Dancer Archive

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Esharra wrote:
Thanks, Warryyr../wookieehug

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/snog

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Warryyr wrote:

Improving the new system:

Make Entertainers fun to play again, and encourage people to play Entertainers again. Entertainers used to fulfill an important combat support role, in the form of Mind pool enhancements or "buffs." These buffs were so highly valued by the playerbase that many people bought a new account solely to have a convenient and on-demand means of getting these buffs. No longer was there the "hassle" of trying to find an Entertainer. Live Entertainers were ridiculed and harassed, and their content was stolen from them by these players who turned their dedicated Entertainer accounts into what was known as a "buffbot." These ran macros that allowed an Entertainer character's owner to be nowhere near their computer (let's say...fishing) while still giving away Mind buffs to any player who wanted them. The new system removed Mind buffs, and Mind pool wound healing, from Entertainers - and instead, they got "Inspiration buffs" and a Mind Enhancement skill (requiring a LOT of experience points) that is now obsolete and useless. In other words, people are paying to play your game to be a "Master Dancer" or "Master Musician" while literally wasting their time levelling up in your game and gaining this skill. The CU removed this function in the game, and veteran players who are Dancers and Musicians now have no significant reason to be a Master. This is unacceptable, and I certainly hope you're as dismayed about this information as Entertainers have been for months now. Also, to stress how troublesome Entertainers are in SWG, I would like you to note that in the Combat Upgrade, the following is true:

• Entertainers can still be "played" while running a macro while the player is 100% away from the keyboard and not actually playing your game.
• While AFK (away from the keyboard) an Entertainer can still provide the exact same quality and strength of Inspiration buffs as a "live Entertainer"
• Inspiration buffs can be obtained in a totally passive manner. Getting buffs used to require a complex series of actions to group with players, to apply the buff. The Devs have made it easier, that's right, easier to apply Inspiration buffs to players using an AFK Entertainer.
• There was talk long ago about removing the ability to use the macro system to AFK in SWG. To this date, no progress have been made or indicated to the playerbase as to how this will finally be enacted. Entertainers still suffer from people being away from the keyboard and stealing their content away from them.
• NONE of the recent questions recently proposed by the Musician community were answered by the Devs. The responses were "we cannot give timeframes for anything" and things to that effect, never ONCE addressing the rest of the content of the questions. These questions focused on the status of replacing obsolete Dancer and Musician elite skills (mentioned previously), and the AFK problem that continues to scar SWG.
• Entertainers, Musicians included, deserve to know what the status of their professions currently is, and whether or not the Dev team intend to treat us as the VERY patient and VERY forgiving customers that we are. We need change, we need more content, and we need communication. And we have, since the first day I played SWG in March 2004.

I would at this time like to point out that your game packaging for SWG, on the back cover, features the Jabba the Hutt scene from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The scene on the back of the CD jewel case portrays Oola, a Dancer, who danced for Jabba the Hutt. You are portraying your game as having Dancers as a playable profession...and you've done nothing to actually encourage people to play the Dancer profession, in fact you've done a lot to hurt the Dancer profession as well as the other Entertainer professions. I know you want this to be fixed. Prove it. Entertainers need to know what's going on, and making some of our skills obsolete in the Combat Upgrade then telling us "Entertainers are not in the scope of the CU" is completely unacceptable. I certainly hope you agree, and something is done about this, and fast.

Next, I would like to address Jedi leveling in your game. The experience point requirements to level up to a new Jedi skill box are way too high with the Combat Upgrade. Getting experience points (or "xp") in SWG after the Combat Upgrade, as a Jedi, is ridiculously slow and tedious. If a Jedi dies, they lose xp to the tune of 100,000's of xp. If a Jedi is hunted by a player in the Bounty Hunter profession, the Jedi loses experience points in the range of over 100,000...up to very high levels. The Jedi profession was NOT adequately tested before the Combat Upgrade went into production. Those who were chosen to test it did all they could, but there was a LOT of stuff that remained broken, one of which was Jedi levelling. Jedis have heard NOT ONE WORD from the Devs about how they intend to fix this, and this week was "double experience points" for SWG. Jedi miss out, because SWG is now a group-based game. When Jedi group with other players, or are near other players, and do what Jedi do (use lightsabers, use powers), players who play Bounty Hunters come after them to kill them, giving them negative experience points. A Jedi can NOT level in a timely manner in your new Combat Upgrade version of SWG. None of this was apparently considered by the Devs. Jedi used to be forced to hunt alone, running from other players to avoid a Bounty Hunter. There is no choice now - double experience points for a week, severely low experience from fighting alone, it means one thing...if a Jedi wants to ever make their gametime worthwhile, they must risk losing a tremendous amount of experience points at the hand of a Bounty Hunter, or take almost a YEAR to be max level in their profession. Nothing has been done about this, and we're now ONE WEEK into the CU. Nothing has been said about this problem.

