Dancer Archive
Thread: Welcome to Dancing
This command will provide you with a window from which you may select to change from one dance to another without stopping your performance.
The bandflourish command allows a dancer to control the next flourish for all dancers in the same group. The command is followed by the flourish number that you wish to perform (example: /bandflourish 1).
Message Edited by Esharra on 06-13-2005 12:07 PM
Maybe you could add /bandflourish on/off explanation.
It does surprise me at times how many even masters don’t know there is a way to turn bandflows on or off.
Really good guide and I think easily comprehendible even by new players. 
PLAYER OWNED CANTINAS AND THEATERS
Master dancers may place a cantina (level 2 city) or theater (level 4 city) in a player city. These are used for performances and often become the central gathering place for the town. Entertainers sometimes choose to create their cantinas or theaters in houses or guildhalls as well.
She Lives!
Thanks for the feedback, ladies..editing will have to wait until after work.
C
The speed with which you are able to provide an inspiration buff or heal battle fatigue increases with your healing skill level.
With the current confusion on the "Wound Healing" skill, you may wish to specify that "Wound Healing" affects inspiration buff rate and "Battle Fatigue Healing" affects the BF healing rate.
At Novice Dancer you gain the ability to Register With Location. You may register at the Cantina, hotel or theater where you are performing by typing /register. This will designate on the Global Map that a performer is entertaining at that location and enables other players to find performers more easily.
It never hurts to mention that a registered cantina is designated with the sun symbol and otherwise it's the moon symbol.
Each flourish is a set of movements that are performed by the flourish command followed by a number (example: /flourish 1).
I would add, "... followed by a number from 1 to 8 (example: ..."
Buttons to start and stop dancing as well as start each individual dance, for lighting effects and for each flourish may be found in the Actions window (ctrl+a) and added to your toolbar to make performing easier.
(Ok, grammar police here
) This should read "Buttons for starting and stopping dancing as well as for starting each individual dance ..." to maintain proper parallelism. Also you may want to mention that cntrl+a is the default mapping for the Commands and Actions window (I think that's the full name) but may change in other maps or customized maps (it's ';' in the mapping I use, and that's the built-in value - I haven't custom mapped this command). You may also want to mention the alternate mini-toolbar button with the icon that looks like water spraying (at least that's what it looks like to me). In addition, you may wish to create customized buttons for our commands such as:
I don't know if you want to point out, here, that to create custom buttons, you make simple, single command macros from them (unless there's another way that I haven't learned yet).
/changedance
This command will provide you with a window from which you may select to change from one dance to another without stopping your performance.
I might have worded this command something more like this,
This command will bring up a selection window of all dances you know (like the /startdance command). Selecting any dance from this window will change your current dance to the selected dance without stopping your performance.
If you like this phrasing, feel free to use it, if not, no biggie
This will allow you to change to a specified dance, bypassing the selection window. (example: /changedance exotic 2)
This should be "/changedance exotic2"
/bandflourish (#)
The bandflourish command allows a dancer to control the next flourish for all dancers in the same group. The command is followed by the flourish number that you wish to perform (example: /bandflourish 1).
You might add a little more to this that the /bandflo's are like the regular /flourish command and use the same numbers from 1 to 8 and do the same flourish for the same number. It just synchs the dancers in the same group to all perform it at the same time. I don't know if you want to go as far as to mention that in order for everyone to do the exact same flourish, they must be doing the same dance because dancers in the same group doing different dances will perform the flourish number for the dance that they are doing. I think it would also be useful to point out a little about /bandflo courtesy - that it can be polite to get approval from other dancers in your group before issuing /bandflo's as other dancers may not want your /bandflo's to interrupt their routine. This could then transition into the "/bandflo on" and "/bandflo off" commands.
Also at the end of this section listing the commands, you might want to mention something about command abbreviations: i.e. /flo, /changed, /bandflo as these are the commands I always use when I type them in.
Entertainer Healing experience is gained when another player watches a dancer to obtain an inspiration buff or to heal their battle fatigue.
Here's an area where a little more explanation might be beneficial to the beginner player. It might be helpful to add that in addition, you can gain EH XP from applying an inspiration buff to yourself, which happens automatically, but that you will not gain EH XP from healing your own Battle Fatigue.
