Dancer Archive
Thread: A bold new direction for entertainers!
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SlickRiptide
Wed Aug 10, 2005 4:23 pm
#1
Or maybe just another armchair game designer and his crazy ideas. You decide!
Message Edited by SlickRiptide on 08-10-2005 04:23 PM
SlickRiptide
Wed Aug 10, 2005 4:25 pm
#2
Or maybe just another armchair game designer and his crazy ideas. 
You decide!
You decide!
Shorrim2
Thu Aug 11, 2005 10:31 am
#3
I like the idea. If there were some way to have the game randomly decide how entertainers can affect the ambience, sort of like the auditions in the theater Manager quest, e.g.
"The ambience will improve if you perform flourish 3"
"Theacoustics in here really don't suit the Fanfar"
"Don't you think this stage is a bit small for Formal2?"
Otherwise it'll be back to the days of 60 afkbots in Coronet cantina so people can get their ambience on.
SlickRiptide
Sat Aug 13, 2005 12:46 am
#4
Shorrim2 wrote:
Otherwise it'll be back to the days of 60 afkbots in Coronet cantina so people can get their ambience on.
That's partially true. Any venue, particularly public ones, would have a cap in effect no matter the size of the group. 60 bots would be no more helpful than three bots. The only way the Coronet cantina would ever "get its ambience on" would be if a master musician or master dancer arrived and used her power to artificially boost it past the cap. If it was really full of bots, I'd imagine our hypothetical master would go elsewhere instead. 
That said, this idea doesn't so much eliminate botting (I don't believe it's possible to eliminate it) as make the bots useful. If there are any game mechanics at all that give a benefit from watching an entertainer, then there will be people who keep bots in their cantinas "to help their guild" or whatever.
Under the current model, if you use a bot you can ignore the live entertainers. Under my proposed model, the bots and the live entertainers all contribute towards raising the ambience. It's the "responsibility" of the group as a whole rather than one or two individuals. If you have three bots in the local cantina and you need 4-5 more players to get the next level of refreshment going, you're going to try and locate some live entertainers and convince them to come to your venue. This is the crux of the many-to-many model. You don't eliminate the bots. You make them irrelevant.
To put it another way - The only reason to prefer a bot is because its free. If you need to hire live entertainers despite the presence of the bots, who are you going to listen to once the live entertainers arrive and you've paid them your hard-earned money?
Will some guild level up a bunch of master-bots and leave them online all the time? Probably. Convenience and the desire for socialization will be the factors that determine whether people go for the bots in that case or spend a bit of cash (or not, if the cantina owner is footing the bill)and visit the local live entertainers who offer the same service in a different location. If someone doesn't want to be entertained then the entertainers aren't likely to want him in the audience in the first place. Let him go to the bots. You can't fight human nature, just do your best to work around it.
Message Edited by SlickRiptide on 08-12-2005 01:08 PM
Message Edited by SlickRiptide on 08-12-2005 01:10 PM
Marlow_Cat
Fri Aug 19, 2005 11:37 pm
#5
I remember they were going to stop the looping macro bit cause of those afk'ers.. I don't know, its been awhile for me.
I'm coming back to play a musician, cause it looks like fun again. We'll see
I'm coming back to play a musician, cause it looks like fun again. We'll see
Jacob_Entertainer
Sat Aug 20, 2005 12:55 pm
#6
Marlow_Cat wrote:
I remember they were going to stop the looping macro bit cause of those afk'ers..
Yes the big boss did say that he was going to focus on removing AFK game-play (all professions). Still waiting...
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