What does 'Neutering' mean?

[Kaerwek]

I'm rather new to the game, and I've been reading the forums. Here I've found the term 'Neutering', e.g. to neuter a planet.

What does it refer to?

[Aklyon]

Sometimes, its not worth the AIP to claim a planet. But its in the way. This is where neutering comes in: Destroy evevything except the command station or wormhole guardposts, and the planet will have minimal reinforcement potential and you can move on. Build a small beachhead somewhere on the neutered planet if you want to automate keping it clean of the reinforcements that'l show up for time to time.
(If you're bored and have some massive firepower like a Spire Champion Battleship with mkV Photon Lances on every slot possible, then you could try to kill the wormhole posts too).

[Kaerwek]

Thanks!

[Bognor]

I guess it's not easy to find, but there's a Glossary on the wiki.

[tadrinth]

Whenever a planet gets a reinforcement pulse, the pulse's budget is increased by 10% for each guard post.  So, killing guard posts on a planet reduces the rate at which the AI can generate ships at that planet. This was added in version 7.023, I believe, wasn't documented in the patch note but Keith mentioned it here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,15466.msg171590.html#msg171590

There's also a cap on the maximum number of ships the AI can reinforce onto a planet, which goes down as you kill guard posts.  It can still reinforce the planet after it hits the cap, but it will do so by merging ships into higher mark ships rather than adding more ships, which is less efficient.

Each planet also has a cap on the number of defenders it will maintain, and if it reinforces above that level the excess ships get released as threat, which will then tend to wander into your territory to cause trouble.  Neutered planets will typically have their maximum number of ships reduced below this level, so they'll generally not produce border aggression. 

So, neutering planets greatly reduces the danger associated with having planets alerted for very long periods of time.  Any AI planet next to a system that isn't AI controlled (and doesn't have a Warp Jammer command station) will be alerted for the rest of the game, and is probably worth neutering if it isn't a Rude Gesture planet (the ones with four warp counterattack guard posts). 

[Draco18s]

probably worth neutering if it isn't a Rude Gesture planet (the ones with four warp counterattack guard posts).

You don't neuter those.  You leave them alone or conquer them.

[tadrinth]

Weeeeeeeelll it depends on how desperate you are for metal.  Counterattack waves to the homeworld do give an awful lot of salvage, and I have golems to rebuild, so I am actually about to attempt to neuter a Rude Gesture.  It's about to be one of only 3 alerted planets at over 100 AIP on Diff 10, as well, and I want to minimize the reinforcements it'll get. 

Normally, though, yeah, those things are best avoided if at all possible.  Pretty glad they're not seeded by default anymore. 

[Kaerwek]

So if I clean out a planet completely, and don't populate it myself, will the AI send forces to defend that planet if I leave it alone?

Also, are AI planets put on Alert when an adjacent planet is neutered, or when I build a command station there?

[Draco18s]

So if I clean out a planet completely, and don't populate it myself, will the AI send forces to defend that planet if I leave it alone?

Yes.  Very very slowly.

Also, are AI planets put on Alert when an adjacent planet is neutered, or when I build a command station there?

Neutered != neutral.
You can't build a command station in a neutered planet.

[Bognor]

Also, are AI planets put on Alert when an adjacent planet is neutered, or when I build a command station there?

I'm not sure whether I'm parsing this right, but any AI planet adjacent to a neutral or human planet will be on alert.  So if you build a command station on a planet adjacent to Murdoch, then Murdoch will be put on alert.  The only way around this is with Warp Jammer Command Stations.

[Kaerwek]

One more question.

I've got 'Cross Planet Waves' enabled. If I neuter planets in my 'home turf', can a wave spawn in them or does it have to spawn on a warp gate located in some enemy planet?

I.e. can I safely just let the neutered planets be?

So far I've got 15 planets and I've populated all. Felt like I needed the resources. Maybe I should neuter a bit more.

[Draco18s]

Waves spawn at a warp gate.

Which can be a warp gate or one of several AI units that act as warp gates (Warp Guardian, mostly).

[liq3]

I.e. can I safely just let the neutered planets be?

So far I've got 15 planets and I've populated all. Felt like I needed the resources. Maybe I should neuter a bit more.

You basically can. They'll build up a small number of ships, but otherwise do very little else. And neutering is useful when a planet isn't worth the 15 AIP of destroying the command station. e.g. a planet with nothing interesting and just 2-3 metal spots.

[Diazo]

@Alerting AI planets.

2 things can alert an AI planet.

1) Any adjacent planet being neutral (no command station) or hostile (under player control). Note that a neutered planet does not trigger this as the AI command station is still intact so the AI considers a neutered planet still under its control. Building a Warp Jammer command negates this and the AI effectively considers a system with a Warp Jammer Command station to be under its control and will not alarm.

2) Human fleet presence. The presence of human military ships will alert adjacent AI planets. If you sent your Raid Starships out on a raid to a system 3 hops away, AI systems adjacent to (and including) that system 3 hops out will be on alert while your Raid Starships are in that system. Again, a Warp jammer negates this condition for the system it is built in.

Caution, not all units use the Alert status to determine if human units are nearby. Notably the Raid Engine directly checks for human units, building a warp jammer in a system adjacent to a Raid Engine will NOT stop the Raid Engine from sending waves at you. Read the description text carefully, if it says the structure does something while alerted, the Warp Jammer command can negate it. If it says it checks for nearby human units, the Warp Jammer will not stop it.

Hope that helps.

D..

[Kaerwek]

It did.