History VideoGame / GalacticCivilizations

* SpiritualSuccessor: Arguably, to ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion''.

* PhotoprotoneutronTorpedo: The sequel is rife with these.

* PlanetTerra: Home of the Terran Alliance.

** While the Drengin are plain vanilla AlwaysChaoticEvil, the others have more specific evil motives -- the Korath are {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s, the Korx are CorruptCorporateExecutive TurnedUpToEleven, the Yor were originally {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s but then later slipped into a sort of jerkass-isolationist attitude, and the Dread Lords themselves are ManipulativeBastard AbusivePrecursors whose original crusade to eliminate the younger races stemmed out of them seeing said races becoming a threat should they be allowed to grow powerful. The evil minor races of course exist just ForTheEvulz.

* TechnologyUplift:Tthe Arceans gave humanity the blueprints to a Warp Gate, which suspiciously had no "off" switch, but instead humans combined it with their fusion technology (which the Arceans may have wanted to take by invading) to develop a ship-portable hyperdrive. They then gave hyperdrive and fusion to every sapient species they could contact, and then the game begins.

** Also, there exist planets by the name of [[{{StarWars}} Hoth and Alderan]].

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: The description of one of the hyperdrive technologies says "A trip of a million miles will feel like a light year" (Though, given the tone of the descriptions, this is certainly intentional).

* FiveManBand: [[TheAlliance The Coalition]] races in the sequel can be seen as this.
** TheLeader: [[HumansByAnyOtherName Terran]] [[HumansAreLeaders Alliance]]
** TheLancer: [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Arcean]] [[ChaoticGood Empire]]
** TheBigGuy: [[DarkAndTroubledPast Torian]] [[NeutralNoLonger Confederation]]
** TheSmartGuy: [[{{Precursors}} Iconian Refuge]]
** TheChick: [[TokenReligiousTeammate Altarian Republic]]
** SixthRanger: [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong Thalan]] [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Empire]]

* DeflectorShields: The Shield defense category, used to protect against FrickinLaserBeam weapons.

* CardCarryingVillain: The evil races take so much ''joy'' in having piles of skulls. Especially since, if you're on their side, they will send you messages warning you about how the good races want to stop both you and them torturing people. How considerate.

* EasyModeMockery: The game is very easy when the artificial intelligence is low, but you will be notified when you, for example, start building an invasion fleet next to their planet. This was mainly because print game journalists often play games on easy settings to work through them more quickly, and Stardock was concerned that because the AI was nerfed on those difficulties, reviewers might unjustly pan their AI players.

** Literally. The Evil option in random colonization events gives you the best bonuses while the good option will give you penalties or nothing most of the time (Neutral, of course, is somewhere in the middle). Though in a few cases the evil option will have a small cost, typically the lives of some of your people, but population is incredibly easy to replace in the game. However, when it comes time to choose a definitive alignment for your civilization via the Xeno Ethics technology, Neutral is the clear winner in terms of advantages bestowed. Also, some civilizations like the Altarians and Drath in the ''Twilight of the Arnor'' expansion gain better technologies through Good than they would with other alignments, and don't have to take the Good choice in random events since their KarmaMeter is already set to that alignment.

* EvilVsEvil: [[OmnicidalManiac The Korath Clan]] vs [[TheEmpire The Drengin Empire]]. One wants to kill pretty much all non-Drengin or Dread Lord forms of sapient life, the other merely wants to keep all non-Drengin forms of sapient life as slaves, pets, and zoo attractions. However, the Drengin Empire is portrayed in a more positive light and it's made clear that they're the ones that you should be rooting for.
** Evil races are far more willing to attack others of the same alignment if they think the civ in question is getting too powerful.

* GlassCannon: Ships built with the all-weapons-no-defenses philosophy. These are the mainstay choice for late-game highest-tech ships, since even the best defenses cannot protect your ships effectively against fleets of extremely heavily armed dreadnoughts focusing fire on them. They also work extremely well when used by Super Warrior races who can take out some or all of the opposition before the enemy gets a chance to attack. Conversely, such ships tend to struggle when used against Super Warrior opponents.

** It is mentioned in the descriptions of some of the technologies unique to the Altarians that they are not the same ''species'' as the humans, but that they *are* more genetically similar to humans than they are to any of the other species on Altaria. To the highly religious (but in a good way because their religion is all sunshine and rainbows) Altarians this is no accident and that their gods have reunited them with their long lost brothers. To the Humans, who are much less religious, this is one of the greatest mysteries of the universe (and a little bit creepy). Most of the other races who care either way agree with the humans.

* HumansAreDiplomats: This is how most races see humans, and their Super Ability ''is'' Super Diplomat. However...

* KarmaMeter: Slides between 1 (Evil) and 99 (Good)), with 50 being Neutral. It is affected through your decisions during random events which occur when you colonize some planets or throughout the course of the game. In ''Galactic Civilizations II'', you can make a permanent choice of alignment after [[YouHaveResearchedBreathing researching Xeno Ethics]], though you'll have to pay for it if your KarmaMeter doesn't agree with your choice. After that, you can avail various bonuses granted by your alignment, and further random events will be auto-resolved on the basis of your permanent alignment.

* BigBad: The Dread Lords. The Drengins and Korath are less so.
* BigGood: The Arnor.

** The Terran Alliance's flagship, which is intended for scouting, surveying anomalies and generally going where no man has gone before, is a dead ringer for the [[Franchise/StarTrek Starship Enterprise.]]

* KilledOffForReal: Due to events in the second game's storyline, the Drath are extinct and the Korx are ''nearly'' extinct (a few remnants joined up with the Krynn or hang on as independent black market operators) as of the third game, their civilizations no longer playable. The Korath, the Torians, and the Arceans are also unplayable, but canonically the latter two still exist (there is no word on the Korath), they've just been hammered so hard by the Drengin that they're no longer galactic powers. The first proper expansion for ''III'', ''Mercenaries'' brings the two back (the Torians even with a campaign of their own).

* {{Crossover}}: ''Gal Civ III'' has one with its "Heroes of Star Control" DLC, which adds the Tywom, Mowlings, Mu'Kay, and Free Trandals from ''VideoGame/StarControl Origins'' as major civilizations to play.

* {{Precursors}}: The Arnor and the Dread Lords. And they were proceeded [[spoiler:and created]] by beings known as [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens the Mithralar.]]

* EvilIsEasy: Oh so easy. And profitable.
** But it does leave you in a bit of a lurch when the rest of the galaxy goes ape and declares war on each other, which seems to happen at least once per game. Being evil increases the likelihood that the goody-two-shoes alliances will declare war on ''you'' and you, being evil, won't have many friends.