Entertainer Archive
Thread: How would YOU design missions for entertainers?
We have theaters now, how about making them put on a play? That'd be fun to watch
Entertainers aren't the riches profession, we put a lot of time and effort into getting a master dancer or musician so we can heal mind and wounds. I'd be surprised if I get tipped once in ten. The entertainer missions now only give you about 50 credits. For that you have to run to the next city. Some may have other professions which enable them to collect money but others are just purely entertainers. If they want a profession such as tailoring, they'd probably have to dump they're entertaining to gather enough money. It takes about 500,000 skill points to get one line in Dancing or Musician, and you only get about 30 points every 15 seconds.
If you could raise the amount on entertaining missions just a little bit, I think we'd all be better off. 
Code a dymanic (rather than a static) payout based on:
- Time spend performing
- How many other perfomers did you group with (encourages grouping, instead of discouraging it like the present system)
- How many different patrons did you /setperform on
- bonus payout for registering location
If minimum requirements are met, the entertainer also has her round trip travel expenses paid.
anything that would allow us to get free tickets anywhere would be exploited like heck, unless it was VERY CAREFULLY coded
if i could get free round trip tickets to anywhere in the galaxy just by having novice entertainer, then the money sink provided by travel would become an instant joke, cause everyone would just buy the tickets off the bazaar, where the entertainers put them up for sale
although, having free travel as a profession perk would be pretty nice......
I'm a master musician and I hardly ever play anymore for the public.. Why?I make virtually no money in doing so to keep up with the cost of living that I wish to have.. Plus the given fact that most locations are boring and completely absent of people to talk to.
As for the mission payout? Why should a master musician spend 30 minutes running to a terminal, run to hotel, or cantina and play for 10 minutes and be rewarded ONLY 150 credits? As I read and agree with, as I have mention the same thing months ago.. Make the mission for elite musician, dancers more dynamic, and have much higher rewards.. I would love to see the Elite professions of musician/dancer's be rewarded from anywhere in the ballpark of 500 credits to as many as 5,000+ credits.. Examples:
Master Musician goes to mission terminal.. Depending on the skill levels of that person the termial generates a list of optional missions.. The missions could range from anything local paying out 500 credits to as many as 5,000+ credits for offworld remote locations like Dantooine, or maybe middle of the road missions (same planet, but different city) that are approx 1,500 credits.. I would even allow missions that are classified as "Tours".. A touring mission would require you to visit 2, 3 or 4 location (local to offworld) that might reward 10,000 or more that would take an hour or longer to complete due to playing time and traveling time..
Currently entertainer missions are just stupid and a complete waste of my time as a master musician..
I accidentally posted this in the thread asking for "end game" suggestions for entertainers. Though I try to avoid cross-posting I posted there indicating my mistake and I am reposting here to keep it in the proper thread ...
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I've just started my entertainer character within the past few days and I love it. I also love being able to get out of the cantinas for a while. My other character is of the artisan/fighter-type and I see so many missed opportunities for most of the professions that are not the typical fighters.
For instance Smugglers, though they are great fighters in their own right, could be so much more. Yeah they can pick a few locks and make spices, but in the current roles of these abilities they are crafters ... take an object that someone else made and make it a bit better or make spices fromcommon resources, just like every other crafting profession. When I first picked up SWG I had high hopes for being a smuggler who would be running blockades, dodging bounty hunters and meeting seedy contacts in back alleys. Of course none of this actually seems to happen in game. High levelmissions should exist that take advantage of a profession's particular skills.
That poor smuggler up there could be asked to take a specific path to a waypoint (by way of numerous other waypoints perhaps) and be confronted by NPCs along the way who try to set up a blockade. Once he gets to his final destination he has to slice open a locked door to enter a building, use a spice to incap the guards inside, sneak around to find the object of the quest and then return it to the person who hired him, all while avoiding the bounty hunters sent by an opposing faction to stop him.
Yeah I hear you, "take it to the Smuggler boards." I'm speak from my reference point of what I had orginally hoped for the smuggler profession but the same type of template could be used for several different types of high level, multi-task missions that take advantage of all of your chosen profession's skills ...
