Hey, guys,

I was faced with alot of the same problems.

It's possible that I got lucky with my local populations, but I managed to get trade routes and alliances with 4 neighboring empires, and have crushed the one empire that just couldn't be sated. I never had to cheat. I did alot of missions for alot of empires; preferring their missions to those of my own empire. If you can get a mission from them, they can be your freind. Even the agressive empire would sometimes give a mission, which would keep them off my back for a minute.

I think I found a little trick:

I took all their missions, bad or not...I never said no. HOWEVER, if the mission was gonna anger someone else, I JUST DELETED THE MISSION. Then, I could just go back to them, and get a more innoccuos mission, and not lose any reputation with them(remember to mouse over their portrait, when in video-comm with them, to see just how and why your standing with them is so)

Another big trick:

I kept being crushed, too, and the colonies I founded kept being usurped by the baddies. When I was down to my one city on my homeworld, they crushed that, too. Guess what happened....
It respawned!! You always have one city on your homeworld from which to respawn. Once I learned that, I just STOPPED DEFENDING MY HOMEWORLD, and only defended my colony that was well-out of the red-zone.


Another tip might be to have all of your money spent. That way, when you get an extortion message, you have the option to click, "Funds Unavailable", which seems not to anger them, and you still haven't paid them. Just don't ignore their messages; as I've read that angers them, too...

I kept my expansion very slow untill I had 3 allies(now I have a fleet of 4 with me), just doing missions and trading what little I had. With so many allies, then, the baddies were marginalised, and could pick their systems off one by one, repair, trade, re-recruit the fallen, and attack again.

Oh, also, I always came to my ally's call for defense, too!!

Hope these help!!

I've had a mixed experience with the space stage. One species I went with was fine. I only really had to deal with one warlike empire, and with 3 allys nearby they really helped me with some of the tougher planets. Another species I got to space though started out surrounded by warlike empires and even though I managed to keep the sated for a little while with missions, I couldn't keep it up with 3, so one attacked, I had to go defend, then another attacked because I wasn't doing missions for them anymore. Then everything just went to heck.

I really do agree though... this is not the same game I saw demoed at GDC 2005... I feel kind of cheated. There need to be some major changes.

I think something that would fix a lot of people's problems in the space stage would be an option to "turn disasters off." As I recall, the simcity games had something along those lines? There were also buttons to spawn a disaster too, as I recall (it's been a looong time since I played sim city).

Having the option to trigger or turn off disasters would greatly enhance gameplay for everyone. It would allow casual sandbox players to go on their merry way exploring & terraforming, etc., and give hardcore gamers a challenge every now and then... Also, I think there needs to be more variety to the disasters. There are basically only two (maybe three) disasters you run into - the biodisaster where you have to kill a bunch of diseased animals, and the UFO raid where you have to fight off either pirates or hostile UFOs. There should be a much greater variety of disasters, which force you to use your brain to figure out how to deal with them. Things like earthquakes & other environmental disasters, comets/asteroids plowing into your planet (like what happens in creature stage), solar flares, gamma ray bursts, nearby stars going supernova, etc. The list of possible disasters is virtually limitless.

Come on, Maxis. Give us some actual disasters to deal with, not these housekeeping missions which come up every 5 minutes.

Turning disasters off would be nice.

However, I just really would like to be on a level playing field with the AI. I can't be in multiple locations at the same time. The AI can, and it can do many things at the same time. It can also make impossible instantaneous jumps from across the galaxy, bypass defenses, easily overtake colonies, control an unlimited supply of resources, field an unlimited number of ships, attack multiple cities or colonies at the same time, and so on.

The way I see it, and I hope Maxis is paying attention, is that they should do one of the following things:

1) Make the Space stage like the freeware/shareware game called Warpath. A link to it is found here: http://freeware-game-downloads.com/game.php?id=31 Take a look at the weapons, colonization, resource, and other tools at your disposal. If the game were like this, Space stage would be an absolute joy. I looooved Warpath back in the day. Everyone got 1 ship and you could do all the same things you can in Spore's Space stage, but everyone was on a level playing field.



