Dancer Archive

Thread: Importance of Grouping

Schardour
Fri Apr 08, 2005 6:50 am
#1


I'm fairly certain I posted something about this once in the past, but I think it should be revisited in the CU, especially given the recently noted possibility of a permanent 8-person cap.


I posted the following in one of the feedback threads, but it certainly wasn't "on topic."








What about reducing (or even eliminating)the effect of Group Size on Dance/Music XP, increasing the Base Level of XP Incomeper dance, increasing the effect of Flourishes on Dance/Music XP, and sharing Healing XP equally amongst those present and entertaining in the cantina?


With this combination, you could accomplish several things.


A ) This addresses the negative effect that smaller groups of 8 will have on entertainer dance/ music xp earning potential. If the base level of xp in increased slightly, entertainers will be able to gain their skills at a normal rate, instead of at the reduced rate now found on TC.


B ) Those that wish to AFK through the profession can now do so in their home or private cantina, without producing spam and taking up space in the cantinas. [Edit: Or, with shared healing XP, they could hide in a corner instead of crowding the front door.] They will progress at the same speed as those that are grouped in the cantinas, because group size does not matter. Healing XP could come from providing Inspirations for their city or guild. (If they set up in a guild hall or city cantina, they can provide their Inspirations throughout the entire levelling process.)


C ) There will be less of a penalty for dancing in player cities and locations such as the Dantooine Mining Outpost or other outpost on high-level planets due to a lack of fellow entertainers. Levelling entertainers will now have the opportunity to provide their services in any location, while continuing togain substantial levels ofdance/music experience.


D ) Entertainer Healing rates will not be affected by the transition to 8-person groups.




Live entertainers will group together, regardless of XP Advantages. There are social advantages to grouping, as well as performance advantages. Why force it with Group-Based XP Gain?


Any thoughts?


Message Edited by Schardour on 04-08-2005 09:51 AM




T
IL KISMETA

lTlSlCl
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable,
but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
XzXzXzXzX
Also...Tayel [PLD]

Drygo
Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:08 am
#2

This would certainly be fine with me. And, it might be something the devs would consider except for the fact that I'd expect it might be somewhat difficult to code it so everybody present and entertaining in the cantina would get EH healing.



- I support hawtpants
Panthu
Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:51 am
#3






Drygo wrote:

This would certainly be fine with me. And, it might be something the devs would consider except for the fact that I'd expect it might be somewhat difficult to code it so everybody present and entertaining in the cantina would get EH healing.



Well actually if I understand past Dev response on thiscorrectly, this would be very do-able for EH zones such as Cantinas, Theaters, and Camps because the zone is already there.


Basically, you would be joining an area group. So, for Dancers the bandflos would apply to anyone in the zone dancing. This would mean we wouldn't need multiple groups for things like Cantina Crawls.


Everything that we've asked for up until this point (RM to me to Deila) really does lead up to this as the final solution for both group xp and performance reasons. Ithink we need to clearly ask for this on one of Eshie's next feedback lists.


The cool thing about this for Musicians is, this would be the way to finally ask for ambient music. You would have to either join the "house band" to play or you would have to go do a "solo gig" elsewhere. This would be very good for Musicians and the immersion of the game overall imo.


Message Edited by Panthu on 04-08-2005 10:52 AM




P A N T H U Y GlitterUsagi
M i n d B o d y S p i r i t
Dancer ImageDesigner Doc

Schardour
Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:54 am
#4

Well, the cantinas can now track entertainers for /registerWithLocation purposes, so I don't know if it would be a huge step. The client obviously knows when you're entertaining. "You can't attack while skill animating" has flashed across my screen a few times. I don't think it would be terribly difficult to note the location and activity of an entertainer, now that we've seen the change to /register. (Before, yes, it most certainly would have been impossible.)






T
IL KISMETA

lTlSlCl
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable,
but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
XzXzXzXzX
Also...Tayel [PLD]

Schardour
Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:55 am
#5

Ok, the forums have been doing this to me alot lately. I knowthat post wasn't there when I started mine, and it only took a few seconds to type out. O_o Why doesn't it update when I refresh!?