For each flourish you perform, you will gain the maximum experience for that flourish on the first cycle (every ten seconds, or tick) and it will diminish gradually with each tick, until your next flourish.
May want to mention that the maximum can be increased by things such as grouping with other active entertainers, others /watching you, or others giving you a /clap or /cheer.
For dancers, flourishes do not stack in a queue and you aren't able to perform a second flourish until the first has ended.
Since you've introduced /bandflo's already, you should probably mention how they generate an XP boost only for the player that issues them, and not for the players that are following along. You may also want to mention the trick of doing your own /flo after the /bandflo has started if you want to generate XP while following another's /bandflo.
Our lighting effects are Colored Lights, Dazzle, Distract, Spotlight and Smokebomb. There are three versions of each effect. As you progress higher in the Techniques branch of the skill tree you will learn the new versions.
You should probably point out here that you will learn both new effects and new variations for each effect as you progress in the Techniques branch. Not all effects are available at first. You should definitely mention the commands here and how to access the variations such as /dazzle (#) as well as mentioning that shortcuts can be used (/daz - even just /d I think)
Entertainer Mission Terminals may be found outside most Cantinas, Theaters and Hotels.
I would disagree with this statement. In my experience, these terminals are located in various locations around the different major cities. While there certainly are some Ent mission terminals to be found outside of some cantinas, hotels and theaters, I would think you'd find them more reliably outside of a starport. Another common place to find them is outside of other professional guild halls. Player cities also may have them and might be more likely place them near their cantinas or theaters or perhaps group several of their mission terminals together in the same place. If I were writing this I would say that they are found in different places from city to city, but list common places where they might be found such as near starports, cantinas, hotels, theaters, or other professional guild halls. I'll have to pay closer attention to this next time I'm in the game. I might be wrong about this.
Please note that the waypoint is to front door of the building but you will have to dance inside the building to complete your mission.
Has this been verified? Is the only requirement that you have to be inside the building - anywhere inside? At hotels, for example. I always assumed you had to dance on the stage inside the hotel. I never tried anywhere else inside to see if I could complete the mission from there. I can imagine that that's probably the way it works, though I've never tested it. For cantinas, I've always gone to the main floor area or to an alcove in the back where there's sometimes a band area set up.
Entertainer missions require you to perform for ten minutes, without stopping, to reach completion.
I think you can stop in between performing and still complete the mission. The timer just counts the time that you're actually performing, though these missions are sometimes buggy. You might reword this to "not counting any time which you may stop or pause your performance". Granted this is not so much an issue anymore as dancers won't run out of action with simple flourishing now. I used to have that problem under the old system if I took a mission and danced exotic or something with several flourishes. I'd have to stop and take a break before the quest was finished. Another aspect of the dance mission I've never been certain about is whether or not you need to flourish, or if simply doing the base dance for the entire time is all that's required.
Ok - that's all.
Sorry, as I started writing this I noticed more things I wanted to add. I didn't mean this to criticise, just point out a few things that should be corrected and give you various suggestions in other places that you can use or not if you like. Overall though, I think it's quite good, and I really like what you said in the last couple paragraphs.
Panthu wrote:
I think this is the best over all prof guide I've ever seen, for any prof, not just Ent Profs! Rock on, Esh.
The only thing that popped out at me was -
PLAYER OWNED CANTINAS AND THEATERS
Master dancers may place a cantina (level 2 city) or theater (level 4 city) in a player city. These are used for performances and often become the central gathering place for the town. Entertainers sometimes choose to create their cantinas or theaters in houses or guildhalls as well.
Might want to add a "Though it won't be displayed on the planet map as such, Entertainers sometimes choose to create blah blah blah."
Not a huge big deal, I know you can't go into all the details of every area for these guides. But really, way to capture the essence of the prof, awesome job!
I was just glad to see teh Panthu
DanceRulez wrote:
Over all, pretty good, there are a few things I noticed though ...
The speed with which you are able to provide an inspiration buff or heal battle fatigue increases with your healing skill level.
