Dancer Archive

Ok, this is an idea I've been thinking about for a while, and thought I'd propose it here. Since the introduction of player cities, there has been a general exodus of the static NPC cities. Now even in my experience many of the cities had relatively light player presence before the AFK and player city phenomena, but now many of them seem to be practically ghost towns except for the most major cities. The devs themselves are even aware of this and commented on it in one of their dev letters I think, and they want to try to do something about it. It seems to me a good place to start would be with the the intended social centers of the cities - the cantinas. I think there are things that could be done to make play in the cantina more interesting for most players. For one thing they could put some more effort into the whole casino idea. Instead of lame little 1-5 credit bets on roulette wheels or slot machines with boring text interfaces, they could try turning those into full-on graphic displays with a spinning wheel or an actual slot machine with flashing symbols. They also need to increase the betting limit so that you can make the be something interesting like 1000 credits, or 10k, or 1 million if you're so bold. Also I think they could even add card tables - some blackjack or poker style games would be cool where you could play against computer opponents or other players. Even better would be to allow players to bet items with one another, "I'll see your Krayt pearl and raise you a force crystal.". Maybe you really would be able to win a starship in a card game! Also how about adding random NPC's who occasionally appear in cantinas who perhaps give special missions that may have unique or interesting rewards. This might give other players more of a reason to come into the cantinas rather than just to get the heals or buffs that some of them seem to do only grudgingly. They would bave more of a reason to gather in cantinas, and there could be an element of 'you never know who you might run into in a cantina'. Then while they're there they can always enjoy the show being put on by the resident dancers and/or musicians!

Ok, so those are some general ideas for pretty much any player, but I also had some thoughts on what could make the experience better for us entertainers. First off I have to assume that the problem of AFK-macroers has been dealt with to some extent, but once that's done then there are some new opportunities. First off I think a great idea would be for cantinas to pay entertainers! This would involve some form of working registration system. Your pay could depend on your level of experience, and possibly other things, and could be based on how long you perform in the cantina. Maybe you could receive a payment every hour or something. To encourage entertainers to spread out, your pay could further be varied based on how many ents are registered with the cantina. Maybe the first person to register gets the highest rate modifier, the next person a little lower and so on. You could even have an order of registration so that if the first person who registered leaves, then everyone else gets bumped up in order and their rate modifers would increase accordingly. This could encourage people to seek out empty cantinas to get a higher pay rate. Now again, this will only work if the AFK problem is dealt with - at the very least the AFK players would have to be identified so that if they are registered with a cantina and a live player comes in and registers, the AFK bot is automatically demoted in registration order. This prevents afk bots from dominating the registration system. This is something that could give us an added source of income, increase our economic viability, and give us a reason to spread out to other areas and increase our presence. As an additional idea to encourage us to spread out, there could be a system of fame points (and it sounds like the devs are implementing something like this in the new entertainer quests). Fame points could be granted by playing in various venues, hotels, theaters, and cantinas and maybe by people watching or listening to you, with bonus fame points being earned by traveling to different cities and different planets. This would be further encouragement to take the show on the road and try to visit more places. Fame points could be used for various purposes, but maybe they could be used like faction points to purchase new dances or songs or props or things from entertainment trainers for example.

Both of these ideas could be further modified to provide more character to the different cities. Maybe some cities have outlawed gambling so there aren't any tables or machines, or maybe they are only found in the back room. Maybe some cities have embraced gaming and have higher limits than others. Maybe big city cantinas would pay entertainers less because they are more common, and more remote cantinas like on Endor might offer a higher pay to try to attract entertainers to them. Maybe some cities are more artisitic and have less of a penalty for larger groups (based on the registration ranking) - whatever. You could even extend the paying structure concept to doctors. They could could register with a medical center and be 'on-call' for example - they may not have to stay in the structure, but be within radius of it and be available for players to contact for buffs or heals or whatever. Anyway those are some of the ideas I've been thinking about. Any thoughts?

I think both these ideas are great! Especially the cantina idea. I mean, they're trying to find more money sinks. What better way than to have people involved in gambling! Have a table available for six people. If two are players, the rest are NPCs (good for the events people to take those NPCs over )

For the fame point idea, I agree it should work like the faction point system, but with an addition. If you stop travelling the galaxy, you start to lose points. ie, if you don't tour, you don't remain famous. That stops entertainers from getting a Fame cap and never going out again.

But you're right, it does depend alot on the existing AFK macroing problem. Love these ideas!!