Jedi is the "end-game" of SWG. It does not function.

Entertainers are an iconic piece of Star Wars. Their place in this game has been marginalized time and time again by AFK players, and they've been forced to deal with obsolete skills by the CU. And the Devs have done nothing about it.

I cannot, and in fact I will not, recommend this game to anyone in it's current form.

Jedis need some fixing immediately. They need to know what's going on, and why they should stick around.

Entertainers need to be treated with dignity again. They should be something important to this game, and your Combat Upgrade has made them even more of a joke than before. I didn't think it was possible, but apparently the Devs want nothing to do with us for awhile, because they ignored all the Musicians' questions and just gave a "no timeline" answer to everything. They barely looked at our questions, what kind of sick joke is that? The responses probably took all of 5 minutes to type. Give me a break, this is unacceptable.

I certainly hope you do, in fact, love this game as your players do. As you said, it pays your bills. If you do, you will agree that Entertainers were an important iconic part of the Star Wars universe, and SWG has failed to capture anything near the fun they be to play. You will also agree that Jedi are a pivotal part of the Star Wars universe, and correcting their very troubling situation immediately is top priority. The Devs need to tell this to the Jedi playerbase.

Thank you for your time, and I hope some of this gives you some insight into my experiences with SWG. Fix Entertainers, make them fun, kill the AFK bot problem they are plagued and have been plagued with for over a year. Fix Jedi immediately or face more cancellations. And, again, thank you for letting me tell you how I feel. If you would like any clarification on these matters, I can be reached via Private Message on these forums, and I will gladly expand on or clarify any points you'd like to me to. I want to help make SWG the best game it can be, and you guys need a lot of help right now.

Sincerely,

Mike (Warryyr)

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Thanks for the link Warryyr! I posted and tried to be as diplomatic as possible - not easy given my very sarcastic nature I also tried to avoid bringing up too many issues. It was tough to decide what I wanted to address and what I thought could be brought up later but hopefully they'll agree with the majority of issues.

Thanks again!

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Petronela wrote:

Well, if president of a company finally takes the time to register and make his first post on an official forums for a game which exists for 2 years .... let's hope it's a good news of things to come and lets hope it imply they finally see the unrest they created.

Since I have absolutely no idea of what our future holds, what is hisdevelopment team's idea of our purpose and function I can not tell him how to fix it.

Communication is a wonderful thing. I only wish someone/anyone would take a moment and type up few paragraphs to outline each profession's "vision".

Deli'ah

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Warryyr wrote:

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Esharra wrote:
Thanks, Warryyr../wookieehug

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/snog

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stupid_people_happen . .
Pappi Inc Tailoring (home of the black tax) - Odi's meds and chef tissues - closed
- I support literacy, common sense, and apostrophes

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Warryyr wrote:

Well folks, the president of SOE posted yesterday asking for how to improve the game in the CU, and what "cool things" we'd like to see put in the game in the near terms. I took the opportunity to post a lengthy response. Who knows, maybe he's skimming it.

Anyways, here's the link. Remember to stay constructive and be clear in what you're talking about - explain game terminology like he doesn't know what it is. He might not.

Also, he mentioned how much they love the game. We all know how much we love it. Show how much we do. Be constructive and get heard.

I hope everyone is doing well.

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Message Edited by --Qilue-UCW-- on 05-04-2005 12:34 PM

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Ikewe wrote:

Thanks for the link Warryyr! I posted and tried to be as diplomatic as possible - not easy given my very sarcastic nature I also tried to avoid bringing up too many issues. It was tough to decide what I wanted to address and what I thought could be brought up later but hopefully they'll agree with the majority of issues.

Thanks again!

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Very Good Post Ikewe.

I went and found it,

• Lower Health forNon-combatants


• Group Size


• Entertainer Role


• Armor and weapons.