A lot of things are possible with galciv sprites that I haven't seen yet. I've been wondering if ppl didn't know about some of these possibilities :
Animated background tiles : A new background image except with animated stars or some such.
New anomalies gfx : Creating additional anomalies graphics, not just replacing existing ones.
Animated Ship "build picture" : When selecting a ship to be built in the military menu, you can create a picture of the ship that's animated. So, in theory you could have a rotating ship animation there.