Entertainer Archive
Thread: Entertainer droid ideas
<cross-posted to Dancer, Musician, and Entertainer forums>
Ravenmist, Tiaga, NewJedi,
As we are all aware, the developers are moving to improve the quantity and quality of droids in the game. There have been some great suggestions regarding these droids, some of which came from our communities.
It is my wish and dream that the correspondents from Dancer, Musician, and Entertainer forums band together and push that droids be allowed to heal Mind Wounds anywhere in the city. While this goes against the original intent of cantinas, I feel there are some compelling reasons to support this.
- Realism – A street performer can be quite entertaining. If a performer can ease the mind in the atmosphere of a cantina, he can also put people at ease at a street corner, in a park, or in a plaza if the atmosphere is right. These droids can provide that atmosphere.
- Encourage active play without punishing AFK – For good or for bad, AFK play will be around. Customer Service has indicated that AFK is a legitimate form of play while some of the Developers stated that they’d rather people play at the keyboard. The reason this encourages keyboard play is that these droids require batteries. If you go AFK in the street with a dead droid, then you are not healing anybody. This does not punish AFK performers because the active player must pay in order to provide this service in the street.
- Improved atmosphere – This idea spreads performers across the city, rather than keep them clustered in one area. In places like Theed, where 75 characters may be found overlapping each other, it becomes nearly impossible to conduct business if it involves selecting someone. While this idea will certainly not eliminate the visual clutter, it can help out a little bit.
For this plan to work, some concessions must be made. I will throw out some ideas that are relevant to this concept. Some aren’t that great, but they warrant investigation anyway.
- Encourage cantina use – The cantina is still the paragon of entertainment, and it is important to not devalue that aspect of the cantina. Since AFK is a valid form of play (per Customer Service), there must be some motivation to get people into these centers. Any of the following ideas may help keep the cantina a legitimate hotspot.
- Reduce the healing rate outside of the cantina.
- Do not heal Battle Fatigue outside of the cantina.
- Do not allow Mind, Willpower, Focus buffs outside of the cantina.
- Reduce experience gain outside of the cantina (possibly to zero).
- Discourage starport clutter – As written, if this policy goes into place, the starports will become even more cluttered than before. Contrary to the idea of performing anywhere in the city, there should be a zone (say within 75 meters) around the starports where droids cannot be set up. For story purposes, perhaps droids are not allowed there because of security risk.
- Discourage med center clutter – Sometimes the med center can be as cluttered as the starport, and allowing Entertainers to heal here will make things worse. Also, there is the possibility of exploit as a Medic heals his Mind Wounds as he treats damages. This may not be much of an issue as virtually all Medics use crafted items rather than straight Mind. A no-droid zone around med centers can alleviate this problem.
- Discourage clutter at any major building – This is difficult to define. Should Entertainers be prevented from performing at a bank? A crafting station? If attention is to be paid here, there would be a lot of coding and possibly some errors.
Please note that when I refer to a cantina, I also refer to theatres and hotels in order to avoid being too prolix in my writing. I do not mean to imply that a cantina is better than a hotel or a theatre.
I make this suggestion as a sort of compromise. Many Entertainers wish to perform for people, but they do not want to perform in some of the crowded cantinas. Likewise, it is important to provide a service without denying the AFKers access to experience. I hope to see this as a very possible avenue that can make both sides happy when the new droids are released. The true winner will be the Droid Engineer, who will receive another stream of income as Entertainers buy batteries for their shows. And Entertainers will certainly receive this money in the form of tips as people realize that the Entertainer can provide this service outside of the cantina only by buying batteries.
If the members of these forums agree with me, then I hope that we can use our correspondents to send a strong enough message. Or, alternatively, if there are some major flaws in my suggestion that I am overlooking, then I hope to see some constructive input that will either strengthen my argument or make me realize the folly of this suggestion.
Dear Ravenmist, Tiaga, NewJedi,
As we are all aware, the developers are moving to improve the quantity and quality of droids in the game. There have been some great suggestions regarding these droids, some of which came from our communities.
It is my wish and dream that the correspondents from Dancer, Musician, and Entertainer forums band together and push that droids be allowed to heal Mind Wounds anywhere in the city. While this goes against the original intent of cantinas, I feel there are some compelling reasons to support this.
