Dancer Archive

Thread: Story of A Force Sensitive Dancer

Goldy_Lhim
Tue Sep 07, 2004 8:18 am
#1



Hello. My name is Goldy Lhim, Master Dancer and former Master Doctor of the Kauri Galaxy and I'm Force Sensitive. I had 75 badges before publish 10 hit and did 3 holocrons. I've been a dancer since launch and the only time I wasn't a master dancer was while I did those 3 holocrons.


Here's the story of my FS journey thus far from a Dancer/Doctor (no combat what so ever) point of view. Its pretty lengthy, you don't have to read it if you don't want to, I just think documentation on the trials of a non-combat in this new system may prove useful later on. Perhaps not, but it can't hurt.


Test Center Preparation


I had tried my template against the Sith on TC2 when those character builders were available. First time I got the Sith to spawn some guy, thinking I was in trouble, killed the Sith and "saved me". I was unable to loot and not able to continue on my path. So I deleted that character and tried again, this time I made sure I was in the middle of no where for the Sith attack. Second run, I was fully buffed and in composite armor with a republic blaster (very much like what I would have on live), it took me 1 hour to kill just 1of the Sith solo. Ugh. Why are they making me fight at all?


Publish 10 Force Sensitivity


I was glowy after publish 10 went live and was visited by the old man 2 days later. From my test center romp I knew I did not want to be alone when these Sith attacked. So I latched onto my husband's (Illiam) side and followed the Master Ranger / Novice Bounty Hunter wherever he went.


We went to Endor. I buffed him and myself and we were off looking for specific meat for an order he had. I was bored out of my skull. With my doctor buffs (I was a master doctor still at this time) he needed very little attention so I preoccupied myself with important tasks like getting my lipstick to match my armor.


I had 15 minutes left on my doctor buffs, Illiam just set up one of his uber tents for me to dance and heal in when I was under attack! It was the Siths only this time they conned blue since I was grouped with Illiam and he killed them in about 5 seconds flat. Man it was a lot easier than solo! Still don't understand why killing Siths proves my FS-ness.


I loot the data disc and head to the next waypoint where Illiam killed the rest of the Sith and I was invited to Aurilia.


Aurilia and Senses Tree Phase 1


After driving through the dangerous planet of Dathomir and only getting incapacitated once by some of those evil miniature raptor things, I arrive in Aurilia. First thing I notice, I am the only dancer in the joint. People are surprised I am there and say things like "Woah, its Goldy! What are you doing here?" Undaunted by reactions, I pull up my guides on whom to talk to in the village.


My 3-holocron professions granted me 2 free unlocks. This is where it got difficult for me. Really difficult. You see the FS trees didn't really have a whole lot to offer me. My dancer and medical experience transferred into the Senses tree, my medical crafting transferred into the crafting tree. But the branches themselves had very little to offer me to enhance my character.


Since I hate crafting with a deadly passion, I blew away my 2 free unlocks on Experimentation and Assembly in the crafting line. I would have hated to have to grind out enough medicines to fill those. My Master Dancer / Master Doctor template only allowed 4 spare skillpoints, so I dropped some of the doctor crafting boxes to make enough room for those 8 skill points I needed.


Now with the majority of my skills going toward the senses experience, I decided it be best to just get master senses in order to get my remaining 4 lines needed for a Jedi.


Problems that may arise for folks in situations like mine, Phase 1 in the Senses line requires you to be a master medic to even get the quest. I was a 4/4/4/2 doctor so I could get the quest but not all dancers/musicians are medics.


My husband wanted to transfer his ranger skills (trapping, camps, etc) into this line but was also denied the persuasion skills because he's not a master medic. In fact there's not much he can do with his ranger skills, as you have to be a medic or artisan to complete them. He is neither but a good chunk of what he does transfers to this line. Just a note to show this isn't just effecting non-combat folks like us, this entire tree is sort of biased.


