So, after a long period of putting off my scavenger campaign attempt, I finally started a couple of days ago to see how it went, with no NPR's but all spoilers on. After a fair few years of peaceful exploration, sensors detected the very first invader ship jumping into my home system. After a bit of chasing around, my fleets managed to destroy it, only for two missile ships to enter eight days later and wipe out the majority of my spaceyards before suicide ramming some military ships.
Three years after the incident, another small ship was detected, chased down and destroyed. A couple of months after that, two very large ships (54kt) entered the system, rammed several ships and were destroyed, but not before causing numerous overflow errors with their active sensors max range. The start of the next year saw two more of the same class enter, which were promptly destroyed before they could cause more trouble.
Halfway through the same year, I got the first report of strength 24 nuclear detonations (x51) hitting civilian shipping. Recalling my somewhat sizeable navy of 23 ships from task force training, I prepared to enter the system and eliminate the threat. Four civilian wrecks and thirteen military wrecks later, we had managed a victory without killing the rear admiral, but were left understrength and paranoid.
It's near the end of 2039, 14 years since the start of the game, and more invader ships have been detected in a neighbouring system by a newly built DST. While they seem content to sit around the wormhole, some civilian ship decided for no particular reason to travel straight in their direction and I'm worried that one of the ships is a dedicated AMM ship; judging from it's thermal signature, it would be a 36kt AMM ship, which my navy has no hope of fighting against; and that is without the ~15kt escort by its side.
As much as I like the struggle against such a dangerous enemy, I wouldn't mind a break until I was capable of taking them on outside of overwhelming numbers and letting them suicide ram my own ships. However, every time I've ticked invaders off, they have continued to spawn and the option turns itself back on. Is there anyway I can turn them off now, or do I have to continue my struggle for the rest of the campaign?
Edit: As it turns out, the larger enemy ship is focused on beam weapons, which is good news, as my ships shields should mitigate most of the damage, especially considering the beams only do 3 damage - although it appears to have upwards of 29 hits every 5 seconds, making for a total of 87 damage every 5 seconds, which is quite worrying.
Double Edit: Maybe I should have considered the enemies ECM and wavelength techs before attacking. I am now down to five combat capable ships.
Edited: A survey ship entered my home system. There are at least 6 hostile contacts heading straight for my homeworld, and I only have two anti-missile beam frigates to defend it. All commercial ships have been sent to picket asteroids in the hope they escape detection, but the situation doesn't look good for the population.