The question that was asked to the creator concerned the development of SM 2, including the possibility of PvE elements in competitive mode. Grigorenko made it clear: many studios are trying to figure out the PvPvE convention because on paper it looks great, but in practice it is merely irritating.
Death at the hands of AI when we try to fight other players is frustrating. Therefore, as the director indicates, even games that mix PvP with PvE will limit the latter, for example by tying mobs to specific places on the game map.
MP1st: PvP is strictly competitive, as in player versus player? Or can we expect some PvE elements to also appear? Has the team thought of adding some potential PvE during a PvP match, such as a Xeno outbreak in the middle, so now players have to worry about those on top of each other.
Dmitry Grigorenko: PvPvE is a holy grail of game design. A lot of studios are trying to find it and a lot of them fail. The truth is that it’s a very very difficult task. It sounds great on paper, but when you actually start trying, it becomes apparent that it’s very annoying when you fight other players only to get backstabbed by an AI opponent. This is why most of the games are trying to ensure that PvP and PvE aspects don’t intersect that much, i.e. AI opponents are restricted to specific places on maps, etc. It’s a complicated mode to implement that would change the experience significantly, so I’m afraid there are no plans for it.
For similar reasons, Saber Interactive decided to abandon the open world in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Yes, the company could have made an open world with “hiding in tall grass” (as the director maliciously put it, referring to a popular solution in this type of titles), but ultimately they decided that this was not the sequel that fans of the first installment were hoping for. The studio wanted to deliver them a “perfect sequel”, without overly complicating the original formula.
Besides, even without taking such a risk, creators have a lot of work to do. The last major update divided the players, mainly due to the level of difficulty and equipment nerfs.