Entertainer Archive

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Wolveryne40 wrote:

you can kid yourselves all you want but the game is steadly falling apart and should come to a screaming halt til they fix the giant mess they have going atm.

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These changes are going to cause all of us to have to reevaluate our situation in the game, maybe even to change our perspective on how and why we play our professions. It happened to combat a little while ago, it's happening to Entertainers now. This transition is going to be difficult for those of us who've been around forever and gotten set in our ways, but in the long runitwillbe a positive change, one of the best things Entertainers have seen yet.

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Grimjakk wrote:

Y'know... the "Vitality" system in EQ2 would be a perfect fit for this situation.

In EQ2, you have a "vitality" stat that basically acts as a pool of bonus exp. It pays out matching points for exp earned (basically doublingexp earned per encounter) until it goes dry.

Now in EQ2, there aren't any entertainer classes... so the vitality stat automatically regens at a rate of .5% per hour.

In SWG, I think that having entertainers regenning vitality would be brilliant.

Master entertainers could regen it at a higher rate than novices.

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Doriana wrote:

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Schardour wrote:

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Ikewe wrote:

Okay I know we've asked for props but what you're proposing here is that instead of us performing in order to level up a "healing" column of skills. We will now have to craft our way up?

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Well, Musicians find their schematics scattered throughout the different skill lines, but don't have to craft them to learn the schematic. Perhaps these won't require any type of crafting xp for levelling.

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Just as a side note, we were told at the roundtable discussion last night that the trees will ALL be based on either dance or music exp respectively.

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RagNoRock5x wrote:

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jcarlson34 wrote:

So with no BF anymore this means one less skill the Jedi Healer tree has in an already weak Jedi tree. The Healer tree will really need to be revamped after this to add more value to it...

I will be looking forward to seeing more information on this subject and I will reserve my opinion until I see more details. I do have some concerns however that the game continues to be overly simplified as acost to balancing the game but do enjoy having the devs bounce ideas off us more(the more interaction the better). Balance is needed but not appriciated by the player base if it involves continuely nerfing everything to achieve that balance.

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Im sorry but WTH are you talking about?
I have seen no jedi w/o a line in healing simply because they need it to stay alive in any sort of combat.
Any jedi that wants to stay alive in PvP needs the 1500 heal.
Do not increase there healing abilitys any more for the sake of all SWG

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JFreeman wrote:
Yes, it's too slow.

We want to change the 'healing' line to a 'props' line that allows you to craft and utilize 'stage props' (weapons, armor and so on that just look like weapons and armor). We're increasing the xp rate gain overall, and removing battle fatigue from the game entirely. We have some other enhancements to the entertainer professions that we want to do as well (profession-specific inspiration buffs for non-combat professions), but this is what is currently in development.

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OK...

Next question...

What will you be changing in the Master Healer box to compensate for the removal of BF?

Wow.

The Entertainer profession is effectively dead.

It's bad enough that Entertainer has only two purposes after the CURB - to remove battle fatigue and provide inspiration buffs. Now, you're removing one of those two purposes.

Profession points are expensive enough without wasting them on an unproductive profession. Role-playing is all very well and good, but as the game has done little to reinforce the value of role-playing, the suggested changes to the Entertainer profession are futile.

Ok, let's look at it this way. I personally love the inspiration buffs, and I know there are a lot of other people that do as well. I mean, for a smuggler trying to sell faction, or someone trying to purchase faction, it's a godsend. (Just one example)

But, if you look at other professions, what is it that they do? There are rare professions like smuggler that do a lot of different things. However, for most professions, they only have one game mechanical thing to do. That is, a pistoleer shoots his pistols at things, an armorsmith makes armor. That's it. The key to making those kinds of professions interesting is the variety of things to shoot, or the variety of types of armor.

And that's why when a dev says they are removing BF, and adding more inspirations, I am not the least bit concerned. After all, we still have the variety of dances, the variety of songs and instruments to play, and now we are going to have a variety of inspirations. True, I don't know exactly how it's going to turn out in the end. I don't know if different inspirations will require different types of dances or something else. But, it seems to me that removing BF is not a big deal when you compare it to offering a hopefully ever expanding variety of inspirations. In fact, this would be expanding our audience to crafters and others who may have never needed an entertainer before in their lives. I'm excited about these things, I really am. And, the removal of BF is not going to kill these professions, not by a long shot. If anything does, it will be the ever present AFK, just like it always was.

It never mattered to me to be needed. Look at things realistically. Do you need a tailor? No, not at all. You could walk around in your newbie clothes for the rest of your avatar's life and have no negative game impact whatsoever. So, then, why are tailors in business? Because people *want* clothes. Similarly, I don't care if people need the inspirations or not. But, I know they want them. I *want* them. A lot of people are also throwing around the 5% figure. Unless I'm mistaken, it's still at 10 percent. And, 10 percent really is a decent figure to make people want something and not need it like people felt they needed mind buffs (which of course, they didn't, but people said they did). Maybe my perception is skewed because I am an entertainer. But, the short time that it takes me to get a buff, is well worth the effort when I look at my experience increase. I did some ID grinding last night. I took out a minute of my time to give myself a buff. I then sat down and grinded on myself, getting an extra 15 experience points per eye color change (every 3 seconds). I don't know about you, and I haven't done the math. But, it seems to me that I gained a crapload more experience by dancing for a minute than I did if I hadn't. And, when you look at combat, it's even bigger. I mean, honestly, do people really think that watching a performer, which you can find nearly everywhere, for a minute is not worth getting an extra 500 points of rifles or pistols or whatever every time a MOB goes down? Inspirations are a smuggler's best friend when they're dealing in faction.

It seems like so far, inspirations have done a great job at balancing need vs. want. I know I have many customers a day who come in for inspirations only, and have no BF at all. I rarely get BF. But, no matter what I'm grinding, I make damn sure I give myself an inspiration. Inspirations have the added benefit of making people like you as opposed to making people think of you as a time sink. And, as I said earlier, for the first time in over a year, I now *outperform* the bots. I am now *better* than a bot. And, whatever I may think about the combat portion of the CU, I have had such positive experiences since the CU as an entertainer. And, a good portion of that is owed to inspirations.

The entertainment professions are far from dead, IMO. They were much closer to death pre-CU because of the buffbots. And, really, when was the last time we had a flamewar on these forums since the buffbots left? Things aren't perfect. But, I am much happier as an entertainer than I have been for quite some time.

Message Edited by Drygo on 06-19-2005 05:19 AM

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JFreeman wrote:

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Cutedge wrote:

Since you're removing BF or planning to do so, can we at least get confirmation that won't be doing the same to wounds?

I'm not even an entertainer. I came here trolling the dev tracker, but please don't remove BF. Make it heal faster, but don't remove the need for it.

SWG is unique because it forces interaction between players. You are required to find a doctor. You have to find an entertainer and watch/listen. You used to have to wait with others for shuttles. It promotes healthy interaction with fellow members of the community. Please don't change this.

Message Edited by Cutedge on 06-17-2005 01:19 PM

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We want entertainers to be more like 'entertainers', and less like 'healers'.

In general, we don't want to force interaction. You should go to watch an entertainer because you want to, not because you have to. It'll be better for this to be a positive interaction ("I go see an entertainer to get something good") rather than a negative interaction ("I go see an entertainer in order to get rid of something bad").

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Cue the loud, distant, echoing voice:

EQ in Space......

Message Edited by LordIblis on 06-19-2005 08:57 AM