Dear Digital Extremes, the Kuva Fortress has Broken my Heart: My Opinion on the Forsaken Tileset and How to Fix It

[Almighty_Jado]

To begin, I don't want to say that I hate the Kuva Fortress. I honestly love that tileset, and I really appreciate everything that went into it; the details, the enemies, the traps, and especially the music. The Defense mission in particular is quite fun with all the gas, fire, and electricity traps that activate as you progress. However, that location is almost completely barren all the time. There's honestly no real reason to play mission there, and it makes me sad that players don't have much value to place in such a great piece of work. And, especially since the location is only unlocked after our latest Cinematic quest, it should really feel like an endgame location; tough enemies, good rewards. Even Lua sees more action than the Kuva Fortress. Additionally, since high mastery players likely have a need for lots of Kuva for Rivens, a way to acquire Kuva in a less tedious way may be good. 

I do remember a while back when Sovereign Outcast dropped exclusively there, but now the PoE enemies drop that mod as well, eliminating that uniqueness. But I have thought of a few things that could be added to the Kuva Fortress to bring players back in. Some of them may have been suggested already, but I thought of these by myself.

Adding Kuva to Fortress Drop Tables:
Without eliminating Kuva Siphon/Flood missions, adding Kuva as a possible reward to rotations in the Kuva Fortress would be an easy thing to add. This is already seen on PoE, as Kuva has a chance to drop from Bounties as a reward. Thematically speaking, finding Kuva stored on board the Kuva Fortress makes more sense to me. This would create two separate ways for people to actively farm Kuva; people who require a guaranteed burst of Kuva can do Siphon missions, while people who may need to acquire a higher bulk can play one of the endless missions on the Fortress, like Taveuni. The other missions, like Spy or ones that involve finding resource caches can add Kuva rewards as a possibility as well.

Adding Kuva Caravans:
Occasionally, a squadron of Grineer Kuva Guardians escorting some kind of tank of Kuva may be found travelling throughout the fortress, in any mission, on a set path. Killing all the Guardians and hacking the tank's console can award the players with some Kuva. This would have multiple chances to spawn per mission. This is more of a new content thing/concept idea, and I realize that working this in would probably be too much work with the anticipated new cinematic quest on the horizon, so treat this as an afterthought.

Moving Kuva Siphons to the Fortress:
Exactly what the subtitle says. Making it so that a secondary Kuva Siphon objective can be found in each Kuva Fortress mission would make it much more popular to play those nodes. While some people may believe this is "lore breaking" as the Siphons are supposed to be deployed across the system to collect it, since the Kuva Fortress is moving already, why wouldn't it be possible for the Siphons to collect from the "safety" of their Fortress? If Digital Extremes wanted to balance this and make sure people didn't speedrun and overcollect Kuva, they could limit it so that new Kuva Siphon missions only appear once per "jump" of the Fortress.

EDIT ADDITION: "Riven Shards"
Another way to draw attention to the Kuva Fortress could be to add "Riven Shards" into Drop Rotation Tables, inspired by the thread I've linked below. A Riven Shard would be a resource that, when enough have been collected, can be used in the foundry (or mod console) to forge a Veiled Riven mod. This would add not only incentive to playing on the Fortress, but also help establish the location as an endgame feel to the place.
https://forums.warframe.com/topic/907176-the-void-and-rivens-two-birds-with-one-stone/

EDIT ADDITION: Kuva Pots
Similar to resource containers, or specifically Grokdrul Containers, Kuva Pots would appear as rare resource containers scattered throughout the hidden side rooms and nooks and crannies of the Fortress. Breaking them open would yield a small amount of Kuva, but there would be enough spawned into a level that in total, a substantial amount (like 500 or even 700 if you look really hard) of Kuva can be obtained.

To conclude, the Kuva Fortress is likely my favorite tileset in Warframe as of today, and it makes me sad to see a lack of players on the nodes. I know that the level designers at DE put a lot of love into making this tileset, and I am truly downcast to see it empty. I still run solo survival there every now and then because I love it so much, but I'd want to see more players there. I sincerely hope that you devs will not leave this amazing place for dead and change some things to breath new life into it.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Almighty_Jado

[Airwolfen]

I would LOVE to see Higher difficulty missions then kuva floods within the fortress with higher kuva rewards.

The fortress is my second favorite map type (I mean The moon is awesome, spy vaults included), so having reasons to go there is something I would really like to see happen. and having missions that are harder and give better rewards compared to floods is 100% thematic.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Airwolfen

[(XBOX)AlingsasArrende]

Marvelous suggestions! Yes, both Kuva Fortress and Lua should have better rewards. And Fissure missions please!

[Mk.1]

ya, what he said

[Latiac]

Many people, myself included, have been trying to get Kuva dropped in the KUVA fortress for a long time.

Hopefully soon eh?

 

[(PSN)Musicopia]

45 minutes ago, Almighty_Jado said:

A Riven Shard would be a resource that, when enough have been collected, can be used in the foundry (or mod console) to forge a Veiled Riven mod.

