Dancer Archive
Thread: Speed buffing exploit or not?
ok tell me , how many people have said to you OMG DONT BUFF ME SO QUICK!, heheh none i bet , now wheter or not you think this is a exploit who is it hurting? the people recieving the buff are very happy, the people giving the buff are also happy , the entertainers that are in the cantina that are not doing this buff are there to entertain not buff anyway from the sounds of it, and people that want the 10 min or 3 min buff will make there choice.
what it WILL STOP is people doing afk macro buffs, which is where u will get most of the complaints from , to do this you need to be at the keyboard , this will take alot of tips from the people that think that starting a macro that does 3 min buffs while they are afk auto inviting people to group is a good way to conduct the profession.
if anything this has given dancers and musicians a way to actually stay at the keyboard make a few credits and have some fun as well as meet alot of people , instead of people going and seeing a afk macro buffer cause hardly any (not all) cantinas have anyone at the keyboard that can buff.
i say this is a awsome improvement to the profession and will mean the cantinas will be used more (instead of brandy etc) and will be a much more social place without spamming afk buffers, doing it purely for the money with no intrest in the profesion or helping others.
if this is a exploit so is being able to compleatly leave your pc and still give buffs aint it ? so if they fix it i damn well hope they also fix the afk buffers too.
just my opinion , dont flame me.
About the only thing the devs could do to prevent people from doing this is to reduce the number of flourishes you can perform every eight seconds. There are too many other variables that are out of their control to nerf it any other way. Some races, Rodians for example
can migrate their stats in such a way that it can be done without doctor buffs. You can also easily do it if your customer (or someone else) Action heals you while you buff (since many combat types have Novice medic this isn't an unusual occurrence). Whether you use a macro or not is irrelevant since you can just as easily do a speed buff by banging on the keyboard... maybe not superfast, but still pretty fast. I would suspect that in the not too distant future we will be capped attwo flourishes every eight seconds and that will be the end of speed buffs.
And this does not stop people from macroing buffs at all. Since this is a macro that does this anyway, why would you need to be there to do it?
The people this hurts are the ones who like to actually entertain, but would like to make a little money buffing. Normally they could do that with no problem, as buffing is the same as performing. However, doing it in 30 seconds means you aren't performing at all. So now they are forced to choose between having fun and making money. And of course people will get pissed at them if they don't choose not to have fun.
I'm at a complete loss on this one. Last week I "proclaimed" that I enjoy the art of the dance. But I've come to find that 97% of my clients just want a speed buff.. and they can easily find one elsewhere where I work. I'm also an MDoc and I charge a lot.. 23k infact for the whole deal. I obviously know that with some good BE brandy I can buff all 6 HAMstats in 1.5 minutes whereas it takes me8 minutes to buff the mind.(?) The best solution.. I'm thinking right now is to decrease the mind buff time to around 2 minutes. While my customers wait for the mind buff they are also loosingmoney on the HAMbuff they just paid for. The clientel I deal with have everything.. EVERYTHING timed to the minute it seems and the 8 minutes is just too long for them.
-Turbomixer- MD/MD
(by high quality i mean high % of course, got a few skill tapes just for giggles)i would say that if someone's really in a hurry, an extra few flourishes won't hurt. it's iffy to use the start/stop technique though
Well...I'm one of those people who still enjoys actually being immersed in the whole environment and doing things completely at the keyboard, keeping my sound on and listening to the cantina music as I dance, etc. I would PREFER if the game were set up not to allow all of the macros, and the speedbuffing and whatnot. However, that's not how it is, and I just gotta deal with it because it's not my place to tell anyone how to play their game. Having said that, I would then have to say that the speedbuffing is not an exploit, and if people want to do it, by all means let them. Definition of an exploit or not, I feel that if something's coded into the game, whether by accident or on purpose, that's not the fault of the players. If the dev team wants to fix it, then they need to fix it. Until that time, it should be considered fair game without any negative consequences to the player.
I'm still holding out, though. I still do dancing buffs the old fashioned way, and I can do it that way because it doesn't appear that it's caught on yet. I find only a minority of people actually doing it. In fact, it's difficult to get into a cantina and find people buffing in the first place, even the busy ones. I have tried. As a master dancer who also engages in combat, it's frustrating to me that I can't buff myself. And, then I go somewhere to get buffed and can't find anyone doing it. It's annoying. But, the upside of this is that when I do go into a Cantina to buff, I still have a line, and I still get paid fairly well to do it, even if I am giving the 10 minute buff.So, it's not an issue for me. However, my fear is that eventually it will catch on and the people doing the speedbuffs will get all the business. That means that if I want to make money buffing, I will HAVE to join in doing the speedbuffs, and that's really the problem that I have with this. I never want to force anyone to play the way I want them to play. Yet at the same time, when everyone starts doing the speedbuff, I will be forced to play the game the way they are playing, or not have any business. Not much of a choice, really.
