Dancer Archive
Thread: AFK Dancers and Musicans who Macro
Flechette wrote:
Sorry, but you cannot convince me that an AFK dancer knows the timings and how things work better. ANYONE can setup a macro of a few moves to have the right timing.
Sounds like a challenge to me! Go ahead, set up a macro that will have you dance and flourish EXACTLY until your action runs out, then sit until EXACTLY healed, then stand and repeat. I guarantee this will take you a week.
Flechette wrote:
I doubt arguing with you will matter anyway. Have fun dancing while AFK.
I won't have fun while AFK. I'm probably at work, or sleeping. I will have fun when I return and smoke you off the dance floor
Just how exactly do you "smoke someone" off the dance floor? Is there some way to use dancing to PVP kill another player?
If not, how do you smoke someone? What, get more tips? In my admittedly newbie experience, RPing and interacting with the customers gets more tips than what moves you are doing. There's no way to AFK macro that.
Also, I switch dances and which flourishes I am using based on what songs the band is playing. If they switch songs, I switch dances to whatever is appropriate (well, of the limited 3 I currently can use -- Basic, Rhytmic, and Footloose). I often change clothes to suit the mood as well. I'd like to see you AFK macro that. :-)
C
Bulbous2 wrote:Sounds like a challenge to me! Go ahead, set up a macro that will have you dance and flourish EXACTLY until your action runs out, then sit until EXACTLY healed, then stand and repeat. I guarantee this will take you a week.
(Hopefully the quote worked right)
Something else I would like to point out to the professional macroer here.. You mentioned earlier that you knew the timing on all of this and challenged me to make a macro that would use up all the action bar and sit me at the right time and then stand at the exact right time to keep it flowing...
This is what you consider dance knowledge? Wouldn't you just do a flourish, wait about 30 ticks and do another. Count how many it took to run out of Action, then figure how long yo needed to sit? I assume you are running long pauses between them to maximize you XP. So how can you claim to knowing the timing? Are you saying that you are linking you moves so there is no delay between the moves? I doubt you would do that because that depletes your action bar to fast. If you are dancing AFK you are interested in maximizing XP, not linking flourishes perfectly.
Maybe you can argue with non-dancers that don't know the class. All the real dancers are just laughing at you and seeing your type of person as part of the overall problem.
-F
Flechette wrote:
Wouldn't you just do a flourish, wait about 30 ticks and do another. Count how many it took to run out of Action, then figure how long you needed to sit?
If that's all it takes, then by all means, go to it. Accept my challenge.
I'm not suggesting that my AFK routine is better than your attended routine. I'm saying the knowledge I have gained from my AFK efforts have helped me to be a better, smarter and more proficient dancer than anyone who have never used a macro. Plus, I am a roleplayer who plays a neglected species, and I don't wear the cheap costumes that are a plague on the Master Dance profession. I'm tired of trashy dancers who think it is their skill that earns them the /tips, rather than their cheap appearance.
Making a macro like you mention is not going to be hard to do. Furthermore, tuning your Master of all dances macro to end at the moment you run out of Action may make you a hero in your world, but anyone that has a clue would find no real sense in it.
If you run a macro that dances 7 minutes and sits 3 then repeats, do you find that macro superior to one that runs 3 1/2 minutes and sits 1 1/2 minutes? Come on guy, over the course of an hour it doesn't matter. Over the course of your 8 hour sleep it REALLY does not matter.
Here is what I wanna see you do. Walk into a cantina and dance with flourishes and special effect for 3 hours straight without sitting down. Any REAL dancer knows how to do this. See if you can figure it out.
Sorry Macroman, running your super macro doesn't make you a Top Dog. And to come and claim you smoke me on the dance floor due to your macro experience only goes to show you are clueless.
Best bet at this point is to just curse me for being right and not respond anymore. But we know you won't leave it at that, so I (among the other dancers that keep giggling over your posts) will eagerly await your godly dance knowledge.
-F
"AFKers are NOT annoying IMO, ok. They are just people who are really busy, or need serious sleep or somethingin RL. Let them get the Fricking XP, so they can Play hi-level music the next week..."