This is an excellent idea, I would absolutely love for something similar to this to be implemented in the game. 

I also think the Kuva Fortress is an excellent tile set and I'm 100% behind any reason to go there, ANY reason at all. After acquiring the Harrow part from the spy mission and the very rare chance of a sortie mission being there, I haven't been back since fully unlocking it. Very sad to see such a nice location essentially waste away to nothing. 

[InDueTime-EN-]

1 hour ago, Almighty_Jado said:

Moving Kuva Siphons to the Fortress:
Exactly what the subtitle says. Making it so that a secondary Kuva Siphon objective can be found in each Kuva Fortress mission would make it much more popular to play those nodes.

No to this, but this would make sense if they have massive vacuums that suck kuva from entire planets which I want now. DE! make it so! 

 

Anyway, I do agree that kuva should be in the fortress. But not as an enemy drop though. Maybe just in containers, caches, etc. The individual grineer have no reason to be carrying them around.

[taiiat]

yeah just like everyone, it would be really nice if Grineer Fortress had Kuva in it in some ways so that Players have a reason to play there permanently and also so Players always have access to ways to get some, even if all of the Siphon Missions have been used up until the World State rotates.

no need to remove Siphon Missions though, just having extra ways to get it that also add some world building to the Tileset. things you've suggested like transports throughout the Tileset and such are great world building, but Pots or something of the sort to find in the secret areas of the Tileset would also be outstanding because Grineer Fortress has some of the most creative, sneaky, and outlandishly complex secrets to date, which i love.

[RunicVision]

I love this idea. Also, Jado, Great presentation.

[DoctorPelusa]

Great suggestions, the only one i don't like is adding kuva siphons to the fortress, also Riven Shards could be rewarded instead of endo when disenchanting Riven mods, as an alternative to Riven Transmutation with increased complexity...

[Almighty_Jado]

15 hours ago, taiiat said:

yeah just like everyone, it would be really nice if Grineer Fortress had Kuva in it in some ways so that Players have a reason to play there permanently and also so Players always have access to ways to get some, even if all of the Siphon Missions have been used up until the World State rotates.

no need to remove Siphon Missions though, just having extra ways to get it that also add some world building to the Tileset. things you've suggested like transports throughout the Tileset and such are great world building, but Pots or something of the sort to find in the secret areas of the Tileset would also be outstanding because Grineer Fortress has some of the most creative, sneaky, and outlandishly complex secrets to date, which i love.

Actually this is a really good idea, about the "pots" that you mentioned.

It could as simple as a little Grokdrul looking container, except changed to be filled with dark red. Breaking it open like any other resource container will yield a small amount of Kuva, but finding and breaking enough of them throughout a mission can add up to a substantial amount over time.

[(XBOX)BootlegMitch90]

was mid doing kuva today, and remembered how much i hate doing kuva even though i need it.

 

would love to see the survival mission node on the kuva fortress be repurposed with its own drop table of kuva, with a starting high lvl (kuva flood-esq), just to add to the difficulty and limit the most likely scenario of quick speed runs. consider it a kuva warehouse if you would. all that kuva they collect has to be stored somewhere right?

[MageSkeleton]

It's so sad that once DE impliment a "new" thing, they're done with it. You'd be better off talking about some new resource that's not currently in the game and it wouldn't even be able to effect the rivens. Effectively creating a resource people will farm an amount of and never need more of it (like Maprico's and Grokdrul). No one needs 10k Grokdrul but prepare to see them numbers rise meanwhile we all need more ways to get Kuva.

[Almighty_Jado]

5 hours ago, MageSkeleton said:

It's so sad that once DE impliment a "new" thing, they're done with it. You'd be better off talking about some new resource that's not currently in the game and it wouldn't even be able to effect the rivens. Effectively creating a resource people will farm an amount of and never need more of it (like Maprico's and Grokdrul). No one needs 10k Grokdrul but prepare to see them numbers rise meanwhile we all need more ways to get Kuva.

I'd like to argue against this, there have been many times DE has gone back and fixed things. I just realize at this point, DE has a ton of other things on their plate, and may not be putting a ton of thought into the Kuva Fortress, so I offered my own thoughts.

They've fixed a lot of stuff, from the entire mod system, to the starmap, and even melee itself. They're constantly trying to fix things, and I am confident that eventually they'll make the right decision about this topic.

[alepap1995]

I agree, Kuva farming is boring just go to a planet dash through 4 clouds do the mission, done, then wait for new ones to spawn.

the already existing kuva missions, should be only a kuva flood that happens every 2hrs or something when the fortress moves and should give more kuva.

The rest of the kuva should be in the kuva fortress.

I am also fond of the idea of being able to work towards getting a riven rather than surrendering to RNGesus every day.

[HeroOfTheWarframe]

I don't like the idea of moving the siphone.  But I like the rest of it and I hope to have a reason to play in the fortress in the future. The defense mission is just awesome and the tileset is one of the best with unique features. But nobody will play it untill they add something like what you suggest.