Valkyr's Quest For Vengence (An Alternative To Valkyr Prime)

[Felblood]

So, I've seen a lot of people talking about how great it would be if Valkyr got a prime form that was markely different from her basci form, to reflect the way her void powers had been shaped by her time in captivity, and the horrors that Alad V inflicted on her. I think that is awesome, and this suggestion is in no way intended as an alterantive to that.

 

However, that does leave players who want to quest for a shinier version Valkyr with her normal powers, out in the cold.

 

Yeah, we can always get skins, but that really isn't as satisfying to me as goign out and hunting the drops in an actual mission and getting +10% to an irrelevant stat for my trouble. It's kind of about the chase for me.

 

Thinking about that, got me to thinking about something else that has been bothering me, and a way DE could kill both my birds with one stone.

 

Valkyr deserves a chance to confront her tormentor. She's obviously suffering some kind of PTSD, and while that sort of thing doesn't usually ever go away, some sense of closure would be healthy for her. Since this is a game about shooting people, that probably means a murderous vendetta, but hey what you gonna do?

 

So I propose a new quest. Valkyr will get to scream at people and rip them apart, which is what we love about her, and the player will get a blinged out Valkyr, who is (slightly) better than the off-the-shelf model. Maybe replace her missing skin with zanuka patterned armor and give her more and larger cybernetics, to show she is healed, upgraded and now okay with the ways she has changed.

 

This new Valkyr variant needs a name, and it can't be Valkyr Prime. I am calling her Valkyr Storm for now, but I don't love that.*

 

Note: I'm assuming that, like Chroma, the player will need to gather some really annoying things to actually build all these BPs, to make up for the fact that the quest is rather straightforward and not RNG powered at all. They'll probably make you collect thematically appropriate prime parts.

 

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The Actual Quest:

 

 

Prerequisites: Patient Zero completed, owns Valkyr, and Mesa (to ensure the player has fought both forms of Alad V to date, or paid to skip this part).

 

Plot Breakdown:

 

Once you activate the quest, Teshin explains that he is concerned about some of the Tenno survivors, who were rescued during the Gradivus Delimma. While her tech and powers have been very useful to the Tenno cause, she isn't focused on her training. Thoughts of vengence are distracting her from her maximum performance, and if she's going to be the soldier he needs her to be against the Sentients, she'll have to be at her very best. We need to get this fighter a rematch, but how to find Alad V? The guy is on the lam from the Tenno, the Corpus and the Greneer, so he isn't exactly going to be showing his face in public.

 

So you need to do some legwork before you come to the finale.

 

1. You, the player, attack a Corpus facility affiliated with the original Zanuka Project, left from before Alad went mutalist happy. Capture a corpus mook and squeeze him for information. He coughs up a blueprint for part of the Valkyr Storm and puts you in touch with someone who can help you find Alad.

 

That'll lead you another corpus contact. You can recycle anybody who hates Alad, or just make up some new guy. It might be a good chance to introduce a character who you want to have established for later. He tries the usual corpus Plan A-- asking you to do some BS fetch quest for him before he'll help-- but Valyr counters with her own favorite negotiating tactic-- Hysterical Screaming. Teshin gently reminds the contact how terrible it would be for him if he got between this tenno and her target, and we move on the the meat of the plot.

 

2. The contact knows where you can find a stash of Tyl Regor's hard drives. There's just enough chance there might be something on gene repair in there, that Alad might come after it himself, if it's existance were made public. It would be the perfect bait for a trap. This leads to a tough Greneer spy mission, which is always overrun with powerful Infested. The stolen files might not be much use to Alad, but we aren't going to tell them that, however it has enough magical healing science in it to yeild another Storm part BP.

 

3. Once you have the bait, it's time to set the trap. Teshin has shown that he can hack as well as the Lotus now, so let's do the mobile defense thing with him again. --This time on an infested corpus facility. Teshin will plant data in Alad's databases "Proving" that the stolen data would be useful to him, and inviting him to come and get it, if he thinks he's hard enough. Bascially, he is throwing down the gauntlet, on Valkyr's behalf. While he's in there, he can steal some of Alad's warframe research, gaining the third Storm component BP.

