Entertainer Archive
Thread: What FS mod do you want for Ents?
Q: Entertainers have no force sensitive skills that apply to them. Will that change?
A: We had a hard time figuring out something that FS skills could enhance. They're considering adding to the healing line for Entertainer Healing. Not a lot other than that, that has a tangible effect mechanically (nothing that can increase socialization, for example, or Image Design, materially).
from the Jedi forum transcript of the FF dev panels
Q: Entertainers have no force sensitive skills that apply to them. Will that change?
A: We had a hard time figuring out something that FS skills could enhance. They're considering adding to the healing line for Entertainer Healing. Not a lot other than that, that has a tangible effect mechanically (nothing that can increase socialization, for example, or Image Design, materially).
I say buff duration.
Q: Entertainers have no force sensitive skills that apply to them. Will that change?
A: We had a hard time figuring out something that FS skills could enhance. They're considering adding to the healing line for Entertainer Healing. Not a lot other than that, that has a tangible effect mechanically (nothing that can increase socialization, for example, or Image Design, materially).
I say buff duration.
For my FS mods, I would like to be able to see into the future. 
Okay, but seriously... Whereas there could be nice little perks involved with FS for entertainers, extensive thought and testing would have to be done to ensure balance... the last thing we want is to open the doors to futher exploits, or a FotM entertainer situation. In any case, I think the ideal FS additions to entertainer would be things that could be a nice character addition, but not just things that made FS required to compete, or to have fun playing the game as an entertainer.
There really is precious little that we have that could be modified by force sensitivity. There really is no way for game mechanics (force sensitivity) to have effects on non-game mechanical things (i.e., other players interactions with us, tipping, the more social aspects of our professions), so we must look at the kinds of things that are alterable or enhanced in our game mechanics, and that make some sense within the contexts of the Force.
Within the elite professions, yes, Dancers and Musicians could conceivably have enhancements to buffing. This could take many forms - extended buff duration, increased buff amount, or reduced application time. In any of these cases though, I think that some form of drawback would be necessary to keep their use (and potential abuse)in check. As Force Sensitive (not fully-trained Force Wielders), we would not really be directly manipulating the Force to these ends, but instead somehow channeling the Force through intensely directed performance. As it's somewhat out of control, it could be damaging to the channeler (i.e., possibly aquiring wounds to any or all HAM pools in the process). Now, if there was only some way to ensure that the Force only works if a player was ATK...
However... I caution here. If the devs do anything to enhance buffing with Force sensitivity, we are virtually guaranteed to see 98%+ FS entertainers. It would become required to compete in the marketplace. Clearly,unless there were serious drawbacks to FSbuff enhancements, everyone and their sister would be running around sensitive to the Force.... and it's just not supposed to be that way in the galaxy. On the other hand, there aren't supposed to be that many Jedi running amok either, so everyone chomp down on your grain of salt.
Another place where FS could be used in the Dancer/Musician elites as well as Entertainer would be in increased BF/mind wound healing rates. No discussion needed - this one seems self-explanatory.
As a side thought... perhaps FS dancers don't fall ever at Master...
Where could Force Sensitivity enhance Image Design? Tough challenge there. Approaching it from the role-playing tack, I don't see a direct answer. Some form of reduction on the timer for ID changes perhaps? I'll leave this to those more knowledgable about ID to offer insightful ideas as to how FSID's (great, another unintelligable acronym... ) might be enhanced by that force sensitivity without itbecoming too necessary to have FS.
(duplicated from my post in the entertainer forum... it still applies here)
For my FS mods, I would like to be able to see into the future.
Okay, but seriously... Whereas there could be nice little perks involved with FS for entertainers, extensive thought and testing would have to be done to ensure balance... the last thing we want is to open the doors to futher exploits, or a FotM entertainer situation. In any case, I think the ideal FS additions to entertainer would be things that could be a nice character addition, but not just things that made FS required to compete, or to have fun playing the game as an entertainer.
There really is precious little that we have that could be modified by force sensitivity. There really is no way for game mechanics (force sensitivity) to have effects on non-game mechanical things (i.e., other players interactions with us, tipping, the more social aspects of our professions), so we must look at the kinds of things that are alterable or enhanced in our game mechanics, and that make some sense within the contexts of the Force.
