The particulars of Alert

[Verily]

Hello everyone.

I'd like to start by saying I'm really enjoying the game. It is, at the very least in terms of computer controlled intelligence, exactly what I've been looking for.

On to the point of my post : I'm a little bit unsure of the particulars of AI planets going on Alert.
(Apologies if this has been asked about before, I did check the wiki and could't find my specific query covered - nor does this forum possess an advanced search which makes tracking down any similar questions very tricky)

I know that capturing a planet sets all adjacent AI planets to Alert and thus increases the chance those planets will be reinforced.
I've also read that AI planets adjacent to AI/neutral planets where a sizeable player controlled force is present will also be set to Alert.

What size of fleet in particular does the AI judge large enough to react to by going into Alert?
If the same sizeable force were to retreat from the AI/neutral planet it was on, would the Alert on adjacent planets ever reset?
Are there other factors that can also trigger Alert status on AI planets other than proximity to the player or a large player controlled fleet?

Thanks in advance for any answers,

Verily.

[alphaone]

From what I have noticed in my game, AI planets next to neutral planets will be on alert regardless of how many ships are in the system.

I had about 400 ships in in a flotilla of 8 transports in an AI world and noticed that the alert on the adjacent worlds was not active until I unloaded the fleet. The alert disappeared again when I reloaded them into the transports.

[x4000]

Hey Verily,

Glad you're enjoying the game so much!

For planets that are on alert, if I recall it is usually around 100 of your military ships that have to be directly at the planet (not in transports) to put it and adjacent planets on alert.  So very tiny raids will not alert the planet, but anything substantial will.  As soon as your fleet leaves, the AI will go off of alert back to the way it was, though.

What is irreversible about alert is when you take a planet.  The AI views any planets that it does not control as being hostile, so that includes your planets and neutral planets.  There's no way to get it off of alert once it does not control a planet, as it never takes planets back or anything like that.

Hope that helps!

[Kjara]

Do starships count higher than individual ships for the alert threshold?  If they don't they prob should(say count for 25 ships or so).  That way you can't raid with 6 raid starships(or more than 3) without putting the planet into alert.

[x4000]

Okay, so consulting the code, I see I was actually wrong -- the threshold was 50 units, not 100.  Starships and Golems were not weighted any more highly, which was certainly non-ideal.  In the next prerelease, Starships will count for 25, and the Golems and other "major weapons" (the heavy defense category in general) will trigger the alert all by themselves.  Great suggestion!

[Ktoff]

Damn you alpha! Now i cannot raid systems with a couple of starships without raising alert!

Anyways it always seemed strange, that you raised alarm with a group of 150 fighter/bomber/cruiser, but none if you went of a wild rampage with 6 Raid starships.

[orzelek]

In my last game I was quite puzzled by this mechanic.

After I raided and cleaned enemy planet the neighboring planet remained in alerted state for quite some time.

I ended colonizing it then because it seemed that leaving it empty had no effect on alert state of neighbor.

(Said neighbor is lvl IV planet that blocks access to rest of galaxy for me so I was treating it with unusual care)