Why can't my Starbases protect ally planets with a planet shield?

[Wuorg]

Thought I was being clever playing as the TEC Primacy when I put a starbase with the Planetary Shield Array item in the well of an allied Minor Faction that was being threatened by the Pirates (who I am also allied to). Pirates were attacking the other one and causing problems, but since I couldn't fight them as we are allied I thought putting a shield in the well would "fix" things. Then I learned allies don't get the planetary shield benefit from your starbase even though the tooltip doesn't specify it needs to be *your* planet. When the Pirates blew up their planet.

Is this working as intended, a bug, or an oversight?

[Justin]

It's definitely not a bug, as there's code which explicitly says the planet must be owned by you and not an ally.

Furthermore, the type of alliance you get with the pirates is a permanent cease fire and not a synergy pact (like with your allies in the diplomacy screen).

So even if this code were adjusted to protect allies, it wouldn't protect the pirates specifically because you technically do not ally with them.

I'll adjust the wiki with this info.

[Wuorg]

Originally posted by Justin:

It's definitely not a bug, as there's code which explicitly says the planet must be owned by you and not an ally.

Furthermore, the type of alliance you get with the pirates is a permanent cease fire and not a synergy pact (like with your allies in the diplomacy screen).

So even if this code were adjusted to protect allies, it wouldn't protect the pirates specifically because you technically do not ally with them.

I'll adjust the wiki with this info.

Oh wow, that's really great info! Thank you so much for looking into it!