Dancer Archive
Thread: Interesting idea to revamp the buff process
I'll be short and sweet here. I really like this idea! Solves so many problems at once and I can't think of any downfalls. My only suggestion is one already mentioned, which is being able to store more than 20. 40 seems reasonable enough to take care of demand and still be able to make more charges while you wait for the next wave of customers.
So a normal buff is 2 hrs, but if you combine 2 buffs, you increase the time to 2hrs 10mins. And so on. I think this could make an actually interesting market for entertainer buffs, with differences from person to person, rather than all buffs being essentially the same
. Some entertainers will choose to always combine buffs to create the best buffs, but will not be able to buff as often, where others will buff more frequently, at the normal buff level. And I think there are customer bases for both types of buffs.
Reachwind wrote:
The disdavantages to this system though are that people with limited playing time won't be able to build up charges AND play unless they AFK to build up charges.
Any time based system will further hinder the regular entertainer.
If it uses a similiar timer to the current system than an entertainer can buff as fast as every 3 minutes and 10 seconds, which is same maximum speed that somebody can buff now using the /setperform command. Having astock pile of storedcharges would help buff groups faster, but the player with limited time would still be able to get by without maxing out their charges.
Right now a player can bufftwenty people every 3 minutes 10 seconds. That's potentially over three hundred people an hour. Is that how the charging system is going to be done?
Maryja wrote:
If it uses a similiar timer to the current system than an entertainer can buff as fast as every 3 minutes and 10 seconds, which is same maximum speed that somebody can buff now using the /setperform command. Having astock pile of storedcharges would help buff groups faster, but the player with limited time would still be able to get by without maxing out their charges.
Reachwind wrote:
Right now a player can bufftwenty people every 3 minutes 10 seconds. That's potentially over three hundred people an hour. Is that how the charging system is going to be done?
Maryja wrote:
If it uses a similiar timer to the current system than an entertainer can buff as fast as every 3 minutes and 10 seconds, which is same maximum speed that somebody can buff now using the /setperform command. Having astock pile of storedcharges would help buff groups faster, but the player with limited time would still be able to get by without maxing out their charges.
I said they could buff at the same rate as an entertainer using the /setperform command, which is almost 19 people an hour. 300 people an hour per entertainer wouldn't give buffs as much value, and how many people have had to buff 300 people in an hour?
If this is combined with the idea of increasing the number of charges you can have as you climb the skill tree, then this process would very much resemble the experiment point aspect of crafters (and thus might look more appealing to devs who are intrigued by this idea
).I'm liking this more and more.
Reachwind wrote:
Right now a player can bufftwenty people every 3 minutes 10 seconds. That's potentially over three hundred people an hour. Is that how the charging system is going to be done?
Maryja wrote:
If it uses a similiar timer to the current system than an entertainer can buff as fast as every 3 minutes and 10 seconds, which is same maximum speed that somebody can buff now using the /setperform command. Having astock pile of storedcharges would help buff groups faster, but the player with limited time would still be able to get by without maxing out their charges.
Honestly, yes, this is the only thing we would lose under this system unless the dancer prepared ahead of time: the ability to buff groups of people at once.
But, honestly, I wouldn't miss that one bit. It is our very ability to buff multiple people at once with a single dance session that is largely responsible for this whole buff bot mess in the first place. Besides, doctors can't do that either. The whole reason we have the passive group buff is because under the current system, players *have* to wait for their buffs. Under this system, they just have to find a dancer with a stored charge, and they are instantly buffed. It is no different than how doctors are now.
And yes, under this system we would probably have people who would go afk to store up charges. That is a whole different problem the devs have to tackle. AFKing isn't just our problem. What this will do though, is kill public buff bots and monopolies on buffs. Sure, guilds might have a dancer dancing 23/7 then have someone take contol and buff someone with a stored up charge as needed. But, in the cantinas, a buff bot isn't going to be able to sit there and buff people all day.
People who want to be entertained will still be entertained. This just makes it somewhat easier (remember, BF would still be around) for those who don't want to be entertained to be on their way without getting angry at us.
Aleyo wrote:
The devs, and we, may very much want people to be entertained to receive buffs. Turns out though that a whole lot of players don't want to be entertained to receive buffs or even be healed.
This is the crux of the situation, and the part that saddens me. Should our goal be to cater to the people that don't want to have to watch us perform, or should our goal be to give people a reason to want to watch us perform? I don't want to have to worry about getting ganked by a nightsister while driving to a gig - do I get to be catered to too, or is that just part of the game?
Those that think of cantinas as a necessary evil, wish our profession didn't have to be in the game, and such. I for one wouldn't mind being regarded more happily by those who come by to get buffs rather than hearing grumbling or them going afk during the buff process.
People who want to be entertained will still be entertained. This just makes it somewhat easier (remember, BF would still be around) for those who don't want to be entertained to be on their way without getting angry at us.
I don't like it when people get angry at us either... but if you make buffs easier and more "painless" for these folks, then they'll just complain more loudly about BF and mind healing. As long asentertainers exist in the game there will be people that thinkthey shouldn't. These people will never be satisfied until they don't have to spend more than 2.7 seconds with an entertainer to get healed and buffed so they can go hunt more krayts. I'm sorry that these people don't like the entertainer professions, but we are a part of the game, and they need to just get used to it. Just like I have to get used to the fact that my nalargon won't protect me against nightsisters.
Aleyo wrote:
Oh, to add to my previous post about combining charges to create more powerful buffs..
If this is combined with the idea of increasing the number of charges you can have as you climb the skill tree, then this process would very much resemble the experiment point aspect of crafters (and thus might look more appealing to devs who are intrigued by this idea
I'm liking this more and more.
I think this combined with the original is definitely worth considering.