Aliens...leave me alone!

[Theodidactus (OP)]

So, I've recently run into some aliens.   
When we make contact as a species, there's gonna be a lot of deep and profound questions
in this game, it provoked some questions of my own.   I need answers, because otherwise I'm just gonna have to start over.   I'm very particular about how this game goes down, and if this is irreversible, I'm off on the wrong foot:

#1: Where the hell did they come from?: I have discovered 4 systems outside of Sol.   Each one has no planets with life on them, and I've fully explored them all.   these aliens are in the Barnard's star system, a system isolated from all other systems except Sol (there are no other jump points).   

#2: Are they precursors?: If so, #1 still applies.   I've found no planets with ruins, and I've fully explored my little domain.   Nothing suspicious.   

#3:  Can I make them go away: I don't mean kill them.   At this stage in my civilization, I wanted to develop peacefully.   Is there any way, using spacemaster mode or whatever, that I can remove every trace of their existence from the galaxy.   I already tried the "delete race" button, and that doesn't work, volleys of missiles are still flying at my civilization construction fleets every day or so.  .  .  so what does that button do?

I should mention that I deliberately picked a galaxy with no starting alien races.  I wanted to do things on my own time. 

[Girlinhat]

Do you have precursors, swarms, and/or invaders turned on?  If so, then it might be them, but we don't really have the info to say if it's an NPR or a Special AI.  You can SM them away - if nothing else it can be done one ship at a time.

Also, you explored, but did you scan?  I've made full grav surveys of systems and missed an entire homeworld.  If your scout doesn't have any sensors, it won't be finding much, and most of the starting survery designs have no sensors and will manage to miss whole races.

[Theodidactus (OP)]

I do have precursors and star swarm turned on.  How do I tell if it's them?

More importantly, how do I SM ships away.  I can't figure out how to do most things in SM mode.

[sloanjh]

I do have precursors and star swarm turned on.  How do I tell if it's them?

Then it's probably them, seeing as you say you've looked at every world with an atmo and found no life forms...

As for telling that it's them (you don't need to read into the spoiler tags if you don't want the mystery spoiled - you can assume it's them):
IIRC you can have precursors w/o ruins, although I may be wrong.  If you've seen only a handful of ships (6 or fewer), then it's probably precursors.  If you've seen a bunch of them, then it's probably swarm.  I'm being deliberately vague even here in case you want to keep some of the mystery.

More importantly, how do I SM ships away.  I can't figure out how to do most things in SM mode.

I don't think you can SM AI ships away when designer mode is turned off.  There's a trick for seeing that they're there by looking at the event log, but I don't think you can use that trick to get at the ship dialog to delete the ship.  Designer mode is pw protected, so you're probably out of luck if you're really intent on having them go away.

John

[Theodidactus (OP)]

so, precursors could, for example, turn up as "barnard's star alien #55403" or whatever? Because they're definitely a listed race in the "intelligence on alien classes screen".

 What I'm seeing is a small number of very big slow moving ships pummeling the crud out of my merchant shipping line.

I've had a survey presence in this system for almost a decade now, it's odd that they turned up now, maybe they couldn't see my survey ships.





I mashed "delete ship" a bunch and they went away, so I assume it was this doesn't actually say precursors. I've solved my problem, functionally, but i'm still curious how the whole thing works.


...also, I've got about 3,000 wrecks of old, damaged frieghters floating around. I guess I should thank those guys, they're helping me upgrade my fleet.

[Person012345]

You could always design a few million ton military behemoth, SM yourself one, tell them in no uncertain terms to GTFO, then delete the ship again.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

so, precursors could, for example, turn up as "barnard's star alien #55403" or whatever? Because they're definitely a listed race in the "intelligence on alien classes screen".

Yes. Note: The existence of Precursors and Swarm is not sekret. ^^

[Steve Walmsley]

The other possibility is that an NPR has entered the system via a dormant jump point

Steve