Entertainer Archive
Thread: State of the Entertainer Comments welcome
What follows is a posting I made recently to Thunderheart in response to a request that each correspondent fine a "State of the profession" article. Feel free to comment. I've tried to keep the issues focussed on the issues mentioned most on this forum while not getting too far into dancer and musician territory. Thunderheart may eventually use this to start some discussions about entertainers but I would expect that to be down the road. Right now, the professions that are really broken (like Chefs, for instance)are the ones getting the most attention.
State of the Entertainer
Overall, entertainers are in pretty good shape. We can play. We can dance. Until the buff bug (which is more a dancer/musician thing) appeared we have been able to do everything we were designed to do. Our biggest challenges and complaints arise from our interactions with other players.
The two biggest concerns of the profession continue to be income and unattended macros. Both of these are social problems to a large extent. We are dependant on other players for our income, but our "product" is intangible so it doesn't merit much (or any) value in the minds of most players. Unattended macros reinforce the idea that non-entertainers have that "being an entertainer is something that any brain-dead macro programmer can do and therefore doesn't deserve any respect." I might even go so far as to say that AFK macroing is a bigger problem than the missions because most of us consider the payouts so silly that we would never do them. They aren't on our radar the way that the AFK entertainers are.
Entertainer Missions partially solve the income problem. Unfortunately, due to either a view that they are risk-free or a fear of them being exploited by unattended macro players, the credit rewards of these missions are so small that barely anyone uses them. Indeed, a very large number of entertainers see the low payout as an insult or at least an indication that entertainers are not taken seriously by the dev staff. While it's true that we can go do delivery missions or destroy missions "like everyone else", what we really want (what any professional wants) is to make money using our primary skills. All we ask is that those missions pay at least the same as an equivalent delivery, which has the exact same risk (zero) but takes less time and is more profitable.
Nothing so far seems capable of controlling the unattended macro problem. Nearly all proposed solutions involve methods like popup boxes that punish a non-macroing performer as much or more than the unattended macro. Finding an innovative solution that doesn't hamstring the macro engine AND doesn't impose a burden on the "at keyboard" performer is a difficult goal to reach.
Then, of course, there's the buff bug.
Otherwise, we have the usual list of complaints and compliments but nothing game breaking. Many of us would like to see Master Musician and Master Dancer pave the way to new skills and content rather than be a virtual dead-end.
Biggest Concerns
- Mission Payouts - Missions pay too little money. An out of town mission often won't even cover the cost of the ticket.
- Unattended macros - Undermine the profession and make the game into an automated game of "flourish for four days" instead of a challenge.
- More entertainer specific content, like quests or theme parks that require the use of entertainer skills to complete them.
- More music, dances, and instruments.
- Master Entertainer - The rewards are unbalanced in that the musician rewards are so much more desirable than the ID and Dancer rewards that nearly all Master Entertainers are Musicians as their "primary profession".
Bugs
- The buff bug is crippling the mind/willpower/focus buffs that have arguably been our best recent upgrade. This is primarily a dancer/musician issue.
- Formal and lyrical base moves only show up completely on the client that is performing them. To everyone else they look a bit like a skipping DVD.
- Just recently I've noticed some issues with /startband that cause the person initiating it to have to /stopmusic and /startmusic in order to perform.
Gameplay Issues
- Missions don't scale with experience level. Missions could be more interesting or at least less confusing. There's currently no way to tell how close you are to competing any particular mission. If you're a newbie, it's not at all clear that you're supposed to go inside the venue instead of performing at the waypoint.
- Entertainer-related content is limited to missions from terminals and faction NPC's. There are no themeparks or quests that require skills from an entertainment profession, nor do we contribute in any way to the world of crafting.
- While there is much disagreement over what our role in a combat group should be, there is a significant number of entertainers who would like to be "of use" as part of a combat team rather than only in the camp during the breaks. Discussions about what this use should be tend to be inconclusive, though. We also have a significant number who would like to be able to heal mind damage, feeling that such is an extension of our current ability to heal mind wounds. On the flip side, there is also a significant number who feel no need to change either of those items.
