Dancer Archive

Okay everyone, this is your chance to put in some feedback on this list. The top 5 issues are to be considered our most important and pressing issues. The rest are in no particular order! If you agree with the list just let me know, if you disagree with the top 5 then please post what your version of the top 5 would be so I can compare. If theres anything not on the list please make a note of it so I can add it to the list. Thanks in advance for all your help, I'm looking forward to reading your imput.

1. Falling down.

2. Mind-buffing self.

3. Fix Entertainer Missions.

4. Fix the lyrical/formal base dance.

5. Make changes to mind buffing system to make things easier. Some way to tell when mind buff is fully applied. Perhaps a message to let you know when another dancer has already used /setperform on someone you try to buff. Make it only require /setperform and a new command /setperformdone instead of /watch and /stopwatch, so that we can make sure that it's given properly. Take guesswork out.

AFK Entertainers. (out of the top 5 because I think with Player run Cantina's this problem should lessen on its own. What you all think?)

New flourishes, full 8 for every dance. (good ones only please)

Group commands for dancers that allow /groupstartdance, /groupchangedance, /groupstopdance and perhaps even /groupdistract 1 etc... also Synchdance?

Fix buff not resetting on death along with all the other buff bugs.

Fix all the small cantinas which don't let people register (Dathomir, Dantooine, etc.

The ability to register at outposts, HQ, adventure planets ,non traditional cantinas. Maybe some visual aid to see someone is inside the cantina without having to look at the map? (could have a light/lamp on front door that turns on or off)

System message - A notice of who is /watching you and perhaps a /listwatch command.

Technique abilities (effects) are just eye candy but should add something (perhaps XP bonus)/ reduced action cost

Fix the "playing music getting dance xp" exploit! (does this still exist?)

A "mirror" ability that allows a dancer to chose the mirror opposite of a flourish. (mirror should be a toggle)

Fix the body part bleed through on our clothes.

Captivator is still misspelled as Captivater

Denial of Service Enhancements. /denyService faction:[Rebel|Imperial] and /denyService guildGUILDNAME)

Faction points for Dancing while overt and healing other overts? (small amount of faction, definitely make it slower then running missions by a lot but still something.)

Collision detection. Some items you can walk through, others you can't. Make more of them so you can't go through them so dancers don't end up standing in the middle of tables. Also possibly make it so colliding with another player makes them stop dancing?

Make the XP earned based only on the level of the dancers experience, not on the dance itself. If a high level dancer uses basic they should get the same XP as if they used exotic.

A few reasonable (non bard like) field abilities? Ability to distract mobs? Npcs? (short stun, confusion, draw attention/aggro?) (hey, it makes sense I think) Perhaps a resistance to B.F.?

Oh yeah, in case it wasn't clear enough, this is just a draft not my official report. I want you all to have a chance to review it and make changes before this becomes anything official.

Oh.. and umm.. don't expect any feedback from me until Monday, just so ya know and don't think I'm ignoring you.

There is no way in hell player run cantinas will solve the AFK problem. I can't believe you honestly think that would be the case. We can already dance in player buildings as is and the problem is still very much alive. If anything the player run cantina is going to be a boost to AFK macro bots as the big guilds will put their pet macrotainers to work inside.

AFK is killing our profession. AFK is caused by a lack of FUN content. Work needs to be done.

Since player-run cantinas do not provide any sort of advantage over the existing cantinas, I'm not certain why you think they will solve anything.

Even if they do help to solve the AFK issue, they have not yet and there is no proof currently that they will. Until we see something definitive, I believe macrotaining should not be dropped out of the top 5, if that is in fact where the majority of the community placed it. I would hate to think that a developer looking at that list would think that we consider the AFK problem less important that some of the other things on that list when it's not true.

- J

Ouch Raven, Expect some flames when you get back on Monday.

I am one of the biggest supporters of AFK dancing, but I know I am a minority among the entertainers. This list should reflect the feelings of the majority of the group, and with that, if I was in your shoes I would have put AFK at number 1. Not because I agree with it, but because this list is supposed to be the “voice of the people” and everyone is screaming no AFK (most anyways).

At least this will be a fun post to read

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Reachwind wrote:

There is no way in hell player run cantinas will solve the AFK problem. I can't believe you honestly think that would be the case. We can already dance in player buildings as is and the problem is still very much alive. If anything the player run cantina is going to be a boost to AFK macro bots as the big guilds will put their pet macrotainers to work inside.

AFK is killing our profession. AFK is caused by a lack of FUN content. Work needs to be done.

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But having more fun content still won't stop the AFK. But it'll be more fun for us, so I'm in favor of that. And if the entertainer missions are fixed to be profitable AND fun, then that will help the grind a lot.

I agree in not placing AFK bots in the top five. The devs are already aware of it. If we are allowed to submit only five issues at a time, then I do not want the windmill that is AFK to be on that list.

To quote one idea listed:

Collision detection. Some items you can walk through, others you can't. Make more of them so you can't go through them so dancers don't end up standing in the middle of tables. Also possibly make it so colliding with another player makes them stop dancing?

