The only way to do this is to turn them into a major race. There are two ways to achieve that:

The first is to edit the RaceConfig.xml.

Go to the entry of the Dread Lords (it's the second last), change the CivType tag from 5 to 4, and remove the Ignore tag. The biggest problem doing it this way is, that the game only recognises a maximum of 13 major races within this file. This means, that you have to get rid of one of the others. If you don't play custom races, you can remove that entry (or comment it out by placing it between <!-- -->). If you like to play custom races, then you have to remove one of the stock majors.

The second way is to edit a .raceconfigxml.

Every time you play a race, the game creates a NameOfTheRace.raceconfigxml under 'My Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor' containing all the information about the race. Rename one of the existing .raceconfigxml-files to 'Dread Lords.raceconfigxml', and replace the information within with the one from the RaceConfig.xml. The upsides of doing it this way are, that you don't have to edit a core-file, and that there is no limit in how many .raceconfigxml-files you can have. The downsides are, that it takes more time, and that it is more error-prone.

The biggest downside when playing the Dread Lords as a regular major race is, that several of their features are not available to you, because they are hardcoded. For example, the DL usually start out with all techs already researched, and have a population limit of 20 million per planet. None of that is the case if you play them as a normal race. They also get a big boost to some of their abilities (+100% Economics, +795% Soldiering, +100% Range), but you easily replicate that by increasing the values of your racial abilities.

In other words, playing the DL as a regular race is both UP, because you are missing out on what makes them really powerful, and OP, because of the huge racial abilities and the missing population limit.

EDIT: stupid rhyme removed.

No problem. The GalCiv 2 forums are not as frequented as they used to, so don't take it as a slight against you.

If that is the case, then it's even easier to do, with none of the drawbacks. Well, except that the homeworld of the DL will only be a PQ 10 planet, instead of PQ 30+, and that their planets won't be immediately auto-terraformed, but that's already the case with the current approach.

There is a scenario called "Dread Lords Dominion" (file-name is "Dread Lords on parade"), which has you pitted against the DL. It is fully compatible with TotA, includes all of the non-expansion races, but forces you to play as the Terrans. If you want to play as another race, then you would need to edit the scenario. Even more so, if you want to play as a custom race, because you would need to disable one of the other major races first.

Actually, the only downside of that setting is the low amount of starports. You could quickly build ships, but only a maximum of 5 per turn. Otherwise, this is pretty damn good. You just need to use those tiles wisely.

You don't need to remove minor races. The limit only pertains to major races. Also, while you can only start out with  maxiumum of 8 minor races, the DL don't count towards that limit for some reason.

They don't.

That surprises me. I thought the pop cap is based on CivType 5. That's going to be a big problem. An income of around 2bc  just isn't enough to pay for all the maintenance costs.

Yes, they won't. At least with their standard AI. They will, if you change it to one of the major races (AIP 8 is probably the most fitting) and use the quicksave/re-load trick to force the game to update the AI. I'm using this with the minor races in my mod, and the can become quite powerful. Money, on the other hand, is still going to be a problem for the DL.

Move your mouse over one of your posts. Your going to see a few icons appear in the lower right corner of the post. The icon that looks like a notebook and a pen is the edit button.

With "tech value", do you mean AIValue or Cost? The former has no effect on how long it takes to research a tech, but on how much the AI values it. The latter, on the other hand, does. If you set the Cost to 0, then the tech will be automatically known at the start of the game.

As far as the abilities are concerned, I'm not so sure about the values. Especially for Speed, Research, Creativity, Luck, PQ, Weapons and Defence. If you set the Cost of all their techs to 0, then they won't need to research anything, making the bonuses to Research and Creativity unnecessary.
The other bonuses, however, mean, that their ships are unbeatable. Their weapons and defences now have twice the original maximum value (e.g., Nightmare Torpedo now does a maximum 50 damage, instead of 25), while the Luck bonus makes sure, that they always will use their maximum value (e.g., Nightmare Torpedo always does 50 damage, instead of a random value between 0 and 50). The Speed bonus makes sure, that there is nothing you can do to escape them.

That's why I said "you just need to use those tiles wisely". Those planets should provide you with enough money to rush-buy everything you need.

I did, back during DA. That's why I know, that this is completely OP. I also didn't have much fun with it, because there was no challenge at all.

Yes, they are hardcoded to prevent you from speaking to them (same as the Pirates). They also won't talk to you, but if you take control of them, then you can talk to everyone else as usual.

The automatic perma-war state, the DL normally start out with, is hardcoded. They only way to have it and the DL without cheating, is to use a scenario.  

They are already Evil. As for the "warmonger" part, add the following tags to them:

<AIAbilities>100</AIAbilities>
<Aggression>100</Aggression>
<FinancialResources>100</FinancialResources>
<CPUUsage>100</CPUUsage>

The first will make them use better AI algorithms (smarter), the second will make them more aggressive (higher chance of declaring war), the third will give them more money from taxes (you can set it as high as 200), and the last gives them more processing power to make their decisions.

I cannot guarantee that they will go on a war-path, if you add those tags, but it should increase the probability. Even if they don't, they will still be better off than without the tags.

The Korath AI Personality is the only one capable of using spore ships, but, in exchange, it is incapable of using troop transports. If you change the DL to use AIP 7 (the base AI of the Drengin, Korath, and Yor), then they will only use a generic version of it. You have to be able to edit the DL in the Choose Opponents screen, in order to give them the Korath personality.

However, AIP 7 is a terrible AI, if you want the DL to be able to colonise. It doesn't colonise planets, if they are located within foreign influence, or are too close to it. Occasionally, there are some exceptions to this behaviour, but that's how it usually operates.

Also, I'm not sure, if Super Abilities even work for minor races.

Could you please split up that sentence? I have quite some trouble understanding what you are referring to, during half of it.

Hardly. They are a waste of time and money.
You need six constructors to build them, and have to pay 1000bc in total for the modules (unless you're Evil). Then it takes 10 weeks until they are operational. During this time (and afterwards) they need protection, because they have no defences of their own. Then, to top it all off, they only move at 1pc per week, making you take forever to get to the target sun.
If you absolutely have to use them (which is almost never the case), build them next to the target sun, and decommission them once you're finished. In general, you're better off using troop transports (or spore ships, if you have them).

It depends on the context, but usually either "opening-post" or "overpowered". In this case, I meant the latter.

I'm not sure, if that is possible. The Pirates are even more hardcoded than the Dread Lords. Even if it is possible, it would be quite imbalanced.
There are two events which add Pirate-ships on the map. A regular random event, and a Mega Event. The ships added by the Mega Event are always superior to the most advanced ships, that any of the races have. Also, if one of the races surrenders or is destroyed, some, or all, of their ships (depending on if they are Neutral or Evil) will become Pirates.
It wouldn't make much sense for anyone to join the "Dread Lords", considering that they want to wipe out all other races. Not to mention confusing, considering that they would be called "Pirates" in one screen and "Dread Lords" in another.

Overall, I'd suggest, get the scenarios working, and use the one called "Dread Lords Dominion". That will make things much easier.

Terror Stars are not that difficult to make. The only problem with them is, that they are useless in almost all situations.

They were pretty good in GalCiv 1 (primarily because you could turn any of your starbases into a Terror Star), but have been nerfed a lot since then.

test avatar

hey, which program did you guys use to modify those scripts?

thanks for the tip, will look that one up by time.

good hunt