Monolith is a charged socializing tool in the Space Stage of Spore.
Usage
A Monolith placed on a planet
The tool is used as ammunition launched at the nearest surface of the planet if it has the presence of inhabited creatures. Upon hitting the surface, the cutscene will play of monolith with the end caption "The monolith will cause this planet to evolve... come back later to see what happened!". On a wild planet, the species of the creature closest to the Monolith will become sentient and will begin their evolution, going through the Tribal, Civilization, and finally into Space stage.
If there is already a tribe or civilization on the planet, the monolith will trigger evolution to the next stage until they reach space. However, not all the members of a species will be uplifted. In these occasions, sentient members will form civilizations while others remain wild and uncivilized.
Any planet the player's spaceship places a monolith on will occasionally notify them regarding the evolution of the inhabiting race of the planet, looking much like this: "The (species name) species on planet (planet's name) has evolved to the (stage) Stage!"
Uplifting a race will give a +50 Relation Bonus. The number of cities the new creatures will have upon reaching the space stage greatly depends on the planet type. From 1 on a T1, 2 on a T2, to up to 10 on a T3 planet. Only on a planet without spice, they will just build 1 city no matter the T-Score.
The player can earn the Brain Surgeon badge for promoting a specified number of creatures to the Tribal stage. If the player uses a monolith on 20 tribal planets, they will earn the Civil Engineer Achievement.
Tips
- When a civilization is formed, it is very easy to take over and gain a very valuable enemy homeworld. This makes it a good idea to use a monolith on a planet and then take the planet over when the planet reaches the Space Stage. Using this on a purple spice planet will inevitably lead to a purple spice homeworld that you should take over, a great way to get vast amounts of wealth.
Trivia
References
- This has parallels to SimEarth, a previous Maxis game in which it was possible to speed the cognitive development of creatures by dropping a monolith. The effect is similar to the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, where monoliths from sentient alien beings were used to rapidly develop a species' evolutionary intelligence.
- The monolith concept originates from Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which mankind's early ancestors were given intelligence from a mysterious black monolith.
- In a cut scene from the film adaptation, these monoliths were explained to be Von Neumann probes, self-replicating machines that are theorized would be used by advanced civilizations to search for life in the universe. Von Neumann probes would systematically explore the universe and would communicate back to their home civilization upon finding evidence of life.
- It is further speculated that if a Von Neumann probe encountered primitive, non-sentient life it might be programmed to lie dormant on that planet, either silently observing the evolution of that planet's life or actively guiding its evolution or making contact. The Von Neumann probe would then be re-activated when the civilization it was observing reached a certain level of technology, for example, space flight, in order to make contact.
- It is this possible application of the Von Neumann probe which is explored in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in the guise of Monoliths, although the explanation of their use was ultimately removed to add to their mystery, and also in
In-game
- When placing a monolith on the planet with no spice and center of the map, the creature will evolve normally, but it won't make any cities. This planet becomes invisible to invasion and can't be taken over unless buying it.