Dancer Archive

Ok, I am almost MD, and after all this time I have found that macros I run while I am actually at the keyboard (save those late nights I fall asleep sitting up at the computer and don't wake up till my head hits the keyboard) allow me to dance more smoothly, and provide better healing for my customers. I simply cannot remember what every flourish looks like for each of the dances, and which ones look silly together, and which ones totally don't go with the music, etc... (I tried making notes, but how do you write down what a flourish looks like???) If I rely strictly on manual flourishes, I tend to get unrhythmic and a little weird, sometimes running out of action pool way too soon. So I have written a couple of macros, based on which dance I'm doing, with various pauses that seem to be the most asthetically pleasing that I tend to run while dancing. Then I compliment the macros with my own flourishes every now and then, for instance if a group comes in with tons of wounds and obviously needing massive BF healing, I'll step up the flourish frequency to heal them faster.

This kind of macro just doesn't seem evil to me when I think about how in RL, entertainers have to count and keep track of time to perform thier shows. Sure I can do that on my own without macros to some extent, but server lag and lousy connections makes it seem out of time too. (It doesn't help that my sound is buggy and so I never know if I'm in time with the band) This way just seems more smooth. I also am able to concentrate on interaction with my customers more and watch for other players who need help/training/etc...

Hmmmm, I'm not sure, and I'll probably keep doing it because I don't think most people can tell that I use macros for flourish patterns, but I wondered what the general feeling amongst my peers was.

Anyone else do this?

What about macros for /bandflourishes and stuff?

I don't see how this is an issue, really. The macro system in SWG is very nice, and it helps do a lot of things for us while we're at the keyboard.

What the rest of us have been opposed to has been the use of the /ui functions to recurse (loop) a macro on itself endlessly. Some of these people have gotten so devious they even put in /smile emotes or casual spatial comments to make it seem like they're really there.

If you want to beat the lag and execute that perfect flourish sequence with a smokebomb and costume change, no question - macro is the way to go. But while it's executing you're coordinating with your dance group or chatting with the customers. It's a means to an end, then, not an end in itself.

I don't think anyone has argued against macros for non AFK entertainers.

That said, I don't use them. I did through the entire entertainer skill tree, and I notice a huge difference in how I flourish. In formal and later, I know every single flourish. I use them to get exactly what I want to convey in the dance, and can even match up with the musician's flourishes fairly well.. In footloose (ick) and earlier.. If I end up doing those dances, half the time I do a flourish and pray it's not one that looks silly/inapporpriate for the music.

I don't really use macros for jam sessions anymore. But I do still have routines in macros.In fact, I've perfected the art of macroing the entire badn from one performer.

OOC:

I found my hand was getting REALLY sore from even hitting a hot key to flourish all the time, so I have some dance routine macros set up. They're a must if you don't want to develop carpel tunnel.

~Player of Nare Ese
Master Dancer, Kettemoor

Not at all, hun.

I need to setup some of my own, I am not even using hotkeys and I am always busy with guests, fellow dancers, flourishing (found out recently i can just type /flo and /startd and get a popup for the dance ). I read what all you dancers write about doing these macro's and using /changedance and here I am not even knowing you can change dances without stopping.

I should spend some time investigating and experimenting with a macro of my own to use so I can just focus on the chatscreen and my surroundings, need to colorcode my tips too. It's just that, as a dancer, I logon and there's people in the cantina, then I just start dancing and talking and before I know it it is time for my beauty sleep

So you go right ahead and use them to make things easier, hun.

You're fine. It's not evil to have a macro while AT keyboard. I don't think anyone (sane) has ever argued that it was. In fact Ravenmist has said a couple of times that the developers are aware of the issue and their #1 problem fixing AFK Macroing is that they don't want to break valid, at-keyboard macros in the process of getting rid of AFK macros.

I use at-keyboard macros regularly. There are a couple of reaons for this.

#1. My memory sucks. I spend a lot of time working out sequences of moves that match certain song types, and look good in sequence (example: popular 7 and 8 go really well when alternated, so a very simple "dance" would be something like 7-8-7-8-7, with brief pauses in between of course). The problem is that my memory sucks, and the more dances I know the harder it is to remember which flourish numbers go well in sequence with which other ones for each dance. So, when I discover a pleasant sequence (to me), then I write it down, and later I put it into my alias file (works pretty much the same as macros). That way, I can dance "mypopd1" (my popular dance 1) and I know I will execute the right sequence because it is written down already, and I don't have to execute it from memory.

