As you’ve heard in a recent press announcement, we at Maxis just started working on a new expansion pack, Spore Space Adventure, that will let players create and play missions out of the spaceship and onto the planets.

As we are still early in the production phase at the time of this posting, we thought we would let you, our community, give your thoughts and suggestions about the pack.

What are some of the features you’d be expecting in an expansion like this?

Your feedback is important to us, we are listening. Please keep it constructive.


-MaxisCactus and The Spore Space Adventures Team

What's the general idea you guys have down? We can yay or nay it. Or expand on it. Hmm where to begin. I'll wait until some other people throw some ideas out.

ONE THING IS FOR SURE THOUGH.

There needs to be something we can reward people with for completing our missions and it shouldn't be money every time. Perhaps a trophy editor so we can make prized for people? Hmm, I dunno that's a hard one. Aside from just gameplay there should be something motivating people to want to do the missions.

EDIT: JUST THOUGHT OF SOMETHING ELSE!

Can we place NPC Characters who will talk or reveal more about the mission? It would breathe a lot of life into the mission story. Having our players sympathize for the mission purpose is almost as good as a reward system!

If there's combat involved, don't make it like the creature stage were it's trying too hard to be a boring MMO. Less cool downs, more attacks, and possibly more of third-person shooter type feel.

One question...
Will we be able to do more with sentient creatures?
It seems they just die, after a short while of course, when you place them on a planet, they also run from harmless creatures. Tribes/civs aren't too happy when you show up in a spaceship either it seems.

I'd like to terraform with lasers (if that is possible), as far as i can tell you can only shoot a mountain and watch it form,

I'd like to see stars explode

How about the ability to get other, weaker, races to worship you by building temples ect.

I'd like to see the flora editor included and maybe a planet editor too.

I am expecting more amazing Spaceship Tools. I love being in my spaceship but I wish I could do more with it.

I would really like more cheats in the space stage to unlock all the tools and have unlimited uses/ammo.. and when terraforming.. It isn't fun because you have to wait for the cooldown time.. That is really annoying when terraforming. T_T

I'd like to see a little more control and variation in what space-faring Empires say and are like. I have an Empire with the description that they foster peace, it annoys me to think they might show up as Warriors or Zealots in someone else's game.

Being able to distribute actual Empire cards instead of outfitted Space creatures would be excellent. Those could include all the buildings and vehicles that are made to go with them. Also, more freedom in controlling what goes into the game would be nice. Choosing multiple Sporecasts to use as themes, for example, or telling it to use Sporecast-only content.

The biggest Space adventure that would be awesome to see added would be some real fleets to the game, and fleet battles. The spaceship combat currently is extremely boring, just strafe and hold down the fire button. Not to mention allies are useless, they just go directly into firing range and get shot until they die. A fleet composed entirely of MY ship type would be nice, as opposed to having flying melon ships alongside my cruiser of doom. EDIT: As Visko said, being able to control and customize your fleet would be excellent.

As Pingu said, avoid making the missions use a weak MMO design similar to the Creature Stage combat. A third person shooter or tactical combat sort of thing would be excellent. (Preferably not turn-based.) If we're going to be doing on-the-planet missions, having multiple outfits for our races would be excellent. I don't want my diplomat in the diplomacy screen wearing the same armor as my warriors on the surface, for example. That'd either be offensive to other races or suicide for the warriors. A Diplomat outfit, Citizen outfit, and Soldier outfit would do well, I think. (Maybe an option Ship Captain outfit or something.) Weapon options would be nice too, it wouldn't need to be too complex. Just shape and color. You guys are great at editors, make us a Weapon Editor! (Though you'll need a lot of LOD on the pieces or it'll slow the game to a crawl. Have you considered automatically generating LOD meshes based on the outside shape of something? Of course, you might be already.)

I'll be interested to see what it looks like. If you expand the game in interesting new ways, and bring back more of the things missing from the Spore we see today, I'll gladly buy plenty of expansions.

narcoleptic123 wrote:I'd like to see the flora editor included and maybe a planet editor too.

Flora editor would be a BIG plus, as would the Planet editor.

I've been so picky with my home planet as to repeatedly delete my save files and load the game until I get a planet of the right color in the right arm of the galaxy, and then save that save-galaxy directory as a different name so I can repeatedly use it. If we could make our own planets to start on, and choose approximately where in the galaxy they should appear, that'd add a lot more possibility. I also run my multiple games in multiple save directories and switch them out as needed, so that my games don't interfere with each other. It might be helpful to be able to switch between galaxies. Some day I'd like to see the galaxies not all shaped the same too, but that might be a bit much to ask all at once. (Unless you have an old galaxy prototype that can be adapted.)

Oh, the Planet Editor and Mission Editor could go hand in hand possibly for the occasional mission, but it'd be hard to fit those new planets into already developed galaxies. ("We need you to save our forces... on this random planet way out in the middle of nowhere that you hadn't seen yet.") That would be another benefit of galaxy dynamics. You could add a whole star system if needed. (It already generates them, seems silly to have them all at preset coordinates.)

