Will the AI ever respect borders?

I think the default should be the ships stay away unless they are scouts for example. If I take my military ships close to their planets they always declare war, so they should expect that from the player too.

There is an option to tell AI players to remove their ships, it's in Let's talk about something else.

Even so, their default behaviour appears to remain 'All go and park in the player's territory', which is kinda sucky - especially when they do so even when under attack by someone else.

I know there's that option: they never actually do anything though, they just say they are disappointed, lose relations points and the ships still stay there. 

In my first game since 1.5 release the 'get out of my territory' option did work. i used it to great effect when I would see their colony or constructor ships sniff around within my borders. I would ask them to leave and they turned around and left. 

I just incurred the diplomatic cost instead of them... It might also depend on your strength.

 Surely people didn`t expect the `Get off my lawn` to be guaranteed that they`d go. I told a faction to get off my lawn and he said, to paraphrase, "We`re not going to go all the way round to get where we want. Be less paranoid!"

A few turns later he declared war, so I was right to be paranoid. Point is, he obviously felt strong enough to ignore my warning and even if he wasn`t, he was ready to go to war with me anyway. Why would he bother listening to me?

They will only go away with a, They want peace. B, are scared of you.

Seems to be working as intended so far.

So only your friends will leave but why would you ask you friends to leave in the first place.Makes no sense and is redundant.

I just consider their ships as diplomatic missions. I ignore them until a war starts and then I destroy them.

I understand that they can be annoying but that is only because you allow them to annoy you.

Under the new system if you tell them to withdraw and they refuse they are committing an act of war, so destroy them

Once they`re your enemies why should they care about leaving your borders? You`re at war already, right? Use your weapons and convince them to leave! The time for diplomacy is over.

If you mean potential enemies, then it applies, but only if they FEAR you, ie you are stronger and more powerful than them.

Demanding the AI leave your territory makes no sense to me.  What harm do they do?  And if you think they are going to jump you, jump them first.  Telling them you hate them being there makes no sense and is redundant.  They already know you don't like them.  What else matters?

I don't care if the enemy respect my demand to leave or not. It's great if it ignores my demands when it feels strong enough. What bothers me is that they're still choosing to occupy my territory when they're getting their ass kicked by another empire. I'm still seeing the AI sitting idle in my territory when really it needs it's fleet elsewhere.

The AI should respect borders by default and ignore them when it feels powerful enough. It should not ignore borders by default and respect them if it's told to sod off and doesn't feel strong enough to ignore it. That's a key difference.

Yeah I don't want an enemy scouting my territory thank you.Ship positions,,fleets,shipyeards is vital intel.

Sounds like you have trust issues with your neighbors.  I suppose I can't blame you.

Some of it is a matter of attitude.  I don't respect their borders much more than they do mine.  They kvetch at me about it and I ignore them.  Most of the time, they are going to DOW me because I am all weak and peaceful, anyway.  Then I have to build a military force and wander over and really disrespect their borders.  After they have an open borders treaty shoved down their throats they complain a lot less.  If they are missing a few planets here and there, their complaints are also less loud, effectively.  Rather than tell them to get off of my lawn, I go over and take theirs away. 

It's unrealistic to have your friends park a huge fleet in your territory without your permission.  Hence, it is annoying!

If Great Britain decided to send a tank battalion outside of New York City without permission (i.e. an open borders treaty), there would be all sorts of trouble even though they are a close US ally.   

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/12/politics/10-u-s-sailors-in-iranian-custody/

And sometimes nations can go into each other's turff, destroy a warship, and not have war happen.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROKS_Cheonan_sinking

It would be nice if some flexibility in response was possible in game.