Well, we have 27 different terrain types to play with. Only a few of them in the patrols had ion storms, it just so happens that those few were in places that saw heavy traffic.
Some of those terrain types can use medium or small maps, if that is desired. The warping into an ion storm thing is easily fixed, just move the ion storm.
Some of the maps were deliberately made treachorous and were designed to be used sparingly on a map.
Unfortunately maps have to be square, no other shapes possible.
Starting positions can be changed so that all players start on a map edge. The idea of being able to warp out when you get a certain distance from your enemies is very doable and has merit (especially if you are on a large map).
Mission variety is just a matter of finding all the bugs first so we dont end up with a whole bunch of missions that have bugs. Once this is done, I'll also be releasing the source code to all of the missions I write for the benefit of current and future scripters (so the wheel doesnt have to be reinvented every time).