Warp Gates - Bug? Something I don't understand?

[nkraptor]

I'm new so I'm confused!
For this multiplayer game we had it on random easier AI with no special game rules.  So if some AI's have special things I'm not sure if he had it for this game.

My understanding was that if you killed all warp gates that touched a sector no 3 minute countdown waves could be sent at that location.

Thinking this is how it worked I killed the warp gate of the only system linking.  To note, that is literally the only thing I killed, every single other building was left standing.  Over the next 45 minutes - 1 hour.  a system that only touched this system proceeded to get 3+ waves sent to it. 
The system was a level 4 system? Tier 4 system?  It had IV next to it.  I'm not sure the term used for it.

I thought the whole reason to kill these warp gates was to stop 3 minute wave attacks.

Next question is, going under the premise that warp gates stop wave attacks, if you kill every single warp gate that touches your territory will you never have waves sent at you?

[Minotaar]

Hi and welcome to the forums!
You're right, the AI can only send waves to a planet adjacent to a warp gate. However, if you kill every single warpgate on your borders, it will have to send waves to its own planets, which will then travel to your territory through wormholes and attack you wherever they decide to. This makes dealing with waves much more difficult, so it's better to leave some warpgates on your bordering worlds. If you only leave one, you will pretty much always know where the waves hit and heavily reinforce that system with turrets, but that is the extent of what you can do. You can't stop the waves completely.
There are also other things that function as warp gates, AI Eyes and Warp Gate Guardians among them. When looking at a system, you can see the number of wave-capable warp gates in the top left.
And yes, if the system has a IV next to it on the galaxy map, it's a mark IV system. Do not disturb without good reason 

[keith.lamothe]

Welcome to the forums

Yep, usually what you want to do is pick one of your planets that you want to defend the waves for you, and leave at least one warp gate bordering that one.

[Diazo]

A common tactic is to setup a 'whipping-boy' system.

That is, pick a single warp gate you are going to leave adjacent to your empire, then turn your system that this warp gate is adjacent to into a fortress world, turning it into a 'whipping boy' system that eats all of the AI's attacks for you.

You can't ignore you other borders as the AI does have other means of attack, but all the 3 minute waves will come into this one system with this setup.

D.

[Catma]

Do you mean it got real, actual waves sent to it with countdowns? Or did a lot of ships just come in? If there were no countdowns, yeah that's because you took out every single warp gate touching your entire galactic territory.

However, if you got countdown waves to that planet, that means there must be another warp gate in the system. If you look at the system You'll see something like: "1(wave) 3 (reinforce) enemy warp gates at this planet" in the upper left corner in green text. The 1(wave) means that there is one warp gate (or warp gate-type thing) that can send waves to adjacent planets.

Point being, actual warp gates are not the only things that can send waves. There are warp gate guardians also, and AI eyes function as warp gates! That is really annoying considering how difficult it is to take out an AI eye. Since you're a new player you probably don't have warp gate guardians running around... you probably have an AI eye on that MK IV world... good luck with that!

I'm not sure if anything else functions as a warp gate. If you mouse over the icon in the right-hand bar, warp-gate-thingies say something like "Warp Gate FULL (AI Only)" in purple text.

[NickAragua]

Things that function as Warp Gates:

Warp Gates
AI Eyes
Warp Gate Guardians

Probably you missed one of the other two.

[zoutzakje]

Things that function as Warp Gates:

Warp Gates
AI Eyes
Warp Gate Guardians

Probably you missed one of the other two.

don't forget alarm posts. I just noticed that they're warp gates too. and Raid engines, but you wouldn't want to keep those alive anyway.