i have a quick qusetion with those new ship , right now when you play with a friend in a group , both need to have a ship of the same maximum rank , so if you have a R14 he needs a R14 equiped , same deal for a R15 ship.
so that works ok until now because those ship are not “hard” to get , but now the big question , will it be the same for R16 , if i get a R16 and he doesn’t because he can’t be as active as i can , and only has R15 , will i be able to play with the R16 while he only has a R15 ??
that would be logical to remove the limitation above R15 for the purpose of group . I don’t know if the dev already answered that question .
The max ship rank rule was stupid already before. You get into the same battle with e.g r13 and r15 but can’t be in a squad.
They probably won’t remove the restriction because it was already unnecessary before.
I say remove the group restrictions and throw everyone in to the highest rank player’s battle.
the Dev’s will say something like its necessary for the MM coding but if you want a group you must buy the highest rank ship to get in so in my opinion its a marketing scheme and will NEVER be removed but random defense contract is almost always a winner.
The max rank missions would be yesterdays papers, too 
Simple: queue entire squad in to the rank battle of the highest rank player. And only allow ships within 6 ranks down of that rank. (bc of normal slot variance)
Having to match ranks of ships is so stupid. I can’t tell you how many squads I’ve had to disband because of PvE squad rank rules.
Like me and 3 others were literally in the same battle and did well, so I invite them all to group. I queue again and turns out they don’t have the same rank as me so we can’t go as a squad. EVEN THOUGH WE WERE JUST ON THE SAME BATTLE TOGETHER.