I see this on a larger scale, but I am not sure of it's performance impact yet.

TL;DR (but you prob should read it)

1: upgrade distance to higher range for more power and slower and lower accuracy updates
2: ignore grids in safe zones
3: disable scans within planetary gravity wells so it doesn't ruin everyone's day


Suggestion 1:
So say you upgrade the radar to go 250km max distance.
You now broadcast yourself 250km, but see a grid 200km away from you, and head toward it.
Once you get closer, the gps point updates slowly to account for the range increase.

I would also add a slightly offset gps to account for radars being inaccurate at long range.
(Think of each grid having a big bubble, and this bubble goes out 10km, so the gps is off by at least 10km in a random direction).

So basic idea: your own position gets broadcasted constantly, like an antenna or gps location.
However, scanned sources come back, and at longer 100km+ ranges the radar cannot pinpoint exact locations. So instead of directly showing player at x gps, it just says there's a grid at x gps area, which needs to be randomized somehow.


Suggestion 2:
Adding an ignore option for grids in safe zones by default.
I would say this would be better as a config option... So admins can enable/disable if they want.

This is to work in tandem with the faction safe zones mod, so players cannot be found when they are offline.


Suggestion 3:
Disable or limit scans on planets... otherwise if a player goes to space, comes back with a war ship, they can terrorize any new players and that just ruins the game for a lot of people.

idea on how to do this is to take the planets centers as a sort of gps point, then any grid within a certain range (within the gravity well) just ignore the location in all radar scans near the planet.

(This also gives reason to go to a planet... to hide :p)


edit: SIde-note for these suggestions are to enable server-usability. otherwise it's going to be grief heaven for ... griefers.