Entertainer Archive
Thread: MAKE ENTERTAINERS MORE ENTERTAINING
Greetings,
After getting incredibly bored of incessantly slaughtering womp rats and the like with my marksman/scout last night, I made the tough decision of starting an Entertainer. I got into the game, did /find cantina, got up on stage, and started playing my little Twi'Lek heart out. "Hey this is actually pretty fun," I thought. People were dancing, laughing, talking, and having a jolly old timeat the "Fallen Star" in Mos Entha on Tatooine. I soon figured out you could do little solo's, WHOA! After an hour of playing (and yawning), to my dissapointment I only got ONE new song when I leveled (which sounded just as horrible as the first song).
Although I was dissapointed, I decided to stick it out a bit longer, but after a while I just couldn't take it anymore. I think it's because my musicianship skill was going up 6 points at a time and to get to Tier 2 it would have taken, hmmm,6 hours of spamming solos? As if playing wasn't dissapointing enough, before I logged off to delete my character I checked out of curiousity to see what tips I got. 400 credits for 2 hours of play. Extremely dissapointing.
My purpose for writing about my experience as an entertainer is as follows. I really enjoyed the entertainer profession while it lasted, and I think it has a lot of potential, but it needs a lot of work (and I do meanA LOT). The following is a list of things I propose Lucas Arts consider and possibly implement in the near (or distant) future.
1) Possibly make itso in order to recieve a dancers/musicians healing talents, one should have to tip first. Also, make it so we can deny our healing abilities to anyone, especially those perverted zabrak children who come in screaming "Nice (censored)!!!" to the lady dancers.
2) Wider variety of instruments.One instrument per level is not cutting it, and seeing all of the musicians out there holding a different variety of clarinet gets really old.
3) Wider variety of songs, ie, different styles (jazz, rock, techno). Playing the same songs over and over gets really, really boring and also induces migraines. Maybe even have quests out there to learn new songs (this might give us an excuse to have fun and see the world and leave the cantina), and make it so we can teach eachother new songs.
4) Ever thought about a battle musician? Think Bards in Everquest and DAoC. I think this would be a really cool hybrid class and would benefit outside groups immensely.
5) Possibly write our own music! For those of us out there who aren't musically challenged, this would be a great opportunity to show off and have a ton of fun and even put off concerts.
6) Give outside players another reason to visit Cantina's other than getting rid of battle fatigue.
This is all I can think of at the moment but I'll see what I can come up with later. Please, everyone who is dissapointed with this class, but wants to play it like me, post your feedback and any ideas you have here.
You can make the songs sound much different if you use your flourishes to good effect.
I tried Mauries' macro as follows and it made a huge difference in the sound of the song. As you can see this is also encouraging for the RL musicians that want to compose their own sound.
Great thread -- I've been thinking the same thing. Have a macro I set up for Rock on the Slitherhorn (which I creatively titled "SlitherRock") that I'm pleased with. You can simply pause 5 seconds between each flourish to keep them from piling up on each other, then pause 10 seconds where noted to play one bar of the default riff. So the macro's laid out as follows (with a five second pause between each line): Flourish 1, 4, 1, 4, 3, 2, 1, 5, 5, 7, 2, 1, 5, 1, 5, 5, 7, 3, 6, pause10 seconds, 7, pause 10 seconds, 3, pause10 seconds, 6, 2, 5, 5.
The Entertainer profession is not for everyone, and it seems that it does not fit your playstyle. This profession is everything that YOU make it out to be, not something that the devs can do for you. It is the ultimate social class.
1) Possibly make itso in order to recieve a dancers/musicians healing talents, one should have to tip first. Also, make it so we can deny our healing abilities to anyone, especially those perverted zabrak children who come in screaming "Nice (censored)!!!" to the lady dancers.
You will get this in the public Cantinas. When Player-run Cantinas are built, you will have this exact thing. People can be required to pay a Cover Charge to get in the door, and if you don't like the way someone is acting, /kick them out and ban them. I have never agreed to being able to say "Okay, you, you, and you can listen to my music, but you can't because I don't like you." A street performer doesn't have that same luxury - anybody can walk up and enjoy his music while he's playing, whether he wants them to or not. And they don't have to throw money in his little bucket either.
2) Wider variety of instruments.One instrument per level is not cutting it, and seeing all of the musicians out there holding a different variety of clarinet gets really old.
There are a wider variety of instruments. The servers are so young that nobody has been able to build them yet.
3) Wider variety of songs, ie, different styles (jazz, rock, techno). Playing the same songs over and over gets really, really boring and also induces migraines. Maybe even have quests out there to learn new songs (this might give us an excuse to have fun and see the world and leave the cantina), and make it so we can teach eachother new songs.
