Dancer Archive

The payouts should be a minimum of 1000 and should really be 5000. As a novice brawler I can buy buffs, armor up, and go to rori where I can kill and loot thugs endlessly making 80 to 100k off of them in a 2 hour buff session. That is without taking a mission, without moving from one spot, and with very little risk thanks to over the top comp and buffs. Yes it will take about 5 buff sessions to get on top of my armor expense and recoup the buff costs but then it is almost all gravy.

As a novice TK I can go to dant and run 9k piket missions all day making 100 to 200k a buff session. Again little risk, just avoid the really nasty stuff on the planet, pikets don't DB and an incap is nothing but a small delay.

An entertainer has a time risk that exceeds both of these activities I listed thanks to the travel and 10 minute timer on the missions. As a master TK I can take out a piket nest in well under that time and complete two missions in 10 minutes easily. A master rifleman can do even better since conceal shot almost insures he is never agroed he can take out the nests and leave the beasts minimizing his mission time further and reducing his costs to just a T21 and buffs.

Until the bring the rest of the economy in line it is improper and game breaking to severly limit the income potential of this one play style. Depending on the generosity of others simply doesn't work because although some people make good tips the majority don't and it is sporadic at best. It also takes far more time to level and build a reliable clientell to profit from. I leveled TK over the past two weeks doing one buff session a night. I could have easily leveled in a couple of days if I wanted to dedicate the entire day to the process. It is absurd that the combat and medical professions are so quick to level and give such huge income returns while we struggle to get healing, find a fun environment, and are further punished by being forced to take non-ent professions if we want to have enough credits to own anything decent.

I think payouts should at least cover the cost of a shuttle ticket. I think the 15 minute timers (that's what I remember, has that changed?) puts a cap on how fast you can earn money. I'd think 500 for a low end mission would be reasonable, since I remember shuttle costs being at least 100 credits one way, perhaps more in the range of 300 for a round trip. A newbie entertainer will need money to pay for new clothes /cough, perhaps several sets of outfits. They'll also be needing to save up for a bike. 200cr profit isn't much, but it's *some* headway toward the things entertainers tend to use.

Perhaps part of the Risk we take is leaving venues we're known to frequent. If we get sent on a mission, we're basically giving up any tips we'd earn in our usual haunts - regulars won't find us where they expect us, and thus won't tip us. Granted, some will come to us, but that isn't always the case. This inconveniences us in terms of our way of making a living, and it inconveniences the combat players because they might simply be unable to find another Live entertainer anywhere at all (and this in turn would encourage use of bots).

I think others have better ideas when it comes to payouts, but I needed to put forth the reasons why I think said higher payouts are reasonable.