Disappearing Waves, Reprisal Attacks, CPA's?

[Bud Backer]

Ok, I'm playing on level 6, Vanilla AI, with 1/2 waves active.

I've now had quite a few instances of warnings of waves coming to But when the timer expires, they never appear.

Then I've had the Cross Planet Attack warning with the 14 minute timer a few times going to But it never arrives.

And I've had many reprisal waves that when the timer runs out never appear.

What gives? I'm getting warnings but nothing happens. Since many more experienced played have not complained, I'm sure the game works fine but what about these messages am I not grasping?

My setting waves on half is supposed to simply, reduce them in frequency, so that's not it. It's not set on No Waves.

[Hearteater]

Do the waves list a planet, or does it just have three question marks instead (the color would be different too)?

[Bud Backer]

Do the waves list a planet, or does it just have three question marks instead (the color would be different too)?

No, it's always ""

The text was always the same colour, like gold I think. My two AIs' colours are Red and Orange, so the colour doesn't match them, if that's where you were going.

[Toranth]

When a wave announces that it is going to "???" that usually means that the AI has no Warp Gates that can target Human controlled worlds.  If you've been gate raiding, you may have destroyed all the Warp Gates in nearby AI systems, or that you've built Warp Jammer stations in your systems.  In that case, the AI ships will appear somewhere in AI controlled territory.  You should see the Threat counter go up whenever such a wave launches.

Another possibility is if you accidentally enabled the "Cross Planet Waves" game option.  This game option forces ALL waves to appear as Threat in AI territory.
Cross Planet Attacks are different from normal waves.  They always start in AI territory as Threat, and then gather and search for the weakest part of the human defenses before attacking.

[Bud Backer]

When a wave announces that it is going to "" that usually means that the AI has no Warp Gates that can target Human controlled worlds.  If you've been gate raiding, you may have destroyed all the Warp Gates in nearby AI systems, or that you've built Warp Jammer stations in your systems.  In that case, the AI ships will appear somewhere in AI controlled territory.  You should see the Threat counter go up whenever such a wave launches.

Another possibility is if you accidentally enabled the "Cross Planet Waves" game option.  This game option forces ALL waves to appear as Threat in AI territory.
Cross Planet Attacks are different from normal waves.  They always start in AI territory as Threat, and then gather and search for the weakest part of the human defenses before attacking.

Ah,my that explains it. I have been playing by conservatively with all entires into my space protected by warp jammers. And you're right, I've been seeing mounting and mounting threat building up every time one of these "wave" fails to appear, all right at my doorstep. Omg. Totally pounded the heck out of me, had to start over!

So there is a downside to using warp jammers!

This game is incredible!

[ElOhTeeBee]

Ah,my that explains it. I have been playing by conservatively with all entires into my space protected by warp jammers. And you're right, I've been seeing mounting and mounting threat building up every time one of these "wave" fails to appear, all right at my doorstep. Omg. Totally pounded the heck out of me, had to start over!

So there is a downside to using warp jammers!

This game is incredible!

It's not specifically a downside to using warp jammers, so much as it is a downside to keeping the AI from warping in waves on any adjacent world.

[Bud Backer]

It's not specifically a downside to using warp jammers, so much as it is a downside to keeping the AI from warping in waves on any adjacent world.

I see what you're saying. My point was that by preventing the waves from ever attacking me, I ended up having them all accumulated on my doorstep to the point where I was unable to break past them and when they followed my fleet home after my attack they totally overwhelmed everything I had.

If they came and attacked piecemeal I might have been able to survive and get past them.

That's my reasoning anyway!

[Draco18s]

It's the downside to using ONLY warp jammers.

[Bud Backer]

It's the downside to using ONLY warp jammers.

Yes, precisely!! 

[Draco18s]

To be fair, it's entirely possible to do it without warpjammers too, it just costs more AIP.

[ElOhTeeBee]

But less K!