A shortcut I discovered accidentally is the tilde key (~). This pauses the game, but you can still move the camera and issue orders (in the Creature stage anyway – I haven’t tried it in any other stages). I try not to use it too much – I feel it would make the game a little too easy.
Does anyone know if there’s a keyboard shortcut for switching between social and combat stance? That’s the big one I’m missing at the moment.
Can anyone tell me if they have got the game to run on a system with integrated graphics?
I pre-ordered it…and honestly I might just let the $5 burn. REALLY short on cash right now and from what I’ve heard it doesn’t come CLOSE to living up to the hype. 
I’m really enjoying the game. People who criticize it’s depth are missing out on the depth created by one very important aspect: how much you can customize your creations. Obviously, if that isn’t very interesting to you, the game won’t be that fun.
Here’s my stuff for anyone who wants to add me as buddy:
Oops should have given this link:
http://www.spore.com/view/profile/Knorf
Also, I actually know the difference between “its” and “it’s,” despite the above.
My profile is under Pixilated1 - Oodle and blurp.
The others are my kids’ creations.
Now I have to figure out how to play after evolving from the creature creator stage.
Quick question: in the civilization phase, how do you move land units from one continent to another? Is it even possible, or do you have to conquer an enemy city with ships then re-build your army from there? Thanks.
As far as I can tell, you have to conquer an enemy city with ships or planes and then build new tanks. It’s a bit annoying, for sure. They should add transports; if such are in the game, I sure couldn’t figure it out.
Wow. I now have no interest in getting this game until it’s considerably less expensive.
Dude, there’s so much they should have added to the Civ phase.
Well, you can (sort of) play as creatures you already made in the creature creator. You just have to start the game later than the creature stage (so tribe, civ, or space).
When you do that, you get to pick what creature to play as, which can be something created from scratch, or any species already downloaded, either your own or someone else’s.
Although, if your disinterest was due to the lack of breeding options, then there’s nothing like that in the game.
I encountered one of mine (“Ziggy”) as an Epic during spaceship training. Looked like a giant purple snowman!
I finally received my copy yesterday. Interestingly, the installer was not smart enough to include a start menu icon.
I love the game so far! I’m up to the Creature stage. I spent a long time in the Cell phase, trying to find the last part. I ended up having to kill one of the super-large beasties to get it.
In the Creature stage, I’m trying to play a social carnivore. I’ve been befriending everything that lets me try. My most interesting experience–I was performing for some species and the ground starting shaking. Suddenly a large tentacle reached over, grabbed me, and I was lunch. Yikes!
I also had a meteor swarm strike me.
Wait until a UFO flies over and abducts some of your packmates…
As for the Start icon thing, are you using Vista by any chance? I heard on a podcast somewhere (can’t remember which one) that part of Microsoft’s “Games for Windows” certification process for Vista was that games don’t put entries directly into the Start menu and instead put all of them under Vista’s “Games” menu.
Now, I know a lot of GFW games don’t do that so I don’t know how closely it is enforced but it seems that some publishers do follow it.
Watch out, Pleo. When you’re done with the creature phase, there’s a fairly long period of suck which is the tribal and civilization phases. It gets better in the space age again.
I’m lovin’ the ground squid.
If I had preordered it for $5 and gotten a chance to play it before buying it, I’d let the money burn.
It is - and I admit I was concerned about this - basically a bunch of mediocre games slapped together.
The creation of creatures and such is pretty neat, but frankly, it’s not really enough to hang a game on. And the customizability, to my mind, might actually go too far. What I found a bit offputting was that as you grow your life form, there’s really nothing throughout the cell and creature stage to limit you. There’s only as much of a sense of evolution as you feel like having. You can take a green pig-lizard creature and instantly turn it into a six-legged blue thing with feathers and a mouth on its ass. Your modification choices aren’t limited by any decision you’ve previously made except for the herbivore/carnovore call, and even that you can work around.
The later stages are just variations of exploration/conquest games and none are as good as any of the exploration/conquest games I already had installed on my PC.
A lot about the game’s environment is cool; the world is remarkably rich with life. The game, however, is a bit of a drag.
Minor strange challenges I have undertaken in the Creature phase:
I made a herbivore, then proceeded to kill everything I met. Didn’t eat them, of course, just killed everything. The game engine kept dropping me herbivore mouths and social details, trying to steer me onto the socialization path, and not giving me much in the way of weapons, but I persevered in my bloodlust.
I managed to build a creature with maximum stats in every category. It took a long time of searching the island for the pieces and getting as many DNA points as possible, long past the point at which I could have gone on to tribal stage. The resulting creature is a grotesque 6-legged abomination with wings, horns, spines, and other appendages sticking out at odd angles.
Currently I’m trying to get a carnivore through Creature stage without ever killing another creature, and ideally without ever eating meat. What makes this possible is that your food counter is reset every time you mate or gain a larger brain. I’m most of the way along now, and getting to the point where I’m having to plan missions away from home base on what ground I can travel without eating. The game is still flashing the “You’re a carnivore, kill and eat something” message at me.
While not a complete pacifist (I still kill and eat hostile creatures), my social carnivore has found starving doesn’t seem to have a penalty. At least, I can still collect bones and socialize with a zero food bar.
Or eggs?
Space reminds me a lot of the Starflight series.