cooldude34 wrote:I hope someone can help me. i bought this game for my son. he has played Spore through to the space level, and now we just bought Galactic Adventures.
when we create a new level, it won't let us Test or save the level. it keeps saying "You have to have a Captain and place the Captain in a valid area"..something like that.
we think we are choosing a Captain for the level, but i find it hard to know for sure that the creature is a Captain. has anyone else seen this message come up? what are we doing wrong?
many thanks.

Bo4345 wrote:How important is the C&C pack to the game?

I'm thinking about buying GA, but I don't have the C&C pack, and I have no intention of buying it.

So, i'm just wondering, can I still do almost everything in the game without C&C?

Also, does Galactic Adventures add a lot of replay value to spore?

MaxisCactus wrote:Gameplay FAQ

Your question not answered here? Don't forget to check out the instruction manual here.

Captains
Q: Are the spots on the creature where the captain parts are placed fixed?
A: Captain parts can be added to creatures anywhere in the same way that accessory are. One small new change is that you can additionally pin captain parts to each other.

Q: How can I change the pitch of my captains voice?
A: The voice of the captain is based on mouth type. You can also change the pitch by adjusting the size of your captain. Select your captain by clicking on it on the planet, hold shift, and scroll the mouse wheel up or down. Smaller captains have squeaky voices while larger ones have booming voices. This also works on other characters.

Q: How can I place my captain? I see a message that says "You have to have a Captain and place the Captain in a valid area"
A: You can find the captain in the lower right hand corner of the screen in Edit mode. Left click on the captain and drag him/her into the world. If your captain is legally placed you'll see it appear on the planet with a green star around it.


Q: How can I unlock more parts for my captain?
A: Unlocks are awarded based on the number of points your captain has. Play more adventures to gain more captain points.

Adventure Creation

Q: How can I apply a filter to my adventure?
A: Bring up the cheat console by pressing CTRL SHFT C and type "help adventureLook" to get a full list of adventure filters, or check out this guide.

Cast
Q: How can I quickly view all instances of a cast member in my adventure?
A: Hold control and right click on the cast member image in the palette to move your camera to that creation in the adventure. Subsequent clicks move the camera to additional instances.

Q: How can I make a flying/air vehicle appear crashed?
Add a fixed object to your adventure and use the disguise option on the behavior palette to make it look like it's an air vehicle. (Thanks for the tip G3NJI!)

Q: How exactly does the complexity score work?
A: The complexity score calculations are pretty complicated. Hit this thread for a detailed breakdown.

Q: How can I scale the size on cast members or my captain if I don' t have a mouse wheel?
A: You will need to scroll to scale creations up and down. On some laptops, you can assign a portion of the touch pad to act as the mouse wheel.


Q: How can I equip crew members?
1. In edit mode, click the + button next to "Crew" on the right
2. Click the square Crew button to open Sporepedia and choose a crew member.
3. Click the check to exit. Your crew member icon should show up in the crew square, and you can check to verify that they appear by entering play mode.


Q: Why do trees have a spawner timer on their behavior panel? Is it possible to kill or destroy trees?
A: No. The spawner timer doesn't affect trees. They can't be destroyed during an adventure.

Q: An object I've placed in my adventure is reported missing by others. How can I find out what's happened to it?
A: This could be a result of the physics in the game causing objects to be displaced. To test, in edit mode move the object in question right in front of the captain. Is it still missing? If not, it may have been moved during the time it took for the captain to be near it.

This occurs most frequently with round objects such as bal, or objects placed on slanted terrain/buildings or in the way of vehicles.

Also, double check the acts to make sure the missing item isn't Hidden or Invisible when it should be.

Behavior
Q: How can I edit the behavior of as cast member in just one act?
A: Open the cast member behavior palette, then click on the link icon to break the link. When the link is broken, your behavior changes are applied only to the act you're in.

Q: When you set the behavior for a creature (wander radius, peaceful/aggressive, chatter text, etc) does it universally apply to all instances of that creature, or can you set individuals to behave differently?
Depends what you want.
1. If you want to make a bunch of creatures that look the same with different behaviors, use multiple slots on the cast palette.
2. If you want to make a bunch of creatures that look the same with the same behavior, use just one slot on the cast palette, but drag multiple instances of the creature into your world. Edits made to the behavior of one will be applied to all.


Q: Can my creatures ride in vehicles?
A: No.

Q: How do you make different directions of path for the patrol movement?
1. Open the behavior palette on a cast member.
2. Click the movement button and select Patrol.
3. Hold ALT and drag the patrol marker away. This create a new one.
4. Repeat step 3 for added directions. You can optionally close the circuit to make your patroller move in a loop.
This movie walks through the steps. Fast forward to 8:23 to skip to the part about setting patrol directions.

Q: Can you make a character say different things in different acts?
A: Yes.
1. Open the cast behavior palette for the character.
2. Verify that the correct act you want to edit is selected at the top of the behavior palette, and that you've clicked the link button to break the link and turn the bar blue.
3. Click Speech/Captions and enter the text in the order you'd like it to appear.
4. Click the Change Act button to switch to another act
5. Enter totally new text!
Important: Don't forget that the link between acts is now broken, so changes you make to one act will not automatically be applied to other acts. To form the link again, simply click the link button from step 2 again.




