maybe thats just their special way of saying hello to their neighbours... I dont know how their race reacts to neutral powers, they might just shoot them, and then about when you were leaving, your diplomacy team just punched the relations up to somewhat friendly, since you didn't care to shoot back and make them more hostile against you...

It's not that I didn't want to; the only weapons my ship had were a single CIWS

Not sure why they fired so few missiles, though.

warning shots? or maybe the ships are not very well designed...

maybe thats just their special way of saying hello to their neighbours... I dont know how their race reacts to neutral powers, they might just shoot them, and then about when you were leaving, your diplomacy team just punched the relations up to somewhat friendly, since you didn't care to shoot back and make them more hostile against you...

Chill dude, I was offering an explanation for the reason why other posters were asking questions and speculating about your game, not accusing you of being a liar.

It is entirely possible to have events not visible in the Event Log, even when in SM-mode because NPR and spoiler actions are only visible there if you've enabled Designer mode. So when playing your first game, it's possible that something is happening under the hood that you're not aware of. For example, the two missiles could have come from another NPR that you hadn't encountered before - it's rare but possible. It's also possible to have spoilers and NPR spawn in the same system, meaning that those two missiles could have come from a Precursor ship. Again, it's rare but possible.

Both entirely possible. I doubt it was the CoA firing from a ship I couldn't see, because I wasn't having any trouble spotting them, even with the low tech sensors I was using, but it could certainly have been another NPC race that I never saw (although why another race would shoot at me is a mystery to me, unless they had a colony in the system too, that I never saw (which I doubt, because I was having no problems spotting CoA populations (including a colony on another planet in the same system, which I didn't know existed until I got the message saying I'd lost contact with it)). Again, unlikely, but possible.

Precursors are an option, obviously, but I doubt it, for the following reasons.

1I already encountered what I now think were precursors in another, nearby system. One of my early explorers was doing a routine geosurvey, when I suddenly got a message that it had been attacked and destroyed. It had spotted 2 ships on active sensors shortly before it was destroyed, and based on the size, I'm going to call them FACs (specifically, the game assigned the name "Sovremenny" to the class, which is good enough for me). I sent my main fleet to investigate. My entire fleet (2 x 12kt DDGs, 2 x 6kt FFGs and 2 x 5kt DEs) was completely wiped out. The only thing we detected was one new class ("Longsword"; we never had any contact other than an EM signal from an active sensor of much longer range AND better resolution than mine (so, either high tech, or very large). That means that I also have no idea how big it is or what it can do, although I'd hazard a guess that it might be the Sovremennys' mothership?). I never had active sensor contact (not that it would have made much difference; it was my first fleet, so the missiles and FCs I had didn't have anything like the range my search sensors did). What I do know is that either Longsword, the 2 Sovremennys, or 1 or more other ships that I never detected re capable of firing 2x9 size 10 missiles about every 2 minutes. Slightly more than the 2 missiles of unknown size about every 30 minutes, no?

Recently, I sent another scout to the same system (the same ship as was attacked by the CoA, in fact), and she spotted the 2 Sovremenny's again, before they destroyed her, too (though she did pick up more EM contacts, this time from the Sovremenny's, and also determine that they can do at least 8k km/s).

Given the ease with which they destroyed my (admittedly terrible) fleet, I don't think that they would have been limited to 2 salvoes of 2 missiles. Of course, this is assuming they were Precursors in the first place, but they destroyed every warship I had (not counting a terrible, outdated monitor that was the first warship I built and which didn't have the endurance to get to the system where the "battle" happened(not that it would have done much to help anyway(at least, it wouldn't have helped me XD))).

Also, It occurs to me that, if there were precursors in the CoA's home system, it's likely that I would never have met the CoA in the first place. While I don't know the spawn chances of Spoiler races, gambler's fallacy also says it's unlikely that 2 groups of Precursors would spawn 2 jumps away from one another, when I haven't met them in any of the other systems I've explored.

Overall, I'm pretty confident that it was the CoA that attacked me.

One final note; I apologise, I know I have a tendency to ramble on about things that are only vaguely related to the original topic. I only hope you're enjoying reading about the antics of a new player who didn't (and, to a (slightly) lesser extent, doesn't) know which end of a nuke is the explodey one

Because that shouldn't happen, so people are looking into alternative possibilities, before chalking it up as a bug.

By the time the aliens hate you enough to shoot missiles at you, they are far from allowing you trade access.

Well, as far as I can tell, what I said happened is exactly what happened. If you refuse to believe me, that's not my problem.

