Development Cycle Archive
Thread: In-Concept 3: Entertainer, Dancer and Musician Missions & Quests
At present time entertainers keep to known locals - big cities, big scenes. They are all there because that is where the other players are. Players go to these places because that's where the entertainers are. This ends up with a lot of empty cantinas and hotels around the planets.
What about missions instructing entertainers to play/dance at certain places, usually less populated. This way the entertainer can get motivation to go play somewhere new and maybe other players will come or at least drop by too. I'm not sure if I make myself clear here...
An example:
Bestine has two cantinas. One by the spaceport and a small one close to the shuttleport. The entertainers keep to the big and crowded one, and so do the rest of the players. No one play atthelittle cantina, even though there should be more than enough people in the erea: there's the shuttleport, imperial mission terminals and now the more active Capitol.
If entertainers are given an incentive to put on a show in places like the little cantina in Bestine, maybe we'll have a more diverse and fun entertainment industry.
Just a suggestion but these kinds of missions would be alot better if you turned them into a real challenge for reflexes, there have been games around for ages like Um Jamma Lammy on the old PSX where you had to press a certain key at a certain time to play music/dance in time to what you should be doing. Essentially it would be simple to pull a system like that into SWG for missions so that these kinds of missions are interactive and more fun than just going to a location and starting up your dance macro. Naturally you would need either a UI or some other means to have the various commands you need to execuse in time to the scrolling bar with the icons indicating what you need to do.
Second, I really like the idea of adding the ability for entertainers to perform their way into Jabba's throne room. I especially liked someone's mentioning that there be a risk, as in if you fall while performing a particular dance you get fed to the rancor. However, I must stress that if this were to be added that the fall rate has to be restructured. Given the current fall rate, the only way to guarantee that you wouldn't be fed to the rancor is to dance with some gaudy weapon in your hand that somehow magically keeps your balance. If the fall rate were restructured and the ability to stop falling by equipping a certain weapon removed, then I think this would be a great idea. If it were implemented without doing so, you would have almost every dancer performing in such a fashion for Jabba, save those who refuse based on how tacky it makes you look.
Third, and my final comment, I understand the reasoning behind the addition of a leotard as a loot at Jabba's Palace. I've always equated the exotic leotard as a slave outfit for a dancer, and at Jabba's Palace, a dancer would be most akin to being a slave. That's what Oola is, and so I understand that the leotard would be most like what his top dancer currently wears. However, there should be another loot elsewhere that gives male dancers the same enhancement. Perhaps it can be found in Jabba's Palace, or perhaps it is tied to a different quest. To make it worthwhile to have male dancers, this needs to be addressed. Also, to ensure that all races can acquire the same benefit, there needs to be an equittable item for each race that may not be able to wear anything as specific as an exotic leotard. I've never seen a wookie that could wear an exotic leotard, but why should the wookie dancer be penalized for picking that race and profession combo? Basically, dancer (or any entertainer loot) needs to be equittable across both gender and racial lines. If the exotic leotard is to be left in, then something equittable for males and for races that cannot wear the items needs to be added.
As a Master Entertainer and a Master Dancer, here is my feedback:
For Dancer:
A hard core entertainer is not drawn towards combat, however we all want great prizes from unique quests. SWG doesn't make combat types take an entertainer along on their mission to complete it so Dancer's should be able to do an equally rewarding quest without having to have a combat type come with them to do it for them. We should have equally rewarding missions while staying in our own capabilities of just entertainment. Flying to an empty cantina to dance alone for a long period of time to receive a few hundred credits is not equally rewarding. Some combat types may say that we dont work as hard as they do so we shouldn't have equally rewarding missions with rare items but they are wrong. We work long hours in a small crowded room with rarely any tip/reward what so ever. The idea that all dancers are rich is highly misconceived. Combat types can go out and make 500k in a day easily while we heal their minds and keep them going, hardly making a thing. We need dancing quests that can include escorting NPC's to certain cantina/theater/palace and dance for them while trying to get information out of them. Take a look at the exciting side of a dancer. We DO spend most of our time meeting all types of people. We can act innocent and make them tell us information that is top secret because we are unsuspecting. Play off of this in quests and make the rewards worth it please. A melon or disk or half broken pistol is not a worth while reward to a dancer. We take pride in our clothes just like combat types take pride in their armor. We also take pride in any unique decoration we can find for our houses. Don't stop at just jabba's palace. I would love to work my way up to being a personal dancer to the emperor himself. Just like there is "classes" and types of dancers in real life, Star Wars should have them too from the dirty bothan dancing it up in the cantina to the high class twi'lek doing the exotic dance for a high ranking imperial officer. Give us missions and quests to get badges signifing our class of dancer. Make us work for something more then just a sexy dance because once we get that dance, nothing really changes. So we feel a bit more graceful on the floor but we aren't tipped more then before, life isnt suddenly better for us. The endless cycle remains.
