Sporestronomy

[DRoseDARs]

I want to talk about the Spore Galaxy itself. While the gameplay leaves something to be desired for many of us, I'm actually pleased with the way the galaxy itself was made (annoyingly cute aside). There's a huge number of stars that make it up, they're spaced out to the point of forming actual spiral arms and the voids between them. Planets, both rocky and gaseous, have moons (I don't recall if I've seen any multi-moon worlds) and some of those moons are life-baring and colonizable, just like what we were promised then denied in Moo3. All sorts of little graphical touches like comets, asteroid belts, planetary rings. Standing on the surface of one world in Creature, I sat down and watched the sun rise, and then a planet closer in rise shortly after, and then a gas giant on the other side of the system rise. While that's a fair bit unrealistic, I actually appreciated the artistic license they took to give me that vista. I (meaning me, not my creature) had a genuine smile on my face because I was pleasantly surprised. In a different game, I encountered one spacefarer whose homeworld orbits a binary star! I'd've been even more impressed if their homeworld were the moon of a gas giant as well. There's also the blackholes and wormholes(?) and maybe in future addons (*sigh*) they'll include further phenomenon like nebulae, giants and dwarfs (and orcs, oh my).

What do y'all think?

[Dale]

Yes, I must admit there are times when I just stop what I'm doing and watch the environment. Not just what is going on in the galaxy, but what is happening locally too. Like other animals just "going about their business". Or in a spaceship just roaring as fast as possible as low as possible over a planet surface.

Though if you do that, watch out for rocky outcrops!

Did you know you can even go under natural rock bridges?

[MMC]

You can go under un-natural rock bridges too if you create them with the planet sculpting tools

I like how if you visit a tribal planet, they all cower in fear at the sight of your spaceship.

There are other types of stars... There are nebulae, although you can't actually visit them, and the Black Hole / Wormhole graphics are pretty cool when flying through them (think Stargate). And they can take you from one side of the Galaxy to the other, or even just to the other side of your empire.

If you get too close to the Galactic core, your flight range shrinks, which makes it harder to get further in, and also harder to outrun the Grox by going to another system. I've yet to reach the center. I'll post screenshots when I do...