spore: 7-day cooling off period?

[Dale]

So it's monday over here, a week since I got Spore (through the unthinking of my local Game outlet here ).

What is the "7-day cooling off period"? It is the amount of time that other people should ignore new creators. Because just like God, they will spend 6-days creating life, creatures, evolving them and eventually letting them go on their way, and on the 7th day they will also sit back, look at it, and go "woops"!

I bought the Galactic Edition for $130 AUD. Very pricey! But after reading what was supposed to be included with it I felt it was justified. Hmmpf. The "Making of" DVD is pure marketing garbage that could be played as a TV ad to boost sales. There is as much about making Spore, as I have let on about the making of Civ4 Colonisation! And the poster? Yeah, my kid likes it, BUT HE'S TWO! He likes scribble on the back of a phone bill! But the thing that really irates me, the "so called manual" is passed off as the "exclusive 100-page Prima Strategy Guide". There is no strategy in it, it's the actual manual that SHOULD'VE come with the game! The only two redeeming factors about the Galactic Edition is the really cool box it comes in, and the extra "Art of Spore" booklet.

I should've bought the standard edition for $90.

But then we come to the game. There was a MASSIVE build up of hype surrounding Spore. The most that has ever been done for any computer game in history. It's been over 4 years in development. There have been countless articles, promotions, demos, speeches and discussions on the game that has been billed as "create Life, the Universe and Everything"! Sadly, the game falls short of Douglas Adams. 42? No, I propose 38.

Don't get me wrong, the game is brilliant. Brilliant in concept, brilliant in the ability of user's to create content to share with the World, brilliant in it's simplistic and easy-to-pickup recreation of evolution (Darwin would be horrified though!), and brilliant in its marketing. Where it falls short is in execution. Each phase is fantastic in their own ways. But sadly there are some major execution problems in the very core of the game.

For instance, let's take the one thing that creates the entire interative atmosphere in the game: the AI. The AI is very simplistic. It has two modes only: happy/charm/trade, or angry/fight/destroy. There's no in between. There is no creature that allies with one, and destroys the next.

Another issue I have is the difficulty settings. There is no difficulty level that I can see. The only difference is that the harder you get, the more hitpoints the other creatures have, and the majority of creatures become angry/fight/destroy AI's. This pushes you into the carni/combat/aggressive sphere of the game causing the entire opposite sphere to be forgotten. Because a friendly/charming/trading creature will have 100 times more problems surviving at Hard difficulty. I had hoped that the AI would actually get BETTER at higher difficulties.

There's also the decision to make ability ratings NOT additive after Cell phase. Let me explain. In Cell phase, if you keep adding swimmers, you get faster. But in Creature+ phases, the more speed adding bits you have, you don't get faster. Your ability rating is at the highest level of all the bits you have. So if you have a speed 1 bit, and speed 3 bit, your speed is NOT 4 but 3, which is the highest individual rating of all your bits. I feel that these abilities should've been additive like they are in Cell phase. This would help to promote more complex creatures, and create some actual strategy in your decisions since the complexity gauge only allows a certain number of bits and you want all the bits you can add. It also opens up infinite combinations of creatures. But now, there is simply no incentive to add speed modifying bits as only one counts.

But don't let me stop you getting the game. Like evolution there is PLENTY of things that are great (read any of the major game site reviews for them). So I'm not going to repeat it here. I just want to point out that it may NOT be what you expect. I'm sure God sat back on the 7th day and said to himself, "is that it?"

There's a LOT of surprises, and a lot of fun in this game, but does it live up to the hype? :q:

So my recommendation is to buy the standard game (not the GE) and if you're humming-and-harring about it, then wait till the first price drops in a couple of months. And as for God? Well that's not for me to push one way or the other, and whether or not evolution is evidence of God, or evidence of an interstellar "accident", I hope the evidence presented by an actual player of Spore will help you to make up your mind.

[Dale]

I also posted this at Poly, and I want to point out before anyone else says it, I'm NOT complaining about the simplisity. I'm enjoying that aspect. I'm pointing out there are some issues with the underlying execution in some areas (such as AI).

[Puppeteer]

Good points, and I also thought as I was playing, "is this it? Years of development made this?" Well, I'm sure it was very difficult to get the builder tools as good as they are, and figuring out which part of an arbitrary creature should be the head, etc.. But once you build a creature have it in the game, they all move more or less quite similarly. Convincingly, but similarly.

I also found it odd that in the cell phase attributes are additive but not in later phases. I spent DNA (money) adding several health attributes, but only the largest one counts, and counts only once. But there is still strategy in creature building as you buy parts at full price and sell at half price, so sometimes you have to waste a bunch of money to increase on ability one point where you might not waste money bringing another ability up two or three points.

Also I tried playing as an omnivore the last two or three hours, but as far as I can tell there are no omnivorous mouths; you have to have two mouths to be omnivorous. I thought that was odd.

