In GalCiv range is determined by distance from a planet or starbase. There is no need, however, for the planets/starbases to be in range of each other. For example, in principle if a planet was on one end of an immense galaxy, and a starbase at the other end, with no planets or starbases in between, a ship with no range extenders could still travel from one to another!
So to begin with, as a minimum, one might suggest that a ship should always have to be in range of a base/planet. Then it could not "hop" through deep space to another site, which I find very counter intuitive. (I am ignoring stargates and similar, which are not in the game yet.)
But I would like to suggest a deeper change. At this point I should say this may have been discussed earlier, but my cursory search through the forums didn't show it - if someone can supply a link, that would work.
Namely range normally means a distance that one can travel. Currently, one can travel around virtually for the entire game without stopping at a base/planet. That seems most odd. My initial suggestion might be that ships, which now have a move counter that is decremented each turn as they move, have a second counter that decrements "travel time". Even if a ship is motionless in space it is still using power, etc. So decrement the travel time counter each turn (not each move). Thus ships could not go on indefinite sentry duty in deep space. Perhaps motionless ships would decrement this counter less often, but whatever. Movement of a fleet would be subject to the lowest range ship in the fleet.
Of course this adds micro to the game, in addition to some more programming. Perhaps some of this could be addressed by assigning ships or fleets a mission.
And there is the question of ships being damaged in a fight. Which leads to the question, what happens when the travel time goes to zero? (Ships run out of gas...or whatever.) Or does the game not allow a ship to go beyond the point of no return to any base.
I am bringing this up to see what other players think, so have at me. Is this a detail not worth bothering about? Should there just be some small tweaks as I suggest at first?