Sensor sweep & Bioscan

Ships with their mission set to sensor sweep will scan for activity from other races on planets within sweep-range. This sweep range is host-configurable with a default of 200 lightyears.

Sensor Sweep
The Sensor Sweep mission scans planets within the sensor scan range for any readings that might suggest enemy activities. There must be more than 15 factories or 20 mines on the surface before the sensors can begin to detect the activity. A planet with more than 15 factories or 20 mines will show up on scanners as having "light industry". If the planet has more than 100 mines and factories combined, it will be reported as heavy industry.

The percentage odds that an enemy planet will show up on a scan are:  (100% - Defense Outposts * 6.66%). This is done for every enemy planet within the sensor scan range. Any planet with 15 or more defense outposts cannot be picked up on Sensor Sweeps.

Bioscan
The Cobol, Pawn and Brynhild class starships are capable of detecting native life on all planets not already owned by the owner of the bioscanner. If the starship's mission is sensor sweep this ability will automatically be activated. The range of the bioscanner is the same as the sensor sweep range, which is host-configurable with a default of 200 lightyears.

The bioscanners on the Cobol and Brynhild are able to lock onto about 20% of all planets in range per turn. The bioscanner on the Pawn will scan 100% of all planets within range. The bioscan mission will report the race and number of natives (if any) that are living on a planet, as well as planet's temperature. If there aren't any natives on the planet, the bioscan message will inform of the planet's temperature and state there are no natives on the planet.

The bioscanner will not tell you which race, if any, owns the planet. Twenty or more defense outposts will shield a planet from the bioscanners. Planets with less than 20 defenseposts will not be blocked from bioscanners. The Evil Empire is able to cause bio scanners to return false readings: whatever type of natives are living on the planet, they will be reported as Amorphous. The amount of natives and the temperature will be reported correctly. The Evil Empire can not fool the bioscanners of ships belonging to the Rebels, it is unknown why.

As with any mission, bioscanning requires for the ship to have fuel onboard. Bioscanning itself does not burn fuel.