Entertainer Archive

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Eisengaard wrote:

Considering that the CU ruined the entertainer industry in the first place its no wonder you also want to do away with afk macros. Lets get rid of all the dancers !! And musicians ! Its nice to walk into a player cantina and see someone entertaining there, even if she or he is afk . I finally got a second account to create a twilek dancer . ( something i have wanted since i first started playing almost two years ago) . But yes she is afk mostly since i usually play on my other account. However she is also an ID and is available anytime iam .

I like the fact that anyone can walk into my cantina and have someone there. YES it would be nicer to have them be live. BUT . .. have you ever actully played an entertainer? My first toon i mastered dance almost without a macro. it was all done live. it took me months mostly because when i got bored, i would go out and shoot things. I didnt grind it . Entertaining is not as exciting as hunting . but it can be rewarding as well from the social aspect. Macros enabled me to talk while dancing. without my looping macro , i would not have been as entertaining !

thats the problem i find with the " developement team " you dont consider the consequenses of your actions. look at the mess the cu has caused. you are not adding to peoples fun you have taken away from it. when you take away recursive macros. i will be cancelling that account. I am probably not the only person who will do that.

My cantina will sit empty . BRILLIANT !!

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I think my biggest problem with this argument (besides asking on the Entertainer forum if we have ever played an entertainer...) is assuming that removing recursive macros would mean less Entertainers in cantinas. It means less of the same Entertainer standing in the same spot for 12 hours straight, yes...but it would no doubt be accompanied by more players actually spending time in cantinas not so overfull with spam and naked alt toons begging for tips. While that is an exaggeration in some cases, it is not untrue by a long shot.

Entertaining IS as exciting to me as hunting. That is why I am an Entertainer. I think you will find that many of us who have been Entertainers for almost two years now have the same feeling. If the glamour of being an Entertainer appeals to you but the reality of it does not, by all means maintain the novice skill and perform when you feel like it!

However, those of us who genuinely enjoy spending time in a cantina interacting with friends and customers on a daily basis should not be mocked or have our gameplay experience dulled by AFK bots out for a quick buck. If a profession does not appeal to players because there is a lack of content, then yes, the developers would be wise to respond to that with additions.

If a profession does not appeal to you specifically because you don't enjoy it though...that just means you would be more suited to something else. I don't play a Bounty Hunter because I don't like killing players. I wouldn't post on their boards telling them that I am cancelling my account and no one will play their profession because they can kill other players, though. That would just be spiteful and a little misguided.

I disagree that recursive macros are the total root of all evil that some would make them out to be. That you could use an in game recursive macro to do many things in SWG was one of the early selling points of this game. How many toons out there use a macro to reapply CoB, reapply food buffs, heal? Since the removal of the Combat Queue these macros have become even more necessary if you play the game trying to max out all of the possible benefits available to you. "Whoops, sorry... I couldn't heal you, I was drinking some Ruby Biel..."

The more significant issue is that given ANY situation in which the player base have the ability to apply their ingenuity to improving their lot in the game they will do it. Did the DEVs think that there would EVER be 90% Composite in the game? I strongly doubt it. But it happened. How? The players figured out how to do it.

My first Dancer I ground almost entirely ATK. Since I tended to play midday there wasn't always a lot of people around. I read a lot. Quite often when someone did come into the Cantina I was performing in I had to deal with moronish teenagers slapping me, threatening me and demanding duels and just plain being idiots. I followed the teachings of Sultrina and tried to create as complex a macro as I could that automated my performance. Then I could chat in my group when there were people to talk to, but still provided a service for people entering the cantina while I was using the bathroom or making dinner. I generally never asked for tips, but got them anyway. I started running my macro overnight so that my fellow guildmates had the benefit of an Entertainer when I wasn't on. I was supporting my guild. In my day as an Entertainer, I have witnessed a player slap and spit on a Dancer saying she was "An ugly 'ho..." I have appealed to that player's Guild Leader through roleplaying so that the offending player was censured within his guild and required to publically apologise to the Dancer he offended. I've flirted with customers and got the tips to prove it. I've passed on my knowledge to Novices that needed it. I've also spent hours just running on autopilot letting anyone heal BF that needed it in a deserted Cantina. I play an Entertainer because I enjoy it... but give me the option to play it the way I choose.