Advanced AI
Q: How can I edit the advanced AI?
A: To 'promote' a creature to be using Advanced AI you have to ctrl-click on one of the standard behaviors (shown as buttons along the top of the behavior palette). That behavior will be expanded as Advanced AI. At any time you can reset over your advanced ai by ctrl clicking one of the other behaviors. After a creature has an adv behavior then you can use the yin/yang button. We hope to post more details about advanced behavior editing soon!

Check out this Guide to Advanced AI for more info.


Acts
Q: How can I add an act?
A: Click the "+" button at the bottom of the acts section to add an act.

Q: How many acts can you have?
A: 8


Goals

Q: How do you bring things? For instance, I set up a mission where the goal is to bring a creature to move to something else.
A: Bring is a goal that only applies to NPCs (non-playable characters) and handheld objects. You can bring an NPC or handheld object to any fixed object, building, vehicle, or creature (other than itself).
Steps to set a bring goal:
1. Drag the goal marker over the NPC or handheld object you want to "bring" and release it when it turns green. Select "Bring."
2. You'll notice that the goal has 2 slots, rather than 1. The first is filled with a thumbnail of the NPC. The second is blank. Both markers in the goal are red.
3. Add another fixed object, building, vehicle, or creature to the world that you want to set as your bring target. Drag the second marker to this new item and release it when it turns green.
Both slots should now be filled in and both markers will be green.

To complete the goal, you'll have to find a way to move the first item to the second. For handheld objects, you can pick them up and carry them over.

For NPCs, you can set the NPC's behavior to follow your captain by clicking it's behavior palette, clicking movement, clicking follow.

A spinning a yellow marker appears below the movement style button. Drag this marker to the captain and release it. The NPC will follow your captain after your captain enters its awareness radius.



Text
Q: How do you add a description to your goal?
1. When editing the adventure, click on the act name to open the act description field, and describe the goals of the act.
2. Enter play mode to verify that your description appears above the act goals.


Keyboard Controls
Q: I don't have a middle mouse button. How can I adjust the pitch of my camera?
A: There is no replacement keyboard control for the middle mouse button. For camera control, this means you won't be able to adjust the pitch, but you can adjust the yaw using the arrow keys, and the zoom using the + and - keys.

On some laptops you can assign a portion of the touch pad to act as the scroll wheel.


Adventure Play
This section will be fleshed out when players have asked more questions about Adventure Play

Web
Q: Does rating affect the Spore Points of an adventure?
A: No. Spore Points are determined by the number of plays an adventure has, and the win/loss ratio of the Adventure.

Integration with Space and the rest of Spore
Q: Can players who don't have Creepy & Cute still play adventures made using the parts pack?
A: Players who don't have C&C will still be able to download adventures by players who do have the parts pack. Those creations that use C&C parts will be swapped out, and no points are awarded to the playing captain.

Q: What are Spore Points used for?
A: Glory and bragging rights. You get more Spore Points by playing different adventures, rating adventures, creating adventures, and having people play your adventures.

Q: I thought I earned a GA specific achievement, but it didn't show up. Why?
A: Check out this Quick Achievement Guide to find out if you met all the requirements to earn it.

Q: I am getting the same Maxis-made adventures repeatly. Why?
A: Missions handed out by alien empires depend on the empire's archetype, with each correspond to a specific Adventure Type that they will offer. In addition to the introductory mission (Spaceport), the first time you meet an archetype, you'll be offered a default Maxis made mission of that archetype. Once you complete the default mission from that archetype, the subsequent missions offered will be randomized.

Post your gameplay questions here. We'll try to get you answers to the most commonly asked gameplay questions.

MaxisCactus wrote:This occurs most frequently with round objects such as bal, or objects placed on slanted terrain/buildings or in the way of vehicles.

oldmage112 wrote:In the gameplay objects tab there is a teleporter, it's kinda obvious...

Welcome to the sporums!

MaxisCactus wrote:Q: How do you bring things? For instance, I set up a mission where the goal is to bring a creature to move to something else.
A: Bring is a goal that only applies to NPCs (non-playable characters) and handheld objects. You can bring an NPC or handheld object to any fixed object, building, vehicle, or creature (other than itself).
Steps to set a bring goal:
1. Drag the goal marker over the NPC or handheld object you want to "bring" and release it when it turns green. Select "Bring."
2. You'll notice that the goal has 2 slots, rather than 1. The first is filled with a thumbnail of the NPC. The second is blank. Both markers in the goal are red.
3. Add another fixed object, building, vehicle, or creature to the world that you want to set as your bring target. Drag the second marker to this new item and release it when it turns green.
Both slots should now be filled in and both markers will be green.

To complete the goal, you'll have to find a way to move the first item to the second. For handheld objects, you can pick them up and carry them over.

For NPCs, you can set the NPC's behavior to follow your captain by clicking it's behavior palette, clicking movement, clicking follow.

A spinning a yellow marker appears below the movement style button. Drag this marker to the captain and release it. The NPC will follow your captain after your captain enters its awareness radius.

Sasquash33 wrote:how do you make creatures bigger?

Goober09 wrote:I still don't know how to resize creatures and buildings without a mouse wheel, and now I don't know how to rotate the camera without a middle mouse button.

I have a rolling ball mouse.

Goober09 wrote:How do you change a creatures size without using the mouse wheel?

I'm asking this because my mouse does not have a wheel.