Playing Draconians in VGAP4
December 2000. | Suggestions welcome | More VGAP4 tips | Back to main Race page
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The fourth 3rd-party race to be released, the Draconians met a wall of indifference from the now-jaded Beta testers. This is beginning to be a pattern with 3rd party races: if it's not Tim's, and it's not got a really weird power or is not based on a popular sci-fi TV series, it is assumed it must be unbalanced. I myself have been guilty of this attitude though I have come to the opinion that some 3rd party races are actually better balanced and more interesting than Tim's! You must form your own opinions.
The Draconian Empire has developed most of its effort into its military or keeping its population in line. Those within the empire are not very happy but they are efficient at what they do, this is reflected in their low population growth rate but average incoming and mining rates. Do not let their citizens demure or their limited numbers think they are weak, quite the opposite infact. They have a very strong empire and are masters of the Dark Force, though they know nothing of the light force. Their ground forces fall just below the Stormers in their strength, but they use the dark force to even out the odds. Any prisoners taken are often used in forced labor camps to help support the Draconian Empire. - David Ouimet
Unique racial power: the Draconians have a -3 happiness for all natives at their base. Unless they have a government center. If they have a government center they get a +2 happiness for all natives. Government centers produce 50mc of free money.
The Solar Gamma Ray device on a tech 5 ship is pretty deadly, it makes them the best shareware race yet, though of course unregistered players cannot buy Superweapon Tech... The Draconian Solar Gamma Ray kills half of all Carbon and Robotic life on a planet, it even works through shields. It also destroys all supplies, food, and medical units on the base.
Martin Lorenz:
[Apart from the government centre thing,] the Draconians have no racial advantages per se. All I see is: They have the highest stats in lawfullness, spying and highguard pilot rating so far, and they have a 3000kt mobile Death Star at tech level 5 (!!!!!). They are a pure, brute, boring, war driven killer race. Not a bit more. These guys are real sad.
Greg Bahr:
I see a large number of over sights by the design team on this one, or a weird idea on ship usefullness. For Example, tech 2 they have a mine layer<OH NO!!> But wait, it's only got 600 ord. Thats one minefield, right? They don't get a really serious minelayer till tech 4. Then look at the AD-22, Boarding Laser, cool, too bad they only have a passenger capacity of 200, ah but they do have one pod bay. As you look at the race, you will notice that if this race is next to you, you will have to look real hard, 'cause most of their hulls have a really low warp sig. That and good shields. Another example, they have a sihp with a 200KT mount? What weapon is that designed for? And what is the Solor Gamma Ray? [Presumably a typo, should have been 2000kT?]
Over all they aren't impossibly unbalanced, just not well thought out. I think the team that created them based their info off old info, old. I like Star Gate builder, I like seeing more SG's. Gives you a better chance to Fight the Highly mobile races like the Borg and Enforcers. It's just that some of their stuff doesn't make sense. Oh well, next...
David Ouimet:
Urm.. Anyone else have issues with a Tech level 5 ship with a superweapon that's almost a Cube that costs twice as much? True it has a small fraction of the armour but this only comes to bear after shields are down (which it has 3,000 of) and a size 50 mount (which are 11 of the 14 useful weapons I use anyways).
Jon Nunn:
Overall, I must say I'm not impressed with the fleet design. Too bad, cause the ship pictures are nice.
Climate : 20 to 60 with 40 favorite. (Klingons are a natural enemy, Lizards & Crystals potienal allies.)
Taxes, while they get some bonuses from Ulta-Coservative & Conservative, Enslavement is best due to their 95 Dark Power and sufficient lawfullness.
With Income at 110, and the enslavement of .95, money is NOT a problem.
Happiness is 50 and PC is 0; don't even think about establishing a complex tax rate! Liberal is subpar as well (Insufficant PR).
Unless they can do something like enforce martial law with troops, they'll need to take care to not overdevelop the planet and may have to occasionally switch to ultra-conservative to appease the native and colonist populations.
They're marginally better at most for mining as well. (110)
Growth and Combat: Their normal growth is a mere 65. Do NOT build a training center on your home world or else you'll have trouble breeding. Crew rapidally becomes troops; (25 col -> crew, but 40 crew -> troops).
Colonists & Crew are no good at fighting! Troops are pretty good though.
Both Crew and Troops subpar (30), but their high guard is really good (75)
Ground Units: It looks like the Hover Tank is most cost effective for Ground Units. Disrupter Howitzer while good at everything, for the money (120 MC each (only shines at Anti Air. The Androids strength is their resitance to destruction from the ground and sufficient firepower to take advantage. (90)
Jon Nunn:
Tech prorties: 1. Hull Tech, boost to tech 5 for the Krit Death Star! Max out for the Stargate builder.
