the ion storms are a nice way for the vendetta universe to seem more dynamic and alive, while at the same time adding interesting gameplay twists. why not add more weather effects other than ion storms? since the coding infrastructure is already there, it seems like it wouldn't be too much additional work for the devs -- tweaking, mainly.

one effect that comes to mind is a drastic reduction in radar range. it'd be interesting because you'd have to spot ships visually, and then you wouldn't know automatically if they were hostile or not. maybe like the ion storms, but with fewer things floating around, and of a different color and/or shape.

also, it's kind of wierd that you never see ion storms in station sectors. my guess this is to prevent griefers from camping at the jump site during storms. but why do you never see them in wormhole sectors, either, which already have bottlenecks? and since the ion storms are supposedly caused by the wormholes...
right now, it actually feels like the weather is somehow caused by the hive bots.