This should be stickied seems to me a lot of work went into all this . 90 percent of the suggestions should be incorporated into an "I'm sorry for what we did to you" patch.

I know this may sound dumb but

what about having the ability to destroy a star, like a star buster. You should also be able to use a planet buster to threaten other species, like in the diplomat have a +100 you could exterminate us thing.

also being able to make wormholes to any star you've previously visited, like slip space or hyperspace. none of this racing across 1,000 systems to prevent a species from dying.

just some things to ponder that would allow you to feel more like you're the god of your galaxy

Can one of the Moderators please make one of thoose Patch-Suggestion Threads sticky, so we don´t have to search all 2395423894538945 of them ?

There are some good suggestions in here. However I came here to disagree with a few of them.


the core should be easier to navigate (i´ve never been there but i hear it´s hard)

NO it should not be any easier. I got to the center with no navigation problem. Also it helps to clear out a few grox systems on your way so you have a safe place to use energy and repair packs. I made a safe terraformed path for future saves to use. half the fun is looking for the path, enjoy it.


Let us use whatever creature parts we want, and let us upgrade them by purchasing stats for them, rather than being forced to build a creature who isn't true to your plan for the creature. I'm sick of creating creature after creature that end up with the same parts, simply because they have the best stats.

You can still finish the creature stage without max stats, try it some time. You may have to change your stategy though. Although perhaps upgrading the exsisting stats on a part would be OK


Make it so that anyone allied with you is also allied with your other allies. No fighting, guys.

Again have to disagree. I had this problem at first. I had 9 allies and 2 were causing headaches by attacking my other allies. It was a spode empire and a warrior empire.
The main reason the were attacking was to expand their empire because I was buying out their star systems to keep them happy with me... (or so it seemed)
I paid my otherwise peacfull allies to start wars with them.
Send allies to attack the T0 or T1 planets so they have a chance at winning. hit the enemy in multiple star systems at once.
Had a good laugh when the spode guys called for help from the people I had just paid to hurt them. Then I dropped volcanoes and atmosphere generators on their home world. It was maybe a 10 minute war and once the bothersome empires were destroyed it was very very peacefull. Your game experience may differ of course.

One thing I would like to add. I would like to have a way to give or sell my star systems to an ally. I uplifted a cool Santa Claus creature to space age, but they only have 1 star system and the rest of the stars in the area are already taken. I want Santa to have a bigger empire without having to destroy my other neighbors....

very good points, everyone!

guess i have some more updating to do...



great job keeping this alive! your enthusiasm in making spore better makes me proud of being a part of such constructive community....

it´d be very easy to (as many do) just turn and say "hey! this game is crap! make it better now! or we´ll stop playing it!"

what we´re doing is much more noble, finding key elements that with little change can make the game MUCH better...

thanks for supporting the campaign to make spore better!

Aye... 'Cause we are creative people who still think the game has tons of potential, and it sucked because of seemingly inexistant beta-testing and really odd decission making in the logics of it all... The fact that we all can come up with dozens of ideas to make it better, only makes it worst to understand what they were thinking most of the time.
Only difficulty, not repeating what others already suggested... Most of this stuff becomes obvious after playing for brief minutes on every stage.

Ideas of mine, not listed I think. Mainly for space. I can live with the other stages being mere tutorials, if there was to be some sort of deep, challenging or at least mildly interesting things to explore discover and experiment on space...

Diplomacy: No changes to be made to the graphics, only numerical-text changes... very patch-like.

To All:
- My empire has become Omnipotent. I´m bigger than the Grox... now, shouldn't we expect some sort of change on how oother empires relate to us? Other than adding "omnipotent" to a line, if the next thing they ask you is money to not "blast you into oblivion" with their puny lone-system... Makes no sense. They should behave different to the status of my empire... If with same behabioural options, at least rephrase them!



- Missions/Random events: Just using what we have now... "Save us from that epic", "Get us certain type of spice", "Terraform this or that, we need a pink sky to suit our needs sort-of", "Civil War, one of our own cities gone wako, subdue them"... And in general, just mix the kind bit-more-varied missions to make them random events other than pirate-eco-grox boringness.

Warmonguering/paladins:
- Is that all? I mean, I'm the "big fish" now, I want to be the one that asks for money to not start a war now... Why is only the AI able to do that? I'm in position to threat, now! But nobody seems aware of my power until they see themselves with their empire almost completly obliterated. As a knight, we could have ground/sea/air forces to help us a bit... Although this would be nice and logical for all traits.

