Here's a hint.......siege ALL planets in your system after you have made friends with everyone left. Usually only two players keep up and own the system. I made a big mistake by not doing this. Someone just sieged a free planet right next to me, and I have no idea who it is. My Co-system owner, and fellow alliance member, is supposed to PM me if he plans on doing anything, and he didn't, so I have to assume it hostile and sent a fleet. The key thing here though is this. If someone attacks me from a system away, I got plenty of notice and time to do something, but if he attacks a free planet next to me, I get NO notice until he gets there, and he can hit me in three hours. A single destroyer on every planet makes people wonder what's there, and of course they'll go for a free planet in another system close by rather than have to GUESS what has the planet under siege. I blame myself. If my ^%$#@#$ alliance member sieged it without letting me know.......he just cost me what should have been a new planet this morning and probably about twenty wasted points........I basically HAVE to consider this hostile since it is only hours away, and it could hit me in my sleep.......I had to bring my fleet of over 300 ships from another system back home to prepare for war, and this leaves my "sucker" planet open. By sucker I mean that I had a fleet of over 300 cruisers and destroyers sitting there with a low starbase so people would attack it not knowing........every other planet shifted gears from points to defense.
I sent a single destroyer at the siege to see who it is, and in an hour I'll let you know if my alliance member is an ^%$#!!!!