I guess that makes two of us.   

i like a lot of the ideas mentioned before. my preference is for those that aren't based ona totally rediculous premise. i dislike the whole "let's make up a nonsensical piece of sceience so that we can put the player in a weird situation" thing. this really spoils immersion for me.

my favorites so far are the
- reinforcements
- pndrev's astronomical events; remind me that i am actually playing a game in space
- recurring anomalies and 2nd level anomalies (though, imho, this should be a gradual part of the basic gameplay, not a mega event). perhaps new anomalies become visible as sensors improve?

- generally more intelligent and better faction emergences.

- new minor race: should have at least a few buildings, ships and 50% of maximum population. might even have one or two other planets. perhaps they terraform other planets in their system, or nearby systems that have low approval decide to join them?

- dread lords: lots of powerful ships&money etc

- civil wars/religious conversion/jagged knife etc: when approval on a certain, significant planet reaches real lows, it may rebel and form a new faction. the nature of this rebellion (whether piratical (jagged knife), ideological (I-league) or alignment based, should be intelligently determined) based on galactic and civilization factors.
Other nearby planets with low approval or influence may join this rebellion, even if they themselves weren't low enough to rebel on their own, the original rebellion creates a chain reaction, possibly encorporating other civs. The same should be true of ships, starbases and mining bases. Essentially, the new civilization has inredibly high influence for one turn. most importantly, all new factions should be strong, developed and have reasonable borders.
ideally, each possible faction would have a few possible sub factions that may emerge given the right circumstances; just as the Drengin gave birth to the Korath, the Torians might have a militant wing, the Krynn might have a atheist movement and a the Terrans might have space-communists. factions like the I-League and Jagged Knife would be reserved for when rebellions took in significant numbers of world owned by different races.

all in all, i would like mega events to be as dramatic, well designed, and intense as the campaigns that came with GC2 and DA. I hope that by the time GC3 comes out, it won't need a campaign, because the main game will be good enough on its own.

really though, many of the current "random" events need not be random. they would be even more fun and immersive if they were incorporated into the core gameplay. the emergence of a galactic plague might be the result of widespread poor hygiene and research into medicine, the peacekeepers event might be due to widespread war-weariness etc.

It would be an interesting mega event to have the best opponent become very dumb and a weak one very intellegent. This shouldn't be hard to change I suspect.

I got some idea's
Immortality
Your leader out cruising the stars in his own personal ship for vacation is hit by a light and your nothing bad happen, but your scientists discover that you are now immortal, now Other civilzation's planets are defecting.. military too, people are now more loyal ( 100% more loyal, planets defect to you, military defects to you)
(when i say you i mean civilization that is selected..and assanation doesnt work on leaders who are selected by this

Artificialy real?
Our scientists have found a way to make artificial life on planets which should be uninhabitable, we need our scientists to work on a planet for 10 weeks before making it habitable

Galciv 2 editor

a Galciv2 Editor has come along and messed up the map changing everythings locations

By the way i did not read anything from this post so if i repeat something...sorry

Mega events that involving artifacts

1. Requirement to do archeological digs on planets or asteroids requiring you to invest in new techs to decipher and figure out the meanings of the artifacts or to use them.

2. One race finds a powerful artifact that requires the player to find the counter artifact to nullify its powers

3. Ability to land or setup research outposts on planets uninhabitable for locating these mysterious artifacts?

4. Requirement for a number spies to be used to infiltrate certain projects to retrieve data if one race finds a piece of artifact that you don't have, so not all is lost in the race for the artifact.

I just don't think mega events should affect only one or two civs. Like weakest become strongest and vice versa, either militarily, socially or intellectually.

As far as the idea for rebel planets being easy to take back; perhaps the event causes all shipd originally built on that world to join them and if each civ lost more than just one or two, attacking to get the planet back might get you into a war you don't want. The new civ would have all the techs already researched by all the races.