You get XP in your house.
You can't gain that much if you're AFK macro in the cantina. You will not be in a band because the leader will probably kick you when you don't respond to "Do you know suchandsuch song?" or they will /stopband likely.
What's the paranoia for? I'm not knocking going AFK or macroing... I'm just saying, have some class about it. The people who are AFK and playing in the cantina are a target for mockery. They are also very annoying even to the hard-to-annoy people as myself when they mess up there macros and say "flourish 1" all the time or beg for tips. AFK your heart out, but if you don't want to do it in the privacy of your own player owned house, then don't throw a fit when I tell you that it's annoying. And don't be so paranoid, I'm not jealous of AFK macroers because I'm confident that if I tried I would write a much more efficient macro and I would do it with much more class in the privacy of my player home.
This original post is right on -- it's not even remotely judgemental it's just saying "This is how it is" and offering some advice on how not to be an annoying macro user while AFK. Good advice all around. While I prefer getting my XP with a live band, my first macro experience last night was pretty compelling.
Definitely watch the repeated macro'd /yell /say or whatevers... -- that stuff just bites. 
if you need some kind of "visual que" on your macro's then use /tell yourcharacter something useful. Dont constantly do stupid things like /say . or constantly beg for tips.
In fact I get MORE tips when I rag on the afk'ers that constantly beg for tips. I also put in my auto-afk message that "If I am AFK please do not tip, its not fair to the people that are here" I get so many emails saying they appreciated my afk message and still tipped me.
Musicians are the only "credit harvester" lol
I afk in the cantina but back in one of the alcoves so if someone doesnt want to sit on the stairs (who decided the **edit** stairs was the stage anyways?) they can still hear music.
1. If they are back away from the entrance and have no words in their macro, it doesn't bother me.
2. I do, however, think it's good that someone is doing this so that when everyone else logs off for the night, someone is there to heal the battle fatigue of the people that are still playing. This is a good thing for the fighters because we are the only way they can get their battle fatigue healed.
3. I cannot stress enough how you should NOT beg for tips!!! To put that in your macro is even worse! This, of course, is one of my pet peeves...
There is a guy named Tunes on Flurry that plays in the Mos Eisley cantina. He stands right in the middle of the doorway and used to have a tip beg in his macro, so about every 10 minutes he would ask for tips. As far as I know, he still does this, but I haven't been around in a couple days. This bothered the dancers/musicians a LOT since not everyone noticed he was AFK and since he was the first entertainer they saw they would sit and watch him. Also, this bothered our "customers" enough so that they started to talk about it openly asking if he ever shut up.
Now, I personally won't hate you if you macro, but at least show some courtesy to those of us that are actually at the keyboard. I personally need no more exp, but standing there in the door, it's taking some of the exp away from the people that are not AFK macroers.
and that is my 2cp
Thank you for that post, Lei-Eara my friend. I was sadly there to witness the night in question...in that dark Coronet cantina, where the sound of "Tip me, I need stuff" (or something simular) echoed from that AFK disgrace of a Rodian musician. Bought himself a permanent /addignore in my and others book. Have some courtesy please, fellow entertainers, and if your "life is too busy" to actually play the game, why not leave the Cantina and Theatre for people who actually entertain people AT the keyboard? 
I made it to master musician/entertainer without leaving myself AFK as a bot ever...as enough people have said, this profession is "easy" enough without any need to do the MacroRoboto while you sleep lol Anyone ever listened to that awful Automated Imperial Radio Station?Exactly, who could stomach it?!An afk musician is no better to listen to, is it? In my humble opinion, perhaps if you have to Macro to get it, you don't deserve the title of "Master." But hey, it's your game, play it how you want..but be prepared to possibly play alone
Maybe whenever your macro's finally gets you to master, we can jam together (unless you begged fortips in the macro
)
Your Friendly Coronet Neighborhood Master Musician/Entertainer,
Ekniem B'Eork (Bria Galaxy)
Honestly I thought the suggestions presented by the original poster, myself and the other people in this thread were really working to make constructive suggestions. I know my intention was not to say that AFKers were bad people or any such thing. However, I do have to disagree that AFKers have any entitlement to group XP. Being AFK leaves you at the whim of the group. If the AFKer doesn't do things to irritate the other players, especially in a small group, if seen a lot of groups let the AFKer ride.
