Entertainer Archive
Thread: I am TIRED of hearing that AFK Macro doesn't hurt other entertainers
"No offense to anybody, but screw entertainers. I give out tips, many do, it's what entertainers should rely on. But I've found that more and more dancers and musicians are just afk and using a macro. Why should I be forced to pay someone who isnt even IN the game and is just away from the computer or surfing the internet."
"They suffer no risk sitting in a cantina afk all day.. why should they get paid?"
"Now that the Artisans can no longer AFK Sample mine... I will not personaly tip an entertainer because they are afk or not... If the entertainer needs to be there at the keyboard like artisans do for survey mine then I will tip them... "
There are more. These are not from entertainers, these are from the people that come in and watch us. Only we have no respect as a whole because of people who just sit with a macro AFK. These stories come up over and over, not just in this thread.
Stop saying that AFK macroing is your right and is not hurting anybody. That is a lie, and another lie. Being able to xp while not playing was never intended, FACT. (/bandflourish was changed to not give experience for this reason. Surveying was changed to not work AFK for this reason.) Using a macro like this is against the EULA, FACT. (I'm not arguing enforcability or anything like that, I'm just stating a fact.) And yes, AFK macroing is hurting the image of entertainers as a whole, FACT.
So what I'm trying to say is get the HELL out of my cantina, and leave the dancing and music to those who actually play.
I haven't been in the public cantinas much lately, because I've been working on other things, including dancing in a private house set up as a cantina (although the house tends to not be staffed as often as we'd like.) With the new /denyService that's coming, I think a number of my friends would be happy to play in the public cantinas as well... Hmm... Got off track there: anyway, I went into a public cantina tonight, and it seemed very much like pretty much nobody was at their keyboard. One person had a macro going saying "if you need healing please watch me, I need the XP", "tips are appreciated", and "thanks for the heals!" periodically. Some of the others were there--but, well, I was the *only* one who seemed to be greeting people and trying to talk with the guests. And the guests didn't really seem to expect that.
It made me very very sad, to be honest. I know so many very *good* entertainers, but many have moved on to other things to avoid the general rudeness of the guests in public places. Now that we may come back, we need to confront this problem of the people who *aren't* very good entertainers, and yes--make it something you have to work at.
I'm very happy with the changes that make it hard to AFK sample. And I'd be okay with dealing with a little irritating dialog box periodically if that's what it took to clean up the AFK macro scene.
As a final note, the last MMORPG I played was A Tale In The Desert, which had only *one* rule which could result in being banned from the game: AFK macroing. Macroing with third party programs was fine--but if you were doing something in game, you were *required* to be able to respond to a person who talked to you. If you weren't able to, it was recommended to actually use the /afk feature, which in that game *prevented* you from doing anything else until you came back.
As a master dancer who was present at the keyboard for all but 30 minutes of my time reaching that level of achievement: please please please let this profession become one where everyone who reaches the top does through by their own effort, not just as the local healing droid. If a PA wants a healing droid, sure, go for it--but to get the skills, you need to put in the time.
I'm a Composer - that's as far as the skillpoints can take me, so I'm not doing it for the XP ...
I put on my /afk flag, so I don't expect any tips ...
I like to play the Bandfill in the backgroud, lets a band of young entertainers sound much better, and having an additional person in the group (with Ent-healing IV) just gives the audience a quicker healing time
+ sometimes cantinas are just empty ...
What's wrong about it? I'm helping rather unexperienced Entertainers to sound much better and maybe get tiped better, I'm helping the audience get healed quicker, maybe making them tip more.
When not afk I do entertain, I have nice self written songs with lyrics and nice flourishes (of course also macroed) but sometimes I just have to do other things, but my char can stay there and help.
Get a clue, you might as well be AFK if your not going to interact and roleplay with each and every person who comes into the cantina. You do that my friend, and not only will you get all the tips, buy you will make a repution for yourself.
AFK = No interaction. If your at the keyboard doing nothing or in the other room, you ARE the same.
-Grexor
It's the start of a long slippery slope.. The results of which are the state of the cantinas you see now.
