I'd love the ability to declare portions of the map as "sector alpha" "sector beta" etc, such that I could tell ships "do not leave this area."

Automated Orders are the primary focus of this intent, but it could lead to additional automated orders. 

Currently possibles:

• Survey Ships stay in their sector and do not go after anomalies in another ship's designated sector
• Scouts stay in their sector

New possibilities:

• Patrol ships have a region of space they're responsible for keeping clear of pirates/hostiles
• (totally new functionality) Patrol ships could harass/escort/eject ships of other nations out of your borders without international incident
• (totally new functionality) Trade/Consul ships dock and trade with the tiny ship that runs the trade routes, if that ever comes back, creating additional culture/etc benefits to trade

Far off future ideas:

• Sector commanders responsible for fleet activities in an area, shipyard automation, and any nodal defense patterns, where you have only a few things you can do directly a turn, but otherwise you have to leave to the Sector Commander