Help me understand gate-raiding a little better

[Gelatious Cube]

So I understand why you want to do it, so you can limit the amount of planets that can send waves at you--but aren't those benefits kind of limited? The waves (in the early game at least) aren't that bad, and by raiding a planet and taking out its warp gate you send all the planets surrounding it on alert, which is going to make operating around there a lot harder in the future. Is there a way to gate-raid without setting off an alert? If not, is it really all that good of an idea?

[Arc-3N-4B]

Destroying the warp gate shouldn't put planets on alert - destroying the command station, on the other hand, will.

[Gelatious Cube]

That doesn't seem to be the case all the time. What about command posts?

Ya its defninitely not the case. I just attacked a planet that had a sentry eye on it, with the intention of neutering it but not killing the command station. Due to the eye, I had to kill every Command Post in sequence, slowly, and it gave me ample time to see exactly what caused the two neighboring planets to go on alert. It wasn't killing the command posts, and it wasn't the death of the eye. It happened right when I killed the warp gate.

Maybe it was the overwhelming numbers I brought to kill the warp gate? Does that have an effect? Prior to the death of the eye I only had about 200 ships max on the planet, but when the eye went down i sent in about 600 to push for the warp gate. Either way, the planets next door went on alert only after I killed the gate. 

[TechSY730]

Military presence will also alert that planet and adjacent planets, although that source of "alertness" will go away once your army leaves, sending any relevant planets back to unalerted if there are no other things putting the planet on alert.

[Gelatious Cube]

Military presence will also alert that planet and adjacent planets, although that source of "alertness" will go away once your army leaves, sending any relevant planets back to unalerted if there are no other things putting the planet on alert.

This is exactly what happened. A few minutes after I posted my above message, I noticed they were no longer on alert.

So, to recap:

Killing command posts = No Alert
Killing Warp gate = No Alert
Large Fleet = Temporary Alert

Thanks! I understand it just a bit better now.

[ArnaudB]

Killing command posts = No Alert
Killing Warp gate = No Alert
Large Fleet = Temporary Alert

Thanks! I understand it just a bit better now.

Nitpick, ANY military presence on planet will cause the planet itself and neighbor to go on alert. Alert thus happens even with one single military unit, champion included.

[TechSY730]

"Large" may have been a bad word choice on my part. "Notable" would of been a better choice. For example, a single Mk. I standard fighter shouldn't do it, even if 90 of them probably would, as well as a single starship would as well. The definition of "notable" the AI uses is something I don't know the exact details to though.

[Gelatious Cube]

What about warp jammers? They prevent a neighboring planet from going on alert, but to set one up you have to wipe out a command station anyway which sends the enemy to... alert? I feel like I'm missing something there.

[orzelek]

Warp jammer station actually prevents neighbors from going on alert when it's placed. So you can kill AI command and replace it with Warp Jammer command to not alert planets around it. Also your forces on planet with warp jammer will not alert nearby AI planets but when you attack with them they will cause usual alerts.

[Draco18s]

What about warp jammers? They prevent a neighboring planet from going on alert, but to set one up you have to wipe out a command station anyway which sends the enemy to... alert? I feel like I'm missing something there.

Now you control the system and all of its goodies.

[Gelatious Cube]

Warp jammer station actually prevents neighbors from going on alert when it's placed. So you can kill AI command and replace it with Warp Jammer command to not alert planets around it. Also your forces on planet with warp jammer will not alert nearby AI planets but when you attack with them they will cause usual alerts.

Aha, that makes sense. Muchos gracias.

[Bognor]

Warp Jammer's don't absolutely prevent neighbouring planets going on alert.  They only prevent them going on alert due to the planet with the Warp Jammer (and any fleet on it).  Neighbouring planets might still go on alert for other reasons, such as other human or neutral planets, or human fleets on other AI planets, or certain minor factions etc.