I've only played about 10-12 hours. The game is visually beautiful and diverse, and content sharing is awesome and the builders are terrific in their ability and ease of use. And the game play is fun. I guess some of the hype was too much.

Back to non-additive parts, having multiple sets of legs or multiple sets of arms has no gameplay advantage (or--aside from cost--disadvantate), does it? I know the strike attacks don't add, but can you hit more frequently if you have 8 arms versus two? (I'm guessing no but haven't tested it.) I'm assuming having 4 or more legs doesn't make you faster than two legs, but I haven't really tested that, either.

[Lord_Iggy]

Actually, most of the mouths are omnivorous- at least in the Creature Creator.

I find it odd that bonuses are no longer cumulative.

[Dale]

No, the number of appendiges affects nothing. Whether you have one leg or ten legs, you still strike at the same rate (both on the same combat level of course).

Literally, you could have a leg with every max-out (level 5) component connected to it, and you'll pwn.

[Puppeteer]

Originally Posted by Dale

Literally, you could have a leg with every max-out (level 5) component connected to it, and you'll pwn.

Silly me, I've been wasting money on arms when I could have just attached a hand to a knee and gained the same advantages much more cheaply.

[Dale]

Pretty much.

[GoodGame]

Oh I new most things weren't multiplicative, but booger about the legs. I've been building a crab centaur.

Sorry that you didn't see con about the GE, Dale.

[SpurnSpore]

Maybe Will Wright wasn't afforded a lot of Say,EA probably funding it and having more rights to take things out (or leave room for expansions which they are renowned for.)
I'm sure it has scope to be Modded, EA will have to patch some things.
They shouldn't make people pay for that.
I was lucky to get it for $74 AUD (price matched with Big W by EB games)
even at that price up there with what I paid for CIV 4 and MFS 2004.= expensive
I wonder why they didn't have play testers or their own programmers trying it out and saying "hmm we can do that better"
Maybe the pressure to just release it was too great after so many years in development?

the game that has been billed as "create Life, the Universe and Everything"!
That is a very tall order for a computer game

I'm sure God sat back on the 7th day and said to himself, "is that it?"

If he did,and the universe is teeming like spore's galaxy and just as crazy , he probably did sit back and go
"let them sort out the game play" I'm outa here!"

[cubsfan6506]

Originally Posted by Puppeteer

Also I tried playing as an omnivore the last two or three hours, but as far as I can tell there are no omnivorous mouths; you have to have two mouths to be omnivorous. I thought that was odd.

You are whatever you end the cell phase as so you have to switch from herbivore, to carnivore or vice versa in the cell phase.

[Ball Lightning]

Good points, it didn't add up to all the hype but it was still deinitly a game worth having, and probably the best new game this year that i have played.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by Ball Lightning

Good points, it didn't add up to all the hype but it was still deinitly a game worth having, and probably the best new game this year that i have played.

Agreed! It is the best one this year I've seen so far (till Col comes out )

[Ball Lightning]

Originally Posted by Dale

Agreed! It is the best one this year I've seen so far (till Col comes out )

I have a feeling that that is going to be a dud, but i wait to be proven wrong

[flamin]

Originally Posted by Puppeteer

Also I tried playing as an omnivore the last two or three hours, but as far as I can tell there are no omnivorous mouths; you have to have two mouths to be omnivorous. I thought that was odd.

There are equal amounts of omnivorous, carnivorous and herbivorous mouths.

[Truronian]

Originally Posted by flamin

There are equal amounts of omnivorous, carnivorous and herbivorous mouths.

Not quite, there are 16 omnivore mouths, 12 herbivore mouths and 12 carnivore mouths.

[Dale]

I've yet to find a omnivore mouth in creature phase yet. Even when I ended cell as an omnivore.

[Catharsis]

Originally Posted by Dale

I've yet to find a omnivore mouth in creature phase yet. Even when I ended cell as an omnivore.

If you end Cell as an omnivore, it's impossible to get anything other than omnivorous mouths.

(Unless my Versa Gecko's been having extraordinary bad luck with the skeletons...)

[Dale]

I've had two creatures end cell with the omnivore mouth, and only picked up carni mouths.

[Catharsis]

Maybe you ate more meat than plants with your omni mouth. That makes you a carnivore.

What types of mouth your Creature can get depends on which box the Cell history timeline finishes in - red (carnivore), blue (omnivore) or green (herbivore). The type of mouth you end up with in Cell doesn't affect your Creature's mouth (AFAIK). Did your Cells, by any chance, have carnivore mouths before you picked up the omnivore one?

My Versa Gecko Cell had two mouths - one carni, one herbi - so it ate a roughly equal amount of plant matter and meat, and ended up in the blue box. Nothing but omni mouths for the entire Creature Stage.