Depending on how you look at it, player expansion may be curtailed by starting near the edge of the map, or players near the edges or corners of the map may have an advantage in not having to worry about attack from that direction.

This article identified this as a failing in Neptune's Pride, which is similar to Anacreon.

There should be game modes in which the game map wraps/tiles in one or more directions.

For a really interesting experience a game map could be projected on the surface of a sphere or cylinder, with jumpships cutting chords through the interior of the sphere as starships crawl on its surface. This could be a less ambitious alternative to a fully 3d game map like some players have suggested. Various elements of the game engine would need to be able to accommodate spherical coordinates.