An NPC in a cantina hires you to "perform" at a corporate office party. Go to the business and audition for the gig. While the "boss" is watching your performance he is lulled into being a little less careful about who is in the room and you are able to steal the blueprints to the building where the party will be held, showing where the safe is. Once you arrive at the party your band continues playing while you "take a short break" and sneak over to the room where the safe is located. Having placed a debilitating spice (previously purchased from a smuggler) into your slitherhorn, you offer the guard a private concert. While playing, the spice is sprayed into the air and the guard is incapped, freeing you to enter the room and take the plans for the lastest and greatest mouse trap. Complete the mission by returning the plans to your true employer.
These mission examples are just off the top of my head but the mechanics already exist in the game that would make both of them possible. Master Entertainers seem to get bored when they run out of things to do, so give them something to do that takes advantage of their entire skill base that lower level entertainers would have no hope of doing. Missions could exist that askyou to put on a show that includes a number of skill requirements, and missions could exist that ask entertainers to step out of the cantina from time to time and take a few risks. The same "mission" above could even include both player types ... a nice safe member of the band and a risk-taker who steals the plans.
Longer, more involved missions (NOT themepark-type encounters) could also be used to draw people out of their safe zones and encourage grouping and socialization, while requiring you to rely on everyone doing their individual jobs within the group. Asmugglercould be required to steal and slice a briefcase that contains the plans for a new type of Super AT-ST,a commando now knows where to shoot to destroy it, but a dancer would have needed to distract the courrier and/or the guards first.
After accepting a mission like this it's up to you to then assemble the team needed to carry it out. I know this thread started as a "what do Entertainers need" topic but I see the problem a little more universally. Almost all professions lack significant "stuff to do" once they make master. Encourage people to break out of their usual safe zones when they want to, while allowing them to do what their chosen profession is best at doing.
Wow- there's not much I can contribute to this thread except to reiterate what's already been said:
1) Make mission rewards scale to distance. At the least, they should be comparable to delivery missions- otherwise, we might as well do delivery missions and play/dance waiting for shuttles. We'd make more money and probably even more experience that way, from other waiters listening/watching while they wait.
2) Make missions more interactive. Requests from the audience, or the requirement to keep them at a certain level of entertainment, or better yet, both. The highest level missions might require using the special effects moves- which would mean getting buffs or bringing a medic-type along to make sure you don't run out of action.
3) Make missions scale to ability. Since Dancer and Music missions are listed seperately, making them scale according to skill shouldn't be too hard- just make sure to throw some lower-level missions in the list, as well, just in case.
I liked the quests idea as well- following flourishes based purely on visual and audio clues would really test one's knowledge of the professions. Trying to impress Jabba, or another jaded individual, with strings of flourishes and spotlights would also be fun. (I have visions of a Rancor Pit Meter that almost make me shiver...)
1) Missions work pretty much the same way, as in you are told to go to a specific area to do a gig. Once there you find a NPC or a group of NPCs and preform for them.
2) Quests
-We need an Entertainer Quest (final payout, skilltapes?).
-How about gigs were you have to play for a club and the NPCs grade you(i.e. On Dancing/Music as well as singing/rapping/reciting [NOTE: We wouldn't be able to have them judge you on the lyrics, but how about the amout of time spent singing])? And also wouldn't it be good to have them tip you X amount for each "level" of skill your preformence is?
I wouldaddThree major things to a new mission system.
- Reward based on skill level
- Have two NPC spawn in the building for the mission, one customer, and one NPC co-enterainer. (If your a dancer you would go to the building speak with a NPC musicain add the NPS plays music for you until the gig is finished, and if your a musicain the NPC will be a dancer. the NPC customer will change to fit the mission.
- Faction missions
Item 2. not only increases the immersion but also lets you know that you really have started the mission, unlike it is now.
I would consider doing an entertainer mission or two if there was an actual NPC watching the show if it is stated so in the mission description, with some dialogue.
If you have, for example, the mission to sub in for a famous performer entertaining a rich merchant, have there be a merchant NPC in the cantina, talking to you, watching you perform, asking for certain dances or songs f.e., on higher missions with perhaps some other NPCs, not just a waypoint in an cantina.
Won't be much, but probably easy to implement, and would add something to the immersion.