Alright, I was playing as a custom race that I tweaked for production and money on normal with a large galaxy and occasional stars and planets. Started the conquering early on since I was just going to do my best to be uber-evil and kill everyone. Took about 150 turns (only 6 races to kill) but I basically got to that point where you're pretty much sure you'll win. Only 3 races left. 2 of them surrendered as soon as I took one of their planets. Drengin Empire was left with a nice little chunk of galaxy in the corner. So I gather all my ships at the boarder (I guess at normal the AI doesn't realize what that inevitably means) and put all my shipyards on the best ship I could build. I didn't really know the Drengin tech level, but even if they were slightly above me, they couldn't possibly beat my production ability. Every thing is going to plan when I get a rather disconcerting message. To paraphrase: "You'll win a cultural victory in 10 turns."

I didn't WANT a cultural victory. I wanted to be evil and destructive and pound the other races to the ground using my vast array of superior technology and weaponry. Thing is, I'm not sure how to NOT get a culture vic. I have a pretty high Influence because half of my HQ planets are based on pop and money. As far as I know you can't un-own planets that you conquer, so my influence WILL expand as I get more and more planets. Is it just some kind of race against time to get that conquest Vic? Other than turning it off in the options, is there no way to prevent a culture vic?

Kind of a side note: it could be because I've never played above normal, but does the AI every chose an ethical alignment? Or research the weapons/defenses that come from that choice?