lately i have noticed that players on the battle tab are much stronger and harder to beat. what causes this? is it my cloke and/or scan?
right now the weakest player on my battle tab is 17 levels above me.

ya I went through a phase like that once. I think your scan is to the point where you can see those type of players now. What rank are you? If you have good cloak most players won't be able to see you on their battle tab. Also I think it goes by your strength as well as your rank so if you have high attack and or defense for your rank than you will be able to see higher ranking players.

You've got the natural ability to see people on your tab +/-40% of your level. If, for example, you are level 100, then people from levels 60-140 can appear on your tab. The more scanning power you have built on your ship, the better chance you have of finding people with higher cloak on their ships. Higher cloak tends to mean 1 of 2 things... 1 they are passive and are trying to hide, or 2 they are strong and well researched (or collected a bunch of drops). But you need the deckspace for the cloaking units, hence why you wold be finding more people higher in level than you.

If you are feeling a little intimidated, and want a little more comparable/competitive PvP playing field, I would drop a scanner and add a gun. And remember that higher level DOES NOT NECESSARILY mean stronger. Look at their ship and compare. If you think you can take them, fire away.

well, thats not exactly true once your under level 100... i very rarely see level 30s taking on level 50s and winning. tech goes so fast initially its really easy to become much better than everyone else. imagine a level 30 with ion cannons going up against someone with plasma or graviton shearers.

i just turned level 84

i un installed my Quantum Resonance Sensor - Mark III and sure enough the battle tab changed to weaker/ lower levels. thank you.