Spore v1.01 Patch Released
Posted on 18 September 2008 by Erik
Electronic Arts has released the first PC patch for their life sim title Spore, updating the game to v1.01.
The update fixes several bugs, addresses community complaints, and implements a few new cheat codes. Though it isn’t explained if this patch includes the claimed DRM fix.
Here are the complete patch notes:
Features
* New Cheat: “evoadvantage”. Enter this cheat when are starting a new Creature game to choose any creature from the Sporepedia. Start a new game with one of your more evolved creatures!
* Display part statistics when you are in Build mode. Rollover any part and hold down the ‘i’ key.
* New Cheat: “blocksmode”. Turns creatures into their blocky representations.
* More style filters. Open the cheat window and type: “stylefilter -microscope” or “stylefilter -norainbows” or “stylefilter -nextgen” to see the new styles
* Added 70 new planet scripts with a low terraform score, especially of the “hot and high atmosphere” type
Graphics/Aesthetics
* Animation improvements
* Improved the planets fogging, blooming and lighting
* Fixed animation issues with tool handling, hand walking and some of the more oddly shaped creatures
Tuning
* Creature phase: Improved the pacing towards the end of the game, and increased the challenge in Normal and Hard modes.
* Tribe phase: Increased the challenge in Normal and Hard difficulty modes.
* Civilization phase: Increased the challenge in Normal and Hard difficulty modes.
* Space phase: Made Empires in Easy and Normal modes demand reasonable amounts of money in exchange for peace and adjust the level of punishment if the player doesn’t pay
* Space phase: Made disasters less likely to occur in Easy and Normal modes and increased the time between each attack from the enemy empire when the player is at war.
Miscellaneous
* Creature phase: Improved the way posse members behave during threatening situations and fights.
* Space phase: Made finding your home world and colonies easier in the Galactic view.
* Tribe phase: Made it so that tribe members can travel on steep hills if they need to do so now, but their speed will be reduced a lot.
* Fixed an issue with attacks not working on some bigger animals and larger animals not dying correctly
* Fixed collect mission not completing correctly when all parts have been collected
* Fixed problems with the “Rolling Thunder” and “Deja Vu” achievements not being awarded as they should
* Fixed floating parts not being deducted from the budget when loaded into creator
* Fixed an issue with the rotation rings not resizing correctly when a part was resized and improved their look
* Fixed an issue where the terraforming score of planet could differ when revisiting a solar system
* Fixed the keyboard controls for zoom & pitch in the Colony Planner not working properly
* Fixed a crash that could occur when watching an epic creature attack a city
* Fixed some issues where the game would freeze when using the Creature Tweaker tool or when capturing a planet in solar view
* Fixed an issue where not all tribe members would obey the raid order when a large group was ordered to raid
* Fixed an issue where banning a creation from one of your other saved games would black out the main menu
September 24th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
This game is crap anyway
its too siimple, and repetative. creature design has no affect on gameplay, which gets real boring real quick
anybody who enjoys this game after 2 or 3 run throughs is a stupid neandethalic simpleton
i hope SPORE sells really crapply, and EA loses alot of money for such a crap game. its not justice they make money off this game
September 24th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
@Chris
When my computer goes out, gets a job, and starts buying its own software, then the “only supposed to be running on one PC at a time” argument might fly. As it is *I* bought the software and *I* expect to be able to use it wherever *I* am. Currently that’s six computers (two at the lab, home tower, home laptop, two parent’s computers for when I’m visiting to fix their other computer).
Further, the current DRM model doesn’t even fit the “only supposed to be running on one PC at a time” claim. It’s apparently allowed to be running on three computers at a time, but that’s it; if you need to reinstall after a wipe and rebuild, you’re SOL. Planning on only owning three computers for as long as you’re interested in playing this game and *never* having to format and rebuild from scratch? If so, your optimism knows no bounds.
I paid for my copy. It’s sitting right there on the shelf, still in its shrink wrap. I play the cracked version. Why, you might ask. Well, because the second newest game I play is eleven years old and I have no reason to believe that the keyservers for Spore will be around for that long. I mean, really, it’s corporate externalization 101: Wait until sales drop into the long tail, turn off the keyservers and announce a re-release (”With All New Keys!”) and get paid again.
Heck, I wish I could draw infinite income from making just one hammer, cloning it electronically, embedding DRM in the copies, and just turning everyone’s hammers off whenever I feel like a new yacht. Sounds like a sweet deal.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
“EA Hit By Class-Action Suit Over Spore DRM”
Hah!!!!
story
September 24th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I can see why they did the DRM. When you buy software it is really only supposed to be running on one PC at a time. This was to help curb piracy. The only problem I can see with the limit is that if you upgrade hardware it counts as a new computer, and thus you should be able to remove the old ID from the licenses. Once they fix that I see no problem with it. At that point the only people who will be complaining still are those who can’t pass copies around to all their friends. However, I miss the old days when you could install a ‘Spawn’ copy of the game.
September 20th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Will, you are SO wrong.
I’ve been waiting for spore for years, ever since the first mention of it by Will Wright - but I HATE the DRM. You yourself are already 2/3 through with the originally allowed maximum number of installs, and it’s less then 2 weeks after release. How many people will have gone over that limit in 6 months? In 2 years?
I still play Diablo2 and Starcraft over 10 years after their release. Why? because they’re good games, and I CAN. Do you think I’ll ever buy another EA game if I end up locked out of Spore a year down the line? Think again! The DRM IS a big deal to me, and it -almost- kept me from buying the game at all, even after all the anxious waiting I did. If it ends up biting me, I’ll remember for a very long time.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Nobody who is serious about these games cares about the DRM. If they need to put this in the games to continue making high quality games, whatever. There are some prices I’m willing to play. I isntalled it in two computers so far, my labtop and home computer, and am enjoying it.
And yes, less frequent attacks is a godsend.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Oh wow, we now get 5 installations.
Thanks but no thanks EA. I want to be able to install this game as many times as I want in my life time. Get rid of the excessive DRM and perhaps I might actually buy it. Until then “NO SALE FOR YOU!”
September 18th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Agreed. Well done EA. Fixing the problems with the amount of money that was demanded for peace will make me happy. It was super fricking annoying having to save up that much money or face non-stop attacks.
P
September 18th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Less frequent attacks… That’s about the best news so far.
All of these fixes seem great.
WTG Spore devs.
Caid.