Dread Lords mega event disappointing

Wouldn't that be so fun to see a massive armada of ships come in from one corner of the map?

Just had the event as well in my current game.


the 'Lords were kind enough to colonize a solar system exactly 1 parsec away from where i had my transport fleet parked.

did kind of get a vicereal thrill in squelching them in the same turn as they appeared- but yes it seems odd they had no fleet.

event should read more like " we are the dread lords, we have come to take a peek at this system, please dont kill us"

as a side note, other "appearing" minor races are also burdened with this same issue, post - opening phase they very quickly become free planets to those close to them - wonder if there is a way to mod in "if > x turns into game then give Y techs and z money" when appearing.

Yeah, I'm hoping to see a big boost to that one in 1.6, it's a pet peeve of mine.

If you want to see some more flash of the Dread Lords, let them live for a bit. I disregarded them when they showed up in my last match since I've smished them in the past without a peep from them.

To my horror, then built up a PQ 41 planet filled with Industrial Sectors and 1 Stardock. Orbiting around that planet was a ship with 2000+ mass drivers rating. They were pumping out a cruiser every...6 or so rounds that had 100-200 mass drivers rating. At which point, they declared war on the entire galaxy and proceeded to crush most they encountered.

I spent countless rounds trying to chisel my way to their planet to send in troops (which at this point their population was FAR more than the 20 or so they started with. After many many fleets fell to them, I was able to send in a spore ship to capture their planet...

So you have a choice, pound them when they first show up and be disappointed in the Dread Lords, or let them brew for a bit and allow them time to get settled in for a long long time.

Yeah this definitely needs some tweaking. Like an invasion fleet, or something like the weakest civ in the galaxy in an act of desperation activates a Precursor device that's actually a dimensional whatsit that replaces all of their planet populations and ships with Dread Lords!

when i finally gotten around to the dread lords, which by the way, is the first race i conquered, their homeworld was a class 39 planet and i think they had like...5 other worlds. I found that for 2000-5000 soliders, it took out 5 of them. But then, i already had everything in the tech tree researched in terms of weapons, armor, missles and drivers. my shield tech was almost at max. the other thing was that, i played a very strange game, on my mini star map, i am on one corner of the galaxy, while everyone else was in the other three. And i was left alone regardless of how powerful i became. All the races did not managed to conquered each other, even though they keep declaring war on each other, and all of them came begging for money. When i took out the dread lords, then did everyone decided i am a menance to the galaxy and 2 races declared war on me. of course, the AI don't have a conscience, because it just love to bite the hand that feeds it.

Omg, I just had the lamest experience.

The first time I played and the dread lords came, I though "oh crap", and launched a pre-emptive strike on them. They had no ships, and even with their crazy soldier advantage, I was able to take their planet in about 5 turns from event.

Just now, I was playing a 6-player game. Everything was going pretty well for me, even though I had 3 opponents at war with me (and I couldn't make peace). I had nicely customized cruisers, and my enemies were little match - it was just a time issue for me to take all their planets, although I had to fight with economy.

Then the dread lords came. Problem? Well, actually, this time it was. I only had 2 planets (had just captured a third from an enemy). THE DREAD LORDS SPAWNED ON MY SECOND PLANET. This was bad because I had my main fleet 'docked' there. About the same time, the terrans found an uber battleship and were using it to tear me appart. I tried to launch an attack on the dread lords planet, only to be repelled & crushed by my own ships. Of course, it was me vs me, so it said victory (gg bug?).

After some time passed for me to build a fleet capable of competing with my own ships, one of my more powerful starbases came under attack. By a single small ship. It had 117 damage. It was destroyed by my starbase, only after the base took 35 damage from 1 shot, and delivered the 5 damage to kill it. Yes, it was a dread lord small ship.

My fleet arrived at my previous planet (now, dread lords). When it arrived, it found not only my fleet, but 4 more of these small ships, and a dread lord dreadnaught. I'm still using cruisers, kthx. This dreadnaught had 110+ defense, and hundreds of damage (I don't remember).

Quit->Yes

Do the Dread Lords also appear if you pick 8 Minor Races? In a recent game that I started, but haven't played much, I chose 8 Minor Races and then while exploring I see a pink ship zooming around. I zoom in and lo and behold, it's a Dread Lord ship. I don't remember any Dread Lord event happening, so I just assumed that they were one of the "Minor Races". And yes, they have started to declare war on the other civs, mine included. I've never had them in another game before, but if they build up to be that powerful... especially when this is just the early stage of the game, this doesn't look so good.