T
IL KISMETA

lTlSlCl
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable,
but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
XzXzXzXzX
Also...Tayel [PLD]

Panthu
Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:57 am
#6

You too slow for the Panthu! \o/


/say I win!

/boogie




P A N T H U Y GlitterUsagi
M i n d B o d y S p i r i t
Dancer ImageDesigner Doc

LyteFoot
Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:20 am
#7

I like the idea but a couple of things to consider.

Would this affect bandflo? A group of 8 can often be too small for people wanting to band flow a large number of dancers. I would like to see it carry over to this "zone group" people can always use /bandflo off to keep it from affecting them.

For musicians the environmental would be nice but I really like being able to play my broader selection of songs while in a cantina instead of being stuck on SW1 all the time. I don't know that this would be a good thing. Perhaps entertainers would only join this "zone group" when they aren't in a group of their own? This way I can group with my droid or friends and still perform all the songs instead of having to be forced into the noob group?



Elwyn LyteFoot - Corbantis server
Panthu
Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:31 am
#8






LyteFoot wrote:
I like the idea but a couple of things to consider.

Would this affect bandflo? A group of 8 can often be too small for people wanting to band flow a large number of dancers. I would like to see it carry over to this "zone group" people can always use /bandflo off to keep it from affecting them.

For musicians the environmental would be nice but I really like being able to play my broader selection of songs while in a cantina instead of being stuck on SW1 all the time. I don't know that this would be a good thing. Perhaps entertainers would only join this "zone group" when they aren't in a group of their own? This way I can group with my droid or friends and still perform all the songs instead of having to be forced into the noob group?





Well, I'm not a Musician, but I think that this could play out instead that we wouldn't be hearing the lowest level song in the Cantinas anymore. We all know you can't play with a group playing a high level song. I mean, you can't start playing and you have to ask that people drop down. This would just force this to be the norm and would give a certain amount of status to the most popular Cantina locations. So, if you want to play in the Theed House Band, you had better be able to jam with the best of the masters or you'll most likely have to sit out of most of the sets.


For early leveling, players can get those boxes by playing at the starport or going out with combat groups and playing in camps. This seems to me how it should be anyway.




P A N T H U Y GlitterUsagi
M i n d B o d y S p i r i t
Dancer ImageDesigner Doc

Panthu
Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:42 am
#9






Panthu wrote:

Well, I'm not a Musician, but I think that this could play out instead that we wouldn't be hearing the lowest level song in the Cantinas anymore. We all know you can't play with a group playing a high level song. I mean, you can't start playing and you have to ask that people drop down. This would just force this to be the norm and would give a certain amount of status to the most popular Cantina locations. So, if you want to play in the Theed House Band, you had better be able to jam with the best of the masters or you'll most likely have to sit out of most of the sets.


For early leveling, players can get those boxes by playing at the starport or going out with combat groups and playing in camps. This seems to me how it should be anyway.



It also seems like this could easily feed into things such as Fame ranking and Battle of the Bands or Dance Off type of content lots of people come to the Ent boards to ask about.


Maybe you would end up coming to the cantina and signing up as part of a "Band" or "Troupe" (you could make these on the fly or have it be your regular group of friends, this would be something like being able to pick up a group outside of the Geno Cave or going there with a group of guildmates... both are fun) and then you would compete for stage time. Each time your group wins the stage, you get a Fame point. Something like that.






P A N T H U Y GlitterUsagi
M i n d B o d y S p i r i t
Dancer ImageDesigner Doc

Esharra
Fri Apr 08, 2005 10:15 am
#10






Schardour wrote:




What about reducing (or even eliminating)the effect of Group Size on Dance/Music XP, increasing the Base Level of XP Incomeper dance, increasing the effect of Flourishes on Dance/Music XP, and sharing Healing XP equally amongst those present and entertaining in the cantina?




