Dancer Archive
Thread: Proposal for encouraging ATK play and improving buffing/healing
I like it, but I'd add that a confirmation window should pop up when you hit the deny button. I can just see myself going to buff someone but accidentally missing the "buff" button and hitting the "deny" button. Obviously, it should be a simple matter to take someone off of your deny list, as well (a management list like /addignore in the profile screen would be easiest, I assume).
Ultimately, though, I don't see this being successful. Not because it's a bad idea, because I don't think it is. Rather, it won't go through because the developers have stated that they want to encourage ATK play, not that they want to discouarge AFK play. What that says to me is that they want to make it more fun for those of us would-be socializers who can't find anyone to socialize with in the bot-filled cantinas, yet they do not want to anger any of the customers who are chronic AFKers. I suspect we'll never see any negative action (or even discouragement) taken against afk activity; the developers built it into the game, after all, and they said they did it so "normal people" wouldn't be at a disadvantage against those who are tech savvy enough to writetheir own third-party scripting programs (they really did say that, too!).
While it's possible to say the aboveidea is a benefit to ATK performers, you can't deny it would also be a detriment to AFK performers, which is a big no-no to SOE. If AFKers were only healing at novice level, nobody would ever watch them, thus penalizing them in both dance experience and healing experience. On a sidenote, what happens if anAFK entertainer is grouped with an ATK entertainer and the ATK entertainer hits the "heal" button? Is there a penalty? What if a player is watching an AFK dancer but listening to an ATK musician? Does all healing become a solo activity to prevent this from happening? If so, does the xp bonus for grouping get dropped from the game?
I guess I still have a lot of questions about the proposal, though I'm forit in spirit. I just think it might be asking too much. The Developers know what the cantinas are like and they've done nothing about it so far. The removal of holocrons helps, but it wasn't done because of us. Ultimately, SOE is a business, and they cater to whomever pays them; if you've looked around at the cantinas, you know that the AFKers have us outnumbered by about 60 to 1 these days, which makes our voice and vote very small indeed. I think we'd be better served asking for something that helps us but doesn't touch the AFKers. I don't think SOE will see any idea that negatively affects the Brotherhood of Bot.
Message Edited by Nhari on 04-30-2004 01:19 PM
I agree this would take a bit of time to implement. I remember on Test Center when they first put in the buff window 
But, outside of the new art for the interface, all the pieces are already in the game to put this system together. You'd have to make a minor tweak to the healing system and passive group buff system, but otherwise it would just be putting what is already in the game internally into a nice workable interface.
It's definitely not something I'd expect the devs to implement in a publish or two, and at least some of our issues will be resolved once holotaining goes away. But, I think that this is something that would improve the entertainer professions across the board and is a realistic solution/addition and would be something great to have added in some time in the not too distant future 
I personally think this idea is a great one. But, as others said, it would take a great deal of programming probably and wouldn't happen for quite some time. That's not to say that I don't think we shouldn't ask for it.
But, as a short term solution, why can we just 1) require /setperform for a buff and 2) get rid of /setperform as a slash command and require it to be a radial menu driven option? Wouldn't that solve the entire problem of /afk /buff'ing?
This has all been discussed in the corre forum recently. I like 'Tess's idea... I can imagine an Entertainer window too like some games have for pet classes and similar to the one ID's have/will be getting. It would be nice to have for future Entertainment expansions I would imagine... but we've had no word on making any of our actions active only yet, so I honestly have no idea what would be considered at this point.
We can try askingabout this in our next Answer session with TH.
Thoughts?Wow 'Tess, this is a really good idea. Conceptually, it sounds like it truly eleviates allt he problems you mentioned.
It's the technical aspect that I'm sure will be the problem. Remember when the devs put the Buff Window in place? It so didn't work right the first time. I can imagine how something like you're proposing would take alot of time to implement.
But I like the idea of how the healing is reduced to, effectively, level 1 when you're AFK no matter what level you're truly at.
And the removal of certain / commands while AFK, like you said, would also get rid of many of the AFK problems. Not just for dancer but many of the other professions as well.
Very cool
Esharra wrote:
Perhaps if the boxes/buttons appear at random locations on the screen, then mouseclicks could not be automated by 3rd party freeware.
No sense in doing that. For one, it would make things difficult for us, and the idea is to help us. But, also, 3rd party macro software is against the SOE ToS. If they find anyone using this software, they will suspend or ban your account. We just have to concern ourselves with what the game alone is capable to do and accept that some people will get around it with outside software, and just leave that to the CSRs to handle with as we/they see it.
Panthu wrote:This has all been discussed in the corre forum recently. I like 'Tess's idea... I can imagine an Entertainer window too like some games have for pet classes and similar to the one ID's have/will be getting. It would be nice to have for future Entertainment expansions I would imagine... but we've had no word on making any of our actions active only yet, so I honestly have no idea what would be considered at this point.
We can try askingabout this in our next Answer session with TH.
silly Panthu, Tess always has good ideas
I even got her to help me draft our updated cantina rules