This quest is for the persuasion line, which (I would think) should be obtainable by everyone, not just master medics. It helps reduce costs from NPCs, it doesn't make them better medics so why this requirement is in place is a tad absurd. This quest should be changed to something more generic that anyone could unlock.


Senses Tree Phase 2


Looking ahead, I believe phase 2 requires you to survey to unlock. I'm unsure if it’s the survey branch or luck branch that is next as I've seen 2 guides that contradict each other on the order of the phases for this tree.


I believe it is luck in which case I would argue the same with the persuasion branch, forcing of artisan skills for something this generic of a bonus is darn silly. Why do I need to survey to gain some luck? It isn't a bonus to survey that I can figure. The description makes it look like you have a chance of finding better loot. I could be wrong though. If I'm not, this quest should be changed to something anyone can do, fighter or not.


If it's for the survey line, I can see it making sense. You want to enhance your surveying you should be able to survey. Some dancers may have artisan but I sure don't and I need to find room in my template to obtain this skill temporarily just to unlock 2 branches.


Overall Feeling


Now let me say right away, I'm dedicated to doing this. I shall be the first Master Dancer on Kauri to complete the Padawan Trials if I can help it. The idea of continuing to dance/heal/buff and play my character as I want while working toward my Jedi is a much better solution than the holocrons and constant profession swap. But this system could use some tweaking still, in my opinion.


Mostly my selection for FS skills is very limited. Only 1 line offers me a bonus to my healing, the rest is essentially junk to me. I don't craft often making those 2 lines I obtained for free pretty useless. I am at my finished template so persuasion doesn't help me at all, I don't hunt making luck not kick in and I am not an artisan yet I will be getting the survey tree just because I have no other choices to spend my Senses exp on. I suppose instead of the Luck and Survey line, I could get Crafting Mastery tree to full but even that has junk in it. Doctors don't need the repair or technique line for their medicines.


I'm feeling sort of left out on the neat new enhancements for non-combat lines. Like dancers and medics were an afterthought in the whole Jedi plan. Granted probably 80% of the combat profession want Jedi and they are a much larger audience than the healers/crafters, but that doesn't mean we don't deserve useful enhancements as well.


The dancer bonus in the healing branch is positively worthless. I could get those with BE clothes, why not give us a real bonus. Reduced action costs, a new song/dance, bonus to mind enhancements, the missing flourishes from exotic! I would have taken any of these over + to wound healing.


What I think needs to be looked at:



  1. Requirements to complete unlocking quests in the Senses Tree. They should be more generic and not require specific professions to complete.

  2. Rewards are kinda flaky. I know someone that got the Aurilian plant and had it disappear after it died because he had no instructions on how to care for it. Rewards shouldn't disappear. Also the combat medic assembly necklace was random. It was a master medic requirement to unlock, you should have a bonus that caters to that group, the necklace was junk for me.

  3. Bonuses gained in the boxes need to be looked over. Right now they aren't appealing enough for a Dancer to be even interested in. We heal plenty fast enough, give us a real bonus to our skills.

Message Edited by Goldy_Lhim on 09-07-2004 03:31 PM



G O L D Y
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Esharra
Tue Sep 07, 2004 9:52 am
#2

Well, I got one free branch so I trained the healing branch of heightened senses. I never grinded, just played my way and enjoyed myself, so I don't feel a greatneed for any reward really. Why would I want a reward for what I chose to dobecause I enjoy it (I never wanted to be a jedi). I'm very saddened that without any quests for performers, I won't be able to open any of the other branches in the heightened senses tree. A couple of them look like they could be mildly fun rp tools. I do think it kind of sad that the best they could give us is +20 Wound Healing when I can get +25 from any of my favorite of hot pants.


I've been told the rustic charm of the village has been broken by the recursive spam of afk players advertising their vendors and doctors hawking 20k buffs so I haven't gone back.