While Starwars1 does get old, it gives people something to work towards. "If I keep at it, I can learn a new song!" If everyone could learn every song at the beginning of their career, there is no reason to advance in the profession, and people would be complaining that there isn't enough to do in the Entertainer tree, because they got all of the different instruments and all of the different songs in roughly one or two nights of playing.
4) Ever thought about a battle musician? Think Bards in Everquest and DAoC. I think this would be a really cool hybrid class and would benefit outside groups immensely.
The Devs have repeatedly stated that Entertainers are NOT going to have any combat abilities. The Devs reference EQ Bards all the time and they say "This is not what an Entertainer is." So, hate to say it, you'll never have this. They don't ever intend to have Combat Bards.
5) Possibly write our own music! For those of us out there who aren't musically challenged, this would be a great opportunity to show off and have a ton of fun and even put off concerts.
While it was discussed, the problem is with legal issues. A record company could possibly come in and sue because someone recreated a song that is copyrighted by them. However, you can still put on concerts. I personally am working an hour-long stage show using the in-game mechanics to put on a show you wouldn't believe is possible. You don't need to write your own notes to put on an amazing concert, just several highly skilled musicians and dancers and well written choreography.
6) Give outside players another reason to visit Cantina's other than getting rid of battle fatigue.
Why should the Devs do this when we can do it ourselves? I have people coming into my Cantina all the time to chat it up with me and to take part in the banter we have there. It is up to the player to give them a reason to come into the Cantinas for more than just Battle Fatigue.
All in all, it really does look like Entertainer is not for you, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's primarily for people like me who never really advanced in EQ because I was always in towns playing as a street musician. I played EQ for over two years, never got above level 24, because I didn't WANT to be in combat. I didn't WANT to run around killing things. I wanted to chit-chat, and entertain people, and that open-ended gameplay is what the devs gave us here. I don't WANT to be a Marksman or a Brawler. :>
I think the problem is you want too much too soon. You gotta put work into beign a musician, right now your'e just an entertainer. When you reach the higher levels of musician you do have different instrument access (drum like is the only additional one i know now) But each of the clarinet likeinstruments sounds dramatically different even tho they're all wind. Get a band together and use different ones...makes songs sound so much better.
They don't want to give too much to the entertainers as they're sort of a jack of all entertaining trades...(look at the dances they get, basic, rhythmic, basic2, rhythmic2 ....so really only 2 dances until they hit dancing IV. Being an entertainer is for fun, being and elite profession such asa musician, dancer, or image designer is for a variety of fun specific to one thing.
If you don't like the music change to another song, the higher you get in music the more you can play, I like to do about 20 minutes of one song and swap over to another, I have starwars1, rock, starwars2 (similar to mos eisly cantina with the fizzz) & just achieved Musicianship III last night giving me folk, which is the sweetest one yet in terms of flourishes, I can make it sounds like 3 different songs. The only problem I have is there aren't any musicians near me at my skill level. So many times I'll have to use starwars1 because there's new entertainers trying to get in the game as well. When I get to be the only music playin entertainer in the room right now though, people love me and compliment on my playing (mainly because its a new song I'm sure 
).
I do love the idea of writing our own music, don't know how it would impliment itself well though in the current code. You can do concertas already by playing in unison on the same instruments (/bandflourish instead of /flourish), we've already been having the fizzz players do the same floruishes with regular /flourish commands via macro, and the slitherhorn players doing the same. Also having one person solo /flourish adds to the songs. This profession is all about working with your fellow band mates.
And lord knows I'd love to deny people the healing, for the reason you mentioned about someone harrasing the femme dancers. But I bet if this was in the game you'd see entertainers, musicians and dancers ransoming off their skill, which would attract the wrong kinda people playing the profession. As it is now, only those actually interested in having fun and expect nothing in return, because the fun is the reward, are the people who play.
1. I'm not down for having the ability to deny people the mental healing, I think those situations should be resolved through RP. And tipping is something good folks do and I remember those tips but it should never be mandatory. I wouldn't like a 35 creds per 5 minute healing session thing going into effect.
2. On intruments and incresaing the number - I couldn't agree more here Vendial. Point me to the petition and I'll sign, hehe. But I do realize that since all of the dance moves and all of the music had to be recorded in a studio. that this is a very low priority for development team [I want my speeder bike first!]
3. See above, plus the idea of learning other songs in-game through some action you've done, like a quest thing, is a excellent. Unlocking songs by performing deeds. I also think musicians should be able to experiment craft with songs and patent those riffs through macros. Others can buy them and the composer gets xp for others using his tune. This doesn't seem too far out of the reach of the current code but I'm not a technical person with computers.
