Will an attack against a blockading fleet count as an "unprovoked attack"?

[hardcoregamer]

I know that attacking another race's ships without declaring war counts as an unprovoked attack, but is the attack actually unprovoked if said ships are being used to blockade a planet you own? Will attacking said ships still give me a penalty to repuation?

[ASHBERY76]

Yes.

[Lightbane]

war usually solves that problem lol, I like it when they blockade one of my prime systems that has a large spaceport and three cannons. They're sitting on top of the weapons and bam their dead lol

[Plant]

Yes, blockading is generally speaking a really odd game mechanic.

[Fishers of Men]

Blockading is sometimes a way for another empire to provoke you into an attack, without a declaration of war. Your reputation with other empires will suffer.

[hardcoregamer]

ORIGINAL: Fishers of Men

Blockading is sometimes a way for another empire to provoke you into an attack, without a declaration of war. Your reputation with other empires will suffer.

That doesn't make sense in my game, where the side that blockaded me is nowhere near as powerful as me.

But then again, the aliens that blockaded me are those spider things and they are currently going through that insanity phase of theirs.

[Plant]

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.

The role of blockading appears to be a diplomacy game mechanic to make 2 AI empires eventually hate each other enough to declare war on each other.