Yeah, this would be awesome! I like the idea!

YES! This is a fantastic idea. And if you can simply turn this off, even the people who don't like this have no reason to complain. Why would you NOT put this is?!

I'd like to see these events, so long as I can turn them off. They sound cool and deserving of their own event video's though.

Yes, a new checkbox for 'Enable MegaEvents' would be a nice addition.

Oh, a thousand times yes. Mega-events would add so much flavour, and make sure games would never play out the same. What would be important is for the player never to be completely at the mercy of such a random element e.g. a space plague should always have something that could be researched to combat it, even if this required a huge science commitment. I would also focus on events that play around with player relationships, either forming alliances or creating enemies, as this could really shake things up. And of course, the idea of a mega-event seems absolutely tailor made for the Dreadlords (finally) showing up.

(Veteran)Martok September 12, 2006 23:32:27 Reply #26 I wouldn't mind seeing mega-events, but I admit there's one I'd be particularly interested in: The Dreadlords suddenly showing up! Whether they simply start with a "swarm" of ships and invade straight away, or whether they first colonize a previously-uninhabitable system and then go on the rampage, I don't care. But I'd really love to see a Dreadlord invasion in my regular sandbox games.

I really like the uninhabitable system part. It would tie in nicely with the dormant race reawakening (the Shadows, Za'Ha'Dum, Babylon 5)image. If they had to build up from a smallish start players would get a long shot at taking them down quickly before they could fully re-establish themselves. That might help if the event were to kick in early game.

I'm going to say NO. Against most by what I read. The reason is that I'd always have the options set to OFF when playing Metaverse. These would ruin the game, especially if they happened early on. Whatever strategy you'd been working on would go Poof. Stardock works very hard on this game and the resources could be placed elsewhere, I imagine most everyone would set the switch to off when they cared about the outcome. Mark

What if the mega events boosted your end game score? If an event took place your score is increased by X amount in recognition for the extra challenge.

Personally I'd have it on all the time, whatever happens in my games happens, if I'm forced to sitch track then its a test of how well I can hack it. The outcome is always important, thats why I play games through to the end if I can, win or lose. I get the score I get.

Another possibility though, is it a possibility to have the mega events present in the game from the start, but dormant? If Weber II is colonised the plague is unleashed. Regulus IV? Whoops you just ran into the Dread Lords. Isangi I? Pirate base. In theory if you/AI encounter the events while exploring you get a little advance notice of the threat nd cn incorporate it into your plans. It becomes an additional randomising factor in galaxy creation I suppose. Dunno if it would help or defeat the point somewhat...

Hey this is Fun!

Here are some more ideas

1) A super computer virus runs through the galaxy and wrecks economic and happiness destruction that is proportional to every civilization's power and economy.

2) The Chess Game - Two super beings, one good the other evil take control of two weaker civilizations (one good the other evil). Those civs are given a truck load of tech and money and declare war on each other. Relations of those races to others are STRONGLY dictated by alignment.

3) A new tech that makes defending planets quite easy is discovered (The sci-fi equivalent of the machine gun in WW1). Defense to planetary invasions is increased by 4X

4) A random race tries to better itself through Nano-technology. They gain some bonuses but become carriers of a nano-plague that does not adversely affect them. Anyone trading with them or invading their planets has a chance of contracting the plague which may or may not have a cure. Once contracted the plague kills until it burns itself out.

5) Telepath War - Psionics appear in all races. A massive civil war in each race occurs as the Telepaths struggle for survival. Each race can either support the majority or the telepaths. If they support the majority the civil war is fairly short lived. If they support the telepaths the war is very long. During the war there are penalties to happiness, production, economy and research, and populations plummet. If the telepaths win, although the populations are reduced to a very small level the race gains some very nice bonuses.

6) One race (most likely a weaker one) becomes president of the council and they are the only one that can vote on issues

7) Kleptocracy - Voting is possible in council issues, but money must be spent in order to use votes

8) The dark night - Some sci fi event happens that permanently reduces all scanner ranges to minimum, and lowers logistics. Diplomatic communication may simply be unavailable for long stretches of time.

9) Storm of Hate - a demonic being appears and works his influence. All Alliances and trade routes are cancelled and all races feel hatred towards each other for ten turns. After this relations can evolve as normal.

10) Giant Monsters - need I say more?

11) Giant Monsters - where there is a chance of it befriending one race and going to stomp on that race's enemies

12) Teleportation - All ship speeds have a minimum speed of 100

13) Why SETI has Failed - An easily concealed, impossibly easy to build super weapon is discovered and the knowledge spreads across the galaxy. The only government possible is now the Imperium and there are massive penalties to happiness and research that are permanently applied. One bonus though is on planetary invasions a new tactic emerges that costs next to nothing and increases the attack of attacking forces by 10X.

Sounds interesting. One or two ideas:

Galactic Collapse - starting with the outer sectors, the universe begins contracting in on itself. The game becomes a massive rush to occupy the central sectors and fulfil a goal before the universe completely collapses.

Supernova! - A star in a sector goes Nova, annihilating everything in that sector and making it impassable for the rest of the game.

Alternate timeline - After an accident in the dimensional research labs, the player is thrust down a different trouser of time. An AI and the player swap empires. Would be incredibly fun if you suddenly find yourself in charge of the empire you've been beating on for the whole game...

Mighty Meek - The independents ally together and decide to topple all the major empires.

Good ideas, Dano13 and Archonsod!

Such events could really give a lot of spice to GalCiv.
It should be possible to deactivate them and to say "at least one must happen".

Definitly, YES. And a lot of great suggestions here.
I totally agree that these mega-events should be optional.
I'd like to go one step further: Instead an on/off-checkbox, give us some more options, like we have the galaxy setup:
MEGA-EVENT PROBABILITY:
- a slider on how often mega events happen. Never, extremly seldom, about once per game, several times per game...
MEGA-EVENT IMPACT:
- how severe the consequences are. Light (small invasion fleets turn up, little stuff explodes), medium (invasion fleets equal in strength to the players power show up, single systems explode), heavy (invasion fleets are more powerful than all existing civs together, whole sectors blow up etc)

Shouldn't be to hard to implement and would be a great way to give everybody the gaming experience he likes.

Couple of really interesting ideas here - particularly imaginative is the one where you end up as someone else. In general, as long as the AI will respond appropriately to the event (colored by their alignment, of course) it could add a lot of fun.

Of course, if it REALLY messes up something you were trying to do you can always save it and reload a savegame - then go back and play out the alternative ending.

How about a super powerful invasion fleet of either good or evil beings. They have only a certain number of uber ships ... BUT ... the least powerful good or evil race ally with them, riding on their coat tails to achieve galactic power once again.

Babylon 5?

Seriously though, that would be quite cool. Some poor, put-upon race suddenly finds itself approached by an immensely powerful, mysterious outsider race offering to lay the smack down on targets of their choice.

Suddenly the 98 lb weakling is seeking revenge on those that bullied it, and riding the wave of destruction to galactic dominance... (but at what cost? )


-Cauldyth

I will first apologise because I haven't read any previous post but here are my opinions. I think Mega events are a great idea! I personally believe that balancing is overrated - as in life, there are a lot of random possibilities and events. Something that's going well, might suddenly go wrong and vice versa. Not everything should go according to plan. Nevertheless, I do understand where some people would want a more controlled game.

I think it's already been mentioned but turning a minor race into a major race would be great. Usually this would upset the number of players you specifically specified but as a mega event it seems appropriate.

Maybe the Luck attribute can factor into this too.