Drengin insane research

How can the Drengin out-tech everyone?

from GalCiv2 Forums
In a game I just finished playing, the Drengin were leaps and bounds ahead of everyone technologically. But I'm not sure how.

Game (1.4) was a huge galazy, abundant everything. I ended up with over 50% of the galaxy due to people surrendering to me. The Drengin were fairly small, maybe 30 systems? They were constantly at war with someone.

They managed to have me beat, technologically, despite my spy reports telling me that they had only a 28% boost to research (I had something like a 89% from resources), and I having vastly more planets, population, and research points.

They weren't stealing it - they literally had more techs than anyone else, and more than I had (I was leaps and bounds ahead of the other races). They completed every weapon line, every defense line, and two steps into the Tech Win tree before I completed my first weapon line.

Has this happened to others? Or are they doing something I should be aware of? Their AI level was 'Bright' (Game was set to Challenging)

I won by having everyone attack them, and overrunning their worlds with some older fleets while I got my newer ships online (and a healthy dose of tech boosts from capturing their planets).
9,983 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I play 1.4 and I notice that they do get far ahead in the weapons/defense techs. I don't know how they do it either but I use it to my advantage. I alway try to make friends with them and get a diplomacy rating much higher than theirs. Then with a decent economy you just wait for them to get near the end of the tech and buy that tech off of them. The only thing I noticed is they place a much higher vaule on the very last stage in the weapons/defense techs so just to buy the one just below it or a couple below it if you want to save money. I basically use them to research at least 50% of my weapons/defense.

Hope that helps you but sorry I could not explain it better.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have noticed that they tend to focus on mass drivers and armor (usually) a lot from the get go. They definitely play their role very well.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In the game I am currently playing, they have not even researched the 'matrix tech and they are light years ahead in research without a single research anomaly starbase. Their research level (from the timeline graph) is twice mine (and everybody else's) and climbing. I concur that this does seem a little fishy. Also, they are maxing out mass drivers and shields, but are way behind in diplomacy, so it is possible to trade for their weapon techs (I am playing as evil Yor).
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow, I have never noticed this. I have been playing on Challenging for a little bit doing 4-player games, Drengin always one of them cause I like how they kill stuff for me:), and I am either Yor or one of my custom races. They jump ahead initially because they do cheaper techs then I do, but then I just get a few research planets and then get my research high enough to get ahead of them. I usually just try to kill them about mid-late game cause they do like to make cruisers that kick all of my LF swarms.

I am also just playing the 1.4 of DL, so it may be something new in DA...

GalenEvil
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This was something that I noticed in DL too. The Drengin AI is one of the best implemented in my opinion. I think that it puts a large amount of money into overall spending, while focusing on research and military. When I would take over their planets they would be in absolutely terrible shape. However, if you let them get to the later game they have the chance to catch up economically and then they are very dangerous.

Basically I love playing a game with them in it
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In every (non-DA) game Ive ever played, the Arceans have ended up than a bigger threat than the Drengin, BUT

in playing 1.4 (I never played any 1.3) I am noticing the drengin leaping ahead in technology, and not just straight military tech too, but planetary improvement and support tech. Other races are actually farther ahead in straight linear weapon research...but theyll be like the first ones to get soil and habitat improvement, and theyll get farther ahead of me ( and anyone else) in miniaturization. Dont know if theyre just aggressively trading or teching or both.


Doesnt matter though, theyre still never a threat. My endgame almost always involves the arceans(they get powerful and big real early and stay that way) or terrans (they get powerful if you leave them alone, which you tend to do since theyre not overly aggressive...which doesnt seem right to me, BTW...humans should be among the most aggressive in the game based on our history)
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Try increasing the industry capacity to 100%. That'll boost your research heaps too.

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Try increasing the industry capacity to 100%


This could be the reason, I made this mistake on my first couple of games and lagged behind pretty bad in tech. Now I increase to 100% the first turn and hardly ever look back.

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I was running 100% spending, and 40% on research pretty much the entire game. In raw points, I had the Drengin positively outmatched. According to the graphs, and spy reports, the Drengin were somewhere around 7th or 8th in total Research generated. Yet they managed to be ahead of everyone in technology. By a lot. I was running Discovery Spheres (and many captured NRC's), where they had Invention Matrixes. I had prolly three times as many planets. Yet I was still being outresearched.

If they'd been stealing techs, or trading them, I could see that. But they had almost every tech everyone else had, and a slew more.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I am playing two games on challenging difficulty level and me as custom one neutral and one evil however it is the Arceans in one that is the most advanced race and the second it is the Thalans. not The Drengin for some reason I have no really big problems with them. My real threats as I see in most of my games is the Altarians and now Arceans
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've noticed that the Drengin nearly always have an advantage early on in weapons (usually mass drivers) and defenses. It seems to me that they focus most of their early efforts into researching weapon techs so they can take over their neighbors.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Did your game have the event where the "aliens have found an artefact" ? may be the dregin's got one?
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ever since the Gold release of DA I have been seeing the same thing in the Drengin. They get insane research. This is on masochistic. Until now I thought it was just the improved AI, but the other AI's kind of suck, and you're seeing the same thing even on Bright.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In DA I have been playing on challenging for several games now. I think the reason the Drengin are so tough is because they do take over all their neighboring worlds. With each world that falls to them they get another tech. Near mid to endgame you will see their empire expanding for about 25%-30% of the map. In this case they have taken a ton of resources and they have one heck of an economy.

Some things to remember from the beginning is to set your production capacity to 100% (already stated). Build research alliances as soon, and often as possible. You can try to get one research alliance for every race out there. Try to take as many mining resources as possible. Kill off the minor races, and take their worlds. Usually they have nice worlds, and other computer AI's don't seem to care if they get killed.