Most Buff Bots are secondary accounts. If you want to pay the monthly fee to have an account sit there and afk perform/buff... go nuts.

If you are of the belief that ATK should be rewarded, only group ATK players in your group. Advertise to incoming players that you are ATK. Most players will use you instead of a BOT. This way you will gain XP faster by attracting the customers to you and your group than the AFKers who aren't able to attract an audience as well. Use your imagination to make the system work better for you. It's all to easy to whine to the DEVs. The problem is the DEVs are all too ready to make drastic changes that will ALSO impact your enjoyment. I remember the indignation that one DEV described the "horrible" situation that existed. You could get buffs doctor buffs that made you invincible and armor that blocked 90% of all damage... SHAMEFUL! Who gave us these things in the first place?

Recursive Macros have existed in this game from (as I recall) the beginning. I say keep them. If you want to impose some restrictions upon the AFKer and give benefits to the ATKer fine. Have an "Entertainer Window" like the ID window. This window will allow up to 10 people to be "managed" as they view your performance. Make interaction necessary through this interface for the performer (you need to use the interface to activate various specific emotes during your performance for the maximum inspiration buff to be recieved). If you choose to have an inspiration buff applied to you without the entertainer using the interface, then your inspiration buff will take longer and will not be as large. Make XP accrue the same way. More through the interface, less without.

This way you don't limit ANYONE's choice of playstyle. It also makes it possible to use the services of an AFK performer if there are none of the more desirable ATK performers ATK... if you don't want to be SPAMMED, there's always /ignore.

The act of not playing a game cannot be defined as a "playstyle".

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LeBob wrote:
The act of not playing a game cannot be defined as a "playstyle".

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Funny, from your own signature you've cancelled your account. You have less of a "playstyle" than someone who is AFK...


In game recursive macros are NOT the issue. I've played games that did not have a macro system built in and also did not allow third party software. They were still macroed. There were any number of boards dedicated to getting different third party programs working with different activities within the game. People will play unattended regardless of whether the game has the ability to loop a macro.

Lack of content so that there is NOTHING to do as an Entertainer is the issue. If there was actually something to do as an Entertainer, if terminal missions actually gave decent rewards, if the missions ON the terminals were more imaginative than "Go here, perform, return..." THEN people would want to play the class. But wait! only an Entertainer can reduce Battle Fatigue! Damn! we need one... but wait... it's boring as hell! I know! I'll just run this second account on my other computer...

By removing Recursive macros you will reduce the number of Entertainer available for everyone. Then again, since they are removing Battle Fatigue too, who will miss them? What you will get is that secondary account being logged in to buff your main character and anyone else in your group. Then they will be logged out again. Then again in the months following the removal of these evil scripts I predict the whineing will be of this flavour: "I went looking for an inspiration buff and had to search the main cantinas on four planets just to find one online... and then they were just standing there! Doing NOTHING!"

We all know of players who have had multiple buffbots running on several servers that just sucked in cash. As I recall, they were almost always busy. Why? Because when you're trying to organize a guild hunt the last thing you need to be doing is answering small talk with some entertainer as you whip your fellow group members into shape. You went up to them, got in the group and continued your plans. five minutes later, you were done... off you went.

There are other posts on several of these forums that argue for keeping recursive macros. Obviously I agree with them. However, there are other things I would do to change the way my profession behaved before I would request a game feature that has been around FOREVER be removed.

1) Don't invite AFK Entertainers into your group.

2) If an Entertainer becomes AFK after joining for more than X minutes... boot them.

3) Advertise to your prospective customers that you ARE a real person controlling this toon and would they please use you?

4) When playing your Combat ALT only use ATK Entertainers. Don't log in YOUR Entertainer to do the deed, use someone else. Spread the love...

5) Instead of demanding the removal of recursive macros (which are used elsewhere too), lobby instead for benefits to be gained by actually playing an Entertainer ATK.


If someone then wants to run a BOT that dances lonely in a corner, ignored, providing inferior service, unused except by their alts and pay a monthly fee for it... fine... it's their money.

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Carnye wrote:

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LeBob wrote:
The act of not playing a game cannot be defined as a "playstyle".

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Funny, from your own signature you've cancelled your account. You have less of a "playstyle" than someone who is AFK...

[snip]

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