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I think about a tower that has a slightly larger vision radius than combat towers(Flamethrower, bullet, laser) attack range (+20%).
This tower sends a signal if enemies are in sight of it(maybe count of enemies too).

Don't get this wrong, but it is not ment as a radar replacement. Maybe the function could be included in the radar but i think the purpose of the radar is to scout large areas for enemy bases.

The tower could be used to activate laser turrets on demand (maybe this is a little bit overpowered energy-consumption wise - could be compensated with high cost of the tower or a moderate energy consumption by itself). See viewtopic.php?f=8&t=27866 for "the hard way". Another situation could be to activate combat logistics on demand.

Or perhaps let radar output the distance of the closest enemy.

I like this idea very much. In late game you have thouthands of towers around and all of them consume energy while idling. Adding sensor towers will optimise perimeter defence greatly. And surely it will add value to the game cause you will be designing new cool defence schemes and not just spam turrets.

And this kind of a sensor tower probably should not require electricity to function as using it you will probably power down all surroundings.

IMHO the sight tower belongs in a mod rather than vanilla.

I found this thread:
"Connecting radars to circuit and logistic networks"
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=19637

I agree with atloomis: a radar should output the distance to the closest enemy (or the number of nearby enemies) to the circuit network. This plus a power switch can be used to turn on the laser turrets only when needed.