2) Make the Space stage like Sins of a Solar Empire where you can manage multiple ships or multiple fleets in an RTS-like setting.

3) Rework the galactic map so that hostile empires do not get placed right on your doorstep, do not get encountered during the tutorial, and (if nearby) cannot field ships in which are several times stronger than that of your own. Having a 1,000 HP ship going up against 5 or so 1,600 HP ships like I had to do is not fun. Also prevent ships from running away, magically fully recovering, and then coming right back to fight some more. Decrease the density of races on the galactic map and prevent more than one event from going on at a time. Also prevent all alien races from getting mad at you over time for ignoring them or not meeting their expectations. Essentially, require the AI to match the player on a level playing field so that anything the player cannot do also cannot be done by the AI.

zjbdragon wrote:
3) Rework the galactic map so that hostile empires do not get placed right on your doorstep, do not get encountered during the tutorial, and (if nearby) cannot field ships in which are several times stronger than that of your own. Having a 1,000 HP ship going up against 5 or so 1,600 HP ships like I had to do is not fun. Also prevent ships from running away, magically fully recovering, and then coming right back to fight some more. Decrease the density of races on the galactic map and prevent more than one event from going on at a time. Also prevent all alien races from getting mad at you over time for ignoring them or not meeting their expectations. Essentially, require the AI to match the player on a level playing field so that anything the player cannot do also cannot be done by the AI.

Seconded!

After watching my boyfriend play in the space stage I was TERRIFIED that if i progressed to that stage my experience would be completely ruined so I stalled and started 2 other games getting both up to the Civ stage before I worked up the courage to get to the space stage. My experience hasn't been nearly as bad as some others, but I've had to work as hard as possible to befriend the empires around me before they declared war (3 started out angry with me).

Maybe it's because I'm playing it on easy, but I don't enjoy games where I feel like it is unfair and I have NO way of winning no matter what I do.

Also due to all the time I've spent working on relations to prevent getting attacked, I've not been able to do any of the things I was looking forward to in the space stage: Exploring, terraforming, & colonizing. I was very disappointed also that there wasn't any open space around me when the space stage started. I couldn't get to any empty systems without going through someone elses. I wanted a chance to explore and get established before I had to deal with the other empires. I think that the space stage moves waaaay too fast and is too hectic to be able to enjoy.

I agree, it moves you way too quickly in the beginning.

But then it drags you down in the end with what still feels like endless micro-management and whinging colonies and allies.

After I finally ran into the Grox I got really annoyed by my greatly reduced flight range and the fact that the Grox declared war with me for doing their mission. >.<

Stoopid lazy interstellar engines. :p

zjbdragon wrote:They somehow INSTANTANEOUSLY flew past dozens of star systems to wind up in my cheat set of colonies. Can't enjoy a game when the AI doesn't even play by remotely the same rules as the player does.

Ah, there's your problem -- you cheated. Maxis decided to basically screw the cheaters in this game with booby traps. I avoid them.

If you want to have an easy time in space, by the way, all you have to do is (1) lean towards being non-violent in the cell/creature/tribe/civ stages, (2) lean towards being non-violent in the space stage. By playing this way, I've been able to keep everyone except for the Grox under my thumb.

Freezdried wrote:I think something that would fix a lot of people's problems in the space stage would be an option to "turn disasters off." As I recall, the simcity games had something along those lines? There were also buttons to spawn a disaster too, as I recall (it's been a looong time since I played sim city).

Having the option to trigger or turn off disasters would greatly enhance gameplay for everyone.