#2. I like to chat and RP as I dance. It's extremely difficult to do both at once without either (a) making tons of typos as you keep flourishing, or (b) messing up the flourishes as you type (or usually, for me, both). But if I can set a 10-move dance in progress with one command and then RP while the dance goes on, then it's all good.

I don't use really "long" macros. My longest takes up roughly 1/2 of my character's action bar. And most of them are shorter sequences that are only 5-7 "moves" (not counting pauses). Usually they are things like, 1-2-1-2-3-3 (with pauses in between), and that's it. Then if I want I can repeat that (if appropriate) or switch to a different set of moves (maybe, 4-5-6-5-6-5-6, etc).

The main reason I like short macros is that the sequences are not cross-dance compatible. For instance I use lots of 7s and 8s in popular but I hate those moves in poplock, so I would not be able to use a popular dance macro for poplock. That means as I learn new dances, I have to figure out new flourish combinations and then add them slowly to my alias file (which now has about 20 different "dance sequences" in it).

The nice thing is that I play with a couple of musicians, and one of them also uses short macros like this for certain songs. If I just press buttons to the song for a while I learn the right sequence to fit the song, and then when she starts her song macro I can start my dance macro and we can be "in synch" for 30 seconds or so -- until our short macros run out. Then we may go at it again, or start just doing random stuff, depending on what mood we are in, etc.

I think this is the sort of thing alias and macros were meant for, so it is not an issue. The issue is long macros that call themselves over and over, leaving you logged in and AFK for 24 hours a day, every day, for a month. THAT is what people have issues with... not at-keyboard dance numbers.

C

One of the best uses I've ever seen for macros was a musician in Theed who recited original Star Wars poetry while playing. It wasn't spam - he had it paced very nicely, with lots of /pauses. The one I remember in particular was something about the "cries of Aldaaran", it was very touching. There's no way he could efficiently recite a long poem like that by typing. He had written a very intricate, timed macro and it worked beautifully.

I keep telling myself I'm going to do that. I'm now the proud owner of most of the Star Wars series books, I should sit down and write something. Then I can bring out my pet snake and recite poetry!

I have some singing macros that I use for when there are no musicians and I am dancing alone. My character apologizes for the lack of music and offers to sing. If the patron says he would like to hear it, then she sings. I have Star Wars versions of several classic earth songs... "Nalargon Man" (modified from "Piano Man"), "She'll be comin' 'round Tatooine," (Modified from "She'll be comin' round the mountain), and "Second Moon of Naboo" (modified form "Morning Side of the Mountain" or whatever it's called). Basically it's 80% or more the words to the normal song, with SW references thrown in ("Sing us a song, you're Nalargon Man, sing us a song, to-o-night.")

The get lots of LOLs and usually a nice tip, because people actually find it entertaining beyond just watching and healing. I should make up more but most of the time there's a musician to accompany so I only use them on occasion.

C

I would love it if there was a way to macronotes orchordstogether to produce new music along with lyrics. Sad to say it'd be nigh impossible to either have a very elegant system that was friendly towards folks with a lack of musical talent (or just something that banned the series of notes that form "Stairway to Heaven.")

It'd be especially nice if you didn't have to stop dancing to string different moves together from different dances. Oh well.

"It'd be especially nice if you didn't have to stop dancing to string different moves together from different dances."

Sounds like /changedance is the solution to your problems, if I'm reading you right. You can certainly write short macros to /changedance (dance); /flourish X and then change back.

In my opinion no they are not evil. They give us an additional tool to enhance the entertainer experience in SWG - particularly for bands. Working witih Alias files is fundamentally like scoring a composition and choreographing a routine. Together they can produce some wonderful results which would take WEEKS of rehearsal in game time to perfect manually. Personally I love singing, you can visit our site (address in the footer) to get an idea of how alias files / macros enhance our entertainment experience.

Sorry not being clear and concise today, kind of tired

Yes /changedance is wonderfull !

its now 2 days since i knew about it and i started experimenting with it, and it was nice to hear a comment like "WoW what dance is that ive never seen it before its very gracefull" it was very fun to hear.

/changed give us a tool that gives new dimensions to our entertaining skills.

I am with Denisa and others who just found out about /changedance. I also just now learned that I can abbreviate /flourish to /flo--that's great to know!

I've been thinking about setting up some macros to dance too, just so I can pay more attention to the social side of the skill without having to flourish manually all the time. I don't even have my flourishes set to hotkeys. My problem is I have no earthly idea where to go to find out about writing a macro. Are there directions anywhere? I don't plan to afk macro, but like others here I don't have a problem with people using macros while at the keyboard, in fact it just makes sense.I'm glad that SWG has a macro feature built in--I just need to learn how to use it.