All space related? Space ADVENTURES?
Well, I'd suggest just allow the person to control and customize their own fleet of ships from their own race (all custom designs if so one chooses) more customization options for your spaceship (or fleet or both) and your appearance on planets. (Weapon editor i'd hope) and less space-farring empires and more adventure!

Like someone said in a post somewhere, you use the SETI tool to find unoccupied space... Shouldn't it be the other way around? Giving more of an ability to discover and explore things rather than always worrying who's territory your invading and stealing from.

and I second this idea

I'd like to see a little more control and variation in what space-faring Empires say and are like. I have an Empire with the description that they foster peace, it annoys me to think they might show up as Warriors or Zealots in someone else's game.

1 thing I have to say about this expansion.

Fleets or forget it seriously we've been ranting about the lack of Fleets way way way back since 2005.. if Fleets aren't in this expansion I won't buy it.. I'll wait till you guys get your act together and actually start implementing stuff we actually ASKED for.

Further more, what happened to Will Wrights comments "if its not in the game... it'll be in the first expansion"? Ocean phase? A Working Flora Editor?! Did this Ethos change or something?

*pops knuckles* Long post, coming through!

Mission Editor Ideas

Achetype Assignments
One of the things I remember taking note of in Space stage was the lack of archetype specific missions outside of the "Change Philosophy" mission. I found it strange that a mission I would get from an ecologist involved blowing up another empire's colony while on the other side of the arm I would find a military empire that actually behaved according to their philosophy.

When constructing missions, there should be a setting that would assign them to specific archetypes if we so desire. Bard quests, for example, would have a check box ticked if we want that quest to only be associated to bards and no other class. This would make running across Knight races more interesting, as I'm sure a lot of users out there will construct quests specific to that philosophy.

If no philosophy is picked, then the mission would be assigned to all archetypes by default, which is fine for something like a "please scan this planet for us" mission. However, there should be certain tasks that will close off options of assigning it to a specific philosophy. Again, I bring up my example of an ecologist asking me to blow up another planet's city when they are suppose to hold life and nature above all else.

Another variation of this feature would be to have the option of having certain missions assigned to one or more of space faring races of our own creation. That way if someone gets my Nosiwee and I have a mission designed specifically for that race, they can access it only from my Nosiwee and no other race/archetype.

Chain Mission Options
I've only come across this once outside of the tutorial missions. It involved me scanning life forms, reporting back to the planet I got the mission from, and then going back to pick up and deliver a creature they wanted. I liked mission and wanted more like them of some similar variation. It would be a very nice feature to include a chain mission option like this.

I see players using this option very creatively to create stories for their creatures. You may come across a race that is searching for their past and requires you to travel to certain planets and deliver artifacts that lead to a big reveal as to where that race came from or the fate of their previous home world. Or whatever the user wants to do with it, but it would be a series of events that happen one after the other that, if creatively executed, would lead itself to a deeper sub-story for that particular empire.

REWARDS!! More than money!
Why do most missions give you money as a reward? While I like it, I would also like the option for more complicated/difficult missions to award you with a freebie of some kind. Naturally, for balance, it won't be one of the unlimited-use tools you can buy. But I would love it if I did a quest for a Shaman and then get rewarded with a planet paint tool that I haven't found yet instead of 10,000 Sporebucks. This should be an option in user-created quests.

Space Adventure Suggestions

Hyperspace Jump Engine - Cost as much as the Wormhole Key, but only allows you to travel long distances to planets you've already visited. Should come in handy when you need to run back home for those Body Gaurd missions and you lack the Return Ticket ability. The fact that you can only pick planets you've visited previously is to prevent people from buying it early on and then just warpping their way to the Galactic Core.

Alternate Universes - I'd like it if some black holes functioned as gateways to alternate universes. You would know that you found an alternate universe because once you zoom out to see where you are, you'll see the Black hole is in the same area as where you first found it. Another visual indication would be that the black holes would be of a different color. Something that isn't that blue-purple color or in that neighborhood. I'm leaning towards green since the red-orange pallet is used for Proto-planetary disks.

Defensive Upgrades - I like the fact that after the patch any planet I had an Uber Turret on was safe from most Pirate attacks, but that should be extended somewhat. If you have colonies/cities with max defense and an Uber Turret in orbit, that planet should be completely immune from any form of attack, including during times of war. After all, you don't see the Sepratists in Star Wars attacking the Republic's captial when they have armys and fleets being produced right there on their planet. That's also rather foolish from a combat strategy point of view unless you are able to out-number the enemy's defenses.

Furthermore, I'd like to extend this to the Bio-Stabalizer and Bio-Protectors. If I have both of those on one planet, it should essentially eliminate any Bio-disaster missions on that planet.

With all that said, please note that I am one of the few people who are a fan of the Body Guard and Eco-Hero missions. These suggestions are coming out of annoyance rather than a want to make space "easier" to play. That's why I say in the first part that a planet should be immune to all attacks if every city has max defense and an Uber Turret in orbit. If even one city is one shield icon away from being at the max defense, then that planet is open for an attack (which should make a few missions on our home world possible since there are several cities in Civ that only can get a defensive rating of 3/5 due to a lack of turret spots on their wall).