4 minutes I don't have a problem with. You can do that without having to use any special macro to work around any limits.
I still have not made up my mind on this. As far as I'm concerned its not "illegal" until a dev gets in here andsays it is. Also if it is some kind of crime - its a victimless crime. Ok. you could argue that it may hurt a dancer who doesn't know the macro or doesn't wish to use it.. but in my case I only mind-buff in concert with my HAM buff.. so my customer isn't going to buy any one elses mind buff anyway. Or what if you're the only dancer at Dath Science Outpost? Its not like the "master "CH in 3 hours" exploit... or "poison someone from inside a private building" exploit. You are still giving someone a legitimate service thatthey have paid for.. just a bit faster.
I have used a 2 minute buff a few times for customers who were really in a hurry to meet an impatient group. In ways its kind of gross and unpleasant and in other ways you feel like an UBER-buffing machine. You most definatley feel like your giving them faster and more convienientservice.
----> Have the game recoded so the mind-buff only takes 2-3 minutesand this will all go away. If people stillwish to watch a hot dancer for 8-10 minutes thats fine! But we all know some of the most successful combat oriented players are fast movers and really have no interest in sitting around when they can be out in the feild making 30-100k in an hour. Don't even imagine if there is a fierce PvP battle going on that they will even think about getting an 8-10 minute mind buff - even though its usually the most important stat in PvP.
........still comtemplating........
Turbomixer MD/MD
IagIag wrote:
----> Have the game recoded so the mind-buff only takes 2-3 minutesand this will all go away. If people stillwish to watch a hot dancer for 8-10 minutes thats fine! But we all know some of the most successful combat oriented players are fast movers and really have no interest in sitting around when they can be out in the feild making 30-100k in an hour. Don't even imagine if there is a fierce PvP battle going on that they will even think about getting an 8-10 minute mind buff - even though its usually the most important stat in PvP.
........still comtemplating........
Turbomixer MD/MD
Yup, you're right. the pvpers do NOT want to wait 8-10 min for a mind buff. Nor do those groups want to wait 15 min. Especially, if they've received they're other buffs already and you have a line up. I buffed 2 guys last night in a group who were doing the geo cave. I got paid 8k for it and then got tipped another 12k just because it was so fast. Where I dance, the clients really appreciate it.
Oh, I don't lose out on the social aspect. I have people (mostly guys of course) come in and sit and spend nearly 1/2 hour talking to me. Sometimes, it's 5 or 6 of us goofing around all together. If someone comes in for a buff, they don't want social activity anyway. Everyone quiets down for a min while I do the buff, that patron leaves and the fun continues. This speed buff has in no way cuts down on my social side of this industry. Not in my xp.
My husband is a triple master- master tk, smuggler,and gunfighter- missions only take him about 5 min for 2 enraged rancor missions that pay 36-39k avg ea. If he waited for the 8-10 min buff he could have made 150k or more (using the low end of 36k ea).
He doesn't want to lose that time and money. His missions aren't for xp. They're for the money. He would do the the 2 or 3 min buff but to wait 8-10 min after he's received his other buffs and after waiting any lineups(3 people waiting=30 min wait+8--10 min buff=nearly 40min before he's out the door), seems a bit much for him when he can wait maybe 3 min (if there's a lineup)and be gone in 4. That way he still has most of his other buffs.
I can understand why some think this is an exploit. I really can. However, this isn't hurting anyone. It's not third-party macro. So I use it. I will continue to use it until the devs say otherwise. Or until my clients start complaining about leaving my presence too fast
I will say this one last thing. What we should do is this: if anyone asks from now on if this buff is an exploit, state your opinion, your reasons and then let it go. No one needs to get mad at anyone else for using or not using this buff. For now, until the devs chime in, it is personal opinion. Let each person make up his/her mind about what they are comfortable doing and be done with it.
Bet all you people who hate this macro repair their speederbikes the wrong way: no garage. Isn't that an exploit? If you're against one exploit shouldn't you, logically , be against all? Besides, this quick buff isn't an exploit anyway.
Acidic wrote:Its not a exploit till the devs say it is, so use it freely till they do. And if they try to ban you for using it without saying it wasnt first then sue them
Not true. I don't think I've ever seen a post from a dev saying "multi-slicing is an exploit", yet you can get your account banned for doing it. They will never publish a list of known exploits because many people don't even know they exist. If they publish a list people could find out about something they didn't know about, then go look up how to do it.
Fortunately there is a simple litmus test for something being an exploit. Just ask yourself, "Did the devs intend people to be able to do it this way?" Typically, if you have to ask, then yes it is an exploit.
I don't think anyone will be banned for this, but I wouldn't recommend using it.
Anyway, I've finally gotten the attention of the devs on this, so hopefully I'll have an official answer for those who have to be told "no" before they'll figure out they shouldn't be doing something.