Within the elite professions, yes, Dancers and Musicians could conceivably have enhancements to buffing. This could take many forms - extended buff duration, increased buff amount, or reduced application time. In any of these cases though, I think that some form of drawback would be necessary to keep their use (and potential abuse)in check. As Force Sensitive (not fully-trained Force Wielders), we would not really be directly manipulating the Force to these ends, but instead somehow channeling the Force through intensely directed performance. As it's somewhat out of control, it could be damaging to the channeler (i.e., possibly aquiring wounds to any or all HAM pools in the process). Now, if there was only some way to ensure that the Force only works if a player was ATK...
However... I caution here. If the devs do anything to enhance buffing with Force sensitivity, we are virtually guaranteed to see 98%+ FS entertainers. It would become required to compete in the marketplace. Clearly,unless there were serious drawbacks to FSbuff enhancements, everyone and their sister would be running around sensitive to the Force.... and it's just not supposed to be that way in the galaxy. On the other hand, there aren't supposed to be that many Jedi running amok either, so everyone chomp down on your grain of salt.
Another place where FS could be used in the Dancer/Musician elites as well as Entertainer would be in increased BF/mind wound healing rates. No discussion needed - this one seems self-explanatory.
As a side thought... perhaps FS dancers don't fall ever at Master...
Where could Force Sensitivity enhance Image Design? Tough challenge there. Approaching it from the role-playing tack, I don't see a direct answer. Some form of reduction on the timer for ID changes perhaps? I'll leave this to those more knowledgable about ID to offer insightful ideas as to how FSID's (great, another unintelligable acronym... ) might be enhanced by that force sensitivity without itbecoming too necessary to have FS.
Spudsin wrote:
Well, could use the foce sensitivity to 'encourage' higher tips, which would come from the game, not tipping player. say a 5% bonus. Might be able touse with entertainer missins too, ala smuggler slicinced terms
/wavehand;
/say You did enjoy the performance...;
/wavehand;
/say You will tip your entertainer...;
Drygo wrote:
Why not allow Force Sensitive entertainers the ability to buff themselves?
Why not give us NEW force sensitivties instead of applying it to our current abilities? Give us content to work with - the ability to do mind tricks, to actually distract or bedazzle in PvP/PvE, to use our odd combat pluses to some advantage. These are just off the top of my head and may not be very well thought out, but I'm sure others can come up with great ones.
Also, I have towonder . . . if the devs have been experiencing difficulties in coming up with ways for entertainers to have FS then - - why haven't they asked us?!
Kirah - Don't worry, I gave them an earful, heh. 
Drygo - Uh, maybe... NewJedi and I both came up with Self Buffing along with some other crazy stuff for our FS suggestions. We can push for them, but I think we have the best shot at Wound Healing in the current Heal line.
The Dev who answered this question is the same one who answeredthe Musician's Self Buff question. In fact, most of our answers and Ent info that TH dishes out is from Kel.
When self buffing came up in the Ent Panel, Runesaber gave a different answer. Like I said to Deila in a PM last week, I had a feeling we were talked about a lot more than we knew... now that I've had a chance to meet the Devs and hear some of their ideas in person, I know that's the case.
Our healing vs performance is not something all the Devs agree on (I in fact did not hear the same opinion twice, lol)... buffs in general are a touchy iffy subject right now before the CB (I'm finally starting to understand the vagueness here)... and beyond all that, Wound Healing just seems like it would fitbest when compared to the other FSBonuses.
I'm hoping we can get some follow up to this soon... I think I know all of the things we would be interested in seeing if we do get a shot at something beefier here, but I'll keep watching this thread to make sure I have it all. 
Edit: Oh, and I did ask if we could have an Ent Powwow... RS gave a definate maybe, so I need to bug TH about it later this week and see if we can help make this happen. You guys have great ideas! I want the Devs to be able to hear them.
Message Edited by Panthu on 06-06-2004 04:41 PM
Well, this is the way I feel about enhancements to our healing. We don't need'em. We're uber fast mind wound and battle fatigue healers already. I don't know how many people tell me, "boy your fast!" The only thing that FS healing would do was make people watch us even less, come in, and 30 seconds go out--and still all without tipping us or showing any appreciation. LOL. Heck, with my +14 hotpants, I definitely don't need more enhancements.
If that is the only thing we get for FS then I personally wouldn't bother pushing for anything in the first place. I want something that's actually going to make a difference. Something like a self buff. Or a buff that takes us a shorter time to implement, or a buff that lasts longer or does more than double the mind pool. Helping us heal mind wounds faster? Meh, it's quite fast enough already.
Message Edited by Drygo on 06-06-2004 05:22 PM
Drygo wrote:
Why not allow Force Sensitive entertainers the ability to buff themselves?
we shouldn't be fixing the problem of self buffing using FS...at least I don't think so