Sentry Ship Command Does Nothing

Are any foreign ships within the sensor range of the ship which you're trying to put into sentry mode? Because last I checked, ships will go into sentry mode, but only if no foreign ships are within sensor range (which I agree is an irritating restriction; you'd think it'd at least act as though I passed the ship's turn if I tell it to go into sentry mode when I can see that there's a foreign ship nearby), and a ship set to sentry mode will wake up if any foreign ships are within its sensor range (which is probably the feature of sentry mode which prevents you from putting ships with foreign ships in sensor range into sentry mode; I'd guess it's just implemented as if(foreign ships visible) then(activate ship) rather than being if(start of turn)&&(foreign ships visible) then(activate ship) like it should be, or perhaps better if(start of turn)&&(new foreign ships visible) then(activate ship) to allow sentry to idle ships in sensor range of foreign ships that aren't really going anywhere).

There are no foreign ships with-in this fleets sensor range, however, there are many foreign ships with-in view of any ship that I own.  So you're stating that a ship will not search for enemy ships when in sentry mode as long as there is any foreign ship (enemy or friendly) with-in view of your entire sensory vision of any ship/planet/fleet anywhere on the map?

If that's the case what's the point?  This then becomes a pointless feature and no wonder why I've never used it.

A ship in sentry mode will remain stationary and only wake up when a foreign ship enters its sensor range.

When I click on it, this does nothing.  Just keeps telling me my ship is idle.

Works fine for me. Are you sure there isn't a foreign ship in its sensor range?

Is this just within range of the fleet in question or within sensor range of anything?

Should be just the sensor range of the fleet in question. Perhaps you could post a picture showing the fleet and the entire area covered by its sensor range?

And is it any foreign ship/fleet/planet/starbase or only enemies?

Any foreign vessel, hostile or not. I'd have to check to see if it cares about planets and starbases; I don't recall whether or not those count off the top of my head.

Honestly it didn't work that well in two. I wouldn't mind an option to watch out f or certain ships. I would also like an option for enemy ships. 

Yeah this is dumb, why would I want to sentry for friendly ships or ships where I'm not at war with...  That doesn't make any sense.  I have a sensor boat now in my current game attempting to fly a fleet where no other ship is and see what happens and post a screen shot.

Okay so it does work in the rare instance that you have no ships with-in sensor range of that ship/fleet.  Either way it's useless if you ask me.

Sentry: Wake up on any foreign construct (ship/base) in sensor range.

Guard: Wake up on any enemy ship in sensor range (at the end of the turn), so they may be engaged before waking up. Can be a little wonky with new ships from shipyards.

Doing either with an trigger in range just wakes up immediately.