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Warp Gate Types

There are three types of "Warp Gate" abilities: WarpGate-Full, WarpGate-Wave and WarpGate-Renforce and several AI units have one of these abilities assigned.

WarpGate-Full combines the abilities of both "wave" and "renforcement"

• The AI-Eye unit and "Warp Gates" are examples

WarpGate-Reinforce

• AI Command Stations have this ability

WarpGate-Wave

• AI Exo-wormholes at the AI homeworlds and if playing against the "Backdoor Hacker" AI your own homeworld will have one as well.

As long as a single AI ship has warp gate - reinforce or warp gate - full on a planet, that's all that is needed for the AI to be able to reinforce at that planet. Very simple. If they don't have either, they can't reinforce there. If they have warp gate - wave that just allows for waves, not reinforcements.

The warp gates themselves don't affect the amount or reinforcements or how frequently they come or anything of that sort.

So killing the warp gate would prevent waves, but that's all.

Since the command station has warp gate - reinforce, of course, that means that reinforcements can happen as long as the ai controls the planet. I wouldn't call that "cheating" at all, Malibu Stacey, as you can do the same thing. You're able to plop down defenses and structures on a planet with nothing other than a command station. This is why killing the command station has value.

Regarding how reinforced a planet gets, that's entirely based on the number of guard posts plus the command station. The wormhole guard posts are indeed not new, they're just now visible. The levels of when the ai gets border aggression, etc, have been tweaked somewhat though.

To be clear, border aggression is just when some guys from the ai planet get up and decide to leave their guard posts and kill you. Thy come through your wormholes as normal, not warping into your planet or anything.

Hope that clears a few things up!

The following types have "this.IsWarpGateWave = true;" in their UnitData:

ForegroundObjectType.WarpGate

ForegroundObjectType.WormholeAI (Exo-wormholes)

ForegroundObjectType.AIEye
ForegroundObjectType.AlarmPost
ForegroundObjectType.AlarmPostSpecialForces
ForegroundObjectType.RaidEngine
ForegroundObjectType.AIHomeCommandStation

and the following types have "this.IsWarpGateReinforce = true;" :

ForegroundObjectType.WarpGate

ForegroundObjectType.AITroopAccelerator ForegroundObjectType.AIBarracks

ForegroundObjectType.AIEye
ForegroundObjectType.AlarmPost
ForegroundObjectType.AlarmPostSpecialForces
ForegroundObjectType.RaidEngine

ForegroundObjectType.OrbitalCommandStationAI ForegroundObjectType.OrbitalCommandStationIIAI ForegroundObjectType.OrbitalCommandStationIIIAI ForegroundObjectType.OrbitalCommandStationWarpJammer (that's... odd)

ForegroundObjectType.AIHomeCommandStation

ForegroundObjectType.SpecialForcesCommandPost

New Directions in 4.0

Part of the reason for the shift away from just huge numbers of fleet ships is our new emphasis on larger centerpieces. The AIs have massive new command stations and guard posts, as well as mobile Guardians that not only defend but launch often-brutal counterattacks. Going along with these are the exciting new AI Eye that emphasizes de-blobbing, the new AI Barracks that lets the AIs store up overflow reinforcements for later use, and the AI Carriers which are the late-game AI equivalent of transports. All of these new things take the place of turrets, which the AI no longer uses at all, and in general they lead to a vastly different feel of game. It's a lot quicker to resolve battles (without making you rushed -- just no longer a grind), and in general it makes planets feel more unique and fun before you even get into the various special weapons that have always been a cornerstone of AI War.