How did the Drengins advance so quickly?

from Stardock Forums
I'm a beginner playing my first normal game in a medium sized galaxy. I have 7 systems (8 planets), the Torians have the most, and the Drengins have 3 planets in two systems. 2 of the Drengin planets are higher quality than mine.

My first question is, how, with only 3 planets, the Drengins have produced so much tech than I have, even though I built a research station on all the planets; substantially more production capacity and miltary power, and all this with a far smaller population?

Second, they seem to produce ships as if by magic (I'm assuming they are going into debt) that are far more powerful than anything I can muster. For example, their frigate: 73/HP AT/17 DE/8 while mine: 45/HP 5/AT 4/DE. They do have the TS Alloy, which I understand is potent, but I have Reinforced Hulls which they do not have.

Third, is there a minimum population a planet must have in order to buy a colony and receive a colony ship? In another game, I purchased a colony ship on a recently colonized planet, my account was debited, but the ship never appeared!

Hoping for some enlightenment...

~SDC~
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Welcome to the boards, I-Founder.

There are quite a number of threads catering to beginners in this Forum so you may want to search around and read them.

Some comments from me:
1)Generally few good planets are better than many poor ones and planet quality has a slew of positive effects on many important game factors such as morale, pop, production, taxes, etc. So Dregs are helped by those 2 high quality planets.

2)Tech does not always have to be researched. They can be traded for or bought or extorted. You can be sure the Dregs are doing some or all of the above to get ahead in tech.

3)Yes, they could be leasing them. The Dregs probably chose War Party, given them +50% hp and coupled with Tri-Stro Steel would give you those kind of hps. To reach those attack and defense numbers, they probably have military resource/s in addition to military techs.
Send out some ships to see if you can find the resources.

4)I don't think there is a min pop to purchase colony ships. Have you checked whether the ship is still in orbit?

Generally, I will advise beginners to start with a lower difficulty level but if you are a vetern 4x gamer, go ahead and have fun with Normal.