Alien Hybrids - If I abduct a sentient race and drop them off in one of my colonies and they don't kill that race, I want to be able to get a message later in my game (anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour) that an alien hybrid has been unlocked and I should come back to my homeworld to witness this historical event.

What is REALLY happening is that when I return to the homeworld and open up the communication panel, I am sent to an editor that is similar to the Creature Tweeker where I am given the base form of my own space race to mess with using a selection of parts that are unlocked based on the parts used from the sentient race I dropped off.

For example, say I wanted a specific bird mouth but failed to find it in Creature stage. I can drop a sentient race on to my planet that has the bird mouth I want and then wait for the hybrid breeding to start. Then, once in the editor, I can put that mouth on my creature!

Once saved, your race changes to that hybrid. Think of it as a Sentient Creature Editor only with more options instead of clothing and would be exclusive to Space Phase with access being strictly limited to the "introduce a new race to your race" method of unlocking.

That's all my suggestions I've had in mind for now. I'm sure others will pop up in the future.

I actually don't have too many issues with space or many ideas on what to go in the expansion, buuuuut...

I would like better interaction with lower sentient species. As things are you can either uplift them or destroy them. If I could actually influence what archetype they'd be before or after uplifting them that'd be really sweet.

Oh and uh... be nice to be able to set up colonies in systems that already have sentient species. Doesn't have to be on the same planet but in at least the same system would be nice.

mr_cyberpunk wrote:1 thing I have to say about this expansion.

Fleets or forget it seriously we've been ranting about the lack of Fleets way way way back since 2005.. if Fleets aren't in this expansion I won't buy it.. I'll wait till you guys get your act together and actually start implementing stuff we actually ASKED for.

Further more, what happened to Will Wrights comments "if its not in the game... it'll be in the first expansion"? Ocean phase? A Working Flora Editor?! Did this Ethos change or something?

5 - your absolutely correct

I also suggest allowing you to set up your own trade routes and freight routes to automatically generate income for you so you don't have to (but at a slower rate). And research to unlock special abilities instead of acquiring badges, which costs income.

mr_cyberpunk wrote:Fleets or forget it seriously we've been ranting about the lack of Fleets way way way back since 2005.. if Fleets aren't in this expansion I won't buy it.. I'll wait till you guys get your act together and actually start implementing stuff we actually ASKED for.

What he said. Except perhaps not so aggressively. But really, we like fleets. Ally ships don't count, we want control over all the ships. (And they need to be able to take a couple hits before dying, or smart enough to avoid gunfire.)

mr_cyberpunk wrote:Further more, what happened to Will Wrights comments "if its not in the game... it'll be in the first expansion"? Ocean phase? A Working Flora Editor?! Did this Ethos change or something?

Also a good point, but do take your time. When you make that Ocean Stage, make it RIGHT. (And preferably along with a better Creature Stage too. I'd say the Creature Stage should be given more depth and the ocean can be worried about a little later.) Flora Editor would be dynamite though, and even a small amount of dynamic quality to the Cell Stage. (It's like the Cell Stage is the only one where how you design your things matters... and yet the only one where you never get to see anyone else's stuff....)

chimerahound wrote:I would like better interaction with lower sentient species. As things are you can either uplift them or destroy them. If I could actually influence what archetype they'd be before or after uplifting them that'd be really sweet.

I HATE uplifting a species and they have no outfit! (Or an outfit from an earlier stage.) Could we perhaps be able to outfit the races we uplift too? ("Hey, thanks for uplifting us. Hey uh, you guys seem to have a decent fashion sense. Mind getting us up to date with the latest Space trends? Rather not be running around other more developed nations with no clothes on, after all. What kind of message would that send?")

I'll try to stay within the parameters of the space stage since that is what you've requested:

How about focusing on what you've told us we are during the current space game - Omnipotent! Why the hell are we having to shuttle spice, defend planets, etc. Most people feel this is absurd. We are supposed to be at the "sandbox" stage so umm, GIVE US THE SANDBOX.

Certainly after reaching the centre we are supposed to be something special. You do not give us that. We ought to have much more of a laid back, powerful feel.

We should certainly be able to name our planets / systems if we are this omnipotent God-like being. Terraforming should have many more options for us. Missions should be more grandiose such as seeding a new empire (which we currently can do but with no real options), saving another species from a supernova, etc. Being at this level and still being asked to fetch and carry is just absurd.

I really don't see how you're going to tack-on an expansion to this stage with the constraints you've already put in place not synching with players' expectations and your own "story-line".

Perhaps you should focus on beefing up the space-stage that is (with free patches) and the purchasable expansion should be the next stage after that, something more grandiose.

Cheers.


Edit - Oh and I and many others do NOT want to run into our own species as NPCs, thank you. This should at least be an option. If I WERE to mention the other stages I would include not having to see my own sentient species as a lower life form alongside the one I'm currently playing.