Kuva Floods and Siphons Feedback

[Ruby_Rose_]

-- Please Note: This post is solely feedback based on my own experience with Floods and Siphons; and how they could be improved. --

 

Since the change to Siphons becoming their own separate missions, this has made Kuva largely easier to get which is a very good thing. Currently however the missions suffer from a few flaws, mostly from them being treated the exact same as an alert mission. I've seen this cause a lot of confusion and in some cases irritation, either at the mission or other players. I've been on both sides sadly, due to entering a Kuva Siphon or Flood mission and not wanting to leave without actually completing the Siphon. So it's pretty safe to say these mission can easily cause animosity among players, especially when not running in a dedicated group, or with a group of friends. So, exactly what kind of issues do these missions suffer from and occasionally also cause in some players? 

I'll start with the Missions themselves.  For the most part, mission issues can be boiled down and simplified down to some basic clarity issues and some mechanic issues as well. Compared to before they became alert-type missions, they are FAR less likely to actually spawn along the normal route of Spawn -> Objective -> Extraction. This leads to a lot of confusion in some players, and most assuming the mission is simply bugged and a siphon hasn't spawned. With them also being alert-type missions certain mission types, like Survival, suffer from a few harsh restrictions that especially on a Flood mission can make a tough mission even tougher.  What I mean by this is that Siphon mission that also have survival only spawn a set amount of life support containers, which can be annoying and in some cases potentially impossible to get the Kuva. The last thing to mention as far as mission issues goes, is the fact that the node will disappear after mission completion, regardless of whether or not the Kuva was collected.

So with those issues abound, what kind of strain can that put on the players? Well, it's mostly mental strain. I've seen enough of it, and though I'm kind enough to keep my irritation to myself most times, there have been time where I've practically had to yell at people to tell them to get off extraction and actually look for the Siphon. I've seen other do something similar in other situations. Thankfully, these situations can be defused preemptively and very easily with something that already exists in the game, which I'll get to shortly with my list of suggestions to improve the experience of gathering Kuva.

So what can be done to fix these issue with these mission causing some amounts of animosity in the community?  

The easiest way to fix these issues can be done in two rather simple ways. The first is really simple and would likely only involve a small code change; have the Siphon waypointed with the Kuva minimap icon you see when you get near it right from the start of the mission. This would dramatically reduce both player confusion and stress of missing it because people don't want to search and would rather extract.

The other option for this would be to have siphons always spawn en route along the path of Spawn -> Objective -> Extraction. This will eliminate the need for searching and would leave less people assuming a bug occurred with the spawning of the Siphon. Since it's right there and practically unavoidable, that would also lead to almost always having the full squad there to complete the siphon.

Now what about the actual mission issues?

Well, personally I think the biggest one to tackle would be the Siphons and Floods disappear whether or not Kuva was collected. This can also cause a bit of animosity from people not wanting to leave or be forced out before collecting the Kuva, resulting in the mission disappearing and going on its cool down period. I think for fairness reasons, the node should disappear and go on cool down ONLY if the Kuva is collected and the mission is successfully completed to extraction.

The next big thing to deal with would be the extra restrictions that can be unintentionally imposed on the mission from being an alert type mission, or the mission type in genera;. This happens mostly with Survival and to a lesser extent Sabotage 2.0 mission. Survival Siphons and Floods follow Alert Rules, meaning the timer has a set duration to countdown instead of counting up. This also means it will only spawn a set amount of Life Support canisters, typically 4-5. This can be a bit harsh, as the short time you're in the mission is easily doable, but if you don't find the Kuva in time, you may have issue keeping up life support to not suffer for the Damage over Time effects of running out, typically forcing extraction. The easiest fix for this would to have them treated as normal survival node, since the time for them is only 5 minutes anyways.

In Sabotage however Kuva can spawn past where you can go to before objective completion. This, combined with most people choosing to overheat the reactor for a quicker mission can have some issues. Siphons can already be rough, but also getting hit with a high damage heat proc constantly doesn't help either. This is avoidable, but not 100% of the time, because people will occasionally do this without thinking or out of habit. The best fix for this would be have it only able to spawn in areas leading up to the objective, and unable to spawn in areas locked away by mission completion.

One last thing I'd like to add before the summary here is a small suggestion to make a Resource Booster less required for gathering Kuva. The suggestion here is a simple optional thing. Let each Siphon mission have the option of being run as a regular siphon (level 25-35 enemy range) or a flood (80-100 enemy range). Most of the people farming Kuva will likely choose flood, sure; but this also allows lower MR players which might not have the proper gear to handle that difficultly spike quite yet to not feel forced into a flood because it's their only kuva node remaining at the current time.

So, to summarize and simplify what has been said, here's a quick list of what was mentioned and the suggestion solutions:

1. Siphon Nodes disappear after extraction, regardless if collected. -- Suggestion: Have the mission only disappear if Kuva was collected and the mission completed successfully.
2. Siphons assumed to be "bugged" because they're not along the objective path, causing distress in squads occasionally. -- Suggestions: Globally visible Kuva marker OR Spawn along mission path only.
3. Mission Issues -- Suggestions: Siphon Survival treated as normal survival instead of alert survival AND Sabotage Siphons can only spawn prior to the objective and not between objective and extraction.
4. Effective Kuva Farming demanding the purchase of a Booster -- Suggestion: Allow the choice of a normal Siphon or a Flood per siphon mission.

 

Hopefully these issues can be looked into and possibly corrected. I really dislike the feeling of animosity I see and personally experience in Floods/Siphons and would like the experience of getting Kuva to be better in general. If you have any other constructive feedback to contribute, feel free to do so.

Edited December 26, 2016 by Ruby_Rose_

[Hemmo67]

but the nodes no longer disappear if u complete them c_c

[Ruby_Rose_]

13 minutes ago, Hemmo67 said:

but the nodes no longer disappear if u complete them c_c

They actually do. Just sometimes instead of moving like they normally do, they respawn in the same location XD

[Hemmo67]

1 minute ago, Ruby_Rose_ said:

They actually do. Just sometimes instead of moving like they normally do, they respawn in the same location XD

which means. nothing happens and u can keep farming thus no need for boosters c_c

[Ruby_Rose_]

Just now, Hemmo67 said:

which means. nothing happens and u can keep farming thus no need for boosters c_c

Not what I meant, You can actually exhaust the kuva nodes entirely and won't get anymore until the fortress decides to move. Which there isn't a given timeframe for that amount of time yet.