How about if there wre both, Mega and Minor events. Where minor events were more common and had a lessen effect. I think a lot of the ideas presented could be minor events.


another event idea: A comet that shoots from one end of the galaxy to the other at a ramnom place and just destrys everything in the square it goes through, in cluding planets. It would just be a matter of luck if it hits something of yours.

Or start base effect radii gets doubled.

Some sort of galaxy-wide fundamentalist movement (or dark age) where everyone has to adopt a new, really inefficient form of government for a set period of time. In conjunction you could freeze or limit the sliders.

A event that causes the elimination of all resource bases and/or resources and/or mines and/or asteroid belts.

Some sort of technology levelling event where all races end up with the same thing. You could do the same thing with ships.

-Mutants-
Outcast mutants in your civilization are petitioning for equal rights. Riots have broken out between supporters and opposers of this motion, and has had a damaging effect on your prodcuction.

(-40%to75% Production)

-Royal Marriage-
The Royal Family of [OPPONENT CIVILIZATION NAME] have consented to their Princess being married off to your civilization's Prince. This has led to a strong feeling of unity between both your civilizations.

(+50%to70% morale boost in both civilizations)

-Corruption Allegations-
Your political opponents have brought corruption charges against you in the United Planets High Court. Unfortunately they have succeeded and you have been forced to hold an election, in which you lost. With the ruthless tyranny of the [WAR PARTY/ISOLATIONISTS] now in power, they have declared an Imperial Government be made.

(Government change to Imperial. Normal election loss factors occur)

-G1 Races-
The company that runs the G1 races has decided to let your civilization in on some new engine technology, in return for funding and publication. Duly you have seized the chance and applied this new technology to your ships, which have receieved an astounding increase in speed.

(All ships base speed=10)

The Sangraal Monkeywrench

This Mega Event can be derived from any numerous reasons, whether the discovery of Precursor godnuke devices or some supreme intelligence deciding it doesn't like potential competetion amongst many others. However the means, when this Mega Event occurs Tech Victory no longer becomes an option for winning the game. This Mega Event could be triggered if TVs occur at a certain frequency.

These are some of my favourites in here.

-Corruption Allegations-
Your political opponents have brought corruption charges against you in the United Planets High Court. Unfortunately they have succeeded and you have been forced to hold an election, in which you lost. With the ruthless tyranny of the [WAR PARTY/ISOLATIONISTS] now in power, they have declared an Imperial Government be made.

(Government change to Imperial. Normal election loss factors occur)

- recurring anomalies and 2nd level anomalies (though, imho, this should be a gradual part of the basic gameplay, not a mega event). perhaps new anomalies become visible as sensors improve?
Cosmic EMP-blast.

All research buildings are destroyed. Or other kind of building.

Summit of the Righteous
All the good civilisations have attended a summit and decided to defeat evil the only way they see possible: war.
-All civilisations recive Xeno Ethics for free
-All good civilisations are allied
-All evil civilisations are allied
-There is now a permenant state of war between the good and evil alliances
-Neutral civilisations are unaffected (apart from the free tech) This would have to nerf the Neutrals somehow aswell , possiblly removing trade for the neutrals due to dangerous space and maybee give the evil/good races a small bonus to weapon / defense research

-Faith Conversion
The citizens of the [OPPONENT CIVILIZATION NAME] have decided that the story of creation taught within your empire holds water. This has lead to a dramatic increase in your influence. This is my favourite Idea so far

Dreadlords that dont suck!!!

