Dancer Archive
Thread: Question about AFK Macrotaining *duck* on adventure planets
Here's the bottom line. If you AFK perform, expect to be shunned by a large portion of the entertainer community, and also potentially by cutomers who are irritated by it. This can come back to bite you later when you don't get those private gigs that pay 50K because you're not known as a good entertainer. You will, on the other hand, be loved by those combat types on those worlds who either appreciate that they have healing at all, or who would rather deal with a 'bot' than a real entertainer.
So there's the tradeoff for ya. Make some money, make some experience while you're not at the keyboard, but risk ruining your reputation. It's your call.
- J
I just returned from Lok, I did not Macro at all while there.. 2 evenings. People were glad to see me, I got decent tips... more than enough to justify the trip.
I also got to see Nyms Palace... very neat. I got bitten by a whole new menagerie of boo-scary wildlife.
I met one of the nicest people in game, Chalim, a ranger. He took me out and the two of us did some missions I would not have dreamed of doing on my own. Level 50!
If I had been AFK I may have indeed healed people but would have missed out on some wonderful chats and opportunities.
In my opinion AFK macroing only serves to cheapen your own game experience. Part of getting anywhere is enjoying the journey.
Lasai Bilof
Hopefully, all this will be a non-issue in a few more weeks. I'm hoping and praying that SOE has a plan for making AFK macroing next to impossible. If they merely make it "undesirable", I suppose that would be ok too but it would also officially endorse the kind of botting deltabob is asking about.
From where I sit, AFK entertainers on adventure planets are taking jobs away from working entertainers. If the adventurers know there won't be any botters in the Lok cantina, maybe they'll actually call on a real entertainer and pay their way over to help. If they can't find any entertainers where they are, there's this new invention called the "shuttle" 
deltabob00 wrote:
I'm working my way to Dancer, and I wanted to get some opinions on this. It is clear from what I have read thus far on this board that AFK dancing is a faux paux. Does this hold true for planets like Lok and Dathomir (sp?) where there often are no Dancers? Basically, AFK Dancing as a service to those who are duking it out on these tough plantets?
Personally, I consider it a disservice to the Entertainers who seek gigs on those planets, the spirit of the severity of these planets, and the combatants who don't get to experience how dangerous these planets are.
Part of the charm of these planets (and even certain towns such as Wayfar on Tatooine) is that they are far, far away from civilization. If you do not bring your own ameneties with you, then you better pray you find something offered by someone else.
Anecdote: I made the mistake of taking my probot droid to Yavin without stocking up on batteries. So I had a useless droid after some time (before I discovered that droids replenish after storing). When I noticed a droid engineer in the Mining Outpost, I leaped upon him and asked if he had batteries for sale. He crafted them and sold them to me. I had the same thing happen with my Dancer title. People asked me to perform for them because the planet was so harsh.
By botting in an advanced planet cantina, you remove one reason that the planet is so difficult. If you add guaranteed weaponsmiths, medics, armorsmiths, and droid engineers, then you can effectively turn Lok into another Tatooine. I personally would not like that. I spent some time in Lok. It stirred some excitement in me that Corellia and Naboo did not supply. This was an advanced planet, and it was desolate.
That's my take on AFK in these cantinas. Sure, the people there appreciate it, but they would also appreciate playing a game where they could just fix all their wounds with one click of the button.
Macrotaining (I love that term - kudos to whoever came up with it) is not a good idea on any planet. The reason is that it encourages tightwads totake heals without paying for them. If the tip system is to work (and I still hold out a slender hope that it can) players must be shown that non-tipping forces entertainers out of the entertainment industry. I've noticed that players on Tatooine especially are beginning to see that that planet has no entertainers anymore. The reason for that is that Tatooine has more than its share of tightwads who not only don't tip, but they don't even bother to thank the entertainers for the heals they give. This has resulted in entertainers leaving Tatooine and going to places they will feel more appreciated (or at least where they can get XP faster).The lack of tipping overall in the gamehas also resulted in a general exodus from the entertainment professions, such that even in Coronet and Theed (places which used to regularly feature groups of15 to 20 entertainers in an evening session) entertainers are getting fewer and fewer.
The PvP players on Tatooine still don't really get it yet. I was in Mos Entha medical centre today, and there were 5 or 6 entertainers there (playing and dancingin the med centre LOL). One PvPplayer was asking them to play in the cantina so he could heal his mind wounds, and all of the entertainers said that it wasn't worth it to go there. Still, the guy didn't offer anymoney.
Soon there will be VERY few entertainers to be found anywhere, and the tightwads will find themselves healing their mind wounds ever-so-slowly in an empty cantina somewhere. Maybe thenthey'll finallyget it, and realise that they can't simply assume that other players will accept their disregard and give them something for nothing. Butas long asthere areentertainers AFK dancing, the tightwads willjust steal their heals from him/her, and the tip system will never work.