2. Engine Tech : You have several 120 engine ships. Don't bother researching Transwarps, you can't use them.
3. Super Weapons : Maybe to tech 2 for the Nemious Torpedo. Don't bother with higher techs.
4. Large / Small weapons : Medium priority, your ships mounts are small until hull tech 8.
Don't bother with Hyprdrive techs, you can't use any!
The Draconians were created by a number of people (graphics, storyline etc) and the Draconian home page is on Ryosaku's site. The odd thing is, it hasn't been updated since May 1998 (ie about half a year before the very first VGAP4 Beta was available to play; and the Draconians were finally released by Tim in October 2000). So though it has background roleplaying info and pictures, it does not seem to have any information which is remotely up to date or actually useful like strategy tips.
Ryo Nakamura was a significant figure in the VGAP3 community. I don't know why his site has not been updated (maybe he died?) but perhaps Tim felt he owed Ryo some favours and introduced the Draconians without input from the originators Because He Had Promised He Would. Obviously there is a story here, but I don't know what it is.
Deneb: Is it just me, or do they seem to have many redundant ships in their list? Other than a Barbatic mine laying device here and there, the only diff between most of their middle tech ships is a hw mount here, perhaps a tad more armor there. Most of the ships seem to become a moot point once you reach a higher tech level. Mass also seems to stay constant, which is a bit counterintuitive. In my mind, normally the more powerful the ship the larger the mass, but the Dracs do not seem to follow this trend. The big question mark in their list (in terms of balance) is their very large lack of point defense. This is their saving grace which will probably make this a balanced race, but testing must be done to see if this disadvantage turns out to be as serious as it seems.
Jon Nunn:
Fighters: Type 1: Very hard to hit (90 Evasive), 15 armor, fast (120), but only 25 beams at a mere 100 range; it should autohit a lot of targets though (140% combined). Cost 140 though.
Type 2 : Hard to hit (70), 25 ARMOR!, good speed (100), 40 missles with 300 range and a 150% chance of hitting the target and an additional 30 beams at range 80 with 120% chance of hitting targets. Their best fighter but can you afford many at 250 MC each?
Type 3 : Not nearly as evasive as others (55), made out of iron (35 armor), but overall slighty less weapons than type 2 at 340 MC EACH!
Ships: No standard frieghters. Primarly shield based ships. Suffers from the same problem that the People's Army does. (Too many ship designs, some with questionable usefullness.) Many ships are slighty reinforced. Crew is somewhat low, so if using for combat, load up the small passenger quarters with marines to prevent easy capture. And if you really have cargo to transport, you'll need to lauch a pod and dock it to one of your ships; not much conventional cargo space is the low tech ships.)
Ships relationship to tech level questionable : Some ships are too weak for their tech levels while others are too powerful.
(Registered only past here, so note that shareware players can currently build the Krit Deathstar.)
Draconian Fleets: a later and fuller analysis of their ships by David Ouimet.
Orville Class Scout: This early scout is cheap to produce but its light and can serve to build early outposts and as a light warship. This scout is lightly armored but has acceptable shielding.
Cerberus Class Frigate: The Cerberus allows the Draconian empire to start securing their space with minefields early in the game and clearing enemy minefields. Like the Orville this class ship also performs ok as a light warship and is fairly cheap to produce.
DR-14 Security Vessel: The first of the Draconian warships to mount a heavy weapon. This ship can act as an armed freighter with its three pod bays. As a light warship it performs reasonably well, and can be supported by up to 30 fighters split between two small hanger bays. Care should be taken though as the ship is easily captured in combat if it does not break apart first from a critical hit.
Dreysen Class Cruiser: Taking the role usually played by the Cerberus, the Dreysen is an acceptable minefield tender. It has three pod bays allowing it to re-arm and continue dropping mines even after its internal ordinance bay is empty. It performs slightly superior to most other Draconian ships at this level and is a harder to capture in combat.
Eridanus Class Frigate: The Eridanus is a move to a warship with more teeth. It packs an acceptable amount of firepower that is highly accurate onto a fairly light hull, and is shielded enough to do some real damage. Unfortunately the ship is easily destroyed by a critical hit or captured by the enemy.
Scimitar Class Destroyer: Designed as an independent warship, the Scimitar packs a large number of small weapon mounts along with the ability to clear or drop mines. It is not capable of carrying spare ordinance in a pod so care should be taken to keep some ordinance onboard for combat. The ship is well protected for its size and has strong Evasion and Attack capabilities.