Monopoloids:
-Make trading-ships show between our own systems, at least if you are an economic race, to automatically gather spice on our home-world, if they are connected at a reassonable distance. That would be the stock-exchange headquarters of our empire... We could sell cheap there, or take the goods and sell them manually on a better location like now. Also the sell system option, when they are interested or we offer...

Technics:
-Being able to access tecnology through diplomacy, not just "You'll-get-there-eventually-badge-system", Also buying space-charts of mapped worm-holes or sections of the galaxy we never been to, to show as visited, listing planets and spice-types... sentient species present maybe not.

Preachers:
-Another map legend to show the advance, epidemic of our belief system to other empires, bettering our relation with them. Right now, when encountered another zealot specie, they seem to argue even though they are both fanatics of the same ideaology. If not, let us choose the name of the god, so we can see why they don't get it...

Hippies/Singers:
-Would be nice if they could have more power over animal species, much like the tribal powers they get. Or no eco-disasters at all... Also maybe legalized drugs that enable the game visual-filters... Nah, just ranting... Infecting a planet with untraceable eco-disaster virus-like would be nice.

Brown-nosers:
-What's the point on being a diplomat when no diplomatic options are available? Being able to do some ONU tasks... Like, please stop attacking those dudes or I will have to study if maybe some sort of meassures will be taken, like... dunno. Not asisting to your Olimpics or something equally harassing as a planet-busting act... Maybe brieving a certain number of empires to cancel the inter-galactic code, or make changes to it?

Just thinking on diplomacy... I think I could go on forever. If just knew somebody was listening to any of this stuff we are trying to GIVE THEM FOR FREE, all this ideas in case was not mentioned are FREE FOR MAXIS to use, implement or modifie as they better suits them. Don't need to credit us angry users for it... just make something!

thatnk you! much agreed!

you make some very good points there! it´s possible to add all sorts of new possibilities without having to put new content into the game!

most of your sugestions have already been covered in one way or another by suggestions already made... but the new ones i´m gonna post up!


very good suggestions! keep ´em coming

*The music editor should not ONLY be larger, but it should actually be available in various staves and cleffs, with note locations and length notations that actual musicians can understand.

As a songwriter myself, I was thrilled to see an in-game composer, and then just as deflated to discover it would take me hours of tweaking in a user-hostile interface to achieve something I could do in just seconds in any basic music editor.

*The creature stage would be far more interesting if you had to "purchase" your brain upgrades at the cost of a couple-hundred DNA points. This would make evolution a choice varying depending on circumstances and user preferences.

*The tribal stage would be far more interesting if (like Age of Empires or Empire Earth) your first consideration was not only GATHERING food, but developing autonomous ways to gather food. Spore as a whole could have been so much deeper if the leap to "civilzation" came with the invention of the farm. Any form of tech tree, even a basic one, would have been more interesting than just "conquer" or "ally" 5 other tribes. There's no reason that element has to be removed, but at least for an expansion, obtaining technology to make gathering easier would be so much more interesting and true to life.

EXAMPLE:

Each of the following would be objects purchasable by spending food. But after their purchase, they increase the generation of food gathered.
Fishing boat: 50 Food
Tilling Cart: 200 Food
Farm: 500 Food

Then once you hit a landmark, like 5,000 food, you either "buy" advancement (see the note about the creature brain above) or it is given to you automatically.

*In space stage, first contact should be rare and special. Not automatic and everywhere. A mostly-empty galaxy would still have THOUSANDS of other empires and wouldn't feel quite so cramped and crowded. You've taken all the mystery out of space if everywhere we go, someone else has already been there.

*Sporepedia needs much better search and sort options, including wildcards, booleans, sortable categories, like: Sort planets according to distance from current location, sort planets by color of spice, sort planets by Terrascore...and sort by multiple columns in order of priority like Excel. Currently, looking for something the Sporepedia is about as effective as tossing a shuffled deck out on the table and then looking from card to card to find what I want.

*More in-game control of viewing any sporepedia entry, not just see the card for a few seconds on first scan and it disappears.

*Customizable controls, like users who wish to invert the Y axis or alter their movement keys.

*A hologram which walks on water. (It's a hologram. Doesn't sink or shrink when wet.)

