Dancer Archive

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Dreamland wrote:

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Drygo wrote:

3.) Entertainers record the holovids. Entertainers will *not* be crafting under this scenario. They will be recording either dance or music vids, just like with the playback droids. These modules can be sold directly from the entertainer to the patron. Or, they can be put on vendors (merchant interdependence--both entertainer and merchant make money from this.) It would take 3.5 minutes to record the buff video (or BF video, maybe less time, maybe more depending on the potency of the healing.) The fact that no factories can be involved in the recording of the vid, and that it takes a full 3.5 minutes to do so, for buffs for example, means that the market will not become over saturated.

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That does leave the door open though for existing buffbot users to just keep thier buffbot to crank out holos to buff themselves and guildies, reducing the demand for buffs and alowing them to stockpile buffs.

Maybe if the holorecordings had a lifespan like candles only much shorter, this way someone couldn't take a buffbot and stockpile holorecordings, thus limiting market saturation further.

I still like Tiagas compromise better though because it preserves the audience interaction as the cusomer has to come to an entertainer to record the performance. maybe that system combined with short lifespan recordings.

Message Edited by Dreamland on 08-06-2004 10:35 PM

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Possibly. But, for one thing, if it takes 3.5 minutes to record one video, then you've got a max possible 15 videos recorded per hour. That's not even enough to buff a 20 person group. Also, if the end to the recursive macros work properly, people are hopefully not going to be able to do this all day at work or all night while they sleep. I almost think that considering how many people want these buffs...I mean, I see 15 people at a time gathered around the buffbots, that allowing this still might not keep up with demand at certain times.

Question for anyone who might know...can you macro the playback droids? I doubt anyone has even tried doing this yet considering the fact that you only get to record 6 songs on a playback droid. But is it possible? I've always done it manually, using the radial dial. If it's not possible then that means the extra buffbot accounts would still have to be there live every 3.5 minutes to record a video. This means, putting the vid in the droid, recording, taking the video out of the droid, storing the video in a backpack or dropping it in your house or whatever the case is, because you're going to run out of room in your inventory. If all of these things are not macro-able, or even if a portion of them are, I think it would be extremely difficult for a former buffbot to adequately do this while afk.

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DarkY0da wrote:

No to the NPC's. Reasons already stated.

I sort of liked....

Fix Registration and make it so you could Register in any Tavern, hotel, cantina or Theater. Make any place that can be registered by Entertainers to heal at the level of Novice Musician/Dancer when no one is registered there. And Make Ranger camps places where Entertainers can heal BF at.

The Recording idea is sort of nifty and neat but it's not something that I really like. And to put the DEVs time into doing some like that.. I mean that would take soo much more DEV time then something like my suggestion...

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Sigrun wrote:

Are you looking for financial gain, interaction, or both?

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Message Edited by Esharra on 08-07-2004 06:36 AM

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Lesia wrote:

Can you tell me how selling holovids in the bazaar for 6k or less is going to help the novice dancer or musician make healing experience? Will a novice entertainer be able to sell holovids as well as amaster dancer or musician? How will they receive their healing exp? Based on the number of vids?Will they grind through healing by making vids?

Entertainers meet and join in city cantinasbecause they get better experience grouped with other entertainers. I'm not in favor of anything that mightseparate entertainers and make it more difficult for them to gain experience. This learning experience is probably what has made entertainers such a tight community.

The whole idea ofmaking holovids seems impersonal. If someone is coming to you to make a vid, why don't they just come to you to be healed?

Regarding NPC entertainers *shudder*, if I need doctor's buffs, I go to outside the Coronet Starport whereI know I can find a live doctor. And if I'm playing an alt and need a bf heal, I run totheTheed or Coronetcantina. if you're willing to make a contribution, people will be there, just like theatk doctors always stationed outside the Starport.

With the end of buff vendors we cleared a huge hurdle. Please let's not create another hurdlebefore we know the outcome. In fact, this mightcreate a wonderfuloption forpre-master dancers and musiciansoutside the large city cantinas where they willbe appreciated for their ability to heal bf in distantoutposts.

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I would suspect it would be similar to how the crafters get xp from people using their tools and stuff. It's a very very very small amount, but it helps. It would be really difficult to grind out anything only using these things. You would still get xp from the initial "recording session" when you created the holovid. And then some trickling of it when they use the holovid.

I would point out with the bulk of this that medics are the same. Are they generally hard to find? Not really and if someone is worries about it they get novice medic. The same should be the case with Entertainers. More so I feel as entertainers do it for fun, medics usually are in medic centres levelling rather than for a service. Entertainers will allways be in cantinas (against medics being anywhere) and thus IMO it's more likely that healing your wounds is a problem than your mind.

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Dreamland wrote:

I say they should remove unatended play, add no aditional features for the time being to heal players without entertainers, and see how it works first BEFORE making the descision to add something that makes entertainers unnecessary in the same pass. If its a terrible problem then something can be done about it because to me speculation that its going to be impossible to get healed is just that speculation. This game hasn't been played without the ablility to play unatended yet so to say you know what will happen with 100% certainty seems a bit premature.

