Entertainer Archive

The topic has come up both in a recent thread on the Dancer forum as well as a necro-post on the Musician forum. It has been on the top 5 issues since the beginning. With some of the changes coming that effect entertainers (Directly or indirectly) perhaps it is time to revisit this as a community.

The question is, what do people think Master Entertainer should be?

Try to keep in mind that whatever Master Entertainer gets, there should be something that enhances in some way all three of the entertainer elite professions. Keep this in mind when you are coming up with ideas if they are specific to only 1 or 2 of the entertainer skills; something similar will be needed to go with the other professions.

Well, I like where Panthu is coming from, but if they aren't going to spend time coding new stuff... Points. I want bonuses to healing, and especially, mind enhancement. Give me ten points there, I'll invest the points here.

How about a 5-10% bonus to mind enhancement for both dancers and musicians. Nothing too much just a little. Also perhaps a little bit of ranged and melee defense like the elite profs get, +7 like they are now, and boost master dancer and musician ranged and melee defenses to like +15-25. Lets face it, a master ent/dancer/musician having +57 or so ranged and melee defense isn't going to seriously offset the ballance of the game. Can't imagine templaters are gonna work master dancer into the mix for +25 defense at master. But it might be enough to keep someone with no combat skills alive a little longer to get away from that desert demon that spawned on top of them.

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DanceRulez wrote:
... most people will probably only master those lines that are useful to them for accessing the advanced professions they are interested in.

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And they are right. Most people just use the base professions as a bouncing board to the elite professions. While the base professions may grant a bonus to master them, the elite professions grant more of a bonus, and typically in a different way. Master brawler may have warcry2, but even just a few boxes in, a TKA can take many things out fast enough that warcry2 isn't needed. Still, a master brawler just starting up TKA would find it useful, and even TKM would find it useful in some circumstances. In general master base professions don't share much with any of the elites that take only one or two branches. Master scout doesn't directly help a CH at all. Indirectly, it grants them the ability to see a creatures CL which can help, but that's not really a CH thing. And it's not like they have to take master scout to be able to tame rancor.

I mentioned this in other threads, but this is the idea I had.

Firstly, take all dances, music and instruments out of ME and fill in the gaps in the professions. (At least musician it's obvious where the gaps are, not sure for dancer.) Yes, it's nice to be distinct from other musicians and dancers because you can dance formal2 after slinging your mandoviol on Ceremonial, but there are other ways to be distinguished.

Now for the meat of the matter... Give master entertainers a way to *personally* register on the map. Not just the current /registerwithlocation, but a new category, similar to vendors. The master entertainer could register with any public location in which they can practice their trade. (Dancers/musicians anywhere they can heal BF; IDs... Maybe in any city or public building?) They would then appear under "Services" on the planetary map. Players could open the map, expand services, and they would see entertainer and image designer. Under entertainer or image designer, the names of registered players are listed and associated with a waypoint to the location they are in. Perhaps also a brief comment they can enter about their services. (Something like "Master dancer buffing", "Gnort pack playing live tonight!", "Master image designer/tailor", etc).

It seems to me that would fill Panthu's "It must present the oppertunity to make money" requirement.. If an entertainer can advertise their buffing, they can get more people coming to get buffed.

This could also be applied to medics or doctors as well.

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Tiaga wrote:
It seems to me that would fill Panthu's "It must present the oppertunity to make money" requirement.. If an entertainer can advertise their buffing, they can get more people coming to get buffed.

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Nope, that would be "promo." I like that too though.

I don't usually post here, but I did seem to spur this new round of discussion. I used to be Master Entertainer at one point, but I had to give it up after I decided to pursue tailoring. I was reluctant to do so, but I had to. As a dancer, I kinda missed having the Formal2 dance, but I started thinking that as a Master Dancer, it really made sense that I should have it. Not to take away from the Master Entertainer, but it is a pure dance, and really does belong to a dancer. The same could be said for the mandovial and Ceremonial to the musician. The problem is that this really does start to pick apart the Master Entertainer profession. I agree that the ME deserves some perks for taking the time to generalize in the three entertainer professions. On the other other hand, it seems I remember reading either in the game manuals or somewhere when I was first starting to play the game, that while the basic professions can be mastered, most people will probably only master those lines that are useful to them for accessing the advanced professions they are interested in. Thus my original impression was that mastering the basic professions was intended to be only a minor bonus (which now seems particularly ironic considering the whole hologrinding path to Jedi, but let's not go there!). That's kind of another reason why I thought that these musician and dancer skills should be returned to their advanced professions. Still, whatever the original intent may have been, it can always change and evolve as the game progresses, and I do have some ideas to add to the mix.

One of my suggestions, and it came up again in my original thread, was to grant the Master Entertainer some skills that are granted at higher levels of each of the three advanced entertainer professions. That way the ME gets some broadbased skills without taking any away from the advanced professions, yet still having something extra even if going on to master two more of the advanced professions. As I thought about this a little more I realized that the ideal benefit should be something that combines the skill areas together. Then I thought one way to do that might be for the ME to be something of a choreographer with special skills in directing and synchronizing musicians and dancers in a group. Perhaps this is what Panthu was suggeting as well. As dancers we've been asking for such tools, and maybe musicians have been too. Maybe these are some skills that could be given to the Master Entertainer. You'd need only one in a group, and a serious entertainer is likely to spend a lot of time in a group anyway. That still leaves ID-related skills, and for that I would think that someone who spent their time around dancers and musicians would probably have some special make-up and hairstyle techniques - maybe some that are unique to the entertainer profession? I'm not sure of a good way to do this, though, that doesn't just give the ME something that ID's can't have.

Anyway, those are my ideas for now.

Shi'ann
Hot Pink Twi'lek of Mystery

Who says you need to be able to buff to register? Sometimes people just need to find healing. And by allowing a custom message, they could say if they are buffing or not, and at what skill. With the current registration, sure if they can register they can buff, but no indication of what sort of buff.

I want to see the registration system fixed.. But as I outlined things it wouldn't suffer many of the shortcomings of the current registration.

• Since you can register anywhere you can heal BF, no problem with factioned cantinas and outposts
• Having it's own category on the map, it would be more noticable so hopefully wouldn't suffer the ill use of /register.
• And being on the map, players could click on the category to see markers for everywhere someone is registered in this way I suggest.

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Gknee wrote:

What about Glam Rock makeup or maybe some kind of tailoring costume or something that only Entertainers on up could wear?

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You have to remember that starter professions aren't going to get that big if a boost. Sure..they gave swoops to Master Artisians but how could giving a "registration" of any kind promote just a master entertainer?? As a master musician this would be a great idea. But if I was just a master entertainer what benefit would it give me if I can't buff? I like the idea of maybe some kind of "effect" or something to give but it would have to be something that benefits all 3 professions. What about Glam Rock makeup or maybe some kind of tailoring costume or something that only Entertainers on up could wear? I'm brainstorming here so my ideas may seem fuzzy. The only people I see doing formal 2 are those trying to get to novice dancer. While I think it's a very interesting dance (especially with a ryke blade in my hand) I don't see many people truly performing this dance. The registration item in theory is great but it's so ganked right now you never really know if there is an Elite in a player cantina or not. Ok..i'm rambling now. I'd love to hear more brainstorming ideas.