The suggestions in this thread were for the people who feel that AFKing is a necessity on ways not to irritate the people around them. These are the people that are playing the game around your AFK character. These are also the people that an AFKer is reliant on for group XP. It is in the best interest of the AFK player not to irritate the active groups. There is a finite number of Cantinas in each Galaxy.
Some one walking into the cantina, shouting 'GRP PLZ!!!!', getting the group to play down for them, and then instantly going AFK so they can go to bed or work or whatever is quite rude and inconsiderate. If you're AFK and can keep up with Ceremonial and Jazz you'll do fine. I don't want to nor will I listen to rock all night long so that the AFKer can level.
People will AFK as long as that is built into the system and there isn't something to break the cycle like they are trying for sampling. It isn't necessary to AFK to play and have a Real Life but it is the solution for many who are concerned about getting to the top skills quickly.
In beta I was really opposed to AFKers because I had visions cantinas cluttered with AFKbots making life difficult for the live players and people not being able to login because of AFKers tying up available connection slots. This doesn't seem to be the way things have turned out, at least not on Bria, so my views are significantly milder these days. In beta I was trying to point out a potential problem for the live game as opposed to saying that AFKers were horrible people (I have several friends in game that went the AFK route).
If AFKers remember that they aren't entitled to anything from the group they are with it will go a long way to clearing up these issues. The small XP bonus from an AFKer is not worth even the smallest amount of grief. I'm extremely noob friendly. I'll still play SW1 for people who are there and getting started out. Its the people that EXPECT and DEMAND that everyone else should cater to them so that they can level faster and then can't even be bothered to stay around that I have no patience with. (OK so I'm not really all that great with demanding, whiny players who stick around either) AFK Dancers have it a lot easier than Musicians in this regard because what dance someone is performing doesn't affect what the other people in the group are doing. All a fair number of people who actually play the game as opposed to being AFK 95% of the time want is for the AFK people to be considerate in their actions.
One final Note to anyone wondering AFK is really necessary, it isn't. The game can be played with out needing to be AFK for more than a few minutes here and there. I've really enjoyed the process and all (well at least the vast majority) of the people i've met while working thru the entertainer and music trees.
Flechette wrote:
Making a macro like you mention is not going to be hard to do.
Yes, I know, you've said that several times. However, since you have declined to even TRY to attempt it, we'll assume it's beyond YOUR meagre capabilities.
Flechette wrote:
Here is what I wanna see you do. Walk into a cantina and dance with flourishes and special effect for 3 hours straight without sitting down. Any REAL dancer knows how to do this. See if you can figure it out.
You don't seem to understand that is what I do for a living. I am a Master Dancer; probably the best you've come across. I don't AFK macro ALL the time, just when I want to grind or make tips while I do other stuff. Now you may be a decent one-horse dancer. But I can Dance beautifully with BOTH methods. And that is precisely what makes me a better dancer than you.
Allow me to explain:
There are two kinds of macros... AFK macros and attended-macros. I do both.
I do attended macros because I don't want to have to concentrate on the technical aspects of doing what comes naturally to a skilled dancer. And to be able to emote and chat while dancing is valuable to RolePlay, and is hard to do when you need to remember to hit an F-key every 30 seconds.
I do AFK macroing because I'm a serious dancer who understands that rehearsal is important. Yes, REHEARSAL. I either go off to one side (or even into one of the alcoves that's hidden from view) in the cantina, or I go to the guild-hall theater to rehearse on the stage alone. I set up my AFK message to say:
"I am working hard at rehearsing my dance routines at the moment, and can't respond to you right now. I am rehearsing at the Mos Eisley Theater/Guild Hall, if you want to come watch me rehearse. If you need to contact me, please send an e-mail. Thanks."
There is nothing non-RP about a dancer hard at work rehearsing. Hmmmmm... if only I could find a decent leotard, leg wraps and a terry-cloth headband. Anyone have a droid with a boom-box attachment?
Lorilei