Dancer Archive

1. Heal mind wounds


2. Buff mind stats


3. Entertain in social settings

Healing is a passive ability that we have - it takes no effort and it's not something that a player can get better at. This is almost a "perk" given to us to reflect our time commitment. Since anyone can do it, and it's so easy (two things that I do like about these professions), it's not a well-appreciated ability, and for the most part, might as well be provided by AFK players. Since it isn't an aspect of the professions that allows us to prove ourselves or earn respect, and since most people don't bother tipping AFK entertainers (as it should be), ATK entertainers lose nothing to AFK entertainers when it comes to healing (except for XP gain, if the two are ungrouped).

Buffing is a simple service that we provide the community. This is one of the ways an entertainer proves themselves - a musician who doesn't buff is either an unskilled musician, or a lazy one. But this is something that AFK entertainers can do by running a sufficient "buffbot" macro. Because making yourself available to others and interacting with them is part of the design of the entertainer buffing system, ATK entertainers are somewhat less appreciated when AFK buffbots, who don't expect payment,are available.

Entertaining people depends entirely on the skills of the player, and is augmented by skills our characters have by being musicians and dancers. This is the most difficult aspect of the entertaining professions, because it involves good communication, good social skills, fast typing, a friendly attitude, and a real desire to help people enjoy themselves. Nothing else will earn an entertainer as much respect and appreciation from the community as being good at entertaining other players. Because AFK entertainers are not only incapable of this, and actually diminish themselves in this aspect, AFK entertainers have no affect whatsoever on ATK entertainers who have a goal to Entertain.

However, some people don't want to be entertained and don't want to socialize, no matter how good you are. All they want is a quiet, AFK entertainer to heal their wounds so they can leave the cantina. Whether it is possible to play music or dance while AFK, or not, this won't change.

Main Point:

• Actively providing buffs, when and where they are needed, and engaging other players to bring communities together and promote fun, earns entertainersrespect from the community.


• Earning this respect is the challenge provided to us as entertainers, and should be the goal of those who are serious about the professions, and not just in it to heal friends/alts.


• The rest of it is a time commitment.

Based on this, the true value of a "good entertainer" depends mostly on Entertaining, somewhat less on Buffing, and very little on Healing.

AFK entertainers do nothing to advance themselves in their own worth as an entertainer and their respect in the community; I feel that this is the biggest reason that anyone has a negative attitude toward AFK entertaining. However, this is also the reason why AFK entertaining is a very minor problem. The only service they provide is the least valued, least special, least class and player-defining ability that entertainers have. The impact they have on the community, good or bad, is so minimal that it could be ignored.

With the exception of AFK "buffbots".

I'm going to skip past the arguments for and against what I've previously stated and assume that we're on the same page on this admittedly devicive issue: The only change to AFK entertaining that needs to be made is in the realm of buffing.

Proposal - buff window and Fame score:

Buff Window: Performing a set for someone (buffing) should involve active participation from both parties, but not to the extent that it infringes on socializing (this has probably been suggested before).

• /setperform should activate a window that indicates current targets of your character's buff, with a timer next to their names, counting down to completion. (Or a segmented progress bar, whichever is easier.)




• This will highlight your target in red if they are not /listening or /watching, to prevent the buffing of targets who are incapable of being buffed.


• /setperform only adds names to the list, it does not begin the buff. In order to start buffing, you must highlight the names of the targets and click the "start" button. Adding a name to the list with /setperform does not require them to be listening or watching.


• At the end of the buff, you must again highlight the names of your targets and click the "complete" button in order for the buff to take hold when your targets /stoplisten or /stopwatch.


• If your target types /stoplisten or /stopwatch before you've clicked "complete" for them, the only affect is that their buff timer stops. The buff must be completed before /stopwatch or /stoplisten will activate it.

Fame score: Buffing other players should provide a temporary skill reward to the entertainer, to encourage an entertainer to put out some effort and really get to buffing. This comes in "Fame" points.

