Increased AI Radius for Occupied Ships

I am proposing a feature for existing turrets/cannons and custom turret controllers to have their AI Radius extended to 2km (2000m) on OCCUPIED ships/stations.

I completely understand the reason for having the AI Range limited to 800m, even though the effective range of many weapons can be much larger. This prevents AI ships/drones from having an edge on players, and it helps balance combat in PvP. However, this neglects any ships/stations which rely on defense systems for survival when players are offline/afk.

As a solution to this, the defense systems on those grids should have the ability to also engage enemies at larger distances, without complicating the dynamics of survival gameplay. This could be accomplished in many ways, but there should be a catch: Ships/Stations MUST have at least 1 player occupying a seat on the grid, and the turrets should have an alternative means of detecting other grids at larger distances.

Here is my recommendation:

• Turrets/Cannons/CTCs could be given an ON/OFF option for 'Allow Extended Range'. This will allow users to set the maximum extended range for the block (between 0m - 2km). Players will then need to link the block to an Antenna or a Laser Antenna on the same grid in order to target those other grids beyond their AI Radius and within their Extended Range.

• The Antenna block would communicate with any other grid's antennas which (A) are turned on and (B) have an overlapping broadcast radius (meaning they can both detect each other). As long as both antennas are turned on and can broadcast to each other, any turrets linked to them will be able to target those grids (depending on the turrets maximum extended range from the target). The turrets would then target grids with the shortest distance between them.
• PROS - Inexpensive, Detects any grids within broadcast radius.
• CONS - Visible to other players, Limited by the enemy's own broadcast radius.

• The Laser Antenna block would be able to silently detect other grids regardless if they have an active antenna or not. Rather than communicating with other laser antennas, they could be configured to detect nearby grids (2km, 5km, etc.). Laser Antennas could be given an ON/OFF Option for 'Detect Nearby Grids'. This would override their conventional usage and allow them to detect those grids which are in the Laser Antenna's line-of-sight, and communicate with any linked turrets. Those turrets could then target the grid (depending on the turrets maximum extended range from the target). Those turrets would only be able to target one grid at a time.
• PROS - Not visible to other players, Detects any grids in line-of-sight
• CONS - Expensive components, Dependent on line-of-sight, Detects only 1 target at a time.

With these changes, there is a very fair compromise between the combat capabilities in PvP and the player's ability to defend their ship/station when offline/AFK. At the moment, there is nothing preventing players who discover your ship or base from simply destroying it without any chance for retaliation. They have a guaranteed 1200m buffer between the maximum effective range of their weapons, and the current AI Radius for defense systems. There needs to be a way to offset this.

Personally, I think the standard AI Radius should remain at 800m, but I think there needs to be a way to extend that radius. By having players occupy seats on the ship, it affirms that the grid is truly worth defending. Giving these 2 blocks a key role in extending the radius the ship/station's defense system adds a layer of functionality, and both have certain trade-offs which are fitting for this game's core survival/PvP experience.

You can have a larger defense system, but you MUST be stationed at that grid and either (A) broadcast the position of your base within that 2km radius, or (B) explore and mine enough gold to assemble 100 superconductors.

(Make sure to upvote if you like this idea!)