After recently browsing the forum I saw a post that expressed some frustration about gameplay in the late game -- especially in a huge or gigantic universe. Eventually, you can get so large and strong that none of the other races can possibly stand against you. Personally this doesn't bother me too much as I enjoy the process of building a tremendous superpower -- sometimes the process of creating a "perfect society" is just as rewarding as conquering all of my neighbors. Nevertheless I think there are some things that could be done to make the endgame a little more interesting. One of my favorite parts of the MOO series, especially MOO 2, were higher level challenges you faced after achieving an obvious dominence of the galaxy. For those not familiar with the series, during the game a highly advanced race known at the Antarens, who inhabited another dimension, would occaisionally send fleets of extremely powerful ships to attack and raid your colonies. Eventually, when your race became sufficiently strong and you researched enough technology that you could stand up to them, you could send your ships to that alternate dimension and wipe out the Antarens once and for all. MOO also featured planets that were protected by extremely poweful starships -- unlike the Antarens, the ships protecting these planets would never initiate an attack against any of the other normal races; instead, they protected their planets (which usually contained the secrets of some new technologies or other advantages) and required you to develop your technological and military might to capture them. These types of challenges would add an extra element of fun to the game, and keep things interesting after you've achieved an obvious dominance over all of your neighbors. The foundation for this is already present in the game -- the Dread Lords could assume the role of the Antarens. Having an alternate dimension inhabited by an extremely powerful race would give your massive army a purpose after conquering the majority of the galaxy. Furthermore, periodic attacks by the Dread Lords on all of the normal races would keep things fresh, and add a certain element of random challenge to the game (this was also accomplished in Star Trek: Birth of the Federation with the occaisional appearance of the Borg). This might be a great idea for the expansion -- for that matter, someone might even be able to create a MOD that did this. What are some other thoughts on this?