- Realism – A street performer can be quite entertaining. If a performer can ease the mind in the atmosphere of a cantina, he can also put people at ease at a street corner, in a park, or in a plaza if the atmosphere is right. These droids can provide that atmosphere.
- Encourage active play without punishing AFK – For good or for bad, AFK play will be around. Customer Service has indicated that AFK is a legitimate form of play while some of the Developers stated that they’d rather people play at the keyboard. The reason this encourages keyboard play is that these droids require batteries. If you go AFK in the street with a dead droid, then you are not healing anybody. This does not punish AFK performers because the active player must pay in order to provide this service in the street.
- Improved atmosphere – This idea spreads performers across the city, rather than keep them clustered in one area. In places like Theed, where 75 characters may be found overlapping each other, it becomes nearly impossible to conduct business if it involves selecting someone. While this idea will certainly not eliminate the visual clutter, it can help out a little bit.
For this plan to work, some concessions must be made. I will throw out some ideas that are relevant to this concept. Some aren’t that great, but they warrant investigation anyway.
- Encourage cantina use – The cantina is still the paragon of entertainment, and it is important to not devalue that aspect of the cantina. Since AFK is a valid form of play (per Customer Service), there must be some motivation to get people into these centers. Any of the following ideas may help keep the cantina a legitimate hotspot.
- Reduce the healing rate outside of the cantina.
- Do not heal Battle Fatigue outside of the cantina.
- Do not allow Mind, Willpower, Focus buffs outside of the cantina.
- Reduce experience gain outside of the cantina (possibly to zero).
- Discourage starport clutter – As written, if this policy goes into place, the starports will become even more cluttered than before. Contrary to the idea of performing anywhere in the city, there should be a zone (say within 75 meters) around the starports where droids cannot be set up. For story purposes, perhaps droids are not allowed there because of security risk.
- Discourage med center clutter – Sometimes the med center can be as cluttered as the starport, and allowing Entertainers to heal here will make things worse. Also, there is the possibility of exploit as a Medic heals his Mind Wounds as he treats damages. This may not be much of an issue as virtually all Medics use crafted items rather than straight Mind. A no-droid zone around med centers can alleviate this problem.
- Discourage clutter at any major building – This is difficult to define. Should Entertainers be prevented from performing at a bank? A crafting station? If attention is to be paid here, there would be a lot of coding and possibly some errors.
Please note that when I refer to a cantina, I also refer to theatres and hotels in order to avoid being too prolix in my writing. I do not mean to imply that a cantina is better than a hotel or a theatre.
I make this suggestion as a sort of compromise. Many Entertainers wish to perform for people, but they do not want to perform in some of the crowded cantinas. Likewise, it is important to provide a service without denying the AFKers access to experience. I hope to see this as a very possible avenue that can make both sides happy when the new droids are released. The true winner will be the Droid Engineer, who will receive another stream of income as Entertainers buy batteries for their shows. And Entertainers will certainly receive this money in the form of tips as people realize that the Entertainer can provide this service outside of the cantina only by buying batteries.
If the members of these forums agree with me, then I hope that we can use our correspondents to send a strong enough message. Or, alternatively, if there are some major flaws in my suggestion that I am overlooking, then I hope to see some constructive input that will either strengthen my argument or make me realize the folly of this suggestion.
KoraJubali wrote:
I like the direction of this idea.
Thank you. I hope it hold enough water for the correspondents to consider this.
While there is talk about the devs not listening to the communities, I'd like to think that if all three correspondents can submit this wish, then something positive may come from it.
And since AFK probably should not be on the Top Five list anymore (how can one convince SOE it's a problem when they endorse it?), we should strive to find a way to reward ATK Entertainers while not punishing AFK Entertainers. I think that complex missions is one excellent suggestion. I hope that this droid-in-the-street idea is another possibility.
But there are problems (mainly the starport issue), so I hope elegant solutions can be found to make this proposal more feasible.
Thanks for a thoughtful and well-written post. FWIW, I posted a related suggestion in the Droid Engineer forum a while ago, and (as one might expect)I was overwhelmed with the enthusiastic response of DEs. But there is also interest in Musicians, who naturally want a chance to get out of the cantina. Unfortunately, I haven't seen much enthusiasm from the devs. I have relayed similar suggestions to them, and they haven't really responded.