You may ask "why stay a dancer then?". Its simple, because I am not a combat type player and SWG is the first MMORPG game I have found that I can be apart of, have fun and NOT have to run around killing, I can entertain and fullfill that dream! But now I feel I am getting the shaft for not being a combat type. I see all these great rewards coming from Quests that I cant even begin to try and do. Themeparks, NPC quests, CoA....All very rewarding on the item poll and I want unique items too! Saber Crystals, Aldoran Flora, holocron shards and many more.
Nutshell: Give us equally rewarding missions that stay in the lines of entertainment.
The entertainer gets a mission to play wherever, it doesn't have to be purely faction based, it could be corporate espionage or criminal information in nature. They are hired and told to play in a certain area and wait for a certain NPC or group of NPC's to come in.
Once these NPC's come in the entertainer must watch their conversation closely. The NPC's discuss things at random for however long they have to, one leaves and another shows up and they talk some more.
The entertainer must be on the look out for a specific piece of information, once they think they found it they return to the person that gave them the mission who in turn asks them a set of questions that the PC must respond to correctly in order to get paid.
Important to note; the entertainer should not be told in advance what information they are being sent to uncover. This makes sure they watch the whole conversation and holds them in the venue for a set amount of time. (This allows any characters who are utilizing the entertainer to heal time to heal and very well might liven up some quiet areas)
Examples could be:
1) Who talked to the target while you were there? (A list of names appears and hopefully the entertainer remembers the names of the people that talked to his target)
2) When did they say that the fifth battalion was moving out and what direction are they headed (Hopefully the entertainer didn't miss that info)
3) What's the secret ingredient in Corellian whiskey?
All these conversations could be treated like Pet speech, only visible to the entertainer that took the mission. I think that this would help keep some of the Entertainers from going AFK.
Also, what if they took an even more active role in the spying. They are told to perform in a particular cantina/theatre wherever, until a certain individual shows up. Once they do the quality of their show (flourishes, moves, etc..) determines whether the NPC comes up to them once they are done. The NPC offers them a drink and invites them to sit with him and his friends for a while. The conversation begins between the two and some multiple choice answers are displayed to certain questions the NPC asks. Depending on the answers the PC gives will determine what the target gives away as information.
The success of their show could also depend on the amount of people that listen to them or directly tied to XP's. (Once the entertainer has earned "X" amount of xps while the target was in the vicinity their performance is considered a success and the NPC approaches them). If they are AFK and the NPC approaches them he moves on and the mission is a failure.
Higher level missions would require more than one performer because the amount of "XP's" earned to be considered a successful show would be too much for a single character. Hopefully this would force multiple musicians to "band" together (pun intended) to complete the mission. This would also give them multiple sets of eyes to watch that conversation.
I realize that this might draw the entertainers attention away from other PC's but it doesn't have to last for a long period of time.
What I mean is when the NPC shows up perhaps the other person he is waiting for doesn't show for a while. The entertainer just keeps him in the corner of their eye and keeps playing and talking to some of the PC's in the bar.
The 2nd NPC shows and the entertainer watches closely. The NPC conversation doesn't last long and the newcomer leaves quickly but the target remains. That means there is more to come. The PC goes back to playing for the crowd until another NPC enters the bar.
A second conversation is begun and the entertainer must pay attention. Both NPC's leave so the entertainer is now certain that this part of their mission is complete.
There should also be some risk involved. Perhaps a negative faction value is assigned with espionage, not too much because it would take a long time for an organization to piece together who's spying on them. However, if the entertainers faction rating is too low perhaps the target recognizes them and attacks. The target doesn't have to be too tough but should give an entertainer a bit of a run for their money. Higher level missions would have greter risk.
Perhaps these type of missions would promote more entertainers to stay on keyboard and even push them to different performance venues.
There should also an experience point reward for completing the mission since their success was directly tied to performing well. Also, in faction missions there should also be a Faction Point reward for doing your duty.
Just an idea. Hope someone likes it.
Ok every one is stating that they want the entertainers out of the cantina and to help others out in the wild. No one has addressed why entertainers stay in the cantinas, they could pick up some weapon skills and just be the token mind healers in groups. The reason is the EXP is much higher in Entertainer groups then being the solo mind healer in a group.
Example: I use my entertainer macro (not leave it macro, just a set of flourishes I made to try and sound like a song, other then just random flourishes =P) and I will get 34 XP a tick. When I'm in an entertainer group in Coronet or Theed I get anywhere from 60 to a 100 XP a tick. Why would I want to trek all over the place to do a mission. Yes, if I need cash I hook up with my combat buddies and run a few missions. The only things that I need to keep up with are new outfits/instruments and my home maintenance costs, for my entertainer the costs are low.