Civil war! Part of an empire breaks away and is given a random different alignment and a major AI.

i've read through some of these so far, and if any of this has been suggested already please take it as a second to the suggestion.

revitalize old events! (mega and non-mega)

non-mega events:

you know when X player finds a precursor ranger? it's the stock ranger, and by mid-game it's not very powerful at all. suggestion: a ship that's actually powerful! maybe use a special hull type that's not normally available; build it with more miniaturization than a player would normally be able to get. lots of sensors, speed, and obviously defenses and such. heck, give it the survey ability to boot. and do something similar for the corvettes, too.

what about the events, "X waining civilization..." and "civ X has made a desperate move"? these are enticing events, but usually these civs are already so weak it doesn't do much to turn them around; by then, they're already out-numbered, out-teched, and can be out-manufactured (by sheer number of shipyards if nothing else).

revisiting old mega events:

the interstellar plague. it kills the AI every time. i haven't updated recently, so maybe this has changed. but as it is, it seems rarely more than 2 AIs research the tech. maybe the effects should wear off after X game turns (the species builds an immunity to the disease).

the galactic speed limit. okay. this one isn't broken, but it sucks. i've dealt with the spies everywhere. i've dealt with peacekeeprs and pirates. but the speed limit is unbearable. the first time it happened, i thought it might be to compensate for the fact that the AI doesn't like engines on its ships as much as it used to - i thought it was because my ships' speed was so much higher than theirs.


that's all for now.

Special events that disable certain victory types may seem like an exciting way to shake up the game but I can't help thinking that if the player had wanted it to be impossible to win in that manner they would have disabled it at the point of game creation. There are probably subtler ways to force a change in racial strategy.

Summit of the righteous was a neat suggestion, especially because the sudden provision of Xeno Ethics allows races to pick which side they want to be on in the coming war.

I think generally any event that ties good races together or disrupts evil alliances is probably a good thing. Considering evil races' goals ultimately end in the destruction of one another it seems strange that they can keep friends so easily.

You know the base event where the precursor device sets all nearby planets, including class 0s to class 12s? A mega event that does that to all planets in the galaxy would be a great late game shake up, in particular on the bigger maps.

Another universe collides with this one, and for 10-20 turns a number of new items appear in random places throughout the universe. New anomalies, asteroids, resources, even the rare planet will appear in a random location throughout the galaxy. Sometimes those planets could be owned by new minor races, sometimes unoccupied. If occupied it might be best if a star came with them or they appeared near a star for the sake of realism. Ships could also appear, some becoming pirates, others joining with whichever race finds them, others acting as traders depending on the ship. Also perhaps on occasion a planet will come through and collide with another planet creating am asteroid cluster twice as large as the comet events in its place. The planet could either be occupied or not.

The fabric of the universe becomes more or less flexible, thus doubling or halving all ship speeds.

Ion Storms roam the map starting at 30 squares in size each, either growing or shrinking as noted later, causing all ships/starbases that pass through them to take energy damage or be destroyed, shield reduced. Also block sensor LOS through them. Reduce speed by three for ships inside them, all weapons power in them is reduced by half during combat. Small ships and smaller not completely destroyed by the cloud will move in the same direction the cloud itself moves each turn. Each edge tile of the storm, that is a tile laterally (not diagonally) adjacent to non storm space, has a 55% chance of dissipating and a 45% chance of expanding into a neighboring tile. The storm will remain until all tiles have dissipated or moved off the map. Planets caught in an Ion Storm have trade and tourism blocked until they are out of it, also reduces morale and military production. Otherwise they suffer no other ill effects. The number of storms that appear will be determined by the map size.

The Dread Lords hold an almost Mystic reputation in sandbox despite the prevelance within backgroun game scenarios. The United Planets on the other hand has become a talk shop with little effect (as such) on the overall game.

Bring in the Dread Lords in very large numbers with comparible - but slightly more powerful fleets than is prevelant in the Galaxy. They wipe out a Race over a period of a few moves, prompting the United Planets call a special meeting. At the meeting all surving races are brought together in a United Planets Alliance, ending all other wars immediately as all turn to face the common threat. All races then move in on the Dread Lords and in a series of large battles with each race moving to help others destroy the Dread Lords in their areas. Culminate in a final climatic battle with the Dread Lords Planets descimated by the United Planets Fleets in what is in effect a new mini colony rush ( in true United Planets tradition, we are a devious bunch and each uses the final battles to boost the planet numbers and production capability for their Race)

The game balance could be adjusted to favour one or more races by the end of the battles changing the balance of power in the Galaxy. To be effective there needs to be hundreds of Dread Lords ships around to jolt the player out of the normal routine and galvanise the willingness to co-operate with other races.