With the current confusion on the "Wound Healing" skill, you may wish to specify that "Wound Healing" affects inspiration buff rate and "Battle Fatigue Healing" affects the BF healing rate.
I'm anticipating that the skill descriptions will soon change.Some information was intentionally omitted so the document could outlive the near-future.
At Novice Dancer you gain the ability to Register With Location. You may register at the Cantina, hotel or theater where you are performing by typing /register. This will designate on the Global Map that a performer is entertaining at that location and enables other players to find performers more easily.
It never hurts to mention that a registered cantina is designated with the sun symbol and otherwise it's the moon symbol.
Yup..I can certainly point this out.
Each flourish is a set of movements that are performed by the flourish command followed by a number (example: /flourish 1).
I would add, "... followed by a number from 1 to 8 (example: ..."
Good point.
Buttons to start and stop dancing as well as start each individual dance, for lighting effects and for each flourish may be found in the Actions window (ctrl+a) and added to your toolbar to make performing easier.
(Ok, grammar police here
In addition, you may wish to create customized buttons for our commands such as:
I don't know if you want to point out, here, that to create custom buttons, you make simple, single command macros from them (unless there's another way that I haven't learned yet).
I don't want to come anywhere near this becoming a macro primer. I'd prefer to leave plenty of questions for players to ask here or ask other live ents in game.
/changedance
This command will provide you with a window from which you may select to change from one dance to another without stopping your performance.
I might have worded this command something more like this,
This command will bring up a selection window of all dances you know (like the /startdance command). Selecting any dance from this window will change your current dance to the selected dance without stopping your performance.
If you like this phrasing, feel free to use it, if not, no biggie
This will allow you to change to a specified dance, bypassing the selection window. (example: /changedance exotic 2)
This should be "/changedance exotic2"
Thanks for catching this one. This is what I get for trying to write at 4 AM.
/bandflourish (#)
The bandflourish command allows a dancer to control the next flourish for all dancers in the same group. The command is followed by the flourish number that you wish to perform (example: /bandflourish 1).
You might add a little more to this that the /bandflo's are like the regular /flourish command and use the same numbers from 1 to 8 and do the same flourish for the same number. It just synchs the dancers in the same group to all perform it at the same time. I don't know if you want to go as far as to mention that in order for everyone to do the exact same flourish, they must be doing the same dance because dancers in the same group doing different dances will perform the flourish number for the dance that they are doing. I think it would also be useful to point out a little about /bandflo courtesy - that it can be polite to get approval from other dancers in your group before issuing /bandflo's as other dancers may not want your /bandflo's to interrupt their routine. This could then transition into the "/bandflo on" and "/bandflo off" commands.
Also at the end of this section listing the commands, you might want to mention something about command abbreviations: i.e. /flo, /changed, /bandflo as these are the commands I always use when I type them in.
I'll definitely be adding /bandflourish on & off. I'm staying away from abreviations though.
Entertainer Healing experience is gained when another player watches a dancer to obtain an inspiration buff or to heal their battle fatigue.
Here's an area where a little more explanation might be beneficial to the beginner player. It might be helpful to add that in addition, you can gain EH XP from applying an inspiration buff to yourself, which happens automatically, but that you will not gain EH XP from healing your own Battle Fatigue.
For each flourish you perform, you will gain the maximum experience for that flourish on the first cycle (every ten seconds, or tick) and it will diminish gradually with each tick, until your next flourish.
May want to mention that the maximum can be increased by things such as grouping with other active entertainers, others /watching you, or others giving you a /clap or /cheer.
Good suggestion.
For dancers, flourishes do not stack in a queue and you aren't able to perform a second flourish until the first has ended.
Since you've introduced /bandflo's already, you should probably mention how they generate an XP boost only for the player that issues them, and not for the players that are following along. You may also want to mention the trick of doing your own /flo after the /bandflo has started if you want to generate XP while following another's /bandflo.
I'm hoping this will soon change (I've asked for it). The reasoning behind the change back in beta has long since become redundant. I think giving people who levelATK some cool things should take priority over avoiding yet another way of gaining xp while AFK. (it's easier to paste in a macro and hit a button than it is to coordinate with others to guarantee someone will be calling bandflos)
Our lighting effects are Colored Lights, Dazzle, Distract, Spotlight and Smokebomb. There are three versions of each effect. As you progress higher in the Techniques branch of the skill tree you will learn the new versions.
