The Planet Killer Ship

Sounds kinda like the campaign, but i havn't finished it yet.

I agree with you that when you play the game to the point when your just wiping their race from the face of the galaxy it becomes less interesting. Just consumes time that you could be out conquering a new galaxy.

I think it would be fun if when a dominant superpower emerges in a game the dread lords show up and give that race a run for its money. then you have to change your strategy and possibly work with other races to defeat them. I don't know if this would work as a metaverse game but possibly a custom map or scenario. Has anyone done this previously?

I don't know if this would work as a metaverse game but possibly a custom map or scenario. Has anyone done this previously?

I know there is a custom scenario in the downloads section where you can play against ALL races and the Dread Lords on one map. But other than that, I don't think there's really any other option.

I do remember in an earlier version that bloody near every anomaly I explored turned into a space shark egg, which would then destroy all of my ships until I finally researched something to kill them. But I have yet to see one of those buggers around for a few updates. There's also the possibility of space pirates, but again, I have yet to encounter any. I really wish there was an option to increase the probability of random encounters such as these (including an option for a Dread Lord invasion after a few years say?)

I'd rather see a modification to the diplomatic AI than a "random super enemy".
Usually, when a superpower on a rampage (aka "the player") emerges all other races begin to think they might be the next victim and so the relationship drops deep into the red. As a consequence the relationships of all other powers except the player begin to become good friends ("Oh, you hate the player! I do so too! Let's hate him together!") and ally against the player. Then, when the next war brakes out this alliance turns on the player and crush is empire. When the former empire is decimated enough the negative relation-modifier between the player and AI is removed because the player isn't a threat any more. Due to the better relations the Ai agrees to a peace-treaty and the player can start the expansion again.
If you think about modern history you can surely come up with an example of how this worked in reality.

If the AI was modified to react this way a total victory would be very difficult. The target wouldn't be complete conquest anymore but "Seize and keep" - see how large an empire you can conquer and keep together.
On a sidenote, one would have to keep in mind that there are several "threats" to the AI. A scientifically or economically superior power is just as much of a threat as a militarily superior race.
The general rule of thumb the AI needs to learn is: "Superior other race = threat = bad relation"
(There are exceptions from this, especially when talking about minor races. But you can surely come up with those yourselves.)

Vain

Planet killers: Possible, yet extremely unlikely.
Planet creators: probably not happening.

Playing with the dread lords on isn't so great, they end up curtailing intersteller travel in the AI's so it seems that only I colonize worlds and when on of the AI's does conquer a Dreadlords world (which happens occassionally-frequently) they get a huge tech advantage (if they're lucky and don't get a low lvl tech)

Another thing that could happen in the later stages would be two or more lesser empires deciding that they aren't going to win, and therefore merge their empires together out of the blue, creating an aditional threat.

Such an empire would have a good number of ships, money and technology - combining what both empires had. This could radically shift the balance of power to make things a little more interesting in the later parts of the game.

Anyone else got further possibilities for improving the interest in the later parts of the game (e.g. when you have lots more planets than anyone else, economy ticking over, good ships and highest research?).

One other thing that would be interesting would be the abiity to switch races during the game (and ai takes control of your previous race). I could then build up a dominant empire, then switch sides and see if I could out do it somehow.

Didn't GalCiv1 have a planet killer type ship?

A scientifically or economically superior power is just as much of a threat as a militarily superior race.

An economically superior power wouldn't really be a target, since they would probably have trade routes, so the AI would actually be screwing itself, and attacking a empire just because it's economicly superior is more like terrorism.

Didn't GalCiv1 have a planet killer type ship?

Yeah the terror stars.