Spore's creatures are interesting because they're user-created, but the Space missions sure get boring! It would be great to see Spore's ideas extended to the Space missions.

Say I need something done - a planet or several planets terraformed, a cool new Herbivore for my future Terraformings cuz this one's getting old, etc. I could either go do it myself, or create a Mission. I set the Conditions on it, and send it off.

Other players see this Mission mixed in with the other standard Missions. The Reward would be set by the game based on the difficulty of the Conditions I set. The first time a player completes my Mission, I receive whatever it was I needed - that Herbivore etc.

The result is that players are generally going to say Yes to Missions that look fun, and so by writing cool Missions, I receive cool stuff. By writing crappy Missions, no one plays them, and so I don't get whatever it was I wanted.

This would make the Missions a lot more interesting. It would require a new effort on the Spore team in checking the Mission Stories, though, to make sure they aren't offensive.

Here's an example. I want more cool Herbivores. I create a Mission and the Condition is "Bring Herbivore." In the Mission Storyline I enter some text about how this alien race is holding a galactic circus and needs another creature to star in it, or that the Emperor of this race needs a pet for his daughter, etc. Mission goes out, and people start seeing it in their games. When someone completes it, I get a cool Herbivore - whatever creature it was they turned in.

interesting. but what if you did that and 100 people completed it. wouldn't that mean you would get 100 herbavores?

Setting how many times you want the results of the Mission should be something you do in setting it up. It might also make sense to have to actually pay the reward after the first time.

For example, I write a Mission for an Herbivore and I set it to just give me the first result. Later, I get an Herbivore - cost to me, nothing but the time of writing a Mission.

Let's say I really wanted 3 Herbivores. I could tell it I want 3 in the Mission. The first one is free, but I actually pay the Reward out of my Empire's Spore Bucks for the next 2, because I'm really not providing any value, but getting some free Herbivores.

I'm open to better ideas about how to economize these rewards. As I have it setup there, there are seeming abuses - like writing Missions that deliver you goods of insane value that are nearly impossible to obtain or accomplish, and getting that item for free just for typing some text - but I think it might balance itself out naturally because who's actually going to do a Mission that difficult? It will most likely just languish unused, so it might balance itself out automatically. I'm not sure.

That would work if the game was multiplayer...but I think it is a good idea..I want created missions that the computer has to complete. Instead of just your starship flying around the universe doing things...how about other races have their heroes or commanders. They go get missions and do things as well. Making mission complete more like a race against the clock...

I like this idea alot.

Here is somthing i was thinking.

We, The [Random Empire] want you to attack [Random Empire] and destroy all the turrents on there planet [8] so we may invade it with our land forces.
[Reward to player = 50,000$ - 150,000$ sporebucks.].
[Reward to creator = -100,000$][ +1 random planet from a nearby Ally or Enemey].

Yes, good, yes good.

What would be even more awesome is if you could just create a unique race with set buildings, vehicles, and personality. Let them have unique dialogue for everything you ask... Maybe even upload a custom voice set for them!

bluhman wrote:Yes, good, yes good.

What would be even more awesome is if you could just create a unique race with set buildings, vehicles, and personality. Let them have unique dialogue for everything you ask... Maybe even upload a custom voice set for them!

I doubt Maxis or EA will ever do that.. But..

Thats what mods are for!

Nice idea.

I could see a mission or group of linked missions being templated out. There really aren't that many types of missions (in Spore and in general). Get this, deliver this, destroy this (turret or creatures or whatever), etc. That would set a basic objective for completion. Then, additional details could be added - unknown star/planet, time limit, etc. Kept modular enough, new parameters and what not could be added. It would almost be like building a creature - you start with a base (spine), add major things to do (big parts) and then the details.

As for the sharing part, hm... achievement and perhaps a new tool. I don't know about actually getting or losing money - a lot of people could send you something! But having it as a sort of multi-player interaction would be cool.

Yes, I think this would be cool but I am not sure how practical some of it is. However, I think there is one way to solve multiple people getting the same mission.

The mission could be offered to one player at a time. When you are presented a mission in the form of an alert and you activate the mission's broadcast you can choose to accept or reject the mission. If you ignore the broadcast the mission times out. If you reject the mission or the mission times out then it becomes available for someone else. This keeps on happening until someone accepts it.

I think a template method (if there we a lot of choices in the template) would be best so that it would require no man power to censor them.

Another practical problem is blowing up turrets and things. The other player completing the mission doesn't have a copy of the planet you want attack.

There is another option...

The player creating the mission (non-template) doesn't have to get anything out of creating the mission. Maxis can just evaluate the missions and add them to Spore if they want to.


Or you can let the players evaluate them by rating the missions. The more thumbs up the more the mission shows up.

Or both maxis and the players can evaluate it...

I think it might be nice to include a set of these with a space civilization package: creature plus building/ship designs plus missions. Make missions, anthems, and designs of a civilization associated. Maybe even provide the ability to tweak the type and disposition to each other type of civilization, or even limit missions based on the type of civilization. A knight will only give another knight a particular mission geared towards their common goals.

I like the concept.