1. No autosave.
That’s right, the game doesn’t automatically save your progress, which causes mass panic each time Spore crashes. Crashes? Not often. But in all of two weeks playing through multiple worlds and stages, it did crash three times, at one point dragging me back from the beginning of the Civilization Stage (after a very successful and pleasing run through Tribal) to the end of Creature — from fourth to second, in other words. Fortunately you can restart from any stage you’ve already visited and import your creature, but you’ll sacrifice your history timeline in the process.
I admit, Spore has some flaws, but I’m sure Maxis is well aware of them and are noting suggestions to include in patches/expansions. But as of right now, we are going to have to live with them until they do. As for the issue posted above, I refer to a term my 3D Modeling instructor told us in class: SOS (Save Often, Stupid!).
