Dread Lord Event

The DL event has always been dissapointing, IMO. They show up naked and are pushovers if you get to them in any kind of reasonable time frame. The only way they become a threat is if they pop up early in the game and you can't FIND them until they've had some time to get a head of steam. They should really spawn with some defenses, I'd thought that was going to be done in TA but it wasn't.

You could always just...not kill them once they appear.  Let them grow a bit, get 2 or 3 ships built and their planet filled out.  Once they get their footing, then enjoy the madness!  I did this one game and the war that ensued didn't match what would have happened if I took on the entire galaxy at once.

I've never understood the appeal of deliberately hamstringing yourself. A challenge is only satisfying to overcome if it wasn't preventable, otherwise it's just some bad thing you let happen that's your own fault.

I'd do it for the fun of it.  I wanted to see the DL actually powerful like in the campaign.  I've done plenty of other off the wall things just to see what happens.  Playing the game JUST to beat that match isn't quite as fun as setting up a scenerio that you must now overcome.

I've had them spawn in the middle of an enemy's territory, one I was currently losing a war with. Apparently said enemy decided they weren't a threat, so they never attacked them. It got a bit hairy for a while, until I made peace with the major civ, who then turned on the Dread Lords. A few turns later, the Dread Lords contacted me, asking for help. I sent help, all right, in the form of a transport

We never got a fix for the Dread Lords diplo bug either? Bummer.

Well I know I got the dread lords event and I ended up with a 44 class heavy planet with little effort

We probably did, this was in DA 1.8 something.  I have yet to get Dread Lords in any TA game other than the campaign.

What bug?

I can't speak with the DL, and they've neer sokpen to me, but I've noticed that some AI races occasionally manage to make peace with them.  Is that how it's supposed to be?

Assuming the event happens earlier in the game, do the DL get good techs that might be worth stealing?

Do they build up their planets faster than other races?  that might mean that if you let them be for a while, the planet you get might be more than a bunch of blank tiles.

The Dread Lords start will ALL tech (in DL/DA; in TA they start with the stock minor civ tech tree completely researched). The limiting factor is how fast they can build a planet full of Industrial Sectors to crank out ships. They don't need morale, or farms, or apparently money - a fully built-up Dread Lord planet has a colony, a starport, and Industrial Sectors.

Considering their great soldiering ability, I wouldn't be surpised that all skills were like +999