Anyone have these problems playing Spore?

Question

OK, so I bought the Spore Creature Creator, knowing full well that my dial-up connection would cause some problems. I expected slowness; I could deal with that. But I've been having other problems that don't make sense; they may or may not be related to my connection. Has anyone else experienced something like the following:

1. Sometimes I will make a creature, and next time I log in, it's not there anymore. Just gone. It's still in the "Creatures" section on My Documents, but in the game, I can't find it. It's happened twice now, and only when a creature gets a lot of comments in a short amount of time.

2. I created a creature that went through a couple design changes. So I had to upload it three times. Now when I see it on my game, the comments section says: "No comments allowed on Maxis-created content." But /I/ made it. What the h**l?

3. Other times, creatures disappear from my library days after I make them, for no reason. I don't know what would cause that.

4. I hear you can download other players' creatures to your game by saving that creature's .PNG picture to your Spore Creations in My Documents, but I've tried that twice now, and it's there, but it doesn't show up in the game.

I'm getting very frustrated with the way Spore is behaving. Hopefully the full game won't have these problems; or it might have them worse. Does anyone go through the same thing, or does anyone know what the cause might be?

Answer 1

Answer

There are a few reasons why your creature may not be uploading to the website. Please check the following:

Ensure that you are logged in to the SPORE Creature Creator.

Your login name should appear at the bottom left corner of the main Creature Creator screen.

Make sure your creature name only contains alphanumeric characters.

The SPORE website will not allow creatures that contain special characters.  When naming your creature please only use alphanumeric characters (A-Z or 0-9).

Complexity can be key.

If a creatures complexity has been maxed out (you've used all your DNA points) or your complexity meter in the upper right hand corner of the screen is maxed out, there may be an issue with the file when uploaded to the SPORE website. Try removing some parts and upload again.

Patience is the key.

There can be high traffic times when uploading your creature may take time on the server. Don't be alarmed if you do not see your creature right away, they may be in the queue to be posted.

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Answer

Yes. The creatures that you make with the SPORE Creature Creator can be imported into the full retail version of SPORE.

Answer

This may be the result of the game not shutting down properly. As we look into a fix, you can follow these steps to restore your creatures.

   1. Explore to the Spore application data directory:

      Vista users: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\SPORE Creature Creator\

      XP users: C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\SPORE Creature Creator\

      Mac users: Users\\Library\Preferences\SPORE Creature Creator Preferences\p_drive\User\Application Data\SporeCreatureCreator\

   2. Delete these two files:

      GraphicsCache.Package

      ServerCache.Package

   3. Run the game. You should see your lost creatures restored in the Sporepedia under Everything.

   4. To share them, open them in the editor and make any small change. Save and Publish.