*A way to explore planets at the creature level in the creature engine even when we're in Space phase. There's no point to wildlife planets, customized architecture, galactic zoos, terraforming planets with spectacular views (such as certain binary or gas giant combinations) all have NO POINT if you can't explore that planet at eye level.

*Flora editor (yes again)

*Missions in other phases

*Generational / versions tracking of alterations to creations made by other users to credit the original creator and every person who tweaked it since

*More than one musical composer. Brian Eno has done a FANTASTIC job, but he's still just one composer with his own flavor. Blizzard employed DOZENS of composers (all terrific) for World of Warcraft, which takes place on just one world with the same races and animals repeated over and over. Spore is supposed to offer an infinite number of worlds and possibilities. Why just one composer?

*Don't auto share every little unpainted hut I hurriedly constructed just to keep on playing. Specified sharing creates a SHOWCASE environment where people put their best work forward. Autosharing creates a FLOODED environment where every alteration presents repeated creations ad naseum for no discernable reason. This lowers the average quality of every creation viewed.

*Respawning is too easy in creature / cell / space and too difficult in tribal / civ. Why such a wide discrepancy?

*There are MAXIS creations I want to ban. What egotistical maniac at MAXIS thought I would like every plant and creature they made? And no, I don't need to ban the Grox. But a game about customizing everything my way should let me ban even them (if I wanted), or at least the plants that look like eyeballs. Ugh.

*More versions of cut scenes would make progressing multiple times a bit more interesting. Even just 3 versions of each would lend a spirit of diversity to this game...about infinite diversity.

*Hundreds of creatures in creature phase. Just 9 creatures per planet in space phase? Why?

*Multiple species in tribe phase. Just one tribal species per planet in space phase? Why?

*Can I zoom out more in cell phase?

*Just 12 parts? EVER?

*Better mechanic for socializing in Tribal/Creature phase than "Simon Says" that a 3-year-old could solve. I have a degree in philosophy, and I thought evolving a galactic empire the social route would be more stimulating than that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Says Game for “most often children”. Category: Children’s games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game) LOWEST difficulty: 8 tones in succession to remember and repeat. SPORE: Highest difficulty -- still just one "tone" (social or instrument) at a time before Response.

*In civ/space phase, if other empires can demand money, why can't I?

*In civ/space phase, if other empires can insist I drop a trade route, why can't I ask them to?

*In civ/space phase, if other empires can ask for my help with uprisings, attacks, and eco disasters, why can't I ask them to?

*In space phase, if I'm the hero, the theme of the game should match "Everything you can do, I can do better", not "everything you can do, I can do 1/4th of but only by intense micromanagement.

*We invented warp drive. How about we invent taxes? And shipping? My spaceship ought to be more than just an interoffice envelope.

*Save more than 50 uses of sculpting. Truly, if I'm allowed to customize my own galaxy, infinite uses of this device should be saved for every planet.

*Introduce a way to shop for more than one Colony Incredi-Pak / Weapon etc than by traveling from planet to planet. It's not "challenging", just tedious.

*Introduce a way to unite the galaxy by trade, force, or diplomacy. This would necessitate a way to broker treaties between warring nations.

*Introduce truly interesting planets, or at minimum ways for us to make them. Trantor, Capitol, Coruscant, Dune/Arrakis? There are no planets like these and no way for us to make them, much less Kamino (all water/rainstorms), and other more interesting places.

*Introduce mini-games or subplots based on the creation, discovery, or management of story planets from centuries of science fiction.

*Millions of races, only about 8 simulated languages? Including tonality? All my tribes sound the same. All my commercial civilizations sound the same. One more voice per expansion pack will add up nicely. Here are a few ideas for voice sounds:

Clicks
Scratches
Skitters
Harmonized instruments (always two tones playing when this race speaks)
Pops
Static
Squeals
Beeps
Whistles
Fizzles
Grunts

Let us customize them.

*One or more minigames based on Close Encounters of the Third Kind for meet-and-greet civilized species

*One or more minigames based on E.T. for meet-and-greet civilized species

*A way to walk through cities

*6 tribal members were enough for me to conquer the world, but I abducted 99 sentient tribe members and dropped them on another T3 world and all they did was die. Introduce one or more minigames based on the plot(s) of Star Trek: Insurrection -- sentient species being transplanted to another world.