4. Nope, I'm not a fan of this one and I say this a 54th level bard in Firionia Vie. Socializing on the battle field will just get ya killed and in Star Wars, other then maybe a temp morale boost by hearing your sides music and battle charge, there really isn't much room for it the genre.
5. I agree this would be great fun but the devs said there are too many copyright issues. I'll just have to take their word for that one.
6. Sounds good. Any suggestions on making the cantinas more then just a heal station? Actually, I was thinking competitive mini games, like darts or pool, or that chess game they were playing A New Hope would make them more fun. Not sure how complex that would be to do though.
Anyway, good questions. I enjoyed them
jolo
I didn't notice it mentioned here, but it doesn't sound like you were GROUPING during your brief musical career, were you? To those truly interested in raising their skills in the arts, finding a large city with other entertainers is a must. My dance xp soloing right now is around 20 a tic, while in a group of 10-15 entertainers I can get as much as 40 or more!
Also, play with other musicians if you want variety! The more the better - solo musicians can pull off the folk song well if they have to, but everything sounds much much better with more people. 
1) Possibly make itso in order to recieve a dancers/musicians healing talents, one should have to tip first. Also, make it so we can deny our healing abilities to anyone, especially those perverted zabrak children who come in screaming "Nice (censored)!!!" to the lady dancers.
I disagree with the need to tip first, but I would personally love the ability to keep someone from being healed by my music if I choose. This wouldn't keep them from listening, just getting any benefit. First of all, it does prevent us from demanding payment for our services, but even more of a problem is it makes us impotent against harrassing individuals. (And no, RPing your way out of that isn't effectual... ) Hopefully player-run places will help with this problem...
2) Wider variety of instruments.One instrument per level is not cutting it, and seeing all of the musicians out there holding a different variety of clarinet gets really old.
Sure. A few more instruments would be good. Although I'd mostly be interested in different sounds for the duplicated ones (kloo=fizz, fanfar=slither, bandfill=omnibox, etc.) Sounds that would be nice: trombone, bass brass, bass oboe, percussion (Snare, cymbals), stringed instruments of all kinds.
3) Wider variety of songs, ie, different styles (jazz, rock, techno). Playing the same songs over and over gets really, really boring and also induces migraines. Maybe even have quests out there to learn new songs (this might give us an excuse to have fun and see the world and leave the cantina), and make it so we can teach eachother new songs.
Yes. Absolutely. Right on. We need multiple song selections at all levels of music. Yes, currently, there are a number of songs, but we need new songs at nearly every level. Three song choices at each level would be ideal, Jazz, Rock, Techno are good categories. That way, evena level 1 musician could playthree different songs, which would go a long way to alleving the boredom, and the reluctance for higher level musicians to play the lower level songs. Quests to get these songs would be a good way to do it as well. I'm sure we're never going to get this, but I really hope we do.
4) Ever thought about a battle musician? Think Bards in Everquest and DAoC. I think this would be a really cool hybrid class and would benefit outside groups immensely.
Nah... too magical for most people, and not really what most musicians are looking for.
5) Possibly write our own music! For those of us out there who aren't musically challenged, this would be a great opportunity to show off and have a ton of fun and even put off concerts.
Yeah... everyone loves this idea. Including Holo. However, they have made excuses that they can't do this thanks to copyright issues, although that seems a little strange considering you can type an entire text book into the chat bar and have it disseminated to the audience. But thats a copyright law issue that i'm sure Sony doesn't want to deal with. (Sad... someone really needs to fight for rights here)
6) Give outside players another reason to visit Cantina's other than getting rid of battle fatigue.
Like what? I think they have enough of a reason to come... Cooks, tailors, etc. have started to hang out in cantinas to reach a good market... I think that kind of thing will come up naturally.
-Oof
Ceza Evershade, Apprentice Musician.
4) Ever thought about a battle musician? Think Bards in Everquest and DAoC. I think this would be a really cool hybrid class and would benefit outside groups immensely.
The Devs have repeatedly stated that Entertainers are NOT going to have any combat abilities. The Devs reference EQ Bards all the time and they say "This is not what an Entertainer is." So, hate to say it, you'll never have this. They don't ever intend to have Combat Bards.
Combat entertainer is just someone who works on Entertainer and a combat profession also me I'm mainly an entertainer working towards musician but I'm also a novice marksman working on pistol. Like I tell the guys when asked a girl has got to be able to protect herself specially where I work which is in the cantina at Moenia. We have mummer thugs who love to chase the customers as they come in the door. lol
I'll have to go check out that cantina!