To be honest, almost all faction emergence events are a joke, whether it be a minor race, the jagged knife or that other one, they never last. problems are as follows:

1 no starting ships or starbases
2 when a new faction has multiple worlds, they are usually far apart so the civ lacks defendable borders
3 may have same icons colours as existing civs (minor quibble, i know)

Also, is it just me or is every minor race that spawns during the game called Vegans?
I once had a game where 6 different minor races appeared. All called Vegans.

Did they all have a leader called Zathros?  

Haha, Ive had the Invasion of the Vegans happen before. Like playing whack a mole, keep taking their planets and more pop up.


Hmmm, I gotta admit I was very disappointed with the DL event in my most recent game. I was on the verge of victory, contorlling 70% of the galaxy, I had Beyond Immortality and Tech Victory under research. Then I got the DL event; fortunately one of my nely upgraded full strength end game battlefleets was nearby so I sent it in to investigate the power of the DLs. They had none, my troops landed and slaughtered the DLs. Was a serious anti-climax, tempered only by finally finsihing a very long game the turn after.

So the DLs get powerful if left alone eh?

On a related note, my current game the Torians discoevered a Precursor artifact and were touched, being weak now but slowly becoming godlike. In the past, this has never stopped me or even impacted me, but this is really early on in this game.
ANyone have experience with this event? Ive only ever seen it in late game, this is first time it occurred so early on.

I haven't had that happen with the Torians, BUT I have had the Torians turn EBIL!!!> and join me, playing as the Yor, for conquest of the galaxy. Although, they were defeated by the Thalan or Krynn later on.

the developers should be ashamed for releasing a game with mega events at all. they are so unbalanced and untested as to be a joke.

It would be really nice if the "discovering Precursor artifact" event could happen to the player's civilization as well?

If only they could be turned off.......

In my last game the Dread Lords came, I figured I'd have awhile like their last appearance, but this time they went nuts, built a ton of ships with 800+ attack and wiped out everyone.

I managed to send 30,000 troops over to their 3 planets before they could kill me.

How come the AI can make peace with them and I can't?

Well, they can. Just use the game setup screen.

I just wanted to bump this thread seeing that Stardock is looking for ways to improve and extent the mega events. The current Dread Lords event really is non-mega. They'd need a fully built-up planet and a fleet of powerful ships to start with.

He knows, he was just highlighting the fact that the person complaining about mega events being unbalancing was, to put it gently, completely missing the point.

Anyway, I know this situation is still an irritation to me as well. I can see how tweaking mega events would be a ways down the list as far as fixes and adjustments go (and I know the current betas are primarily centered around performance tweaks, which is certainly respectable) but I do hope this gets looked at in the not-too-distant future.

If you wan't a piss easy game in DL just load up the Dreadlords on parade game option,,, you will win before you even get your hands on massive scale building technology!!

I have played that mission like about 30 times now jst too see if i am constantly unlucky or somthing? but every time the multitude of AI races forced into the game despite my wishes, will crush the Dreadlords and the game ends. Easiest victory ever!

Sounds like the problem is that the Dread Lords announce their presence way too soon.

It'd be more insidious if they arrived in those itty-bitty colonies the same, except no Big News Flash about their appearance. Plus they shouldn't show up on scanners unless you have a live ship in that area.

Frankly if the Dread Lords saved their big press conference for when they've built up a decent force, then that would be truly scary.

ok. i had the same experience with the dread lords arriving. i was scared with anticipation as id read of ppl who let them build a ship with like 200/200/400 attack. but wen i found them they had no ships. so. i reverted 2 my save before they arrived. then i edited the raceConfig.txt i added alot of techs 4 them and made them super powerful. i havnt figured out how 2 give them starting ships. but i did c them build them faster. and once they get ships. all hell breaks loose.

Exactly. You would remember from the campaign that the Dread Lords have weaknesses. Ultimate Doom Ray Matk Eighty-Three, yes, but a population of about 0.000000020 billion.

I'm pretty sure the Dreadlords even was tweaked recently, i remember reading a changelog saying that they should spawn with defense ships now, either that or they rush buy one..can't remember which. And i've had it happen that way too..though i'm playing ToTa.