Civilization Phase

Introduction

Once a tribe’s hut has been upgraded to a certain level, the player will immediately enter the Civilization phase of Spore. Each phase essentially builds upon the previous one and acts as a tutorial for the next. Therefore, as you can expect, this phase is a similar but more complex and broader version of the Tribal phase. Instead of controlling merely a handful of your species, you have a vast number at your possession. Instead of only having one town, you can gain control of many cities. Instead of using armed tribesman as your form of warfare, you have a vast number of mechanical land, air and sea vehicles available. But the gameplay remains similar, you are in direct competition with the other cities of the planet - your goal is to gain control of all of them either militarily, religiously or economically.

A City of People

What are we doing tonight Brain? The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to take over the world! Wait, not so fast! Before you even start to think about becoming the ruler of all that is, you need to tend to your own people. Cities operate on happiness, the happier your people are the more efficient they will be. You will have to increase your people’s happiness by building the correct types of buildings - unfortunately, the more intricate details of how happiness is measured and controlled are unknown at this point.

Conquering thy neighbors

In the Tribal phase players will have had a taste of organized warfare for the first time. But in the civilization phase the size and scope of battles becomes much larger. Players can design all their land, sea and air vehicles to their own liking and each individual piece used has a functional application, meaning you can create everything from stealth fighters to sea juggernauts. Warfare is the simplest form of world conquering to understand: find city, destroy city buildings, claim city. It is an effective way of progressing, however if you so choose there are many other tools at your disposal. Like all other phases of Spore, violence is not a necessity - it is simply an option. Conquering other cities can be undertaken through much more peaceful means, such as through economic or religious subversion. Therefore, having strong diplomatic (socialize attribute) skills helps a great deal when dealing with other cities and civilizations. It’s not yet entirely clear how these two methods work, but we do know economic and religious ‘units’ are at your disposal. We also know that it is possible to offer other cities gifts, presumably to increase their favor to you in hope of forming an alliance or boosting trade.