 

4. Finally, it's time for the showdown! It's a defense mission, to ensure that the Valkyr wins her battle against Alad V. Like with the Greneer Defector, players must defend an ally, rather than a stationary object. Bonus points if Valkyr is hard to protect becasue she is always running off the kill people. That feels right. Alad is a coward, so natually he'll send several waves of deadly Infested to soften up the defenders, before he finally appears.

 

It would be nice to throw in some waves of Drekar mooks or Maniacs from Tyl Regor, just to show that he didn't take this theft lying down, but this story isn't really about him. They could even come at the same time, and fight each other Crossfire style, but I don't know if the engine would be able to handle that and a combatant defense objective at the same time. AI IFF is hard, and I wouldn't hold it aganst DE if they took a few shortcuts.

 

When Alad finally does show up, it would be a good idea if Alad did not collar the defense target. It's hardly a "win" for her is she get's collared and the player Tenno has to rescue her *again!* To ensure that the mission is winnable by a single player, the defended Valkyr should get a hysteria buff whenever a fellow tenno is collared. That'll keep the escort quest from failing iself while the player is helpless.

 

Not only does it protect against player frustration, it also makes it pretty likely that the player will get to watch her rip Alad into tiny peices, which is what I reallyone of the two things I wanted in the first place. It's okay if another player makes the kill, in a multiplayer session. This isn't that kind of game.

 

With her quest for closure and self acceptance complete, Valkyr has regained her center, and is ready to be rebuilt using the data aquired over the course of her quest, into a new more perfect fighting machine, The player will naturally get a copy of the Valkyr Storm frame BP, to complete their own set.

 

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So, that's what I've got so far.

 

It think there is, at least, the skeleton of a really great idea buried in here, but I'm super hungry for feedback.

 

What could I change to make this better?

 

footnote:

*She isn't intended to be a Prime, but rather something new, that aproaches the same power level as the Prime frames. However, most of the other suffixes are associated with limited edition items that cannot be gained under normal circumstances, quite unlike how quests work.

 

Players pick up the quest from Teshin, at the relay, once they meet the requirements (DE can re-use the technology from Simaris' role in the start of The New Strange). We need an NPC who talks to do the talky parts. Teshin seems like a good choice, since he is all about personal growth and honesty and stuff. Plus, he seems bloody minded enough to think this is a good idea. I'm not aware that Teshin has his own suffix for things he has augmented, and this story is really about Valkyr, with Teshin as a supportign character and occasional narrator.

 

So I came up with a suffix that might have come from either of them, and ties back to claw stances a little as well: Valkyr Storm. It's .. not great, but I'm using it here, just for the sake of brevity. Don't like it? I'm all ears if yu have something better.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Felblood

[Hueminator]

Cool story bro.  The quest is good but I'm still not sure about the reward (since we have pre-corpus valkyr skin inc)

Edited August 4, 2015 by Hueminator

[Stalker]

-snip-

This is actually a great idea...

[Finngarh]

Very nice !

 

What if at the end you would have to use Valkyr as a component to built the new Valkyr ? Or is it your idea ? (didn't see it as such)

No change in stats, just a skin. (and you could "equip" the old tormented skin (or "unequip" the armor to get to the original IG Valkyr)

[SlythIchyth]

With what you said about the Grineer spy mission, it should be either a Mobile Defense (with 2 terminals because three is time consuming), or a spy mission (which you already said), but requiring 2 data extractions. I would do three, but three is time consuming and can get frustrating when you fail one, *cough* Stolen Dreams *cough*. And as for the boss fight, Valk should be collared the whole time, but he should use her as a meat shield. When Alad V looses 25% of his health (beginning stage 2), he sets her loose, but Valk would try to resist his commands, when he hits that stage, he would have a panel (like ruk, but requiring accuracy, so rewarding sniper type players) that appears on his arm that you'd have to hit at least 3-4 times for him release Valk. When Valk is dropped, he would have to re-collar her,but he would gain more attacks as the fight progresses. (Main inspiration from the first Dark-Siders II boss fight.) I like your idea more, but I wanted to share mine with you.

