The Recon Screen is a summation of all of the systems/planets you have explored (but not settled or conquered) on the left, and all of the ships (other than your own) that are in sensor range on the right. In addition the “Ships Posing a Threat” box is a subset of the “Ships in Vicinity”: it lists all those ships of empires that you are in war with or that have a neutral stance towards you.
This screen helps you to get an overview of all known planets and ships in the galaxy, that you have discovered so far, or are inside your scanner range. It helps you to filter only those planets or ships that you are interested in. For instance you can set it up to only see the planets and ships of a certain player.
Just like the Ships Screen you can double-click with the middle mouse-butto (or ALT-double-click) to auto-center the Map Window on any object in the Recon Screen.
This lists all planets that you have explored so far. Planets with an owner are planets colonized by the respective player. Planets that are listed without an owner are yet un-colonized planets, and can still be colonized by you.
Please note that the information presented here is based on the last time you have scouted this planet, so the information may well be outdated, and hence, planets listed as unsettled may have well been taken by another player already.
It would be wise to take this into account when making decisions. You can find out when a particular system was last scouted by centering the camera in the Galaxy Map on a specific planet or system. When hovering the mouse over the sun of the system, the tooltip will provide the information when the system was last scouted.
You can choose to scan planets or suns right from the Scouted Planets box. Simply right click on any entry end select the type of scan that you would like to perform.
Displays the name of the scouted planet. Hovering the mouse over the planet name will bring up a tool tip identical to the one from the Map-Window. It shows the planets’ properties and commodities.
Shows the name of the system that the planet is located in, together with the coordinates of the system shown in brackets.
Sometimes it may be convenient to sort the planets by the system column, instead of by name. When you do this the planets will obviously be grouped together by the system they are located in.
Displays the number of population on that planet. Please note that is information is based on the last time you scouted this system, and hence may well be outdated.
Shows the base ship-resource-output of the planet. Every planet only ever holds one type of ship-resource (out of a possible five). Ship-resources are required to build ships. They are Metal, Deuterium, Radioactives, Crystal and Exotics.
All resource values of 10 or over are very good and ideal condidates for mining. Depending on the rarity of the resource in the galaxy, you should expect to see the value on the individual planets deminish. That is, metal deposits with a value of 10 is not a rare sight, but you’re not likely to ever even see an exotics deposit with such a high value. Usually, those will range from 1 to 5.
Used with prudence, this column can become a powerful tool in the hands of empire managers and -conquerers alike.
This lists all ships and fleets that are currently inside your scanner range.
You can choose to scan ships and fleets right from the Ships In Vicinity box. Simply right click on any entry end select the type of scan that you would like to perform.
In addition the context menu offers you extended selection options. For instance you can choose to select all ships owned by a certain player, if you right click on one ship of that player.
Ships/Fleets that are hostile to you will show up red in the Ship/Fleet column. Hovering over the entries in the Ship/Fleet column will tell you which classes of ship comprise a fleet or what class of ship an individual ship is.
Further information will be displayed in the tool tip if you scan the ships/fleets in question. For instance the Destination column will reveal the name of target-object if this ship was route-scanned.
Only ships within your scanner range will be displayed on this screen so be aware that considerable enemy forces may be lurking just outside of your scanner range.
Displays either “Ship” or “Fleet”. Ships and fleets owned by a player that you are at war with are indicated with a red ship icon. In case a fleet is fleet scanned, the number of ships inside the fleet are displayed as well.
Hovering the mouse of a ship/fleet will display more detailed information about the ship. Especially if the ship was scanned.
This area shows the ships/fleets of other players that you do not have an alliance or peace treaty with. This is almost a synopsis of the Ships In Vicinity box and can be read/filtered/sorted in a similar fashion. Whatever ship, fleet, or planet the offending ship/fleet is closest to will also be displayed.
It shows whether they are moving towards (right facing red arrow) or moving away (left facing gray arrow) from your ship/fleet/planet. The Location column lists which of your planets or ships this object is nearest to, as well as the distance how far away the detected ship is from that object. You could choose to sort this list by distance, and that way get an overview which hostile ships pose the greatest threat.
