Spore E3 Q&A part 2: Civilization/Space phase
Civilization Phase
In case it wasn't obvious, this was the phase that Civilization IV designer Soren Johnson worked on.
There will be two city sizes -- major and minor -- each with a pre-set number of nodes to place buildings. The exact numbers of each was not revealed. Three types of buildings: factory, house and entertainment. You will notice blue lines that defin the national boundaries of each city.
Songs can be attached to specific cities and heard when you are near them.
Creatures are relegated to NPCs in the cities and you now control vehicles. There are three types of vehicles you can create: military, religious and economic. They are all meant for conquest -- the economic troops try to buy out other cities, the religious troops try to convert cities by projecting preachers to your cause, and military takes the old fashioned route.
During this phase, there will still be less civilized creatures on your planet that may try to overtake your cities. You will also be forced to deal with Epic Creatures -- larger variants of your creatures with special powers -- that will really screw up your ambitions and must be taken out. In our playtest we attempted to take out Mega Ultra Chocobo that breathed fireballs. Vu said there was likely no reward for defeating such creatures other than not having to deal with them. They can also be temporarily converted with your religious troops for attacking other cities.
You will have a superpower, based your creature's behavior (presumably in the tribal phase). Vu provided examples such as the economic-focused ad banners that can fly over other cities promoting your way of life, or the religious-focused "rain of frogs," where some creature (not necessarily frogs) is dropped into an opponents city à la the Egyptian plagues.
Space Phase
The space phase is considered the RPG part of Spore, said Vu. You will be given a random batch of scripted missions to accomplish (Vu said he didn't know speciically how many missions but that there was "a lot").
There is an (optional) ending! It will take a minimum of 15 to 20 hours to reach it, according to Vu, and it is reached at the center of the galaxy. He wouldn't reveal what the ending was, only to say there is only one conclusion and it has a "twist" to it.
