Drengin: the bad (and the good?)

from Stardock Forums
I saw a strange thing in my last game. At the beginning of the game, I set up the Drengin & the Yor to be evil. The Arceans are neutral, the Torians and the Altarians are good. Throughout the game, I'm picking evil choices for the Terrans. I'm sharing a large star cluster with the Altarians, the Yor and the Arceans. The Drengin are alone in a medium sized star cluster some small distance away and the Torians are way off in the corner. My relations with the AI are about what you'd expect given the alignments. But I'm noticing that the Drengin, who basically like me because I'm evil and also pretty powerful, are talking about hugs and so forth: they're kind of acting like a 'good' civilization. At some point I check their alignment on the stats screen and it claims they're evil. So I'm going along getting techs, including the evil ones. At some point late in the game the only civs left are the evil ones: myself, the Yor and the Drengin (plus a minor or two). I'm trying to win the tech race, so I start buying/trading tech with the remaining, weaker civs. Since I have the best economy and have the most invested in research, I eventually leave everybody behind; rarely does another civ have a tech I haven't already researched. Except the Drengin, who seem to keep popping up with ones I don't have. So I decide to look closely at the ones that they have: they have the 'good' techs!
Is this some kind of bug? How did the Drengin become good? And why didn't the stats screen claim that they were of a good alignment?
455 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
i think that when you set alignments at the start of the game, that only effects the alignment they start off with...but i dont know
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Perhaps they traded or (more likely) extorted the technologies from a good civilisation while there were still some around?
Is it possible to acquire through diplomacy alignment-specific techs that you wouldn't normally be able to research? I'm not sure if that's a good 'feature' to have in the game or not...
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Do randome events happen to the AI's? Could the Dregin have been making "good" choices?
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
You can aquire opposite alignment techs. In my last "good" game, I was building secret police social projects, that was from the thought police evil tech I bought from the Yor.

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
You can also gain some of these techs through conquest which is another way the Drengin could've picked them up.

SeanB
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks for the replys; I figured that the Drengin might have acquired the good techs via conquest/trade, but I wasn't sure. Good to know that you can trade or otherwise acquire the techs that are opposite from your alignment, if you want.

But I'm still suspicious that the Drengin were actually 'good' because of their happy/fluffy kiddiwinky attitude. Which is fine except the stats screen stated that they were evil. I also didn't realise that the AI was capable of transmogrifying their alignment throughout the game. Is this true?
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
They didn't suddenly turn good, they grovel a lot when you're *much* bigger than they are.

~SDC~
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
"They didn't suddenly turn good, they grovel a lot when you're *much* bigger than they are. "

Yeah, they get all friendly when you can beat them to a nice, smooth, juicy pulp. But don't turn your back on them.

RR
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
"But don't turn your back on them."

They turned their backs on me. I've already invaded three systems in two sectors because they sent practically their whole fleet clear across the galaxy to fight the Torians.

~SDC~