Hologram Scout is the main tool that allows the player to explore a planet's surface as a hologram.
Aside from walking around, almost no interaction is available. The controls are very similar to the controls in the Creature Stage despite the hologram walking being very slow compared to walking during the stage. The scout cannot fly or jump, and it cannot beam down over the water, over a colony, or from a high altitude. Other creatures on the surface become aware of the hologram's presence if the hologram approaches. Herbivore creatures will be terrified of the hologram (if the player's species is a carnivore or omnivore), or observe in curiosity at the hologram (if the player is a herbivore); carnivores and omnivores will be territorial, then attack; and epic creatures will grab, bite, throw and send fireballs at the hologram. Though, if a player beams down as a hologram and enters a tribe, the tribe members will not react to the hologram's presence. The scout can also pick up items, such as money dropped by ships, by left-clicking them.
The Hologram Scout was originally seen in a 2007 gameplay video from Will Wright. It was deployed to see the reaction of the tribe members after a monolith was placed. However, the Hologram does have a few differences from the actual game. The Hologram Scout in that video was an actual creature instead of the glowing holographic look. In today's Spore, sentient creatures do not ever react to the Hologram Scout's presence, and if walking, may walk right through the Hologram. However, despite the video showing the real creature deployed instead of a Hologram, it still had a slow speed and large size than Hologram Scout in today's Spore.
In the Spore Galactic Adventures expansion pack, players can only beam down from adventure planets. The player can ask an alien empire for a mission, the game will scan for systems or planets that have not been visited and then make the player travel to the system. Gas Giants will get converted into adventure planets if any nearby planets have all been visited.
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Trivia[]
- Hologram Scouts are apparently very limited, lacking the ability to use any creature abilities (even if they have the parts that enable them), entering cities or oceans and having sluggish speed.
- There is a glitch that Hologram Scouts can swim, by walking into a beach that leads into the water and walking "awkwardly." The more sloped the beach is, the smoother the scout is able to successfully swim in the ocean.
- A Hologram Scout can appear more creature-like through a glitch which involves opening the Settings window and then closing it. If done properly, the Hologram may appear smaller and walks at a more normal creature pace. However, this strange glitch also drastically shrinks creatures (and Epics) and babies on the planet, and creature packs may instead hold 2 babies instead of 1. This might make creature-delivery missions or ecodisasters difficult to accomplish. However, this glitch can simply be fixed by restarting the saved game.
- Despite being holographic (and therefore not a real organism), Epics are able to pick up Hologram Scouts and partially eat them, and creatures are capable of Spitting poison at the hologram and can charge and daze it. However, in reality, Holographic items are unable to be interacted physically, and considering how it is not a real organism, it's very unrealistic for the Hologram Scout to react to the creatures' poison or charge (in fact, the Spit balls and the charging creature would logically go through the Hologram rather than hit it since it's not a solid form). However, these unrealistic factors of the game could have been added there intentionally for humor, or unintentionally gave it too many creature reactions.
- Hologram Scouts can actually emit noises when idle, despite it not being alive. The noises it makes are also similar to the creatures with the same mouths.
- The scout is also able to swim, seemingly forever, by walking into a body of water from a very flat stretch of coast. This can be quite tricky, as the angle into the water has to be very shallow (see the below video). It is unknown why the game does not allow the scout to swim in normal conditions.
- The Fanatical Frenzy creates city-sized holograms of your creature when used. However, it can neither be used nor interacted with by the player.
- Holograms can have captain tools as decoration, but they cannot be used. Captain "Lights" (visual effects from captain parts) will still show.
Glitches[]
- Sometimes your Hologram Scout will be much larger than the actual size your creature really is, apparently Epic Sized. Much like the difference in tribal stage creatures and Epics.
- The hologram scout can be shrunk by opening, then closing, the settings window before using the scout. The speed will not be affected, but since your scout is smaller, it will appear to be going faster.
- If the Hologram Scout is beamed down near a colony, and if one has the Galactic Adventures expansion pack, a glitch occurs that makes all the colony members the same as the captain. The only way to fix this is to exit without saving. However, there are no major negative effects of the glitch, so it can be left alone if the player does not mind not using the Colonist Outfitter again.
- The scout is also able to swim, seemingly forever, by walking into a body of water from a very flat stretch of coast. This can be quite tricky, as the angle into the water has to be very shallow.