Random H/K attacks? O.o

[zoutzakje]

1 hour in a 7/7 game, just wrapped up a big battle on a Mk IV world (sniper beachhead to pummel Grav command with tachyon and tractor guardian. It was one of the only options i had with my early game fleet, but it was so much easier than i thought it would be). destroyed the command after i hacked the ARS, place my own command station in a corner. Send my my fleet to destroy the CSG. The moment my fleet passes a hostile wormhole, a mk I H/k pops out... WUT! needless to say he destroys my fresh cc and wipes out 2/3 of my fleet before i could take him out.

Things that saved me:
Already having mk II bombers.
Having the quick thought of building a stack of ff's on top my cc the moment i saw that H/K enter my territory. The extra few seconds it took him to destroy them allowed me to beat him. Thank god he was only mk I

So... What did I do to trigger a random H/K attack? I'm playing against Grav driller/support corps and Reservist/Alarmist.
Hunter plot is enabled for both AI's on 2/10 and 4/10. Are H/K's the nastiness they were talking about in the hunter plot description? I thought hunter plot would add more nasty stuff to the strategic reserve but this H/K was defenitely on the offense.
And considering I'm only 1 hour in, this scares me. Maybe Reservist AI has anything to do with that?

[Aklyon]

No, the hour mark sounds about right for the Hunter plot. You won't get any on the 2/10 setting, but the other one will respawn every hour if I remember correctly (it won't respawn if its not dead). Its not a threatship though, might be you were in the way of it reaching the SF current world and decided to chase you after that?

[zoutzakje]

hmm I think my cc was still in the process of being build the moment the H/K came through... Must have been a matter of miliseconds. Well, i guess it makes sense then, thanks. Never played with hunter plot before so good thing i put on of them on 2/10, but now I'll know what to expect.
Any chance the H/K's will become higher mark over time/AIP increase? I hope their mark is not affected by the AIP threshold, that would screw up my playstyle bigtime.

[Toranth]

hmm I think my cc was still in the process of being build the moment the H/K came through... Must have been a matter of miliseconds. Well, i guess it makes sense then, thanks. Never played with hunter plot before so good thing i put on of them on 2/10, but now I'll know what to expect.
Any chance the H/K's will become higher mark over time/AIP increase? I hope their mark is not affected by the AIP threshold, that would screw up my playstyle bigtime.

If I remember correctly, the plot effect doesn't change, no matter what the AIP/time is.  The plot enhances the Special Forces by adding a fixed number of ships to it, if they don't already exist, at fixed intervals.

As to why it entered that system, if your command station is still under construction, I think the AI still considers it a neutral world (and thus, not offensive to go there) - although it can still send waves to that system.

[Chthon]

hmm I think my cc was still in the process of being build the moment the H/K came through... Must have been a matter of miliseconds. Well, i guess it makes sense then, thanks. Never played with hunter plot before so good thing i put on of them on 2/10, but now I'll know what to expect.
Any chance the H/K's will become higher mark over time/AIP increase? I hope their mark is not affected by the AIP threshold, that would screw up my playstyle bigtime.

If I remember correctly, the plot effect doesn't change, no matter what the AIP/time is.  The plot enhances the Special Forces by adding a fixed number of ships to it, if they don't already exist, at fixed intervals.

As to why it entered that system, if your command station is still under construction, I think the AI still considers it a neutral world (and thus, not offensive to go there) - although it can still send waves to that system.

I really don't think the AI sends waves to a system still under construction and marked as neutral.  It never happens to me if I have another warp gate adjacent.  If I don't any wave that does get spawned there comes from and attempts to pass through to one of my worlds.  In other words it's not yours at all unless you finish that command station.

[zoutzakje]

AI doesn't send waves to neutral worlds, but the special forces can pass through them. I guess that's what happened in my case.
I already spotted the freshly build H/K roaming around as a SF ship (over 2 hours in now). I just hope the H/K's stay mk I.

[Toranth]

As to why it entered that system, if your command station is still under construction, I think the AI still considers it a neutral world (and thus, not offensive to go there) - although it can still send waves to that system.

I really don't think the AI sends waves to a system still under construction and marked as neutral.  It never happens to me if I have another warp gate adjacent.  If I don't any wave that does get spawned there comes from "???" and attempts to pass through to one of my worlds.  In other words it's not yours at all unless you finish that command station.

That's exactly what happens.  But normally, the AI will not send waves at actual neutral systems.  So, for the purpose of targetting waves, the AI recognizes it as belonging to the player, but for the purposes of moving units around, the AI considers in unowned.
It's just a weird contradiction that rarely arises, and means little when it does.