• Each successful buff performed by the entertainer (triggered when /stoplisten or /stopwatch activates the buff on the player) gives the entertainer abonus to their mind enhancement skill in the form of 1 Fame point.




• Each Fame point equals 1 point of mind enhancement skill bonus.


• This bonus should allow the entertainer to complete a buff faster and provide better results.


• The bonus should bleed away at a rate of1 Fame pointevery three hours, in real time, online or off.


• Overt faction entertainers earn 2 Fame points for buffing overt members of their faction, and lose4 Fame for buffing overt members of other factions.


• There is no limit to the amount of Fame points an entertainer can earn, but there is an effective cap ofa +50 bonus to the mind enhancement skill.


• Every2 Fame points applya 1%instant buff for the entertainer's audience. As soon as they /listen or /watch they receieve the bonus, but only while being entertained.

The end result should be that an entertainer who performs 12 buffs in one night can still log in the next night and have a small bonus left over, allowing the James Brown (hardest working man in show business!) of Tatooine to stack up his bonuses over the course of a week, and see real, solid results. But, this bonus received for the hard would should be hard to maintain, allowing for a constant challenge presented to the entertainer to perform the important work of an entertainer.

the idea is ok but has some holes for exploiting by guilds but my main coment is post this in the "in concept thread" not here... that way some action on it may be taken... the dev's long since showed they dont read this area of the forums

Wow, very welll thought out and I love some of the ideas.

I'm not sure if "Fame Points" is a good name for it though. We already have FP, Faction points so you'd ideally want something a little different.

Now to add a little idea of my own.

Also this could apply to any profession but here's a good enough place to suggest it. What if there were some sort of ranking system over mastery of the professions. You could for example have a badge that upgrades over time or you get one of a series of badges for the longer you keep a profession and perform the actions of that profession. So you could for example be a rank 5 (whatever name of the rank is) Master Dancer showing your commitment to the profession. Currently people master professions because of holo's, to get the "so and so has mastered the xxxx profession" badge or because it's a profession that they enjoy and want to keep. People commited to a profession and who become well versed in it should be rewarded even if just though a simple badge.

Maybe Ravenmist could nudge the devs in the direction of this thread or post it to somewhere that they might actually read it.

Thisis starting to come to a realizationof what entertainment actually is, but unfortunately, like many other theories about what we do, suffers from basing too much of what is "entertaining" on things that have nothing really to do with being "entertaining" at all. This is why the vision that the author has concerning entertaining doesn't work unless the proscribed changes be made. As Reinhold Neibhur said in his famous prayer, we have to "Accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

Now this is what I know for a fact: Entertainment was made to be done by a living player. If this was not the case, then there would not be three classes devoted entirely to it. I know this as well, that EVERYTHING we can do in terms of the game mechanics can be done by an unattended character; and what's more, can be done MUCH more efficiently than a live player can ever do. For it is true that the live player can do the following, in terms of game mechanics:

1) Provide regular service (BF and mind wound healing).

2) Provide mind enhancements.

This is what an unattended character can do:

1) Provide regular service (BF and mind wound healing).

2) Provide mind enhancements.

3) Provide these things 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

4) Needs no incentive to provide these things in the form of tips.

So you see, the deck is stacked against us. For purposes of the game mechanics, unattended players are SUPERIOR to live players in that they can do everything we can do, and not need to work within the constraints of playability. For what would it require a living player to be able to achieve the same game mechanics value as an unattended player?

1) The player would have to be awake, at the keyboard, and performing constantly from the time the server boots up, to the time when the server closes for maitenance.

2) The player would have to stare at the walls of the same cantina, all day, every day.

3) The player must have no regard for houses, clothes, exploration badges, exploring other aspects of the world, getting new equipment, clothes, etc., because the purpouse of existance would not be for any incentive to do what we do other than the sheer overriding factor of efficiency and availability.

4) The player must have no regard for the performance itself, because the player is doing things not for the performance, but for the benefits that come with the performance. Thus, instead of providing a "flourish," players are performing what I call, "faux-flourishes" which drain one's action bars without ever giving an animation within the world that makes the avatar do something other than the base dance or song.