[Felblood]

Thank you all for your feedback!

 

I have been carefully considering my reply, for I am on tranquilizers right now (side errect of these super-powered antihistamies. It's a skin thing urelated to the heavy stuff I'm about to foolishly unveil), and I don't write super well on them.

 

Anyway I want to respond to a couple of posts here, then I have a couple of points to expand on my OP.

 

 

 

Cool story bro.  The quest is good but I'm still not sure about the reward (since we have pre-corpus valkyr skin inc)

 

See this is a good point, but I think to address it I need to make the section on why I want this longer, and it is already too long, so I will cover some of my cut points down here.

 

There's a long digression about my personal attatchment to this idea here, so maybe that's a thing you don't care about?

So, I actually have some PTSD of my own. It's well managed, but it's something I live with every day. So this is something close to a lot of raw nerves, where I'm liable to split a lot of hairs other people wouldn't care about.

 

So having Valkyr avaialbe to me as an avatar is really cool. It's really awsome to have a character who wears the scars of torture so proudly and is accepted as much for them as in spite of them. IRL it just doesn't work that way. You have to carry the hurt inside, and you're better off if most people don't know.

 

They just can't understand what it's like to live with hyper aroused combat instincts, where every second of every day you are looking at the people around you and thinking about what you would do if they suddenly tried to hurt you. Like, you get to the part where you spend all your social time making a mental checklist in the back of you head, of all the ways you could kill or disable them, if you had to, and the conversation just breaks down. Neither their life nor mine will be improved by sharing this information.

 

Valkyr doesn't have that problem. I mean you look at this girl and you see her skull is cracked open, her skin is peeled off and she's got giant pins in her bones, and she doesn't need to explain anything to you. Even if she could speak normally she wouldn't have to; the visual and the screaming tells the whole story. However, people aren't turned off by that. She a tenno, and people expect some wierd stuff from them, but they still respect them -- not just as dangerous weapons, but also as honorable warriors who fullfill their contracts. With The Lotus, Teshin and her fellow Tenno to support her, she can pursue what is a normal career in her culture, without having to hide who she is.

 

That's a really appealling fantasy for a guy standing in line at the coffee shop, quietly calculating the best way to disable the guy behind him--just in case that person sudenly attacks him for no reason. It's not a rational fear, but it will never leave.

TL;DR:

 

So, a Valkyr Prime, or a regular Valkyr restored to her original condition doesn't really appeal to me. It's missing the spark that makes her special to me. I love her for her scars, but I wonder if maybe she does need a little more medical attention that the Lotus has afforded her? I mean, she has no skin. I mean, doesn't that look painful, or at least very, very itchy? So that got me to thinking about ways that would allow her to be "re-skinned". (My apologies to those who suffer from a pun intolerence)

 

 

With what you said about the Grineer spy mission, it should be either a Mobile Defense (with 2 terminals because three is time consuming), or a spy mission (which you already said), but requiring 2 data extractions. I would do three, but three is time consuming and can get frustrating when you fail one, *cough* Stolen Dreams *cough*. And as for the boss fight, Valk should be collared the whole time, but he should use her as a meat shield. When Alad V looses 25% of his health (beginning stage 2), he sets her loose, but Valk would try to resist his commands, when he hits that stage, he would have a panel (like ruk, but requiring accuracy, so rewarding sniper type players) that appears on his arm that you'd have to hit at least 3-4 times for him release Valk. When Valk is dropped, he would have to re-collar her,but he would gain more attacks as the fight progresses. (Main inspiration from the first Dark-Siders II boss fight.) I like your idea more, but I wanted to share mine with you.

 

Spy missions with Infested in them are hard, becasue you can't stop them from spawnign by hacking the alarms. So, I was worried about asking too much of the player. You don't want to skill check people out of too much content, becasue lamers buy platinum too. However, I do have a new, better idea, thanks to you.

