That might to be hard to balance. It's kind of like the opposite of deus ex machina.

just like the Antarans in Master of Orion 2

Basicly the Antarans where much like the Precursors: An old, mighty race that has been there long before the younger races. They messed around with the galaxy and the beings in it and then decided to retreat to their own dimension. When the game progressed you got an event every now and then, telling you that a fleet of Antaran ships was en route to some planet. You had some turns time to mount a defense and their fleets where very tough in the beginning. However as the game progressed these became more an opportunity to gain experience for your ships and add some very powerfull ships to your fleet (IIRC capturing them was very hard, because they had some sort of self-destruct device mounted on the ships). You could even win the game by beating the Antarans (build a portal to their dimension, send a fleet through it and take their homeworld).

I would love to have a scenario for Galciv2, where the Dreadlords would enter in the late game. It should be a real invasion (no puny little attack runs), something that gets you killed most of the time and really requires you to use all your available ressources to have some chance. Sort of the Golden Horde when playing the Russians (from Medieval: Total War). By now I find this game far too easy to beat and I love the flavour, a big showdown with some mighty old race adds.

yah, that's a really cool idea. Maybe also have something to balance it, Like give there a chance that if there are a certain number of good players, the Precursers will spawn in equal numbers and fight the Dread lords. Precursers wouldn't attack Dread Lords to help a galaxy full of evil guy's, but they might help those who are good. Or it could be a stargate SG-1 Thing, as a random event: Evil Ascended dreadlords have founded a religion and are controlling a miner race, giving them the technology to build Extremely advanced ships. they have already constructed a fleet and are beguinning to attack as we speek. (maybe just give ships and advanced technology to one of the major races, but make them go to war with everyone even if they're allied or have high relations.)

Good, You are given some bonus's by precurser's who've ascended to another plane of existance, but won't help you materially,

neutral, you get nothing, but have a chance not to be attacked at all,

and finally Evil: Attempt to ally with the dread lords, giving a chance for heavy bonus's and not being attacked (for a certain number of turns before they backstab you, giving you time to build up your forces for it)

That would be fun. but if not, then yah a gigantic invasion would be cool.

so it takes twice as many of the psyonics to equal 1 dread lord gun? then the dread lords seem to be at an advantage. don't forget that they ALSO have maximum shielding, armor, and missle techs. It seems to me that the evil is still at a disadvantage (evil player that is). but correct me if i'm wrong, so i can argue the point. i so love to argue.

Hay, i just got an idea, to make the game even harder to win when this thing comes up, why not increase the Difficulty level of the race that gets the dread lords help because the dreadlords are extremely strong and superintelligent. would make the game much more interresting. and if your playing the entire game at max intel, then just make the disaster come earlier.