Esharra ěsh-äŕ-rä, noun
1. Entertainer
2. Bounty Hunter
3. Smuggler

"One man's oddity is another man's routine." -Bertos Goodner (a dancer)


therealzizz
Tue Sep 07, 2004 10:47 am
#3

Excellent post! I do agree that the non-combat professions were completly left out of the village.It would of been nice to perhaps receive a special reward for just making it to the village. But oh well. I made it, I danced , took alot of neat pics and now Im done with it. Good luck to you in your journey and please keep us posted. Its nice to see posts like these for change.


Zizz
Goldy_Lhim
Tue Sep 07, 2004 10:52 am
#4






Esharra wrote:

Well, I got one free branch so I trained the healing branch of heightened senses. I never grinded, just played my way and enjoyed myself, so I don't feel a greatneed for any reward really. Why would I want a reward for what I chose to dobecause I enjoy it (I never wanted to be a jedi). I'm very saddened that without any quests for performers, I won't be able to open any of the other branches in the heightened senses tree. A couple of them look like they could be mildly fun rp tools. I do think it kind of sad that the best they could give us is +20 Wound Healing when I can get +25 from any of my favorite of hot pants.


I've been told the rustic charm of the village has been broken by the recursive spam of afk players advertising their vendors and doctors hawking 20k buffs so I haven't gone back.






cI assume you are calling a jedi as a reward? I honestly have no great need for a jedi, second character slot would be nice, I don't know what I'd do with a jedi. But I'm able to participate in some real live dev content instead of my own player made events for a change and I tend to get excited about stuff like that. I'm able to "earn" this jedi by continuing to play as I would normally so I see no harm in giving it a shot Agreed on the quests for performers. As I said, it feels like we were an afterthought tossed in after the design was set. Perhaps they expected entertainers to think more like you and not care about the quests or jedi?


cI haven't noticed that but I haven't spent a huge amount of time in the villiage. I trained, got the quest and realized I needed ingredients to do the quest so I said poop on it and returned to theed to dance for a day or two before going back and finishing the persuasion quest. Then I went back out there to get the stupid second reward necklace *chunks it over her shoulder*.


I was a little cheezed that there was no tavern or cantina type area for me to dance. But I guess they don't really want folks hanging around for an extended period, just train, do quests and get out.



G O L D Y
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Esharra
Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:45 am
#5






Goldy_Lhim wrote:

cI assume you are calling a jedi as a reward? I honestly have no great need for a jedi, second character slot would be nice, I don't know what I'd do with a jedi. But I'm able to participate in some real live dev content instead of my own player made events for a change and I tend to get excited about stuff like that. I'm able to "earn" this jedi by continuing to play as I would normally so I see no harm in giving it a shot Agreed on the quests for performers. As I said, it feels like we were an afterthought tossed in after the design was set. Perhaps they expected entertainers to think more like you and not care about the quests or jedi?







I guess what was going through my mind was that my character never did anything that I felt warranted the reward that those who "grinded for jedi" seem to feel they should be getting. I've just done a lot of things with her because I'm a very active player and I did the things I wanted to when I felt I would enjoy doing them. The fun I have had with that has been my reward.


I'm honestly more proud of my 69 badges received by casually trying different things and seeing all the sights (although a 70th badge for going to the village would have been anice little surprise). At this time, this character (I play 2 others on the same server and 2 more on different servers as well) is entertainer, dancer, musician with a little scout and novice medic thrown in so she doesn't qualify for any of the quests.


While dev content would be nice, I'm happy with the player-created content and I'm grateful we have a such a versatile world to play it out in. I do have suggestions for how this environment could improve to encourage this, as I'm sure you do as well. Considering how it sounds the entertainer quests expected in 10.2 will pan out (and their similarity to the existing entertainer quests & starter quests), I guess in some ways I'd rather see nothing than just more of the same. New, unique content would sure help me to overcome this feeling of incredible underwhelmedness, hopefully in time, it'll happen for us.