 

Still use spy missions, but make the needed BP a random drop from the "Unidentified Item"s in the datavaults. So it would be like the excavation missions for the Limbo Theorem. This gives players an incentive to keep cracking vaults, after the infested show up, but gives more cautous players the chance to cut and run once the swarm arrives.

 

I'm hesitant to mess too much with the boss fight. Defense missions can go pretty long, and you don't want players to restart too much. Also, I want to try to use existing mechanics and models as much as possible, since I know I am already asking for the moon here. (Wait... why isn't Luna an in-game area? Should we be asking for the moon? =) ) I do like the idea of her not being restrained, but then maybe it would be better if she faced that fear and overcame it. I'm not sure.

 

Cool story: the first boss I fought after getting Valkyr was Vor, and I ripped him into at least 6 peices with Hysteria's sliding spin attack. It is an awesome visual that I want to share, and I basically want to see this fight end the same way.

 

Here begins the new stuff:

 

These thoughts come in two types again. What should a repaired Valkyr look like, and what should we call her?

 

For appearance, I do have a sort-of vision coalecing in my mind. I would try to draw you something, but I keep falling alseep in my chair, from these pills, so that probably wouldn't work out.

 

I was trying to think of ways that she could be resesigned to fit with any of her existing helmets, or with the new pre-corpus valkyr helmet/head, and that got me to looking at the Bastet and Kara helmets, like really looking at them.

That got me to thinking about boxy cybernetics with rounded corners, egyptiam mythology and the way she looks with her skin on, and I sort of mashed hem together at different angle until i found a way the puzzle fit together.

 

Repaired Valkyr should have a mummy like appearance, but with wrappings made from a clearly technological material. I'm picturing zanuka's shiny, anodized, vandal-esque skin cut into strips and wrapped around her arms, legs and midriff. They should bulk her up to the point that her sillhouette aligns with her Pre-Corpus appearance.

 

Then the boxes on her arms could to be bulked up a bit, with rounded corners, like the face of the kara helm, but with greneerish gew-gaws on them. The rest of her metal parts could then be spruced up with adornments designed to evoke her egyptian motif. In particular, I see her collar expanded into a Cleopatra collar top made from the plates of Alad V's goofy jacket. One could even add an egyptian style loincloth to get some of those sweet nVidia cloth physics in there. (Don't hate; I have AMD chipsets myself, but I don't begrudge such joy to others.)

 

Finally, it's time to think abut how she would fit with extras. Her new arms should look great with Valkyr's Bonds, sure, but wouldn't they look even sweeter if it the manacles looked good with the Vaykor Syndana or the Rath Kittag Cloak?

 

Alternately, You could steal the physcis from Valkys Bonds and put them on two strips of the mummy wrapping, and let players pay a bit of platinum to have tose hanging off her arms. That would be pretty cool all by itself, or if you could get it in a set with a mummy wrapping syndana.

 

I still don't love Valkyr Storm, as a name, but I keep rejecting all my other ideas.

 

Considering the Egyptian elements and the theme or rebirth and mummification, it would make sense to name her after the Egyptian goddess of rebith, who coincedentally invented mumification: Isis! Oh, wait... no... that.. would not be a good idea right now... that's a polular english acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, who are themselves very unpopular in places where things like fun and the internet are legal. Marketing would be wise not to approve this. Did you hear about Isis Mobile Wallet company? They could have made it big, but then topical news stories made the company name suddenly very unfortunate. That's a sad story that DE wants no part in.

 

If the bandages or the dangles on her cybernetics are sufficiently shiny, she could be Valkyr Vandal. However, Vandal items are usually weapons, and so far have always been event exclusives, like Wraiths, but even rarer. Plus, while it is mostly used on corpus items, it features a lotus symbol and some of the vandalized items were tenno in origin, or even decanonized items no longer associated with any faction lore wise (Snipetron Vandal). There is enough suffix confusion for Vandal.

 

Anyway, I wanted to put this out there, and see if i could inspire some further thought on the matter.

[GRYPHON_PRIME]

This is a nice idea, y'know?

I like the way you thought about details for the mission.

Even if this doesn't make it in the game, it'll be interesting to see how will DE implement something like Valkyr Prime.