Message Edited by Dreamland on 08-06-2004 08:03 PM

Message Edited by Dreamland on 08-06-2004 08:13 PM

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I second that.

I think the paranoia is unfounded.

We now have a global player base, which I think is why we have so many people concerned about "off hours." There are many more people playing in "off hours" than there used to be.

Also, let me paint a scenario that I don't think is far-fetched because it's partly based on my experiences from when I was a newbie and before AFK took over and drove people away. It assumes that AFK has been removed from the cantina:

I'm a new player. I saw this game advertised on Gamespy's 14 day trial, and I thought the idea of the entertaining professions sounded interesting.

I go to the local cantina, and it's crowded and busy. I'm in a group and I'm getting all the exp I could use, but.. I'm not getting any tips because the group is so full and the patrons are tipping the high level dancers instead of me. This kinda sucks.

I don't really have the money to travel the galaxy on a regular basis, so finding a cantina with few entertainers that still has a regular customer base is difficult at best.

I notice that some members of my group are saying they can't believe they've stayed up this late *again*! But I look at the clock and it's only 9 p.m. Oh yeah, she's in the UK, that's why it's so late!

And then I see the solution -- Maybe one of those European servers will offer me what I need, a situation where I can get healing exp to further my skills but I can also get tips at the same time, because the market isn't saturated with entertainers because what's normal play time for me is off time over there. So I make a new character on Europe-XYZ and go to the same cantina, but the ratio of entertainers to patrons is different and I manage to make more tips.

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I think what we have to remember is that what we're debating is *NOT* how to deal with the current player base. The current player base is addicted to AFKing and spoiled (but hopefully not beyond repair). What we are changing is how new players and returning players fit into the healing cycle. There will be an adjustment period until these people are back into the fold. At the very least JTL will bring back a TON of people but even until then the 14 day trial programs are bringing in a steady stream right now.

I think putting in a system to replace entertainers without riding out the adjustment phase is hasty at best and reinforces the current low value of entertaining. Later if it proves to be an issue, then we should consider it, but I think we need to at least try the current system as it was intended -- without AFK.

That said, I would still support giving High or Master level Rangers the ability for an entertainer to heal BF in their camps...

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Ikewe wrote:

So maybe I missed the memo that went out to all the entertainers that explained that none of us play during "off peak" hours... Where exactly is this idea coming from? If combat players play at differing hours what's preventing entertainers from doing so as well? I can't tell you the number of hours I spent dancing in an empty cantina. Where were the wounded NPC's for me to heal so that I could continue to get healing experience during those off peak times?? Right now there are NPC medics in the hospitals but try as I might I can never get them to heal me when there are no doctors around. Will this also change in the future??

I'm definitely against having NPC's heal, having buildings heal over time, or having videos heal. Want entertainers to be more available then try fixing the /register command. Yes! But I, for one, think an entertaining droid who could only heal a little Battle Fatigue (25% of a Novice Entertainer with a component from Entertainers) could be fun and make droids more interactive in the game. Holovids could be like holoemotes, only heal battle fatigue, and do it at 25% the rate of a Novice Entertainer. No crafting necessary.I think it would help the combat players' games just a bit and provide a nice income for entertainers.

Allow us to heal BF in ranger camps. Yes!

Want there to be more entertainers to cater to a larger number of combat players? Then try fixing the problems with the profession (better dances, more flourishes, more musical choices, more clothing options for men - including a Jabba's themepark item, lower the fall rate, make entertainer missions with higher than 100 credit payouts... the list could go on and on...) Oh God, yes! Testify! *raises his big Wookiee arms in the air*

Ikewe, Master Dancer Shadowfire

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Tiaga wrote:
I've not been a fan of replacing entertainers with recordings, or of the NPCs..

But what about a compromise? Instead of the entertainer recording a show, let the person watching record, with the consent of the entertainer. Someone would only be able to hold one of these recordings... Or at least one per droid. They would then be able to play it back once, which would create an NPC that looks like the entertainer that it was recorded from to heal their mind.

That would create your NPC for off-peak healing, yet still preserve audience/entertainer interaction since they still have to go to the entertainer for the recording. Perhaps make the recording heal slower, but since they'd be hit double for the time (Once to record, once to watch) maybe that wouldn't be necessary.

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With the amount of programming work that this would require, if the DEVs put something like this in after having left our dances and flourishes bugged or unfinished since the game went live I would quit in a second and never look back.

If people want to make use of entertainers for healing or buffing they should make use of an entertainer. No one is entitled to a buff or heal on demand, it is obvious from the game design that it was intended that you have to seek out the various resources you need in game. If you think this is a good idea then Doctors should be able to craft a buff pack that anyone could use to buff themselfs on demand. Smugglers should beable to make slice packs so people can slice their own weapons and armor whenever they want without having to find a Smuggler. We should be able to buy craft packs so that we can craft our own custom items whenever we want, the list goes on.

Message Edited by Ravanne_Esi on 08-07-2004 09:21 AM