Warp Gates Question

[DrGonzo]

Sorry if this is a duplicate post or there is some place that conveniently explains this:

Started up a new game today after an exo-wave prematurely ended my last little AI adventure-- 2 or so jumps away from my home system there is a decently fortified III system with ... nothing of use to me so far as I can tell but nevertheless I'd prefer waves not come from that direction... Sent a little wrecking crew in there and killed the warp gate along with maybe one or two other targets of opportunity. The other systems I have killed warp gates in turn an off-color of red, close to orange-- but this particular III system stubbornly remains its normal red.

I suppose my question is two fold:

My assumption is that orange colored systems on the map have effectively had their warp gates removed and waves cannot come from there, is this the case?
Secondly, what precisely will keep a system red after killing a warp gate? I couldn't see anything that would cause it at a cursory glance, but there is probably something there that would stand out to some more veteran players.

You know, since I'm posting anyways I'll ask another question or two, though I think I already know the answer: Do all systems belonging to a single player have to be contiguous? ie: There is no way to jump across a junk system with a colony ship and set up shop on the other side-- and if not... what is the best way to manage all the AI progress from junk systems that you don't _really_ want but are just in between you and something that you do?

Thanks in advance!

[Gemzo]

My assumption is that orange colored systems on the map have effectively had their warp gates removed and waves cannot come from there, is this the case?
Secondly, what precisely will keep a system red after killing a warp gate? I couldn't see anything that would cause it at a cursory glance, but there is probably something there that would stand out to some more veteran players.

Yes, and AI Eyes/warp gate guardians have warp gates integrated into them. There is an eye in that system.

You know, since I'm posting anyways I'll ask another question or two, though I think I already know the answer: Do all systems belonging to a single player have to be contiguous?

It doesn't matter. You can colonize any planet you can destroy the command station of and get a colony ship to. But of course you must consider how you will defend it, reinforce it, etc.

[PokerChen]

Several approaches to manage AI planets between player worlds:

Offensive:
- Destroy all non-wormhole guardposts and reduce number of AI ships hanging around. This has the bonus of removing the Eye on the planet.
- Optionally, destroy wormhole guardposts that interfere with your passage between planets. However, they have a lot of health.
- Set up a beachhead to remove AI reinforcements, consisting of turrets supported by a repair team under a forcefield (engineers, remains rebuilder, mobile builder). Sniper and spider turrets make this more effective as they have system-wide coverage. A ball of turrets will, however, place adjacent systems on alert as well.

Defensive:
- Maintain a number of transports to quickly ferry your entire fleet across the hostile area.
- Hide your moving fleet with cloaker starships. Slower and imperfect since the fleet has to group move, and the ships don't cross wormholes at the same time, breaking cloak. The full set of mark I-III  cloaks 740 ships.

[Kahuna]

Cloaking only breaks if you use Cloaker Starships incorrectly. Keep half of the cloaker starships behind and the other half in front. Keep all ships between the cloaker starships and then group move trough a wormhole. This way the cloaking will never break. Assault Transports are an option too.

[Kahuna]

I usually find it more cost efficient to ignore and skip useless AI planets with assault transports. First i send a small raiding fleet (ships that have damage multiplier vs tachyon guardians aka medium) to destroy the tachyon guradians and then move on with the rest of my fleet.

[Kahuna]

About capturing AI planets. You can capture which planet you ever want. Your planets don't have to be connected to each other. And on high difficulties they shouldn't because that will increase the AIP unnecessarily. You should only capture planets that are (very) usefull for you. The best way to capture a distant AI planet is to first clear the path to the planet like I described in my last post above^^. Then send in an assault transport with heavy bomber and plasma siege starships and/or ships that are immune to force field and just pop the AI Command Station. The load the ships back into the invisible assault transport and wait for the ai ships to leave the planet. Then build your command station and use your fleet and sniper and needler turrets to get rid of the remaining guard posts and other ai buildings.