That is an intriguing idea. While it could be a fun way to punish AFKers, it can be a source of grief. Jerks knowing about this wil move around to get in the way of someone doing the Formal dance. Then she has to /startdance all over again.

I like the idea, but it needs to be griefproof.

But the five items you have listed look pretty good to me. I'd have to add something to self-buff. It has to cost the dancer something. A free buff would be too unbalancing. Hopefully, they'll see that anyway when they consider it.

Also, Ravenmist, are you corroborating with the Musician correspondent? Since our professions are so similar, perhaps you can drop any duplicates. If the Musician list has self-buff and/or buffing status as their issues, then we can drop those issues and bump up something else.

In that sense, we are better off than most classes. While they have five, we can realistically get seven or eight. Bwahaha.

actually i agree with Ravenmist... i think it will help the problem.

also i think your suggesting that afk dancing is "killing our profession" is dubious at best. i haven't been affected at all. in fact, considering there are TONS ofentertainers because of it i'd say its far from"killing" our class.so don't hurt the rest of us by wasting the developers time on this pointless issue when they could be spending time enhancing and empowering the class.

as far as the topic goes... i agree with everything on the list except falling being #1. i'd take that off the top 5(since there is a workaround, even if it is an eyesore to most) and move up denial of service enhancements or faction points bonuses..... or maybe additional flourishes... something like that.

otherwise yah. good list.

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picklesSW wrote:
Since player-run cantinas do not provide any sort of advantage over the existing cantinas, I'm not certain why you think they will solve anything.

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I think due to the fact that player cities will have Police that can kill anyone. So the feeling is there will be cities where AFK dancing is frowned upon, and thus anyone dancing there AFK will get killed.

My point was, unless player run cantinas have an inherent benefit over a regular cantina, it will be very very difficult to entice entertainers and patrons to go there. I may be wrong, and I hope I am, but I'm not convinced yet that player cantinas will help at all. It's premature to write off this issue based on what might or might not happen.

"in fact, considering there are TONS of entertainers because of it i'd say its far from "killing" our class. so don't hurt the rest of us by wasting the developers time on this pointless issue when they could be spending time enhancing and empowering the class."

I don't believe you're in the majority with that viewpoint. It's a perfectly valid viewpoint, and I won't argue the point here, but the list above is supposed to represent what the majority of the dancing community believes our top five issues are, and from what I've read, this issue belongs close to the top of that list, if not on top.

- J

I am one of the biggest supporters of AFK dancing, but I know I am a minority among the entertainers.

i'd disagree. just from looking around in the game i see a huge number of afk entertainers. i don't think this board represents an accurate sample of the entire profession... enhancing the class will benefit everyone however taking away afk macroing has the possibility of only helping some of the class.

besides... it's my opinion that this issue cannot be rectified without serious detriment to a number of classes gameplay and this has a big part to play in why the developers will shy away from the issue. not putting it on the list is a smart idea since it will be ignored for the time being anyway.

My point was, unless player run cantinas have an inherent benefit over a regular cantina, it will be very very difficult to entice entertainers and patrons to go there. I may be wrong, and I hope I am, but I'm not convinced yet that player cantinas will help at all. It's premature to write off this issue based on what might or might not happen.

i believe the biggest benifit will be the proximity to hotspots... this will attract patrons but it will take time. if anything though i'd love to see performances in these new cantinas... from what ravenmist describes they will be 1000x better designed than the current cantinas, which for me would be enticement enough to go there... it does remain to be seen though. certainly it will do nothing to improve the current cantina situation. but then again... i think there is little that can

I don't believe you're in the majority with that viewpoint. It's a perfectly valid viewpoint, and I won't argue the point here, but the list above is supposed to represent what the majority of the dancing community believes our top five issues are, and from what I've read, this issue belongs close to the top of that list, if not on top.

i'm not going to argue that it is an not an important issue, but i do think that these boards are not a representative sample of the population of entertainers. definately it is a top 5 issue, but whetheror not the issue in the top five is 'get rid of afk macroing' or 'leave afk macroing be' is in the air. i think if you polled the general population (perhaps just the population of entertainers) you may seea wildly different opinion. it's not a bad idea for a poll. (again to be representative you'd have to have the poll on the patch screen of the game, not just on the website)

Just some final comments before I go home.

"i'd disagree. just from looking around in the game i see a huge number of afk entertainers."

I believe that's a flawed metric. I know countless entertainers that now shun the cantinas (or have outright quit the profession) because of the AFKers. I'd say that the fact that so many entertainers are now AFK is a symptom of the problem.


"besides... it's my opinion that this issue cannot be rectified without serious detriment to a number of classes gameplay and this has a big part to play in why the developers will shy away from the issue"

There are a lot of different possible solutions to the problem. Not every one is damaging or even aimed at stopping the phenomenon. Some are aimed at marginalizing it. Some are positive, others are negative. This list exists to identify the problems, not provide the solutions. And I certainly hope that if this is our #1 or #2 priority it will not be ignored, otherwise I have to question the merit of the correspondent program in its entirety.

Have a great weekend everyone!

- J