Dancer Archive
Thread: Entertainer Quests on TC
Nacoa
Mon Aug 16, 2004 4:06 am
#27
branchero wrote:
If it's already been tested to non-reward completion on either and both of the TC's (as evidenced by this thread) why are people being asked to go test it?
Because there may be some funky bugs that haven't been found yet. For example, the people who suceeded with 100 and others that failed with 360. And the bug that some dances move the dancer off the stage. Finishing it once only proves that it can be finished. In order to really test it and all the variations live players will throw at it, they need to finish it many times with many people.
branchero
Mon Aug 16, 2004 4:10 am
#28
Nacoa wrote:
branchero wrote:
If it's already been tested to non-reward completion on either and both of the TC's (as evidenced by this thread) why are people being asked to go test it?
Because there may be some funky bugs that haven't been found yet. For example, the people who suceeded with 100 and others that failed with 360. And the bug that some dances move the dancer off the stage. Finishing it once only proves that it can be finished. In order to really test it and all the variations live players will throw at it, they need to finish it many times with many people.
Yeah, you're right. Apologies to all.
No idea why I ever wanted to play an entertainer again. Might as well go back to DAoC and play a Thane.
Panthu
Mon Aug 16, 2004 3:33 pm
#29
branchero wrote:
...
You need to calm down.
Thanks for the heads up on the "untrain" bug, La. I bugged it and will be watching it. I'm not even sure how that came in with theFS stuff. 
Groovymarlin
Mon Aug 16, 2004 4:22 pm
#30
Panthu wrote:
Thanks for the heads up on the "untrain" bug, La. I bugged it and will be watching it. I'm not even sure how that came in with theFS stuff.
No problem. Server reset seemed to fix the problem, because when I logged in the next day I was able to dazzle, spotlight, and colored lights again. But a simple relog at the time did nothing.
The only other really bad problem I had with the quests themselves was that dorky "you have left the stage" issue. I didn't leave the stage!! Grrrr..
Groovymarlin
Tue Aug 17, 2004 12:43 am
#31
It's understood that the reward is not implemented yet. I think the devs just made a poor choice of successful completion message. "A winnar is yuo" seems like their idea of a joke. And after three days of struggling to complete the thing (even just for testing purposes) the joke isn't very funny.
In retrospect I'd have to say the quest isn't very well designed. The audition and audience segments are quite good as far as a little puzzle. But the "get 10 people/20 people/30 people to watch/listen to you" steps are foolish. I can just see the spam now..."WATCH ME PLZ...NEED 20 PPL FOR BUFFBOT TO GET NEW DANCE!!"
Red-Dwarf
Tue Aug 17, 2004 8:17 am
#32
Deila
For those of us who have completed the entertainer quests QA is aware of a bug preventing us from doing the quest a second time. Nesh has my name on a post-it on his desk to tell me when they have fixed it so you may want to get him to put your name on the list.
I'll try to check in with Nesh when I can to see if any timescale is available, I doubt anything will be done before publish 10 goes live.
Xyrdre
Tue Aug 17, 2004 11:48 am
#33
Thanks for the heads-up on that Senom.
Though it really would be a shame if those of us who tested hard and tested early are just out of it for the rest of the cycle. 
Coreena
Thu Aug 19, 2004 5:18 am
#34
I read somewhere that TC2 might run with a highly accelerated clock, so the jedi phases can be tested properly. (one phase should be 3 weeks or so and is tested in one day)
So might be possible that the server thinks you danced for 3 days (or some other time limit) and just times out...
Since TC doesn't have char builder terminals (last i checked) I would have to level a Master Dancer there just for testing, and i'm not gonna do that.
Red-Dwarf
Thu Aug 19, 2004 5:43 am
#35
Coreena
Deila and I are both on TC1. This bug was around long before Publish 10 hit TC - I completed the quests two days after the hamsters Publish 9 vacation and was hit by the bug the next day when I went to try go through them again.
TC2 doesn't run an accelerated clock - what happens is like resource shifts where you can only do certain FS quests if they are in spawn - except for spawn read phase and we know which phase we are in and how long they last. (It takes a server restart to change phase, what has happened is lots of server restarts)
The quests don't need a master dancer, I don't think we have confirmed how low but I did the first couple of sections with just novice musician and had finished them before I got Music Knowledge finished.
Once pub 10 hits live the devs will start on the mini publishes, per the last confirmed list we were pub 10.2 so they should be working on the bug soon (although we don't know if live will be allowed to do the quest twice - on TC we just want to finish testing it)
Red-Dwarf
Thu Aug 19, 2004 10:13 am
#37
Currently yes, however it is being described as a bug which leads me to think they do want to let us try it again - however from memory you can only do Jabba's /faction theme parks once. And since you are due to get a new song / dance as the reward you can only get it once.
As such I don't know if when live you will be able to repeat.
Please remember with any post by a TC player - the code we use is not what goes live - it is what could go live, once the entertainer quests hit the update notes thread then comments are needed there.