Esharra ěsh-äŕ-rä, noun
1. Entertainer
2. Bounty Hunter
3. Smuggler

"One man's oddity is another man's routine." -Bertos Goodner (a dancer)


menyou
Tue Sep 07, 2004 3:42 pm
#6

Nice post and some excellent points. Have to agree that the non-combat people have been VERY badly done by this. Whereas the skills in the combat lines are usefull ( or will probably be when the rebalance appears - e.g. melee speed is currently useless for a TKM ) the non-combat skills are exactly the opposite. Crafting should give extra crafting points, dancing better buffs, doc better buffs etc. rather than the pathetic stuff we have currently.




Katier Rax
"Blueberry" Entertainer to the masses
Testcenter Mistress plastic surgeon, Mistress Dancer, Mistress Entertainer, Musician
Starsider Mistress Dancer and Live entertainment supporter


Drygo
Tue Sep 07, 2004 3:46 pm
#7


The thing about it is, I can totally absolutely understand why the devs have the focus for Jedi on combat. After all, Jedi is a combat profession. I have no beef with that. But, still, I feel slighted yet again, that first, our force sensitive abilities are pretty useless. But, even moreso, that we can't even have access to our force sensitive abilities without once again ruining our templates by having to pick up skills that we have no interest in whatsoever. I didn't ruin my template to hologrind for Jedi, and I'm not about to ruin my template again by having to completely drop all of dancer, entertainer, or teras kasi just so I can grind up to master medic. If you ask me, the Jedi revamp is probably one of the best content additions to hit the game since launch. And, as usual, we're left out. I mean, honestly, would it hurt that much to plop a little entertainment hut (cantina) in the village so we can do a healing quest?

Message Edited by Drygo on 09-07-2004 03:47 PM



- I support hawtpants
Utess
Wed Sep 08, 2004 12:08 am
#8

There are a lot of problems with conversion rates, requirements to take quests, and the overall need to have combat ability or a group of dedicated bodyguards to do this FS stuff.


I could talk about the lack of Entertainer and Healing bonuses but you already covered that


But, the other problems are:


- You have to be involved in at least *some* combat to even get into the village


- XP conversion is broken up by profession, not branch. This means scouts and rangers can't use scouting xp for the survival line, etc.


- Some of the quests require novice artisan and others master medic. Forcing people with other professions who would benefit from those bonuses to change their profession temporarily. An example: BEs who would benefit from the assembly fs branch, still have to pick up novice artisan to complete them.


- The senses bonuses, while wonderful from an RP standpoint, offer little value for the skill points spent.


- Finally, the conversion rates all seem to be based on how quickly a powergamer could grind them, assuming they would be willing to change their profession at the drop of a hat. Like the crafting xp conversion rates which seem to be based on the assumption that a power gamer will pick up architect and use that to grind.


Those and the problems you outlined are basically the major issues I have with this FS stuff =/ If you have a combat profession, its great. I could see entertainer/combat characters really liking the low cost bonuses since you don't have much in the way of skill points to spare.


As it stands right now though, unless you are combat or have free unlocks, the only super nice benefit of the village is that itsforced all the powergamer hologrinding kiddies into one place, leaving the rest of the server refreshingly smacktard free



________________________________

'Tess

- Utess Pero: Master Entertainer, Master Dancer, Master Musician, ID
- Andria Pasretti: Master Artisan, Master Merchant, Teras Kasi Master
- Tatiyana Karkuf: Master Medic, Master Combat Medic, Master Doctor
Luciee_Depri
Wed Sep 08, 2004 3:46 am
#9

As a doc/dancer who was considering going force sensitive, I thank you for this post. You've saved me countless hours! I think that the lack of a cantina/tavern in the village speaks volumes. While I won't be pursuing force sensitivity, I do wish you the best of luck in your journey, Goldy! You go, girl!
Knight776
Wed Sep 08, 2004 5:53 am
#10

I think it wonderful that you are progressing to your Jedi in spite of the odds being stacked against the non-combat template you possess (and, in fact, a large number of entertainers as well.)


