Where did they come from?

[BobD]

In my current game there is a region of space that has not been explored by any empire. The reason for this is that there's a Guardian system that serves as a chokepoint. I was really looking forward to all those potential planets to colonize plus the guardian system planets, but first I had to eliminate the guardian itself. I established a colony at the system just before the guardian system and thereby created my own chokepoint (except for my former ally who also has a colony in the same system). Finally, after about 50 turns, I had good tech (Titan, Inter phased drives, megabolt cannon, etc.) and enough production capacity to assemble a large attach fleet.

I dispatch the fleet (two turns travel time) and on the next turn I send 3 colony ships. When my attack force arrives they handily defeat the guardian.

The turn ends, I close the SITREP to view the system, and to my surprise and dismay, another empire has already established an outpost on one of the systems! How in the world did they get there so fast? Is this a bug, or worse yet, an AI cheat?

[Harry Seldon]

You can off-road around a chokepoint; it just takes longer. The AI probably sent that outpost a hundred turns ago.

[Bundaybd]

I've seen something similar

This has happened 3 times to me--I send the fleet to take out a guardian, even send colony ships WITH the force, and, even after doing all the hard work, some ally or player with a non-agression pact with me gets to colonize the best planets in the system. Very annoying. Seems like the player who takes out the guardian should get first dibbs.

I was hemmed in part of the galaxy, with the supply of good planets exhausted. I needed these planets to grow. The only way I could prevent pesky allies from taking advantage of me was to cancel the non-aggression pacts the turn before the attack on the guardian.

Anyone else see this?

[Harry Seldon]

So the outposts are in the Guardian systems? I thought it was systems on the other side of the Guardian. That sounds like a bug to me.

[BobD]

Originally posted by Harry Seldon
So the outposts are in the Guardian systems? I thought it was systems on the other side of the Guardian. That sounds like a bug to me.

The more I think about it I believe it is a bug. Namely, the AI retreat bug that I've also experienced. Basically when the AI retreats, it isn't forced to leave the system. This could also be happening here.

[DarthVeda]

The AI empires expand like you wouldn't believe. They don't even need to send ships to establish outposts... they just appear. The colony ships sometimes do arrive but not usually. I observe this plenty of times in Guardian systems that I liberate. No ships appear but the very next turn the AI already has an outpost and sometimes a colony on these systems.

[Doomed]

This is an 'accidental' feature.
Have you noticed that when your origional planets start getting heavily populated your empire automatically forms new colonies on suitable vacant planets? This is most notable with magnate races who like planets you don't.
It is a feature of the game to represent elements of your empires population not enjoying living in a crowded environment and looking for pastures new.

What is happening is that when you kill the guardian all of a sudden there are empty planets for colonists of all empires to auto migrate to. The AI's auto migrate is calculated after the combat phase of a turn, allowing it to have a colony on those nice vacant planets at the start of the next go.

I like the idea of your population doing things off thier own back, especially when it sort of makes sense, but this is an annoying side effect of this.

[gloob]

Is the intelligence agreement involved ? I never saw my own free migration colonies appear in unscouted systems. If you don't share intelligence an AI should not be able to colonize. Or is it ?

[Doomed]

That I'm not sure about.
Maybe if the AI has tried scouting this system and lost a scout / run away the system might be flagged as explored and therefore open for the auto colonisation rule once the guardian has gone?
Or as you say the intelligence agreement lets it in.

[Stormhound]

I've had as many as three planets show up with auto-migrate colonies of my own people after I took out a Guardian. In fact, it happened just last night.

And yes, Intel agreements WILL affect that sort of thing; migration is only supposed to occur to worlds that your people actually know about.