And yes, people who don't RP are not as bad as AFK people (I am not one of them) the reason is they leave after awhile, they don't start clogging the cantinas like too much cholesterol in our collective arteries. AFK people stay there for hours and hours, never say a thing, never respond... Then put the cantinas into the state they are now.
Seriously, we need some heavy handed loving from the devs for AFK macroers, and we need ot SOON, before things are too late for any of the entertainer professions.
I posted this on the big monster thread, but I will repeat it here (where it likely won't get lost) in the hopes that our entertainer correspondent may add it to the big report.
Someone on another forum talked about how AFK surveying is stopped now by having messages show up periodically as a little reward. He added his own suggestion for entertainers.
This suggestion was made, which I feel adds to the world:
"An audience member is really enjoying your show. Preform Flourish 2, 4 and 8 for a 50cr tip."
Such a message would eliminate AFK entertainers. It would also give a little more money to entertainers. Nothing major, but it'll help. It can help a poor entertainer get enough money to hop a shuttle.
And we all know how AFK players can impact the entertainer economy by removing the enticement that patrons need to tip entertainers. The AFK players are a problem in the system.
As an addition to that, if such a message were in place, the reward would be higher based on your Dance or Music Knowledge.
Personally, I'm still fond of the idea of just kicking off people the server judges as idle. (Not the client)
However, something like this I would accept. It is elegant in that it solves two problems at once.
My solution toLong-term AFK Macro Entertaining (LAME for short... /chuckle /snort):
- Remove the "DANCENAME" option from the "/startdance DANCENAME" command, and the "SONGNAME" option from the"/startmusic SONGNAME" command. Leave it just at "/startdance" and "/startmusic". This brings up the dance/song selection window. Like crafting and Image Designing, this requires a non-macroable mouse-click. This means that if theentertainer stops for any reason, including tiring out, that they will need a mouseclick to resume. This also means eliminating the default dance/song options from the Actions menu, and just replacing it with a "StartDance" and "StartMusic" icon.This onechange alone will cut LAMEing down significantly.
- This has a workaround for the LAMErs, however, in that you can dance forever if you are getting heals... and medics are all too willing to heal LAMErs, because it's a great way to get xp. So I also propose putting a time limit on entertaining. After19 minutes, pop up a window that says, "It's almost time for a break. Do you want to take a break?Yes/No. You have XX seconds to decide."Clicking "No"will keep you going without interruption. Clicking "Yes" or letting the 60 second timer run out will cause you to stop entertaining.This puts a limit on LAMEing of 20 minutes. Clicking "Yes" 3 times per hour isn't such a nuissance to other performers, I would hope.
With this solution, macroing of flourishes is left alone, so there's no "nerfing" of the ability to use them for the best effect and/or xp gain.
I understand if item #2 is more programming than it's worth just to eliminate a workaround. But item #1 at least is very easy to program... simply remove the ability of two commands to take command-line arguments, forcing a window and mouse-click.
Lorilei Celestri
Apprentice Dancer
Chilastra
At first my beef was just with LAMErs who would be dancing AFK in front of the doors or mid floor without their AFK flags on. Now I am even starting to get annoyed with people who are in cantinas with the AFK on anywhere in the dance floor area for more than 15 minutes. Why? Because people will come in and watch them because they are a free healing robot. They won't tip LAMErs, so they will seek them out, get healed by them and run out. Even if you try and interact with them, I still see them watching the AFK guy.
I also would like to see AFK macro'ing abolished due to it's detrimental effect on cantina atmosphere, entertainer demand/income, and entertainers' reputations. It kinda sucks knowing that your services will never actually be needed outside of a roleplaying aspect since there are enough AFK macro'ers to staff every cantina in the galaxy 24/7.
Lorilei, I really like your idea of removing the commandline argument from the start music command and think the developers would be foolish not to implement such an easy fix immediately.
Another possible fix might be to add a command that allows someone to be 'inquisitioned' once every hour or so, if they don't respond with 30min they get logged.
Jack Ivrees
Imperial Musician - Corbantis
And on the point of:
" there are enough AFK macro'ers to staff every cantina in the galaxy 24/7."
that's simply not true ... when I play in the morning (I live in Germany, so it might be deep night for you, there is absolutly nobody in many big Cantinas on Tatooine.