The simplest solution to discovery would be the intel screen. See how many other empires you are aware of, then just use the tactical tab to see what ships you have encountered and in what systems.

If you come up with nothing other than the CoA then they were the guilty party.

As for the why? Well perhaps they are or contain particular paranoid factions of the military, the orders didn't yet arrive that this new alien race are to be welcomed peacefully and some fresh young ship captain was looking for a promotion?

I agree, but I don't know who else it could have been.

I know about the intel screen. Unless I was being shot at from outside the range of my sensors, it was the CoA.

Incidentally, I feel like I need to point out that my question wasn't about why we didn't become hostile to one another, but about why they attacked me, but then immediately gave me trade access as soon as my ship left.  It's like, "Get the f*** out of our sys- wait, no, we changed our minds.  You can come back if you want!" I mean, Obviously, I'm not going to, because they'll just attack me again.  XD

Still not sure why people are choosing to ignore this.

Quote from: Adseria on October 02, 2018, 10:54:20 AM

First things first; I am VERY new to this game.  I started my first game a week ago, and it's only 2046 now, so quite early on.  I haven't even left my home system except to explore, and one abortive battle against what I assume are some precursor ships or something (it didn't go well  )

So, quite early on (2033), I met a new race, the Church of Antilles (or "CoA"), made contact and assigned a diplomatic team.  Soon, I found a system (with the wonderfully memorable name of NN-3182) with a planet that was 0 colony cost.  Assuming that it was their home system, and not wanting to upset them until our diplomacy could get somewhere, I immediately turned my ship around and left the system.

A few years go by.  I give them trade access (they don't return the favour), and I build a better ship.  I decide to go and have a poke around in their home system again.  Now, since this happened, I did some Googling, and found out that AIs normally don't take kindly to this.

It was quite odd.  My ship was orbiting what I think was their homeworld, when suddenly I get a message; 2 missiles had been fired at my ship.  Luckily, one of them had been shot down by my CIWS, and the other missed, but the strange bit is that the CoA didn't become hostile to me (yet).  Even so, I decided discretion is the better part of valour, and set course back to the jump point.  This course took me straight past a group of their ships (mostly 10k tons, plus a single 20k ton ship (yes, I use tons.  Sue me)).  I assume this was their main battle fleet, because it was heading straight for me.

So I went straight past them, and then, when I was about 500k km away from them, another message; 2 more missiles.  This time, one of them did hit, but it only damaged fuel storage, and my ship could still do 3k km/s to their 1k, so I got away.  And it was these missiles that were enough to make them hostile to me.  The bit I don't understand is what happened next.

So, as I mentioned, my ship got away.  But, as she was on her way home, I get a 3rd message.

"The Church of Antilles has granted you trade access. "

I wish they'd make their minds up!

Was it definitely the Church ships shooting at you? It seems odd if they were using missiles that they waited until you were within 500k of their fleet and they had a whole battle fleet but only fired two missiles.

I agree, but I don't know who else it could have been. The only ships in the area (that I knew of) were my survey ship and the CoA ships. I might have been wrong in my identification of their main fleet, but I don't know. As I said in my OP, I'm very new to the game, so, in the words of my favourite wiki article, "I can't tell a nuclear missile from a dead frog."

Come to think of it, it probably wasn't their battle fleet. They seemed to be the biggest ships they had, so maybe they were commercial ships and the missiles came from somewhere else? My survey ship didn't have any high res sensors, so the only reason I knew there were any missiles in the first place was my thermal sensors and the fact that my CIWS was shooting them down.

What I assumed at the time was that they'd focused really heavily on economic techs and beam weapons, so they could build huge ships with decent beam weapons, but couldn't use them because I never came close enough, so they were stuck using their crappy low-tech missiles. My reasoning was that the ships I could see were all very slow (I never saw any of them go faster than 1250km/s), and there were only 2 salvoes of 2 missiles, which I assumed would be a backup to a serious beam system. I never came close enough to them for them to hit me with whatever beams they might have had, so I don't know how good their beams might have been (or, honestly, if they even had any!).

Honestly, I don't have a clue about any of this. Hence why we're having this conversation.

Incidentally, I feel like I need to point out that my question wasn't about why we didn't become hostile to one another, but about why they attacked me, but then immediately gave me trade access as soon as my ship left.  It's like, "Get the f*** out of our sys- wait, no, we changed our minds.  You can come back if you want!" I mean, Obviously, I'm not going to, because they'll just attack me again.  XD