The main drift would be to promote a new colony rush, but at the expense of the Dread Lords. During the battles you could bring in new weapons systems brought in by the Dread Lords, and the technology(s) transfered to the appropriate United Planets Race as the Dread Lords Planets are re-taken.

I would see this mid to end game, filling in the almost parade like game progress after the halfway point. End it by us all back to normal bickering at United Planets that they did nothing to stop "X" Race benfiting from the destruction of the Dread Lords despite promises that would be controlled. We all get fed up, and United Planets disolves after we all leave, and we all happily return to our favourite sport of total annihilation of our niehbours.

Regards
Zy

A stable wormhole opening

Galactus-like planet destoryer.

Yea, I'm sad and can't quite figure out how to do quotes right.

Quote one: "Abandonment: A random civilization evacuates the galaxy. All colonies are destroyed and all ships disappear, leaving a new colony rush for these worlds."

Quote two: "Bad idea. I'm sure its cheap for a mega-event to have the possibility to outright destroy a civilization that could be the largest and most powerful."

How about instead of destroying all colonies and ships, leaving empty planets to be colonized, the evacuated civ leaves everything behind. And I mean everything. All starbases, colonies, ships. Ships and bases float through space slooowly, like 1 square (sorry, the proper term fails me) every 5 turns, and are destroyed upon impacting a planetary object (planet or sun). Planets sit empty of life with all structures built sitting empty. All you have to do is tear a transport or colony ship to said planet, base or fleet, and claim it for yourself. Do you try and claim every planet possible? Or find the gems, like the evacuated civs Manufacturing Center, Tech Center etc, or just their HQ planets?. Or do you ignore the planets and go for the fleets?

I could see this as being a real challange/shakeup for a game in mid/late stages.

The whole idea I had for abandonment was for an alternative to surrender. Right now, when a civ is eliminated they surrender to another civ and enhance them. Abandonment could mean a colony rush late in the game when no one is set up for it anymore. It would change the game balance in a completely different way than surrenders do.

Scincerely,
Scintor

I would like to see wormhole's that:

1) stay open for a fixed time before closing, not just one go after being suveyed.

2) that can be used by any type of ship/race.

3) varies in size, so one will allow a ship another will allow an entire fleet.

4) When opening and closing the wormholes will deal % damage to ships that use it until it is stable or close.

Precursor Wars Redux:
A Mega Event in which not only do the Dreadlords return, but so does the Arnorian automated defense forces. Problem is though, the Precursor defenses will only ignore those who are considered righteous; i.e. Altarians, Torians, etc. Any other race they encounter, however, will be considered hostile and attacked, especially if they're considered to be evil (but the Dreadlords will still be the top priority for attacking).

Both sides will start at a random corner of the galaxy far away from each other, and each side will have a rather impressive fleet to boot, which they will use to engage whatever the hell gets in their way. The event will essentially come to an end once both sides have been destroyed, or all that is left are the Arnorian defenses and the 'good' races.


Critical Leak:
One of your enemys that you were at war with has managed to get a spy to obtain so much data on your civilization to the point of it being considered on the 'Advanced' stage of intel without you knowing it. Even worse though is that the intel is not only released to the enemy who obtained it, but it is also given to your other rivals as well!

Until the race that carried out the operation bites the dust, you may end up occasionally finding out that your enemies have acquired certain techs from you, or that they seem to know where everything in your empire is at!


BTW, I really liked Extreme Designer's idea's especially the Royal Marriage, Leader's Wife Divorce, and Actor Assasination!  

