Creature Handler Archive

Thanks for the update. The new partical effects aren't going to add to the lag in the cantinas are they?

very interessting news indeed! I look forward to the new changes, and especially the new songs and dances

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Panthu wrote:

I don't care if it's real crafting or resource free tempory items as long as we get these cool things, but I am curious if they've actually said anything about how they'll be made. Any details of that level yet, Eshie? /poke

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In his first post in the Entertainer Forum thread here; JFreeman said, "We want to change the 'healing' line to a 'props' line that allows you to craft and utilize 'stage props' (weapons, armor and so on that just look like weapons and armor)."

I'm asking for clarification of what is meant by "craft".

What I have suggested before is that we be able to "craft" prop weapons and armor out of existing items via a radial menu option available only to players of a skill set within the entertainer profs. Or options like that available to Master Entertainers when manipulating fireworks displays.

I'm also in favor of activity based "crafting", where a non-resource/non-crafting tool oriented activity would have to be performed to produce the option to create the item. But I'd prefer this to happen without a lot of "magic" involved.

Whatever it ends up being, my preferences are minimal credit investment and, if not wholey rp-able, that the actions needed at least avoid immersion breaking elements as much as possible.

I know the devs do not want to see us as a crafting profession. If we have any resource requirements to produce items, I expect it will be along the lines of what is required for instruments (which really is minimal in comparison to the crafting profs).

Having spent most of my college theater days behind a sewing machine, I have no problem with a bit of crafting.

I agree with the changes. If we are going to have less game-benefits to provide to others (now BF has to disappear), give us more tools to be entertainers.
I am still under the impression such changes are not "the final and ultimate changes ever done to entertainers". New kind of inspirations, as previously stated, could/will spawn later.

However, it means the entertainers will be less useful as services providers to the playerbase until new things come up.

I am still undecided on the topic of SP reduction.

Chali
Quiet master dancer on Starsider... wait and see

The only answears for "Swoosh stick" I found in Google were describing caps from a very known evil sportswear company heh But dictionary.com defines "Swoosh" as "To move with or make a rushing sound."... That could be just as magalena says ^^ (Forgive me if it was plainly stating the obvious... didn't know that word personnally, French beeing my natural language )

Me says cheers for the new funny completely-useless-and-totally-indispensables thingies... ^^
... and /moan for the removal of BF heh. I don't think that bf was such of a hassle as it was before the CU... and even less now heh. Looks like they have been removing most of the classes interdependencies lately.
A player can easily forget about time and continue hanging in the cantina once his BF is healed, but now that he has no in-game mechanic incentive to even go in there in the first place, I fear the cantinas will be kinda empty. :/

But anyway, this looks quite fun in the overall, even if I'm currently "on leave" (I temporarly dropped my artist skills with the respec to visit kashyyyk in healthy conditions ), my Respec Token is definitely giving me back my Master Musician / Master Entertainer boxes ^^

These proposals sound great and I shall look forward to hearing more about them.

One thing that I feel should be fed back to the devs is the falling in numbers of people coming to the cantinas. If players have no need to come to us, they don't bother. Most feel the inspiration buffs are a waste of game time and quite simply they do with out them. Infact I have to admit to my combat char, Araiya, rarely gets an inspiration buff, she uses foods. The drop in numbers is quite marked since the CU and hasn't improved with the influx of new players since Ep3.

The people who do come to the cantinas are friends who now come to hang out and chat. Any dancers who need healing xp I advise to go to Dant MO where most of the hunting groups form up. As the cantina there is very small, there is room for only a limited number of ents.

*Waves to Renea*

Intriguing developments. I've never been much for props simply because skewering myself with a sword didn't seem very entertaining - well not for me anyway. But hopefully if they give us props they'll actually work with the arm and hand movements so that it doesn't look like we are beating ourselves senseless.

I share the same fears as Caerwynn over the removal of battle fatigue. Although we do have a lot of new players on Shadowfire, their instruction guide seems to be quite lacking. Most of them don't know what the inspiration buff does for them and the only reason they have come into the cantina is to heal their BF. It will be imperative that the improvements and additions to the inspiration style buffs be well thought out and well publicized or we'll end up as I have always feared.

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Esharra wrote:

Upcoming Changes

Remove Battle Fatigue:

Battle Fatigue will no longer be acquired from combat, and entertainers will no longer be able to heal battle fatigue. Any player that logs in after this change will have all battle fatigue cleared instantly.

Remove Entertainer Healing Experience:

Since mind wound and battle fatigue healing are no longer the responsibilities of the entertainer, Entertainer Healing experience will be removed and replaced with dancer or musician experience as appropriate.

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Thank you for the information!

These changes mean that Dancer will no longer have any interface with the game playof SWG. There is zero reason for any player to ever seek out a dancer or to interface with one. All professions should have a purpose to exist in a game. Much the same as every chess piece should have a function. You do not need dancer as a profession to have your toon jump around the room; just type "/dance" and away it goes.

While indeed there will remain dancers and they have new props and dances, those props and dances will serve no purpose in the game play of SWG.

The ultimate nerf of a profession is to render it superfulous to game play and yet have it remain in the game. Is there any chance they might have a game function for dancers in mind?

Thank you very much for the heads up. Looks like it was smart not to use that last respec token.

This just seems, oh, what's the word... like very little too late. We seem to be all excited about something that removes a game function from us while simultaneously not addressing the major issue: AFK Play.

And while props and a new dance will be nice, they will just be temporary "cool" that does nothing to address our viability within the game world. Cantina's are already empty, and I MEAN DEVOID, of ATK players on Scylla. I don't see how removing the last required (albeit very rarely) reason for a non-entertainer to visit a cantina is going to help this situation in the least.

And let me point out that, once again, we are going to have a half change. Take away Battle Fatigue and maybe, someday, in the misty future, we might get some more inspirations, that just maybe can't be done by someone AFK. Inspirations that may or may not give us a viable economic role to play in the game. That may or may not be popular with other players. That may or may not help us. In the words of Yoda... difficult to tell, always in motion is the future.

And hanging our collective hats on that doesn't seem like it's remotely enough. We are being asked to be patient, yet again, as we get thrown a bone and are further marginalized within the game.

I think we all know the state of entertaining is grim. There are very few dedicated, full time entertainers left. I'd wager almost none, even our correspondents have combat "alts" as do our vocal community leaders. And I think that says a very great deal about how viable and fun to play the professions are. I don't see these announced changes doing anything to change that. And that is the problem that needs to be addressed in any changes made to entertainers.

This is a great start, and I'm anxious to see what else comes of the work being done for us. I've never seen such discussion of stuff for us on this low of a level, so we must be having some good stuff come our way - my only concern is I hope it compensates accordingly for losing something as fundamental to Entertainers as a healing role.

I agree that new stuff for Dancer (and Musician) is cool, this profession has been badly neglected by Dev's of late!Props would seem to be an excellent idea, and extra dances/tunes will always be good, but what would be left to keep the entertainment profession alive if you do this?

The Inspiration Buff is so trivial that most players happily get along without it! I can't see any interaction after this between Entertainers and the rest of the SWG community. WHY do you plan to get rid of BF? It seems fair and reasonable at the moment, and still gives Entertainers a reason to exist! Why take something away that works?

Adding a covercharge was a half hearted attempt to claw some money back for entertainers. Do you really think people will be prepared to pay a cover charge for a 10% improvement in XP? I don't! Particuarly when foods exist that give similar effects.

Please SOE, don't do this! Entertainers need more reasons to exist in the game, not less!