*Multiple types of tanks/boats/planes per world. We have the editors and the sporepedia. Let us go nuts. A whole world full of WW2 planes on one planet, but not just ONE type of WW2 plane. And the next planet over, we can make all the cars look like something out of the Matrix. Why so static? How many cars and tanks does Earth have? Just 3 or 4 types per colony would be a huge improvement.

*Introduce one or more minigames to create a federation of multiple empires, with options to govern.

*Introduce one or more minigames based on the inclusion of multiple races in my colonies or empire. Taking over a planet doesn't mean I genocide what's already there. The decision to do so or not to do so adds depth.

*Introduce one or more minigames based on taming great beasts with relationship to the planet, such as the Worms of Arrakis.

*Introduce one or more minigames based on a Galactic Civil War, or secession, or building a Galactic Senate like the political streams in Star Wars.

*Introduce one or more minigames based on the development / deployment / sentience of Artificial Intelligence. Robot editor: Perfect expansion.

*Introduce one or more social minigames like those in The Sims at the Tribal and Civ level(s).

Great thread!

Just a quick addition to one of the suggestions in the above post....

Quote: "Introduce one or more minigames based on the inclusion of multiple races in my colonies or empire. Taking over a planet doesn't mean I genocide what's already there. The decision to do so or not to do so adds depth. "


I really like this idea and would also like to be able to choose the name of my empire instead of being stuck with the name of the race itself. This would allow other races to become part of the (insert name here) empire without naming conflicts. Probably not too easy to implement though.

Overall a wonderful post by the way. Keep up the suggestions people!

thanks for the input, everyone! this is the way to make a game better!!

again, in order to keep the main post organized (or something close to that), i can´t post up all the suggestions thrown.... i´m leaving out the ones that are simply possibilities that would result as a consequence of other ideas already there...

unfortunately, since this is a patch ideas list, i can´t put up some other great ideas that would require more work, being only possible in expansion packs....


this is going great! thanks again, everyone who posted their ideas and support in this thread! you guys are the true soul of this great community!

keep the campaing alive!

I was posting at the Breaking the Unimold thread (http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/6798.page) about making female looking creatures when an idea stroke me.

It will probably not be much doable on a simple patch, but even if its more of an expansion material, I'd like to have it registered here.

Basically, I think the game should allow you to make male and female versions of any given creature. In real life's nature, creatures are often gender distinguishable (even if just by their size).

Also, that would give us the opportunity of having males and females with different abilities, as too happens in real life (male birds are usually better singers, for instance, and female lions are better hunters).

Lastly but most important, it would prevent female designed creatures from getting creepy male voices! :mrgree

Ps.: Also, it's kinda unsettling (or very nice depending on your preferences ) to watch two female looking creatures mate. Offspring would be impossible anyway.

And just to make it clear (and expand on the idea): despite the little joke, I did not mean female=womanly. Many creatures out there aren't even remotely human-looking, but they could have male/female forms. Or they could be hermaphrodites, in which case the male/female option could be turned off at the creator (you could even change it halfway through evolution, from genderless to gender-defined creature - and vice-versa).

Ps.2: To make that work better on the Creature Stage (since male and female could have different abilities), they could add an option to allow you to take control of any creature of your species at any time.

OK here is my idea , i don't if it has allready been posted bur here it goes:

There are some useless items in the creature creator and they could be used for something like this
- eyes- to see (oh realy )
- nose- to detect dead corpuses
- anttenas- used as radar or something

well... the male/female thing is indeed a good idea... but that´s gonna require an expansion for sure... so, sadly i cannot post it up front... but it´s a great thought, indeed... i, mysalf had considered how nice that would be to have....

the useless parts having uses can actually be done... it´s just a matter of how to do it right and efficiently! i´m posting that!

i´m gonna think a bit about exactly how this could be done... but i believe it can, and without adding additional content...


thanks for the support

I would like the OPTION to turn on an auto-save.

Default OFF so as not to annoy those who don't want an auto-save feature. But there's been too many times where "I thought I saved more recently than that!" happens, still keeps happening, even though I try to remember to save whenever possible.

And trying to remember to save that often disrupts my enjoyment of the game... Especially those times when I get caught up in game-play and forget. Then having to save constantly reminds me of the progress I keep losing...

Lowering resolution and graphics cache has only slightly reduced the random crashing issue.