The offer for the AI to declare war is automated and whilst funny happens often in most games
Also the no planets there is common with certain stars - it is a good thing if it is a border star as your opponent has to jump again to get through to you but bad if like me you had the following
(no screeny)
(*)
\ (?)
\
\
(H) ---------------- (G)
* = Star, no worlds and didnt link to anything
(H) = Home system, 6 planets all good enviro
(G) = Guardian world that didn't link to anything
(?) = A world with only 1 link that led to nothing and was 100 turns away by maximum speed
I actualy defied the pitfalls and decided that this was a bonus rather than a problem
I lasted for about 1000 turns before i was even contacted and when that happened it was a high-speed recon that i just shot down
Then another 1500 later I decided, sod this and created a ARMADA of ARMADA's - Leviathians with enough destruction to level a billion suns
I am 42 turns from the next nearest star - When out of the blue a hoard of ships from 6 different nations invade my system - i put all my effort into this battle fleet and the buggers must have been hiding
The way i see it, the game must have developed so much that all the territory minus mine was discovered and the AI simply decided to send ships my way - they all seemed to be buddies - i rallied some support but it was too late, i was soon down to 2 worlds with the rest occupied by the enemy - they had me - i thought about loading a previous save --- but just thought that 5 days along and its not as much fun as i thought
