System Map Sensor Controls - What does THAT knob do?

[Havan_IronOak (OP)]

Don't Touch that!

OK I've looked at these controls and even fiddled with them a bit but I just don't understand them. Maybe I should read the manual...

Can some one either explain the System Map Sensor Controls or point me toward an explanation?

Thanks in advance

[83athom]

The sensor controls are just for display purposes. Changing those dials do nothing for detection, it only shows you how far away you can detect a contact of x strength, or how far away your ships are seen with a sensor with x sensitivity.

[Rich.h]

Here is a direct copy of the wiki on that section, as stated above they don't actually do anything. But they are useful to see how your sensor coverage is for the system, helps to spot big holes etc. In addition if you were able to discover the sensor strengths of a race you can use this to give a rough gauge of their detection abilities against your vessels, very useful for sneaking around enemy systems.

This tab is used to toggle whether or not sensor ranges are displayed on the System Map, and allows you to configure how you view details of your sensor capabilities.

Show Active Sensor Ranges

    Toggles whether or not any active sensors in use are displayed. Ships with active sensors that do not have their sensors switched on will not have their sensors shown. Sensors are shown as a light blue circle around the selected fleet, along with the name of the active sensor at the top of the circle.

Passive Sensor Range

    Show Passive Sensor Ranges: Toggles whether or not to show passive sensor ranges
    To Detect Signature Strength: The slider used in conjunction with the x1, x10 or x100 radial buttons will determine the signature strength to be used, and is displayed in this box.

Signature Detection Range

    Show Signature Detection Range: Toggles whether or not to show the range at which a fleet will be detected with the specified Sensor Strength. Sensor ranges are shown as a red circle.
    Sensor Strength: The slider is used to set the Sensor Strength, and will show in the box.

Player Specified Increment

    Enter Seconds: Enter the amount of seconds to be used to increment time in the game. This is useful if none of the pre-configured time increments match what you want.

Disabling Sensors System-wide

    SM option to disable all sensors in this system. Once activated, there will be no detection phase for ships and planets in that system until it is turned back on again.
    Useful for a multi-system Earth start, where the number of detection checks grows exponentially as you add extra races. If you happen to be playing a game in which you want to start multiple races on Earth but there will be a period without the likelihood of combat, you may want to disable sensor checks in Sol for a while for performance reasons.