You should probably point out here that you will learn both new effects and new variations for each effect as you progress in the Techniques branch. Not all effects are available at first. You should definitely mention the commands here and how to access the variations such as /dazzle (#) as well as mentioning that shortcuts can be used (/daz - even just /d I think)
Yup..will change to give examples.
Entertainer Mission Terminals may be found outside most Cantinas, Theaters and Hotels.
I would disagree with this statement. In my experience, these terminals are located in various locations around the different major cities. While there certainly are some Ent mission terminals to be found outside of some cantinas, hotels and theaters, I would think you'd find them more reliably outside of a starport. Another common place to find them is outside of other professional guild halls. Player cities also may have them and might be more likely place them near their cantinas or theaters or perhaps group several of their mission terminals together in the same place. If I were writing this I would say that they are found in different places from city to city, but list common places where they might be found such as near starports, cantinas, hotels, theaters, or other professional guild halls. I'll have to pay closer attention to this next time I'm in the game. I might be wrong about this.
A more generalized location explaination would probably be more appropriate.
Please note that the waypoint is to front door of the building but you will have to dance inside the building to complete your mission.
Has this been verified? Is the only requirement that you have to be inside the building - anywhere inside? At hotels, for example. I always assumed you had to dance on the stage inside the hotel. I never tried anywhere else inside to see if I could complete the mission from there. I can imagine that that's probably the way it works, though I've never tested it. For cantinas, I've always gone to the main floor area or to an alcove in the back where there's sometimes a band area set up.
Yes..anywhere in the building.
Entertainer missions require you to perform for ten minutes, without stopping, to reach completion.
I think you can stop in between performing and still complete the mission. The timer just counts the time that you're actually performing, though these missions are sometimes buggy. You might reword this to "not counting any time which you may stop or pause your performance". Granted this is not so much an issue anymore as dancers won't run out of action with simple flourishing now. I used to have that problem under the old system if I took a mission and danced exotic or something with several flourishes. I'd have to stop and take a break before the quest was finished. Another aspect of the dance mission I've never been certain about is whether or not you need to flourish, or if simply doing the base dance for the entire time is all that's required.
I believethe timer restarts at 10 minutes if you stop. I've only had to stop during a mission a few times and not in a while, so I'll double-check this tonight. (I do dancer missions several times a week. It is something to do while waiting on others.)
Ok - that's all.
I always appreciate constructive criticism. If I didn't want it, I wouldn't have asked. Myintention with this is to be a bit more general than I would be if I were just writing an instructional manual. Ihope that by being a little vague on some points, it generates questions, drawsnew players to the forumand compelsthem to seek out more experienced performers.
I completely agree with that assessment. It wasn't my idea to write this at this time and a lot ofits content is with the timing of it in mind.
DanceRulez wrote:
Oh, one more thing I wanted to mention. The timing for creating this seems a little odd to me. Our game role and function seem to be kind of in a state of flux right now given the state of the game right now, and either or both may be receiving either gradual or sudden changes in the coming months. I imagine that you may need to be ready to change and update this guide in the near future - possibly more than once.
Message Edited by Esharra on 06-13-2005 05:26 PM
Esharra wrote:
HOW TO EARN CREDITS WHILE DANCING
Many dancers prefer to leave it up to their customers to determine the amount of tip for their performances, while others prefer to use the Covercharge feature. You may create a covercharge by typing /covercharge into the command line of the spatial chat window.
Doesn't just typing /covercharge turn the charge off?
To set it you need /covercharge <amount>
Of course since I have not used it I could be wrong about that...
Nope..you're right. I really should have slept this weekend.
NeillM wrote:
Esharra wrote:
HOW TO EARN CREDITS WHILE DANCING
Many dancers prefer to leave it up to their customers to determine the amount of tip for their performances, while others prefer to use the Covercharge feature. You may create a covercharge by typing /covercharge into the command line of the spatial chat window.
Doesn't just typing /covercharge turn the charge off?
To set it you need /covercharge
Of course since I have not used it I could be wrong about that...