If you want to get entertainers out ofTheed and Coronet, make it so that Entertainer EXP is not just the bigger the group the better the EXP. If Icould play in my home town of Kaadara and make the EXP I would get in TheedI would play there more often.As it is theKaadara cantina is always empty and I will only play there if I get a direct tell and they are willing to pay me to play.
PersonalNote: I think that if you head into a cantina andyou do not give something to the person entertaining you then you should not get any healing.I know this makes it sound likeI'm money hungry (hey check the sig block), but my job is toprovidemind healing and I workedmy way up theseskills. When youblast a creature or do a mission you expect something, so do I.Even if it is a simplestim heal or a couple of credits, it is how we do our part in this game we call SWG.
It is not just a tip, but how we progress. No income=no new outfits/instruments. Make that work and you will see a lot less people just going where the big groups are.
Well, in terms of quests, it would be nice to have something more compelling than "Take out this guy" or "bring this guy back". Basically the stories behind every quest is boring. With a little more creative writing, I might actually care about the situation other than gaining faction or experience points. Plus, what about doing a quest from one of the prisoners?
As for Jabba's palace: Add more aliens in the throne room. Makes it feel more Star Warsy. Or what if you showed up at night, and everyone was sleeping? And not sure if it's been fixed, but the music in the throne room used to always play twice on top of it's self. So two audio loops play at the same time, one slightly out of synch with the other (very annoying). Also, not sure if it's been fixed: Rancor keeper is/was too small. And the graphics for a few pipes and other pieces of machinery are having problems (flickering) on an ATI 9800 card.
So these aren't exactlty entertainer specific, but I feel they shouldn't be ignored.
The payout for the missions needs to seriously "kicked up a notch". While it is good to have quests that require social interaction where combat types and non-combat types are required forthe quest that needs to go both ways (IE if you require entertainers to group with combat folks to quest thier way into Jaba's palace then combat folks should be required to group with entertainers to do the same else they have NO reason to group with the entertainer in the first place)and the majority of quests an entertainer should be able tocomplete with just entertainment skills. Finally, as another poster mentioned there needs to be some (not the majority)missions and quests that require a group of entertainers.
KingBanjo wrote:
Entertaining the Galaxy
Mysuggestionare intended for all three professions.
Rather than making the playertake a gig for some wacky location and entertain some random npcs instead send the player toentertain in an existing cantina for whoever may be there. The less frequented the cantina the greater the pay. So when an entertainer goes to an entertainment terminalformissions theygetonetelling them to report to the cantinainCoronet/ Bela Vista/ Mos Taike/Dathomir science outpost and perform for 30 min. Money they make as tip during this time is a little "extra gravy"
It would be even nicer if player cities could getmissions listed for their cantina(s). Perhaps the mayor or cantina owner could pay a premium(not the full mission cost but perhaps a weekly fee) to get their location listed.
A few random thoughts about this:
- Make sure the pay is reasonable the cost to travel to AND FROM say, Dathomir should be included in the mission payout. Make sure at the very least the mission payout compares against survey missions.
- The mission payout should also take into account boredom factor of a location. Entertaining in Coronet is alot of fun because there are lots of poeplethere. Being sentona gig to Yavin's mining outpost should pay more because for 30min the entertainer could very well be alone bored out of their gourd (or more likely AFK).
- The length of time it takes the mission to be completed should be carefully balanced. Long enough for the entertainer's presence to have an impact, but take into account that they can't do two missions at the same time like most other missions, also factor inthe average time other types of missions take to complete.
- I really think this would be helpful for the combat types who seldom want to leave an advanced world but often get forced to do so.
- It would also help out players in low population towns(dorbel guerfela)you need some healing but don't want to travel to a town that will have entertainers(coronet)
- FurthermoreI think this exact scheme could be applied to medics for missions send them instead to spend some time at some far flung med center.
KB's RL Gf
Rear_Admiral_Ackbar wrote:
Along these lines, could we get the code altered a bit so Jabba's throne room acts like a Cantina? I think it would add tons of content just by making that one simple change. What a cool place to hang out at, and it would offer a benefit.
I like it. Great suggestion.
I would have to say, needs something like a Competition bewteen the players.
What i mean is, maybe some system could be implemented to have multiple entertainers in a place frequented by players to get a nifty sort of competition option.
Where The Entertainers play or dance or whatever, and then the players who come in can vote for who they like the best.
The competitions could happen every hour, and the winner could get a little credit boost.
And to make sure the system is not abused, awinner would not be allowed to win more then once a day.
Oh well thats just one of my thoughts on this.
These mission could be for any of the 3:
1. You get a mission to go to a campsite to perform for some fatigued NPC's that have been out in the desert for some time and have put in a call for some entertainment to soothe their minds.
2. A prince or princess (or someone of some importance) is on vacation in the wilderness and demands entertainment since their prior jester was tossed to the royal Huurton to "play" with. You'll need to please the prince for a reward.