(PLEASE NOTE: They have never been officially announced as ready for testing! we've all jumped the gun 
)
)
Xyrdre
Thu Aug 19, 2004 2:33 pm
#38
Well, it's not that if you fail at any stage of the quests that you cannot continue in them. The way they're supposed to work (and did through all previous testing) is that if you failed the audition or any of the performance sections, you had to wait 24 hours to make another attempt. All of that was working fine, and by all accounts is still working fine.
I agree that when these go live we will likely only be able to do them once (like the themeparks). I would hope however that we can do them once each for dance and music - many of us are bothdancers and musicians, and if any given character had to choose whether to get the new dance or the new song... that just seems ridiculous. Since at the beginning of the quests you select whether you want to go for music or dance, it seems that it would be a simple thing to have the check be for whether or not you had already completed the branch that you're asking to try, and allow the other branch to be completed as well. I had assumed that this would be the way it would work... I'd test it, but as we'll soon see, I'm locked into my second round of dance quest testing with a bug preventing progress.
I've alsobeen able to confirm that the minimum skill levels tobegin the entertainer quests is Musicianship Ior Dancing I in the Entertainer trees - at least, this is how it worked when the quests first went in on TC. And based on my understanding of how the Judges and later the audience requests are drawn, one should be able to complete all of the quests with just one box of music or dance in the entertainer trees. What skillswill berequired for performance of the new dance and song remain a mystery, since the rewards are not in yet.
Just after Publish 9 went in on TC,I started into the entertainer quests and the question of what the minimum skills were came up.I created a brand new entertainer alt, and before gaining even 1 XP I went to talk to the Theatre Manager. He told me I needed some experience. So I went and got Dancing I, returned, and I was good to go. I didn't test any further through at that point though to see if they could be completed with a 0 0 1 0 entertainer. After testing the quest start up successfully, I just deleted my baby entertainer alt.
Here's what's led up to my being 'bugged' in the quests, to compare notes and see if we can track down where the system is hanging up.
My TC Deila completed the entertainer quests right about the same time that Senom did - a few days after the final quests were patched in during the Publish 9 testing. I got the "A winnar is yuo" business and the text saying that the rewards weren't in yet. So I waited. After awhile though, we thought we'd see if the Judges bug was still around (where a failed initial audition would cause the Judges to not de-spawn, and stack up on the stage when subsequent entertainers came for their auditions), so I went to intentionally fail the audition a few times. I failed intentionally in a variety of interesting and carelessways over several days this way. Judges despawned correctly, all was great.
Fast forward to more recent times - and I decided to go back and try to complete all of the dancing quests a second time to check my patented "Instant Audience Approval Rating" method of beating all of the performance sections easily, and see if the method still worked or if coding had changed. I was still at the same place I had left off before (needing to pass the judges audition, but not needing to reinitiate the quests from the start), so passed that easily. Off to New Unity to get 10 players to watch me for the first advertising quest. This is where the "bug" came in, if it's the same thing that Senom is experiencing.
Basically, the system is not recognizing that players are watching me, for purposes of the quests. I had several players /watch, both by slash command and by radial menu, but never received the system message that "You have entertained (player name), you must entertain (x) more players", or whatever the exact text is (it's been awhile since I did these the first time around). I also checked with the watching players to see if they were getting my system messages, since in the first round of testing the system messages were going to the watcher, not the performer (later fixed), and they only received the message that they had "started watching Deila". After getting about 15 players to watch me (10 are required for the first 'advertising' quest), I returned to the Theatre Manager to see if perhaps the system messages just weren't being sent, but ifthe tally was accruing nonetheless. The Theatre Manager said that I stillhadn't fulfilled the quest. So, I'm stuck in testing, unable to get the system to recognize that players have watched me to proceed.
It's likely linked to the fact that I am a past "winnar", as other testers going into these for the first time around aren't having this problem. Also of some note, once you're into the quests, there seems to be no way to stop them - no way to abort and try them over. Just like the way that the themepark quest series' work.I thought it would be interesting to see if since I couldn't get the system to recognize players watching me for the advertising thing, if perhaps going to try the music side of the quests could be done. Trouble is, talking to Theatre Managers keeps me stuck in the dancer advertising part, so I can't initiate a music quest at the same time. I'm not sure if anyone has successfully completed the quests for both dance and music on the same character, to make sure that both can work together... and I wanted to try that, but am stuck at the advertising bit. I may need to go back and create a new entertainer again just to be able to test these things out... at least I have an available character slot left.
I just hope that when the rewards do go in that my TC Deila gets the credit for successfully completing the dance quests. I really want to test the new dance to make sure it's working correctly, and won't be able to if the 'repeat quest' bugs prevent me from finishing them once the rewards do go in. As Senom said, these weren't announced as ready to test; we just jumped right in early. Hopefully the system is logging who are the past "winnars" (it must be, if this is the reason I'm unable to test again), and know to award the rewards to all past "winnars" appropriately. 
Pappi
Fri Aug 20, 2004 2:01 am
#39
I'm still working on the quests... got past first audience after failing twice, and got the 20 folks to watch with no problem.