Agreed, I should've chosen the topic title more carefully. And those all sound very nice.

Nightraid wrote:
Will it be possible to take over nearby planets via cultural influence (as in, getting them to defect to your empire because they like you more than their own ruler?)

You mean like in Civilisation? Might be interesting, but I don't really see the "victory condition", there.

Nightraid wrote:
Will we be able to talk other empires into selling us their planets[...]

Same thing, they probably won't sell their homeworld.



Do you mean a kind of cultural victory by getting most races to like your culture more than theirs?

Or do you mean some kind of economic victory, where you basically own everyones' planets as the victory condition?

Nightraid wrote:
[...] and will we be able to let our species ascend to a higher plane of existance (or something to that effect)?

Okay, that might be a victory condition. Like in Alpha Centauri, you mean? Would probably be the tech victory, then.



Well, just to add a few other possibilities:

There could be a diplomatic victory like in MOO2, where you get yourself elected as supreme leader of everyone.

The good old direct military victory by conquering everything.

An indirect military victory by destroying some kind of common foe like the Antarans in MOO2.



I honestly think that this should rather be asked in a multiple choice poll for kinds of victory conditions desired by the community.