Research the hull upgrades, from Xeno Engineering -> Basic Logistics -> * Hulls. (Techtree)

From there, create your own ships with the shipyard (that's the big button on the bottom that looks like a ship with a circle thing around it). The predefined ships are not very plentiful and don't use the most of the technology you've currently researched.

You didn't notice when they were attacking you?

Yes, I've had the same bug (having war delcared without my knowledge). Are the developers aware of this problem? I have the newest patch, and yet I recently had the Yor contact me with a peace offering, despite my not being aware they ever declared war.

Did they approach you and demand funds or resources? What can happen (at least in GC1, as this hasn't happened to me yet in GC2) is that they demand something from you, you tell them where to go and they don't like it. Your relationship with them goes down, and the lowest relationship levewl is 'At War'. So, if you reject their demands enough they declare war on you.

Best thing to do is to look at your relationship with them every time you reject demands to see what the damage is.

They never attacked me or anything, and when they demanded anything I gave in to it... so any declaration of war was both A) without my knowledge and without obvious provocation.

And I did notice that relations were Hostile, but I really dont want to keep checking it every turn to see if they've declared war.. it should pop up in the GNN or something, but it doesnt!

I have never had another civ declare war on me without a little message box saying how they were going to slaughter me. So cant say ive experienced that bug.
But i know what you mean by someone declaring war on you no matter how much you try to get them to like you
normaly when u have alot of influence, or just some tasty planets and a small military other civs will attack you no matter the alingments. My advice just build some crappy ships to give the impression you have a military.

It would be nice if there was an explicit indicator anytime war is declared on you. Sometimes the AIs delcare, sometimes you just slip into war due to refusing to pay tribute. You can easily play in ignorant bliss not knowing you're at war. A player should not have to constantly check the diplo/treaty status screen/tab regularly to see if they've mysteriously entered a war.

What's even worse is if it's a minor race. (OR you are at war with a minor race and um-forget it when you start back up.)

At least with the majors you can see it fairly easily. But note being at war with a minor can result in a major going to war with you under some conditions .

It would be nice if the game had a display similar to Civ IV that told you on main screen you were at war. (Might be the only time it had to tell you anything unlike Civ IV.)

What?! They were in Alpha Ceti VI last week! Quick, man the . . . ohhh, sh-*BZZZsst*

LOL

I agree that having someone declare war is significant enough for a GNN blurb, although if you run through the main buttons regularly you will pick up this info, if you haven't lost anything militarily. Otherwise, the losses will show up on the GNN blurbs.

Yeah, the only time I realized we were at war is when some quarterly report reminded me I SUCK at warfare No demands, plenty of communication. No idea where it came from as we traded researches several times......and let's just say I was SLIGHTLY unprepared for battle.......ever been raped by an alien?!

And thanks for the info guys!