How do waves- and gate raiding- work?

[DOG FACED PONY SOLDIER]

Hey guys, I'm trying to get into AI war but I just don't understand where all these enemies are appearing from. I keep building defenses around wormholes, but the AI waves don't seem to come from the wormholes. Instead, they just kind of creep in from the edge of the map. I'm guessing this is a wave sent by a gate, and if I gate raid, I could stop this. Is that right, or is there another thing that's causing all of this?

[VIGILO CONFIDO]

If a wave comes from the edge of a system, then it is not a gate unless the AI built a warp relay in the system. Everytime a wave is announced, it has to come through a warp gate. Destroying a warp gate forces the waves to spawn somewhere else basically.

[mal]

creep in from edge of map? that sounds more like a wave triggered by a counterattack post to me. I haven't turned relays back on since the "AI can attack anywhere" issue they had heh.

[DOG FACED PONY SOLDIER]

Thanks guys. I figured it wasn't a gate issue after my last game. I had a planet that could only be accessed from my home planet. I got the warning that the wave was coming to that planet, and the wave just kind of creeped in from the edge again; it wasn't a counterattack post wave, but I now know what to expect from counterattack waves so that's a big help. I'm still a little confused, because sometimes it seems that waves sometimes come from wormholes, and other times they come from whatever direction they please, but I should understand that in time.

[Bob of Mage]

You must be doing someting to provoke the AI somehow. The AI should only send attacks via wormholes, unless you do something like the counterattack posts. Next time see if you can remmber what you were doing right before the attack.

Warp gates lets AI ships appear right at one of the wormholes on the planet they are on. I'm not sure which side they appear one, but they basicly appear at the wormhole itself. The AI will lanch attacks from any world that is next to your own. Knowing this you can destory all but one warp gate and force the AI to only attack from that one. If there are no gates next to your worlds then the AI will use a gate from one of it other nearby worlds. This results with the AI going for your weakest link instead of being forced into a prepared strong point.

[shiverczar]

It's possible you have the Human Marauders minor faction enabled; they come in from the edge of the planetary map and just start killing everything they find. Though I'm not sure why you'd be getting a wave warning if that's the case... Normal AI Waves should not be creeping in from the planetary map edge.