I like the *ahem* 'Death Starbase' idea

And space monsters
and the supernova - you could evacuate the planet with transports

How about the weakest civ invents a Dyson Sphere and encases a star in a massive, habitable shell.

I also like the dodgy ship builders, especially for federalist governments who are most likely to cut corners where finance is involved.

An outbreak of flower power, you government and population suddenly become pacifists

Nebulas that provide a bonus and penalty to any ships inside them, but at some point in the game form a new star system.

An extinction event, a huge asteroid dumps on the planet wiping out the major life forms, perhaps resulting in either a change of planet quality & type or the emergance of a minor race.

Mad scientist develops new DNA strain and accidentally converts a whole planet to a minor race who are similar to it's parent race, but really, really superior, arrogant and irritating.

The Galactic Star Beast (fictional religious diety) Cult takes over the civilisation and declares a crusade on every other race in the Galaxy. Death or Glory, only total annihilation of themselves or everyone else will suffice.

Double agents. Every agent you have that's not in use is now working for an unknown (perhaps minor race) faction and they get used against you. Only building more agents or counter espionage will stop them.

Defection!!! That massive battle fleet gathering on your (heheh, or their) border actually wants to defect as the mess food is better and the uniforms not as itchy.

Permanant wormholes appear.

Technology virus - a technology virus spreads through the universe. Any race in contact with the virus cannot research any more techs and loses a few into the bargain. Any ship, planet, SB etc that comes within a few parsecs of an infected planet, ship etc... has a chance of contracting the virus. "Give me 100000bc and I promise not to send my infected ships into your home system"

Slavery - Tourists are disappearing. Lose some income from tourism, lose some influence but gain population boosts and manufacturing bonuses.

The Space Lurgi - yeuch, I don't know what's happened to them, but that disease has made them really ugly, smelly and generally unpleasant. Huge drop in influence (as being cornered by a hugely influencial race can be really hard to defend against, time to develop a Space Lurgi, that will show the smug, good looking, suave bastards).

Not always, sometimes they join the Pirates...

What about a Hyperdrive crisis.
Fallible weaknesses have been found in the hyper drive and all of its newer technologies, whereby the warping of space has caused severe amounts of hyperspace matter to flood into real-space. All ships must stop in place, and cannot move for the rest of the game until a new drive is researched. Now a next level drive, for example from Impulse Drive 2 to Impulse Drive 3, it has to be a new one such as Warp or HyperWarp. This is so that the 'kinks' can be worked out. All research time to research new drives is doubled.

Also, this severe amount of matterflooding has caused all planets in the galaxy to lose 100,000,000 people, 3 PQ and 2 Planetary improvements. The PQ loss is permanent and cannot be raised. Also, the Terran Alliance (no matter what, even if its AI or player controlled) lose alot of favour, so all Attitude towards the Terran Alliance is reduced to Wary. It will not be raised if its below that, so you will not go from Hostile to Wary, and wars will stay in place.

Ideally this should happen early to mid-game so to grind the colony rush to a halt.

Couple of suggestions, some based on other ideas:

Twilight of the Gods

For some mysterious reason, the universe appears to be dying. Each turn a random planet (populated or not) is removed from the game (or explodes into an asteroid field). Should make things a little more interesting.

H4xx0r5 for freedom
A galactic crimewave hits the networks. Researched technologies by all races are available to everyone. In addition, it becomes impossible to effectively control patents and all races gain the benefits of any trade good which has been built so far. A crackdown on network security soon puts the hackers out of business, but not before the damage has been done.

AWESOME idea man. You may want to increase the time between the planets blowing up, or maybe make it a random star that goes nova every month or so.  

Space Junk
Space junk in space has increased dramatically slowing down mass drivers and ships alike. Mass Drivers now suffer a moderate penalty to their attack and ship speed has been decreased by 2. However, you can build a new line of modules on your starbases to harvest this junk and boost your production. These starbases will now funnel junk to any planet of your choice, much like asteroid bases.