Gray Tempest only targetting me.

[Erebus Von Mori]

So it's around 2320, and I've opened the L-Gates and every few months over 100k in fleets in pouring into my empire, as best I can tell noone else is being attacked right now.

I've got maxed spy networks on the other five strongest empires and can account for the other L-gates, they took the gates then left to help kick me in the kidneys.

What gives?

[GeneralVeers]

How good is your vision on the rest of the galaxy? Can you see EVERYTHING?

(you might want to use console commands to either get full intel, or switch to other empires and play them to see if they have any Gray attacking them)

[Erebus Von Mori]

Everything no, but I've got vision on seven L-gates and the vast majority of the galaxy, I managed to hold out for about fifty years before the game became outright untenable and never noticed anyone else getting carved apart.

[Heimdall313]

Well if they devour the CPU players the game goes on, the game ends when the solo human surrenders.
They don't need to win, they just need to make sure you lose.

[rob.inconformista]

I changed mid/end game start years to 2275/2350; I was about to open the L-gates, but had a surprising problem with the Unbidden crisis (many 50-100k fleets) spawning early, soon after 2370 which went for the 2nd strongest empire hard first, without explanding much around it's initial spawning point in a weak empire. It then used worm holes (one opened by an event) to attack 3 different parts of my empire.
It's the first time, I really needed the help of the Guardians of the Galaxy. I think the threats are attacking the strongest empires (or the player) preferentially which adds excitement and game balance.
100K Gray Tempest, it makes me wonder what difficulty level you chose. My 2nd run is using the default 2300/2400 and a modest increase to crisis difficulty, when in 2.8 I was playing Grand Admiral with crisis 4x and STILL not really feeling challenged; it just irritated me the way the AI resource bonus worked, vassals would be useless as they lost the AI cheat factor. That lead to playing super-wide and having hours of house keeping at the beginning of every play session to deal with unemployment etc and the rapid pop growth.

[Danny]

100k+ Grey tempest fleets?!
I play on grand admiral and grey never has more than 50k max per fleet...

[rob.inconformista]

Originally posted by Danny:

100k+ Grey tempest fleets?!
I play on grand admiral and grey never has more than 50k max per fleet...

Exactly, the strongest L-gate opposition I faced was the Desanu which had a focused collection of 50K fleets and the factory, but that was 2.8. May be 100K from 2 50K fleets or 3x33k ones is what the OP saw.
I cannot remember the mid game crises being beefed up, just the fix so the AI could open them more often, which I only saw once before in 1,000s of hours of play and was because I couldn't gain control of an L-gate system without sparking a Galaxy Wide war.

[Danny]

Grey tempest isn't a mid game crisis.
it's just a random event.

[rob.inconformista]

Originally posted by Danny:

Grey tempest isn't a mid game crisis.
it's just a random event.

What lurks behind the L-gates is chosen randomly at Galaxy creation, but the Gray Tempest is an outcome of the L-gates being activated, which is NOT random and if you have intel on the AI empires, you receive warnings that they are nearly capable of doing it.

[Danny]

Yes, you get warnings that you should prepare for the possibility of the Grey tempest.
But as far as you know, it's still random.

My last game, the AI opened the gates and the L-drakes came out.

[TSP]

Originally posted by Heimdall313:

Well if they devour the CPU players the game goes on, the game ends when the solo human surrenders.
They don't need to win, they just need to make sure you lose.

This concept critically flies under the radar in most games and for most people, sometimes developers.

[Danny]

Originally posted by Agent Orange:

Originally posted by Heimdall313:

Well if they devour the CPU players the game goes on, the game ends when the solo human surrenders.
They don't need to win, they just need to make sure you lose.

This concept critically flies under the radar in most games and for most people, sometimes developers.

But most players don't like to feel ganged up upon by the AI, either.
And considering stellaris is supposed to have a certain amount of roleplay attached to it.
it throws you out of your immersion, especially if you're roleplaying a friendly peaceful empire.

[Erebus Von Mori]

To clarify on the fleet sizes, those were multiple fleets totalling over 100k, that's why I found it so janky, that I was getting 4 fleets through my L-gate at a time. And always the same L-gate, I had three in my empire. And I was playing on Captain.

[rob.inconformista]

Originally posted by Danny:

Yes, you get warnings that you should prepare for the possibility of the Grey tempest.
But as far as you know, it's still random.

My last game, the AI opened the gates and the L-drakes came out.

No, it tells you they may open it, you should be prepared to try and grab territory, tame an L-drake whatever ...
It's NOT only about the Gray Tempest

[rob.inconformista]

Originally posted by daithemancub:

To clarify on the fleet sizes, those were multiple fleets totalling over 100k, that's why I found it so janky, that I was getting 4 fleets through my L-gate at a time. And always the same L-gate, I had three in my empire. And I was playing on Captain.

That figures, they're usually about 33K or so, later game if you can take out their titans at range with the help of a prepared base and the right admiral, they only 1 shot a few ships. A small screen of sacrificial ships may save battleships, but you can fire more rapidly if you're outnumbered.

Otherwise you need high evasion corvette swarm, ships will be one shotted but much fire will miss and be wasted, the large ships have bad tracking; but you need Flak for the nanite fighters and Point Defence for the missiles. Anti-hull weapons work well on the GT, but torpedoes plus 1/4 swarmer missiles will get through especially from corvettes which launch from close in 2nd wave. Then it's all about attrition, replacing your losses and wearing the event spawned GT down, like an FE/AE/crisis which cannot match your economy.

Late game range artillery can have escort carriers with fighters and PD/FK set to ar range too protecting the capital ships, but picket and line destroyers plus corvettes create multiple barriers of fighter/missile defence. The point is you don't want your distant layers all firing at the same time, then being in cool down, an artillery destroyer can fire long range and is faster than the big ships so only the mother ships should be able to hit yours at first when they arrive. It's all about small ships being in range and hopefully evading the big fire power, whilst you have a range advantage with the large weapons so engage first. The Juggernaut from Federations has a module giving an insane +40% range, which with the Target Uplink on a base, provides a huge first strike advantage. Bases with point defence platforms can also be the initial target, so your big ships survive long enough to cause real damage. A combined swarm approach is to cover the entry point with small ships to swamp them eating shots and have another fleet at long range, which has time to get fighters into attack. But then you guarantee losses but inflict damage on the big ships, if they lurk near a jump point, you can send in small ship fleet first to engage, then arrive with fresh shields with the larger ships so a lot of that 100+K fire power is wasted

[Danny]

Originally posted by rob.inconformista:

Originally posted by Danny:

Yes, you get warnings that you should prepare for the possibility of the Grey tempest.
But as far as you know, it's still random.

My last game, the AI opened the gates and the L-drakes came out.

No, it tells you they may open it, you should be prepared to try and grab territory, tame an L-drake whatever ...
It's NOT only about the Gray Tempest

That's what I said, you get warnings for the POSSIBILITY of the grey tempest...