Agreed. The problem is, unlike Sim City, Sim Earth, etc., once you've gotten rid of the disasters, there's not much left to do. From the looks of it, Maxis built a complex economic and social system -- and then decided to not include it in the shipped version of the game. Instead, we just get endless spice trading and a set of terraform tools that look like they were designed for 5-year-olds.

angelsilhouette wrote:The space stage is such a harsh and unflagging annoyance. (-edit- And the style and requirements of play is such a harsh and unwelcome contrast to the previous stages) The first race I contact is always during the tutorial, it's always angry with me from the start, it requires constant babying and hand holding in order to not descend upon me in a rain of fire and brimstone, and I can't progress because I can't take time away from them to do my own missions and they pay jack for spice. Even running missions for them doesn't help because they invariably send me off into some other race's territory who are also instantly angry with me and now I have to change their diapers for them, too. Now that I'm trying to avert war with them, the other race who I am now neglecting starts getting collicy and I'm NOT doing ANYTHING that I would consider fun AT ALL.

Ironically, when I finally ran into someone preaching the ways of Spode, they were the only ones who were nice from the outset and wanted to be pals.

In the end, I got really really annoyed with playing babysitter to a series of races who seem unable to defend themselves against anyone but myself or do anything on their own and cheated to buy them out.

I really f'ing hate the space game, it's all about doing EXACTLY what I DON'T want to do in a game.

I WANT to explore, I WANT to have fun, and I WANT to be able to have at least a 50/50 chance against an attack or during a raid of my own. I WANT to have a cadre of my own race's ships to follow me around. I WANT my colonies to be able to defend themselves at least as well as others are defended against when I am attacking.

Check out X3: Reunion, or Sins of a Solar Empire- both are excellent, IMO the X-series of games are the greatest open-ended space simulations period. Incidentally, X3: Terran Conflict releases Oct 10! Can't wait!

http://www.egosoft.com/community/news_en.php

Cheers!

space is easy. all you have to do is: 1) dont go in the middle 2) don't make enemies, bribes are CHEAP

my first space game is on hard and it's my main game... civ was hard but space is just a case of weighing up everything and basically doing what is cheapest. if some spode lover contacts you and demands money, refuse but then fly over and give them a bribe... it's cheaper. once you get super happy ray you'll never have to worry again.

i have encouraged my allies growth and my 35 star system is surrounded by Six 5 star empires because i helped them grow and i have another 19 allied empires that hardly ever call. the only ones that call all the time are the gnosh, because they are useless and lose every planet they get.

shooting down enemies is annoying, not hard... i yawned through the 500 spaceship award, use mega laser on the bombers and then proton missile the sky until everything else blows up AND once you get the shield you are invincible anyway which makes it even easier.

bribes is how to win at space, cheap and effective means of not getting the poop blown out of you

i'll say it again

bribes is how to win at space, cheap and effective means of not getting the poop blown out of you

(now if only my grammar were any good)

i'm playing spore on Normal, and space stage couldn't be easier, if you have got no local enemies, then all you have to worry about is pirates (ignore biodisasters, go replace teh ecosystem later), hell, even the grox are easy, Terraform the planet, or use your shield and take them head on. (Just bring your energy kits)

Also, maybe it's just me, but it seems that trade routes don't seem to do much for trading and getting me money. In order to get a positive cash flow I have to, on top of all the babysitting, be the only cargo ship in the known universe.

I think instead of a spaceship, I need a people carrier/mini-van to take them all with me since they can't seem to take care of themselves without me.

LMFAO!!

Why do you guys have these problems? I feel the space game cheated me too alot, but there's a cheat. I forgot but you type it in and you get a million. Use that to buy you weapons. But then the game gets boring. Work your way up to buying weapons then you should be cool.

The Trump wrote:Why do you guys have these problems?

You're trying to talk to people who left Spore over a year ago.

Right now patches will be slow to come out due to some job-cuts from the spore team, and because they are currently working on spin-offs. Spore is currently undergoing the exact same phase as the Sims and Simcity did. A game becomes hugely successful, thus an explosion of spin-offs caused by meddling from the higher-ups slows down work on the actual game and it's expansions and sequels. Just wait for spore creature keeper to be done and things should return to a more regular pace of work.

Don't worry about the spore film in the works, it won't slow down the development of new expansions and patches at all as only a minor portion of the spore team is needed for that.