Balka Class Vanguard: An advanced scout for the Draconian Empire. This ship packs a 370 ly scanner tied into a Bioscanner allowing it to collect a lot of information early. It holds a large number of crew making it harder to capture than the other Draconian ships and performs adequately in combat.
Draco Class Star Base: The Draco gives any Draconian planet a wide range of options. With orbital mining and processing equipment you can avoid the costly ground based structures. The base can also adjust the claimant of the planet to Draconian preferences. While the ship is armed and very well protected a lot of its protection comes from the 240 odd fighters it can support. The Draco also has the capabilities to build a ship of a mass up to 10,000 although it can not produce any of the components needed to fully refit a ship. The Base itself is not mobile but with the right towing equipment it could be moved around.
Krait Class Dread Star: This ship is to be feared. Perhaps the easiest to build of the large warships known in any empire. This massive ship is very simple to build, extremely well armed, heavily protected, and able to carry a large number of weapons, though even the ships large mounts are fairly small. If that was not enough of a threat it can pack a Nemesis Torpedo to deal with enemy fighters as well as a Gamma Ray to devastate enemy bases. The ship is also capable of towing the Draco Class Starbase. Care should be taken when deploying the Krait as it only has a max speed of 90ly but it does have a 450 ly scanner to keep track of trouble. The ship does not posses any attack or evasion bonuses but the Nemesis should prevent a swarm of highly mobile ships from being much of a threat. If the Nemisis Torpedo is not being used or the fighters are kept within the docking bay it has a complement of some 480 fighters. The Krait is a very expensive ship to build, but is well worth it.
Mizar Class Cruiser: The Mizar is much like the mainstream Draconian ship, adequately armed and well shielded. With 4 pod bays it can also act as an armed freighter or mine tender/sweeper.
AD-22 Marauder: This warship can perform ok in combat, but it is specially designed for boarding actions. With a boarding laser to tear a hole in the enemy hull and a podbay to transport an assault pod this ship can capture many other enemy ships.
Hydra Class Light Carrier: The first of the Draconian Dedicated carriers, it is well protected but very poorly armed or otherwise protected. It can transport up to 200 fighters to and from the battlefield as well as two transport pods.
Oberth Class Assultship: A ground assault ship worthy of its name. Lightly armed but acceptably protected, the ship is able to transport 5 cargo pods to and from the field. A small complement of 40 fighters can be used to protect the assault ship in transit.
Organic Ship: Another Draconian Transport, with 5 pod bays and a guest capacity of over 3,000 it can effectively be used to transport metals or personnel. It is also lightly armed to keep away casual raiders.
Fang Class Destroyer: A reasonably fast warship, well armed and shielded this ship is an effective medium warship. With a good mass to crew ratio the ship is solid in combat and is not easily captured. It has a good ordinance bay but lacks the versatility of Pod Bays.
Polaris Class Fighter Builder: The Polaris is an orbital fighter factory able to build up to 120 fighters per turn if the funds are available of any Draconian type. Its lightly protected but is an expensive ship to build but it allows you to re-supply your fighter force away from a base.
Rostav Class AA Gunship: The Rostov is the Draconian attempt at an escort unit. With enough point defense systems to threaten a fighter group when properly equipped and two weapon mounts able to pack the deadly sand casters. Over all its performance is not remarkable as many fighters are able to easily dodge the Rostov's fire as it lacks any advanced targeting equipment.
Pegasus Class Cruiser: The Pegasus continues the Draconian main line style of warships. Equipped with 10 pod bays and mine laying equipment. Its adequately armed and trades a some shield strength to increase the armor layering. It can also carry 40 fighters into the fight.
Titus Class Dreadnought: The Titus is a more advanced Dreadnought than the early Krait, though some would argue its not as well equipped to do the job. Its able to larger weapon mounts but not as many of them. Its a faster hull and is able to drop and sweep minefields. The warship is reasonable cheap and should still be seen often despite the Kraits superior abilities.
Westfalen Class Dreadnought: The Westfalen is produced about as easily as the Titus, though the Titus usually receives more build orders. It trades several large and small weapon mounts for an additional 80 fighters.
Kalinin Class Carrier: The Kalinin is the first true carrier of the Draconian empire. Able to transport up to 400 fighters into the field. It packs noticeable, if not sufficient, shielding and armor along with 10 point defense systems. This ship is best kept out of the actually fighting allowing its fighters to do their job.
Artemis Class Star Gate Builder: This dedicated ship is able to build the critical Jump Gate structures allowing travel over vast distances in no time. The ship itself is fairly cheap to produce but the jumpgates themselves are very expensive.
Jon Nunn: