batman64 wrote:Spore + Patch + all high settings = No problems.

Same.

i was afraid to install the patch because of the complaints, but i went against better judgement and installed it any way, because i figured if the problems were really that severe a patch for the patch would have been issued or i could have atleast unpatched if it was really bad! but to my shock game still runs as perfect as it did the day i installed it, never a single crash on my system which is what leads me to believe its something else on other peoples computers conflicting with either spore or the drm which is pretty unstable as it is anyway! and i even played a new game cell to space without any errors(infact the patch did something else besides what it listed, i couldnt unlock the achievements even without using cheats on other save games, after installing the patch i started unlocking achievements last night i think i unlocked like 12 on one play thru i got all the ones for beating each stage in less than an hour with the exception of space i went to sleep when i reached space last night lol) but as you said the only ones being vocal are the ones with problems which makes it look worse than it really is, good idea to start this post tho make people truely see its a small percentage of people the patch causes these issues! i almost didnt download the patch because of the complaints but im glad i did, less attacks, less eco disasters, colonys protect themselves better meaning i think the turrets work now, and i can get my achievements now lol

ohh i am also running it on max setting and max screen res. no crash no problems game runs better


THANK YOU MAXIS just dont let EA tell you what to do, EA does not care about their customers just the money the customer gives them!

I seem to have had the same issues a lot of other lower end users had, and had to reinstall the game. After I salvage and back everything up, I'm going to try the patch again and set everything back to defaults, and see if that makes a difference. Other than some quirky frozen animations and creatures loading slow as hell/not at all (and an annoying blue 'placement ring' that seems frozen on every planet I go to now, which was pre-existing) the patch sure LOOKED pretty... and I really wanted the gameplay tweaks, too.

I voted "Installed Patch, Game Has Issues".

My issues are minor but slightly irritating: Asset load in times seem to have been increased, in all phases, by quite a bit since I installed the patch. I also had some issues in Creature phase with commands being "Delayed". That is, I'd click "Bite", and it'd cycle, bu my creature wouldn't actually bite for a few seconds. Meanwhile I'm getting chomped on. My Cell was invisible to me for about a minute when I started as well.

had to stop playing for the moment....
Existing game is stuttering in space and I'm getting constant messages that I cant get rid of (you and acknowledge and it just re-issues the message / communique again /rinse repeat).
Sounds occasionally laggy as well.

Started a new game at tidepool level and *nothing* aside from the background is showing up. No creatures, no food ...nothing.

Amateur hour at Maxis it seems.

Well I had 1 crash in the tribal stage after I updated to the 1.01 patch, but after that I've had none, and I've both played existing games at various stages and started a new one.

AMD 4400+
3gig RAM
ATI x1950XTX (latest drivers)
SBLive
WinXP Pro

I installed the patch and the game is unplayable. I fixed the problem of creatures not appearing by clearing some cache files, but animations are delayed or non-existent, sounds are delayed or non-existent, and my framerates have dropped through the floor. The game ran FINE for me before the patch. I didn't have a single crash, and my only complaint was that space was far too crowded a place. Now I simply can't play the game, even after reinstalling.

It's not the first time EA has released a patch that was a step backwards. Battlefield 2 had a patch that was actually recalled for causing multiplayer servers to crash every 10-15 minutes.

I try my hardest to avoid EA, but I bought this game because of Will Wright and the Maxis name. Boy, was that a mistake. I'd like to mail the dev team a turd sandwich.

Game hasn't crashed any more due to the patch. Seldom crashes before or after patch.

However, I am suffering from the creature cache bug.

so much for being a minority huh?

It's probably about 50/50 in the long run.

I never crashed until I got the patch. I don't crash ALL the time now but its not exactly unheard of for me either.

After waiting all these years and rushing out to buy Spore on release day, I am sad to say for me the patch turned a great game into a glitchy crash prone mess. And the poll is clearly showing its not just a vocal minority or people running low end machines. A patch that breaks the game for over a third of users is a disaster in any ones book.

I just hope there is a patch for the patch released soon.

Holy Crap EA better start get things fixed.

I was afraid of the patch when I read all the problems on the forum, but after braving it, I found out the game actually improved. Turrets actually work better this time round!

The problem won't hit all, that's one thing for sure.

i didn't have many problems at all before the patch. now i have many problems. (http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/3712.page)

Before the patch I had no problems at all - no crashes, everything went smooth.

After the patch still no crashes, but the animations are missing, sound is missing or delayed. Whole game "lags".