Spore is indeed a huge game with revolutionary features, but much of it could be done better.
I doubt that there is room for Spore expansion packs, since there is nowhere to expand. (A Tetris-sort puzzle, representing chemical evolution, would add to the timeline, but hardly produce any synergy effect.)
After The Sims 3 is released in February next year, Maxis should start working at Spore 2. The game engine and interface are already decent, and could be kept. On the other hand, gameplay needs to be improved.
Here are my ideas:
I think the idea of spore two is very stupid.
Spore one was crap, and unless I or someone who thinks very like me for the direction of spore gets a stronghold on it, I never want to see another version of it
If i where some game designer with a budget to MAKE spore though I would do it like this./
Cell phase,
This needs a lot of work, Its not that the cell stage is bad, in fact its the funnest most playable stage in spore, and if they released a more complete version of it for 5 bucks I'd probably play it, like a fun mindless action RPG,
But ultimately Cell phase will be the tutorial for playing the game and the changes later will be big so they have to be big here too
1. Give Cells a translucent sort of color, This is important because
2. We are adding organs to the entire game, free floating vacuoles that will help your cell do stuff that it normally cant do, like
3. exist in certain environments.
4. more controll over the shape of your cell, and the shape and organs and weapons or other attachments all have hidden functional value, no rpg points, instead the proceedural system fits together your selection of parts and organs and body shape and decides how good it is at doing something as a result,
5you will play with this system, finding out what works, what doesnt, and allowing you to expand into different environments like colders areas, or areas made of different kinds of materials like sulfur,
6 the way you and your predators evolves are procedural not random and it affects the rest of the world around you, make it first to bread in a vast deserted area and thrive and your species will vastly populate that area,(provided they can do things like eat or absorb sunlight)
7. eventually you will call upon the power of instinct, cells will pair up and work together in swarms or even combine, and when they do, you can start creating different cell shapes allowing you to the advantage of creating stronger organisms
8. Finally you will have enough cells that they can specialize, different cells used for different things, finding what works is mostly trial and error, however despite this, it should be possible to survive,
this tutorial will teach you how to build your creatures, use the tools and test its skills in the world.
Evolution phase.
Sea and land will not be separate, Dogs evolved into marine mammals, and you will meat a host of interesting and actively evolving creatures like yourself, not simply randomly chosen, they, like you, will need to eat, and procreate to survive,
1. Survival and procreation is key, you will no longer have missions, if you can eat procreate and survive each generation, you dont need to change anything, however, the races will be evolving, they will produce offspring with defects, and ones with advantages, by the random procedural moving of parts, organs, and shape, and your species may suddenly find itself at a disadvantages, perhaps someone is out eating your food, or territorial beasts are trampling your slow creatures,
2. the creature stage must build on the cell stage by allowing you to mold your beast in even more creative fashions than before, cells are so diverse they can take properties, like armor, sun absorbing fins, spikes, and teeth, parts will be there but no longer will they be so simplified and one purposed,
the types of material now play an important role,
3. changing environments to challenge your creature, ice ages, levels of oxygen forest fires, creatures that where troublesome before could die out and leave you to thrive, but breed too much and your race will overpopulate driving out your sources of food.
4. Functional environments, Spore now operates on nothing more than a pretty hilly plane, in this version you will be able to interact with everything in some way, trees can be climbed, nested in, or there wont be any trees, landmasses change, materials erode, deform, desert and marsh may change before your eyes as you travel through time thousands of years fast, ground can be dug into, trees burrowed into, your planet is your home, not just a backdrop.
Tribal stage
bigger deeper and better, the tribal stage will simply be more involved, recourses will be more varied allowing you to specialize with what you have, but it will not be cookie cutter, you will be able to customize your culture at this stage, your weapons, and way of life, tribal politics will be a bigger deal, this should idealy bring you into the iron age, technology, monuments, your tribe will have more than how many wars or peace treaties it signed to define its legacy, taking over the world from this stage will be grueling, long, but possible, or you can simply tech up until you lead the world into the day it will take off into an industrial revolution
1. proceedural techs, rather than spending time reaserching something exclusively, actions, events, and resources will all influence your ability to increase your technology in certain directions,
2. this stage will teach you how to manage a small economy for the bigger civ stage ahead,
3. it will have a similar total war feel, real time instead of turn based, but your intelligence can help pause the game and allow you to send troops to intercept any sneak attacks, or manage numbers in a stress free situation (just like the AI would)
Civ stage
More like actual civ, better diplomacy, more victory options, more city customization, Civ stage is fun already, but its a very shallow fun, Civ stage will build off the tribal stage by offering a more in depth resource game, wonders of the ancient age give way to great undertaking of projects, a deeper level of customization in regards to cities, but ultimately while you can win the civ stage by a myriad of ways, you cant advance until you start researching space technology,
1.unlike spore now, the journey into space will be slow and begin in the civ stage, instead of building a giant space ship, it will play out more like a never ending space race, slowly learning better technologies to move into space
2. the game will fully start to encompass a total war game, action will remain real time, but you can pause any time you want and multi manage,
3. it is possible to have a lot of activity, missions, and goals to complete in the civ stage, you don't have to B line the space era, but other civs might beat you to it eventually and depending on difficulty.
4. much more control on aesthetics of buildings, location, think Civ 3 city view thats interactive and customizable aesthetics,
5. entering the space age can be complete before the world is yours,
Space/civ
Its arguably the current worst part of spore, and it needs an overhaul, ultimately I think planets will need to be bigger, they just aren't large enough, to start, Space age will never remove direct control of your civ, you will be able to head back at any time and continue playing that stage from this point, from rebuilding, dealing with rival civs, this is because Space is going to be awfully empty compared to current spores almost harrassment levels of aliens, chances are your rivals will be the biggest threat for a long time before you meet ET,
1. Space ships will be your swiss army knife, but like stages before it, you will suddenly find yourself with a much broader selection of outer space worthy vehicles to trade or colonize you will see borders appear on other planets with your rivals,
2. Planets will be interesting, the only thing you can do now is colonize your different planets and mine their generic spice resource, instead you will be looking for a myriad of important resources for building on planets, their compesition as well as atmosphere will influence your desisions to make them habitable
3. colonies on other planets will enter into a sort of tribal stage of their own of collecting resources, managing upgrades and overall rebuilding civilization on the planet to be like home, this minigame can be automated,
4. terraforming will be more in depth, you can add or remove atmosphere independently of water, check for radiation levels, terrain morphing will not disappear upon leaving the planet,
5. more realistic physics can allow you to do a number of fun things, alter the flow of gravity or weather on a planet by Terra forming large mountain ranges, destroy plant wildlife and watch the oxygen levels drop,
6 civs techs increase with your ship, you can continue to build armed forces to prevent invasion from your fellow planeterrians, or the unlikely extra terrestrial.
7. more interactivity, Many locations do nothing but sit there or have no effect on anything else, barely eye candy, Gas giants, Stars and other objects in space can become much more useful, imagine setting up a ring world, or harnessing the solar energy of the sun by solar plates orbiting it, your galactic empire can do more with its monetary gains than add more missiles and bombs to your space ship,
8. Science!, Much of space is unknown, and while spore has thus far tried to be very scientifically similar to our world, you will be able to make interesting hypothetical discoveries in spore, adding new dimensions to the game, imagine discovering new minerals, or how a planet was formed, its history or geological past time, tracing back the dinosaurs, finding predictable weather patterns, sings of life, these things will celestial bodies will be more than a card, they practically will offer a character sheet of hidden information,
For spore to be a Sim everything, I would expect no less than the things I have given here. otherwise i would not make or buy this game, I see these features as bare minimum to the concept of science in box.
