Dancer Archive

First let me start by saying I believe im generous when it comes to taking care of all the entertainers. Anyone who plays Eclipse and has ever spent any amount of time in Bestine can vouch for me im sure.

When I walk into a cantina I immediately discount any afker there. If one of the entertainers greets me they immediately get a tip. If im wounded then thats who I watch ( sorry im partial to dancers ). If no one greets me then I will tip a decent amount to all the ones not showing afk. If they thank me I then heal/watch and before I leave ill tip again. If your the only one at keyboard in a sea of afkers then your going to do well.

Afkers actually help the ones at keyboard. The afk tag makes me give my attention to those who are there. If I walked into a cantina and EVERYONE was at their keyboards well I would have to decide who got the tips. As it stands now I reward every non afker I see because they dont have to be there. Once they do have to be there ill just pick my favorites and watch/tip them. I used to be dead set against afk entertainers until I was stuck on an advanced planet with horrible mind wounds. I ran into a sweet musician who was afk and a life saver ( thanks Grandma !!! ) I even did something I said I would never do and tipped the afk person.

Bottom line is if someone is so cheap they will go watch an afker then there are too cheap to tip in the first place or will tip something like 10-50 credits ( a couple friends tell me they get these tips ). Now I dont like the afk tip/heal begging and make sure to write them a nice email letting them know that the general concensus is to never tip an afk beggar.

Basically im begging you to pull together and not let this tear you apart like so many other professions have been. Dont let petty jealousy or envy get to you. Trust me the afkers arent doing as well as those of you who are actually there. Pull together and handle this yourselves in game. Ive seen in some places they make afkers dance in the corner or kick them from groups. There are many things you can do on your own without having to change the game. I am against changes that force one to play anothers way.

Vladas- Master Cantina Lurker

I AFK macro all the time, and let me say, I NEVER expect tips, even when I am at the keyboard. As a male dancer, the only tip I get is to put on some pants. Some people are just biased when it comes to in game gender.

My AFK message even says, "Don't tip me unless you find my AFK body irresistable."

Well I play my character ( which of course is a reflection of me ) and I love the ladies. Unfortunately ive developed a thing for humanoids and not too many like big wookiees

What I mean to say is I don't care that you would rather watch a woman dancer, but I don't like it when people are like "For god's sake, Diablos. Put on some pants, there are children around!" when a second before, they were probably wanking it to the female dancer in her bikini. But I digress, when I'm AFK, you don't have to tip me, but when I am at the keyboard talking to people, don't discount me because I am a man in his undies.

Well if you talk to me I would tip you especially if you put your pants on

Draco...

First off, thanks for the post. Second, I applaud your generosity to at-keyboard entertainers.

However, you should know that the AFK tag does not have to show up above someone's name when they are AFK. They can toggle that option off so that it never shows. And there are very clever macroers who have smiles and bows and subtle thank-you appearing things built into their macros to make it look for all the world like they are at-keyboard unless you watch them for a long time to study the pattern. Just an FYI.

C

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Chessack wrote:
Draco...

First off, thanks for the post. Second, I applaud your generosity to at-keyboard entertainers.

However, you should know that the AFK tag does not have to show up above someone's name when they are AFK. They can toggle that option off so that it never shows. And there are very clever macroers who have smiles and bows and subtle thank-you appearing things built into their macros to make it look for all the world like they are at-keyboard unless you watch them for a long time to study the pattern. Just an FYI.

C

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Oh yes im on to those it doesnt take long to spot them but if they thank me out loud saying my name or send me a tell and are doing that with a macro **edit** !!

Ive gotta say this is a polite bunch

I always tip.

I never tip afk

As a noivce medic, you soon suss out who is what and a so on, AFK flag or not. I prefer to be working in the Hospital; wounds are more important to treat than damage, but when it gets slow in there, I usually pop across to the Cantina and help out there.

Three types ofEntertainer and I prioritise the stims accordingly:

'Doing It Properly' - Chatty, aware of their surroundings, often burning up Action at a frightening rate, but don't seem to mind sitting down and resting if necessary. Seem mostly to be there because they like meeting people. These people are sadly quite rare, but if present, (and I can tell...I'm not stupid), these people get my full attention, stimwise.

'AFK, but fading fast' - Probably not macroing, or if so, very bad at writing them. Could be geniuinely away from keyboard for a drink, etc. Action fading at a slower rate, but clearly unsustainable. I'll heal these poeple if no-one more important (see above) needs help, but will invariably feel dirty afterwards.

'Master Macroer' - Faultless programmers, if dull gamers, these people have all the stim hotkeys they need worked into their program, and rarely need medical help at all anyway. Regardless, I certainly don't give them any Ent Heal XP. Hardly ever have AFK flag, but tend to issue very generic statements at clockwork intervals and so easy to spot if in Cantina longer than two minutes. These people do not need my help, which is just as well for them.

Also, I favour people playing interesting instruments and songs...30 minutes of Starwars1 with minimal floruish makes me very tetchy. From a patron's perspective, I tend to ignore Dancers and much prefer good music, but that's just me.

Grinding Danceris hard, and I've no specific problem with afk-ing it; the Holocron system demeans us all, just don't expect me to help you if there are geniuine Dancers and Musicicians in there, that's all.

"'Doing It Properly' - Chatty, aware of their surroundings, often burning up Action at a frightening rate, but don't seem to mind sitting down and resting if necessary. Seem mostly to be there because they like meeting people. These people are sadly quite rare, but if present, (and I can tell...I'm not stupid), these people get my full attention, stimwise."

I want to be one of these people.

I would like to say, that often times even while at the keyboard I leave my afk tag on. Sometimes because I am grinding med's or others just because I don't feel like taking it off. That being said the AFK tag isn't always a sure fire way.

Being relatively new to the boards, but having been a master dancer for quite a long time (the boards being broken the first few weeks turned me away from them ), perhaps I have misread the underlying afk issue.

I have been thanked on numerous occassions via tells and emails for dancing afk overnight in some unpopular cantina. The messages are usually something like, "... because there are usually NO entertainers around when I play because of my timezone.", or "... NO entertainers on this dangerous planet except those who came with groups". I'm not in it for money (LOL), and I don't need the XP. I'm just trying to provide a needed service to keep the DEVs from making even MORE changes to the game to cripple our class, ie allowing medics to heal mind damage... who needs me?

So what's the REAL Problem?

It seems like the problem is more about how XP is obtained. All the entertainers want to be grouped to get the maximum XP, which results in us all packing into commonly used cantinas. Players pick up on this and start coming to the cantinas where they know entertainers are going to be hanging out at. People who are AFKing for xp also head to these well known sweet spots.

My proposed solution:

If maximum XP came from a smaller group of entertainers, then groups would be more apt to play at different cantinas since only one group at a time can be watched by a player. So perhaps XP should max at a certain number of group members, then slowly decline from the max XP group limit up to 20. Having a group of 20 would still give better XP than solo work, but not nearly as much as the max XP limit. This would do a few things: 1) AFK players would likely be replaced by ATK players due to lack of group slots, 2) Entertainers would (hopefully) spread out over more cantinas, 3) Entertainers would have more space to work as groups began to spread out.

Any thoughts? (flames need not apply :lightsaber