Balance Issues
I am not currently aware of any significant balance issues being debated in my community.
Well, those are just my thoughts, hope they helped, or at least not hindered anyone.
I would like to see Battle Fatigue heals give a greater Ent Healing XP reward. With cloning becoming popluar, the mind-wounded aren't as abundant as they once were. Giving BF heals a greater importance would help musicians who don't want to be a face in the crowded cantina
Also, allow us to /registerlocation at hotels, taverns, and theaters.
I know that his may fall in the Dancer/Musician professions, but both start as Entertainers, so tackle the problem here.
As a former Master Entertainer and Composer, and current Master Bio-Engineer, I would like to say that the bio-enhancing tissue that gives +Wound Healing (both Musician and Dancer) is something I would personally never use. Healing up someone's mind wounds doesn't take nearly as long as healing their Battle Fatigue. Either change the tissue so that it does Musician/Dancer Fatigue healing, or add another one that does. Orswitch the Myoflex to Dancer Fatigue/Wound healing and add one that's Musician Fatigue/Wound healing.The current one is pointless. The customer won't get out of the Cantina and back on their way again any faster, because they still have to wait for the Fatigue to heal, even after the wounds are gone. Not to mention, plenty of people sit in Scout camps and heal up their Mind wounds, therefore only needing Fatigue healing when they come into the Cantina.
I still see Scout camps healing Mind wounds as a bug. But that's probably just me. If you can't apply a woundpack to it, it shouldn't heal on its own. Dammit.
Musicianship was my first love in beta, at launch, and if it weren't so godawful boring to stand there and not be able to move while playing, I might still be doing it. I just got to the point where I couldn't stand the sight of the inside of a Cantina anymore, and not being able to anything else while playing music other than treat SWG as a graphical chat room. Hel-lo, I quit The Sims Online for that reason.
Just my thoughts.
Bim_Azul wrote:
I would like to see Battle Fatigue heals give a greater Ent Healing XP reward. With cloning becoming popluar, the mind-wounded aren't as abundant as they once were. Giving BF heals a greater importance would help musicians who don't want to be a face in the crowded cantina
Ravenmist has already brought this up to the devs as one of our top priorities. We'll see what reaction we get to it. It's something that's affecting all of us, for sure.
One question, before I mess something up trying to give one. What's the buff bug? You can PM me so as not to side-track the thread. Thanks.
C
as a master ent i'd like to see some image design related things that do anything of signifigance.
as it is we all know the only eartly reason to have master ent is 1.) you are grindin to become a jedi or 2.) you love the mandolin/cerimonial music.
there simply needs to be something of use that image deisgners can do at master ent.. mabye something that *and i know i've seen many people mangled by an ID that would want this* the ability to reset a charicter to his origonal values? i know you'd have to start keeping a server log of this, but it shouldn't be TO much.
Chessack wrote:
An excellent report. Very well written, concise, to the point, clear, well worded, and accurate in every detail. Excellent job, Slick.
Thanks. 
One question, before I mess something up trying to give one. What's the buff bug? You can PM me so as not to side-track the thread. Thanks.
For the past 3-4 weeks, buffs in general were borked such that getting two different buffs could cause your stats to be reset in various interesting ways. I once had -18 health after recovering from an incap caused by a spice downer. This affected musician/dancer mind buffs but also affected food, spice and doctor buffs. It seems to have been fixed in last week's big patch so that's one item checked off the list. 
The pop up box does not need to be a pain, it could be benificial like the surveying one. For example - "Dolba Lang wants to tip you 300 creds, do you accept his offer?" Or, "You get a wave of inspiration and perform an extra special flourish, click to continue" - this one would activate one of maybe 20 'hidden flourishes', or does not use up Action points performing a run of 3 flourishes.
Basically they cause the macro to stop until the box is closed.
Of course with player owned cantinas, the day of the AFK entertainer in publicis numbered.
State of the Entertainer
Overall, entertainers are in pretty good shape
Maybe it's time for you to started a new character, master entertainers may be in good shape but noobes are not!
On ALL servers ALL mission types are "Dancer" non are musicain. 0 out of 4 of my last missions where completeable, ether by dancing or playing music.