One thing you need to remember is that these FS skill trees you are working on right now will still be around when you do head into the Padawan trials and beyond, most notably, trying to survive the constant threat of attack while you are progressing toward Knight. It could be prudent to drop a portion of your template to master a combat skill temporarily, so as to have the XP available for conversion to Force Combat and Force Reflexes skill trees. My thought here is taking melee accuracy, melee speed, ranged defense and melee defense (the defenses being something every combat class, including Jedi could use.) As you can see, you are already being forced into dropping skill branches to just do the FS branches. Also, seeing as how Jedi Knight takes (as I recall) 230 skill points...well, you can see where that is going to lead.


Good luck to you in your quest!



Danaea V'Anar - Alliance Clandestine Procurement Specialist
Kynara - Alliance Military Intelligence Operative

West Anchorhead Community (WAH) - Starsider
Knight776
Wed Sep 08, 2004 5:59 am
#11






Utess wrote:


As it stands right now though, unless you are combat or have free unlocks, the only super nice benefit of the village is that itsforced all the powergamer hologrinding kiddies into one place, leaving the rest of the server refreshingly smacktard free






OMG....I can't stop laughing at the truth in that statement.



Danaea V'Anar - Alliance Clandestine Procurement Specialist
Kynara - Alliance Military Intelligence Operative

West Anchorhead Community (WAH) - Starsider
Goldy_Lhim
Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:30 am
#12






Knight776 wrote:

I think it wonderful that you are progressing to your Jedi in spite of the odds being stacked against the non-combat template you possess (and, in fact, a large number of entertainers as well.)


One thing you need to remember is that these FS skill trees you are working on right now will still be around when you do head into the Padawan trials and beyond, most notably, trying to survive the constant threat of attack while you are progressing toward Knight. It could be prudent to drop a portion of your template to master a combat skill temporarily, so as to have the XP available for conversion to Force Combat and Force Reflexes skill trees. My thought here is taking melee accuracy, melee speed, ranged defense and melee defense (the defenses being something every combat class, including Jedi could use.) As you can see, you are already being forced into dropping skill branches to just do the FS branches. Also, seeing as how Jedi Knight takes (as I recall) 230 skill points...well, you can see where that is going to lead.


Good luck to you in your quest!





Yes what you said makes sense, but honestly... I don't know that I want the jedi to like play so much as use for roleplaying / events. I'm a huge organizer of Kauri events and a BH only "find the jedi" event is something I've wanted to do but for some reason have problems finding jedi to volunteer for this position lol.


Most likely I will not be converted into a fighter. That could change after Jedi is opened. I dunno.


So while I do agree that the combat lineswould most useful for my jedi; the benefit of playing as I do everyday and still getting a jedi rather than switching to combat and leaving my cantina behind is more appealing to me. Still being that 125% live dancer buffer, being the doctor there to heal your wounds and knowing you can call on goldy to come prepare your group for a raid is more beneficial to how I play right now. It may be stupid to do this instead of preparing for the future, but like I said. I don't even know that I want/need a jedi. I'm just enjoying the ride





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Knight776
Thu Sep 09, 2004 4:27 am
#13






Goldy_Lhim wrote:


,,,and a BH only "find the jedi" event is something I've wanted to do but for some reason have problems finding jedi to volunteer for this position lol.






Having been a bounty hunter at one time.....*smirk*


And, forgive my appearance of shock, but you have got to be the first person I have seen to openly admit to wanting a Jedi for the roleplay aspect of the class. It's just too bad more Jedi don't have the same attitude.



Danaea V'Anar - Alliance Clandestine Procurement Specialist
Kynara - Alliance Military Intelligence Operative

West Anchorhead Community (WAH) - Starsider
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