Dancer Archive

I posted this in another thread, but felt afterwards it might have been best to post this by itself, so here it is.

I really don't like the idea of cover charges for cantinas, for any reason really and the idea of service denial gives me a bad taste, although I'm not totally certain why. I'm also not that big of a fan of the mission system for entertainers either. But, there's been an idea roaming in my head for the past few days, so I figure I'll post it here and see what folks think.

What if they make Cantinas basically hire entertainers. Now, just go me right now, as this is a basic idea, not a complete plan. This is how I see it right now:

1. You register with a Cantina, the longer you dance/play the more you are paid when you leave (credit for work hours, much like real life).

2. To defend against AFK abuse; have a "Manager Check" every so often. A pop-up of the manager checking on you and making sure you are doing your job (or something like that). If no response, you're fired and the clock stops for you. You can keep going, but you get no payout.

3. To reward regular staff, each Cantina will give Faction, basically (you have +100 at Kor Vella Cantina). As your faction increases, so does your pay, to be capped at some point I would think.

4. The more advance your skill, the higher the payout. This would give young dancers/musicians even more incentive to increase skill and reward those working the hardest.

5. At a certain faction level, allow players to display an employee tag, something that identifies them as a regular performer at that cantina.

That's all I can think of right now. I personally think this would add to the performers game experience, as well as to the visitors experience. The only down side I can see, right now, is people decided not to tip at all. Basically that old saying, "why should I tip, they'll getting paid anyway." Any ideas how to combat that?

Well, there's my idea, have fun

One problem with that is that it would punish people who might have a valid reason for being AFK. If mytoddler falls and hurts her head I might be AFK for 30 minutes or so. If a manager checked on me during that time, I'd be fired. Heck, I might be fired for popping downstairs to get a soda.

Oh, I agree Beery, that's why I left the time-span open. Maybe a 30 or 45 minute limit, maybe an hour. This is a point for input really. Usually if I go AFK, it's for no more than 10 minutes, but then other might need to go longer for good reasons. Ideas on a time-span?

Problem is that this is suppose to be a player run economy. I suppose you could argue that mission terminals are paying out credits... But actually working as an employee for the game... I would prefer if this was privatized in player run Cantinas and there was a admission charge to cover salaries...

Good ideas, well thought out, but I still prefer the idea of incenting people to get out of the city cantinas (and medical centers) and create player-made establishments.

That way, rather than introducing another contrived way of introducing money into the game, real players can hire real entertainers and pay them real money gained by other real people who are willing to pay to enter the building.

All they need to do is find that incentive. Maybe it's better xp for entertainers and medics in player run establishments, maybe it's faster healing for the customers. However they do it, I'm all for putting the controls into the hands of the players, not some magical cantina owner.

The Glitter Pit on Kettemoor is more of a roleplay event then a player run cantina since we're only open for 8 hours a week with full staff. Weve been operating for a full month now. There are pc servers, managers, bartenders, bouncers and dancers and a host of dubious regulars.The dancers are all salaried and sometimes get bonuses and have 2 different ways to work. They can keep their tips to offset the low salary. They always coordinate costumes (managment provides)and dances, always deal with customers and never ever are allowed to dance afk or in underwear. They leave the dance floor if an emergency happens.

They are managed, and the cantina so far hasn't run cover change yet accept for one major event (to pay for the band). Its not a money making business its a losing business. The sale of food and drink covers the salaries, but we're not their to make money, we're there to roleplay a cantina.

I think that the npc idea isn't a bad one and I can see it even in place in a couple hotels maybe just for variety so you can choose if you want to do that. But ideally player cantinas will be the way to go and I encourage everyone to start one and find out how you want to set it up.

Player cantina's are a great idea, and if you have the time to invest in one, great! For players who one, don't have the time to invest either money wise or social wise into building there own cantina or two, can't find one to dance in (for whatever reason), player cantinas should not be the only answer.

For combat players, missions can be a very viable way to make a living (even if not that grand of one). We all know that the entertainer missions are a joke at best. Not only do they pay horribly, they cause dancers and musicians to move away from cantinas/hotels for more missions instead of staying and building a customer base. I see this as a replacement for the entertainer missions and a suppliment to the player ran cantinas.

Having the ability to "work" for the cantina would allow entertainers to visit other cities (the mostly dead ones) and give these cities a chance to grow. This would give players who really enjoy the profession and interaction in Cantina, but who have little time to play a viable way to earn credits (though not enormously).

I honestly believe that the entertainer profession is so much different from the combat ones, in both play style and player type, that looking beyond a mission system is required.

For player cantinas it's great, and that's prolly where you'll find more of the "Master" Dancers. Which is great, but for a cover charge ona regular cantina is a joke, What about AKERS? You can't kick them from the cantina, just the group. A /tipband would be more useful.

Also I think if you have a valid reason for being afk sit down! Don't dance! I do it how about ya'll?

Sorry to keep posting but how about belly buttons? You can barely see them if at all! And abs, make abs!

sorry wrong post! ahhhhhhh sorry sorry

"What if they make Cantinas basically hire entertainers."

The thing is, this IS how the game currently works. You go get a cantina mission, you dance it, you get your pay. The problem is that the pay $ucks.

I think the game would be fine as it is, if onlymissions were a viable way to make money rather than the sick joke they are at present. Novice dancers should get paid little (as little as they do at present), but as dancers advance they should be paid more for gigs - that's just common sense. A Master Dancer should get fewer choices of gigs, but they should pay in the 2000 credit range, just as missions for other professions do. World class dancers like Michael Flatley don't dance for tips and/or a measly $150 a gig, so why should the game's Master Dancers?

Right now, it'snot evenworth walking to a mission station to get a dance mission - you may as well just dance and hope someone throws you a measly 20 credits every hour.