Dancer Archive

I believe the devs have shifted from a philosophy of 'forced' downtime to 'encouraged' downtime with the addition of Inspirations and level-based group dynamics. I believe that if they could go a few steps further and reward downtime / socialization / non-combat activity with greater rewards, people would have more fun from log-in to log-out. (As it is, combat downtime is somewhat boring, unless you're a hybrid entertainer or crafter. Those hybrids, of course, are not very viable.)

Message Edited by Schardour on 09-15-2005 01:34 PM

I agree that a lot of the downtime has been removed. Particularily the "downtime" that was stopping into the cantina. It was great to see the cantina so full back then but now I see crafters, who generally are not so much in a hurry or folks who truely want to chat so that's not so much a bad thing.

Combat goobers still have plenty of downtime though. Waiting for your group to assemble / buff / travel etc before grinding or pvp. Waiting for a base to go boom can be pretty downtime intensive if there's no one there to defend. Waiting for folks who want to pvp to show up can also be a lot of downtime.

That's why I've taken a fancy to dancing where they are instead of where I'm "supposed" to be. I love dancing at the starport. My guild is currently in a guild war and the enemy knows not to harm me so I can sit there and dance around red dots while they chat with me waiting for the warriors of my guild to come out and play. I travel a lot with base raid parties. Raid leaders are happy to have me along because if I can keep the troops chatting and entertained, they won't realize that its been 10 - 15 min since they've killed something and won't wander off leaving the raid party short handed.

Game wise I do positively nothing for these groups. Mostly because location doesn't allow it but also because I don't help combat goobers a whole lot with dancer skills. But I'm invited and welcomed a lot just the same which means I must have some value to the group.

I still dance in the cantina at least once a night but it usually isn't long until I get a tell summoning me to the starport so someone's group has someone to chatter with

Not saying this is what everyone should do or anything. Just something I've found enjoyable.

Well the problem with things like wait times was that they stacked. If you could get from any shuttleport or starport to any other one in one hop, then it wouldn't have been so bad. But we've all been in this case: miss the town shuttle by 30 seconds... 9.5 min wait... Get to Coronet, and it is taking off JUST as you arrive, so another 10 min wait. Get to Theed, instant trip to Rori... now to get to the town you are going to on Rori (player town), you just missed the shuttle again, and it's *another* 10 min wait. So now you are sitting there waiting for the shuttle for 30 minutes. That gets annoying after a while. You think about all the other things you could be doing while staring at the screen. I mean, for me at least, if I wanted to hang and chat, I'd be in a cantina or something. I'm at the starport because I have somewhere I need to be, and odds are not only am I waiting, but someone on the other end of the line is waiting for me to get there to start a hunt, a gig, or whatever. Knowing that, if you have an 8 PM gig, you'd better log in at 7:30 to allow for shuttle time, is rather irritating.

If you could do a straight shot from any starport or shuttleport to any other one, then the 10 minute wait wouldn't be a problem, as it would be the max. But when potentially 30-40 minutes (if you get unlucky) could go by to get you from Rori to Dantooine or something, it starts to become excessive.

C

I think another thing that killed the shuttle social life was the fact anyone can get Pilot with JTL and then get free shuttle service on each planet with a basic ship. Not to mention if you werea vet, getting free starport service with a luxury yacht. That killed the social/bus stop life right there.

I notice too when I dance or play in Cantinas though mostly it benefits NPCs. All the folks are outside talking with outside entertainers.