I would like to see possiblegrouping dynamicsthat aremore aesthetic and social centric, rather than xp gain, combat centric.I've been thinkingtwo types of groups are needed.


Suggestions regardingthe ability to combine two or moregroupsin a metagroup (or, Panthu's term, supergroup), where bandflo functions would be shared between members of themetagroup but other groups (as well as individuals) could co-exist in the same space, independent of the metagroup sound good too. Even in a large entertainer gathering, while we enjoy large groups bandfloing together, it's even more cool when you have several groups using different dances. Havingeveryone on the same bandflo would detract from that.


Because ofaesthetic and code differences, I'm not sure a general "cantina controlled" group would be such a great idea for both musicians and dancers, especially considering that musicians would like opportunities for player created music to be ambient (at least in some situations), or have the ability to be heard ambiently via an acquired skill.


As far as xp gain is concerned, I'd love to see our skill advancement to be more quest (lessgrind) oriented at some point in the future.



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)


LyteFoot
Fri Apr 08, 2005 10:44 am
#11

I could see possibly having "house bands" in some of the currently less frequented cantinas and think this would be great. However as long as some healing is tied to our experience tree the novice ents and musicians need access to the most popular locations. This is fine for dancers where you can mix dance levels in a group but would force one of two situations for musicians. Either a master would hold sway and limit access to musicians who can't play all tunes or (what most masters do today that I know) we would tone our performance down to the lowest common song. As for ambient sound, as long as band flows only benefit one person it is going to be difficult to get a group of musicians sounding like a band and let people work on experience. I don't even want to hear most grinding groups as it is, making it ambient would be horrible.

So to make this work for musicians you either need to remove the limitation on band flourish experience and let beginning entertainers play at least a couple of songs or allow player groups to override the "zone group". There are valid reasons that all band members HAVE to play the same song, the noise of random flourishes is bad enough without mixing songs as well. However this significant difference in the two professions has a big impact on how you need to implement this cantina wide group.

I like the overall idea as long as there is a way to override it without having to either control a cantina or leave it. Those are just too black and white as options for a public facility. To me the best option is to treat any ungroup performer as part of the cantina group and to treat anyone that is in a player group the same way they do today. That gives maximum flexibility while allowing for the larger groups I do hate to see being lost.

I still feel 8 players is far too small a group. We often have 10 or more dancers joining in our street parties outside Theed cantina, my quild often has 12 or so people grouped up hunting together for the fun. The group size decrease is a bad idea in my opinion and I see zero benefit to the size or level restrictions being put on groups.

Do you realize novice ents and master elites won't be able to group together? This is straight from EQ2. If they also implement the "mentor" grouping then when a master does group with a novice the master will only be able to perform at the novice's level.



Elwyn LyteFoot - Corbantis server
Panthu
Fri Apr 08, 2005 10:47 am
#12






LyteFoot wrote:

I like the overall idea as long as there is a way to override it without having to either control a cantina or leave it. Those are just too black and white as options for a public facility. To me the best option is to treat any ungroup performer as part of the cantina group and to treat anyone that is in a player group the same way they do today. That gives maximum flexibility while allowing for the larger groups I do hate to see being lost.




Yeah, I was probably wrong to even hint at that. I doubt the Devs would be interested in that and what Eshie said actually sounds like a lot more fun.




P A N T H U Y GlitterUsagi
M i n d B o d y S p i r i t
Dancer ImageDesigner Doc

NalfeinQ
Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:14 pm
#13

This sounds good, aside from the already stated worry of needing popular areas for healing xp, and thus potentially forcing zone groups to play low leevel songs if musician remains implemented the present way.

Perhaps add a 'band' functionality built into the zone group, in which different musicians can group into different groups, thus allowing multiple song levels, and the one who has the most listeners is ambient, or some such thing?



Nalfein - Dancer/Tailor
Patron Saint of Purple
Glass Howitzer - Lone
Page 1 of 3
Previous Next