Thanks to Vlad for translating!
Take this with a grain of salt.
Regarding maps:
Players are unhappy with high-tier map gameplay, where you sometimes spend 5 minutes to just get into range. The plan is to cut parts off the map, and the first test bed for this will be the “Atlantic” map, it should be shortened by about one square along the whole perimeter. If the experiment is successful, many tier 8-10 maps will undergo this “modernization”.
The “Shards” map is also not liked by many and should be reworked. It was planned that the cap areas would encourage close-quarters and aggressive combat, but players did not like that.
The “Shatter” map was already redone because many players found it difficult. But even after the rework, there are many difficult spots and the map will be worked on again.
Making of non-square maps is limited by the game’s engine, which is being worked on, but since it’s quite a difficult task, non-square maps shouldn’t be expected anytime soon. One could limit the maps by placing land on the perimeter and thus limiting the playable area, like it’s done on the “Neighbors” map, but this eats up many resources.
There are only two historical maps in the game. The most “historical” is, of course, “Ocean”, but not liked by many. The other one is “Okinawa”.
Regarding PVE:
The first PVE season is planned for this summer (July-August). It will initially come with only 4 maps. Aside from some main task, there will be secondary tasks which will influence the reward. Failing to complete the main task means defeat. Regarding the reward, it should not be significantly less that normal rewards in random battles – either comparable or only slightly less.
Teams will consist of 7 players. They can be set up at random by the matchmaker, or players can team up themselves and start a battle. The latter teams will be able to select a “hard” mode in future seasons, which will be significantly more difficult but obviously yield better rewards. However, the teamplay and coordination have to be on par in this mode.
If you want to play the PVE mode, there will be temporarily only one map available. It was discussed how long the map cycle should be, i.e. how long after the map switches to another one, and the consesus was to set it to one week, so players can memorise the map and patterns, but this is quite a long period, so it’s still being discussed.
Also, PVE will provide the neccesary tools for a tutorial, instead of one lame mission there are plans to implement a detailed tutorial for each ship class.