You correctly identify the traditional stumbling-block: maintaining the importance of the cantina. The devs have said that they don't want to do anything that would drastically undermine the cantina. Personally, I think a compromise proposal could preserve cantinas (such as they are) while making life more fun for us entertainers. I think your propose only that mind wounds -- not battle fatigue -- be healable with entertaining droids. That's the kind of compromise I might support.
Anyway, I'm compiling a Big List O Fun Ideas for the devs -- see my Brainstorming thread -- and I'll certainly include this in the list. ButI mightalso be willing to highlight it separately, given the continuing interest in it, if Tiaga or Ravenmist want to make some sort of joint plea.
Echinacea wrote:
I have to disagree, strongly, with the notion that we should be hamstrung inexecuting any of our functions using a droid. I will always maintain, vigorously, that if Medics and Doctors can perform outside their professional building (the Med Center) using nothing but a droid, to not allow performers to do so is insulting, at the very least, and contributes to the lack of respect shown Entertainers, Musicians and Dancers by the player base. It seems obvious to me that the second-class status of performers and the healing they performstarts with the developers and is merely echoed by the general player base.
I threw out the idea of healing Fatigue only in the cantina as a sort of compromise in order to get the foot in the door. It’s easier to introduce something of limited effectiveness and then widen its scope than to introduce a liberal policy and then tighten the noose after the powers that be realize their mistake. And we know that SOE has made a few of those types of errors, so this compromise is a way to avoid that. If we start off able to heal Mind Wounds in the street, then perhaps later they can contemplate other healing and buffing later. I think that compromise will have a better chance of being accepted than an overall healing ability at the very beginning.
I’d rather not limit buffing to the cantinas, but if it helps the devs consider this, then I’m willing to accept that for now. We just have to be patient (after 7 months, they finally changed the misspelled Dancer title of Captivater). But I agree that we are being treated like second-rate citizens. *sigh*
I initially feared that if there is not a no-dance zone around the starport, it would become even more congested. But I was thinking of limitless performing. Since feeding droids would require being at the keyboard, it’s not like the Theed starport would turn into the Theed cantina. So maybe a zone around the starport is unnecessary after all.
Incidentally, I am not too pleased about the doctor buffs outside the starport either, but that’s because so much work went into places like medical centers, hotels, and other public places, yet people do all their dealings out in the street instead. I’d love a magical fix to handle that.
They want us to stay in the cantina. The negatives you posted would probably convince them to keep us there as well. It would be a lot of coding, coding that would be better spread elsewhere. I put this is the brainstorming thread: Let us heal wounds and buff, anywhere, as long as it's a group of twenty, and everybody's performing. One person drops and that's that. But I doubt it'll ever happen.
We already have camps, and I never see people setting up bands outside hotspots like the Tusken Fort. Anyway, saying leave out starports, I want to entertain at the starport, have ahd people ask me for a buff while waiting on the shuttle many times. No sorry, I tell 'em.
, and I agree that needing to feed a droid batteries would be a good way of weeding out those who don't actually stay at their keyboards.I have to disagree, strongly, with the notion that we should be hamstrung inexecuting any of our functions using a droid. I will always maintain, vigorously, that if Medics and Doctors can perform outside their professional building (the Med Center) using nothing but a droid, to not allow performers to do so is insulting, at the very least, and contributes to the lack of respect shown Entertainers, Musicians and Dancers by the player base. It seems obvious to me that the second-class status of performers and the healing they performstarts with the developers and is merely echoed by the general player base.
NewJedi wrote:
You correctly identify the traditional stumbling-block: maintaining the importance of the cantina. The devs have said that they don't want to do anything that would drastically undermine the cantina. Personally, I think a compromise proposal could preserve cantinas (such as they are) while making life more fun for us entertainers. I think your propose only that mind wounds -- not battle fatigue -- be healable with entertaining droids. That's the kind of compromise I might support.
Kuildeous wrote:
I’d rather not limit buffing to the cantinas, but if it helps the devs consider this, then I’m willing to accept that for now.
Now, in camps, you can heal mind, but not battle fatigue. If droids work similarly, then there will be ample reason to frequent a cantina.
- - -
As for all the empty cantinas out there- I think that has more to do with the "clustering" in 1 city on major planets caused by players trying to "max out" xp. Entertainer droids aren't going to change that dynamic.