Planetary sensor range?

[Zook (OP)]

My 7 DSTS (strength 2800) on a colony detected a new ship class at a range of about 1200 million km. It has a thermal sig of 400. When I set the slider on the sensor tab to 400, it shows a possible detection range of 600m. And if strength 2800 means I can detect a sig-1000 ship at 2800m, I should detect sig 400 at about 1100m, not more than 1200m.  I don't quite get it.

[Nathan_]

if the ship is travelling at below its own top speed(and thus top thermal signature), the DSTS is spotting it as per its max signature. I think Bgremen found this out in the course of his LP and posted it to the bug thread.

[Bgreman]

AI ships never modify their speed, so that's not what's happening there.

[Jikor]

I believe I have seen AI ships slow down to match the speed of my ships.

[Bgreman]

I believe I have seen AI ships slow down to match the speed of my ships.

I think AI ships will use the 'follow' command to keep you at a specific distance, but their engines are still set to max speed.  You can do this with escort formations; they'll follow the ships they are escorting at the speed set by the parent formation, but the escort formations themselves will still have their speeds set at what you set them.  You can exploit this to increase the miss rate on incoming missiles.

[Steve Walmsley]

My 7 DSTS (strength 2800) on a colony detected a new ship class at a range of about 1200 million km. It has a thermal sig of 400. When I set the slider on the sensor tab to 400, it shows a possible detection range of 600m. And if strength 2800 means I can detect a sig-1000 ship at 2800m, I should detect sig 400 at about 1100m, not more than 1200m.  I don't quite get it.

The bug is on the passive sensor range display on the map, which is still using the old formula for DSTS. The sensors are detecting objects correctly but the displayed range is wrong.

Fixed for v6.00

Steve