Entertainer Archive

Galactic Civil War - Compiled Update

I think Xyrdre has done an excellent job in laying out the majority of the changes that apply to Entertainers and its Elites. Please read what she has written (quoted from the Dancer forum).

Also, I think it is supremely important that we all keep in mind that there are numerous moving pieces in SWG right now, and that we should do our best to not get attached to any single aspect of Entertainer or evenSWG as a whole.

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Xyrdre wrote:

Alright - lots of stuff to comment on here. Guess this is turning rapidly into a time for a State of the Entertainer Professions Mini-Address.

Prelude

There was a lot of discussion in the corre forums surrounding the TEF removal idea, involving pretty much any corre who had something to pipe up and say. As I've understood it, entertainer healing was never in question regarding faction, Combattant (PvP disabled) or Special Forces (PvP enabled) status, etc. From the beginning of discussion, it was clear (to me) that entertaining would be unchanged.

As I understood it, the question about who should be able toheal whom (and when)was focused on medics/docs/CMs, and it was all based on whether or not there would ever be a case where someone could heal another player that was actively in combat without being a valid target for the opposition. This usually isn't the case with entertainer healing, as our /watch and /listen ranges are really pretty short for combat scenarios - the concern was moresurrounding stimming, as the medic/doc/CM is a lot more mobile.

And... Panthu is right. I havebeen weighing all the factors that I see surrounding the issue in choosing where to pipe up with concerns.

The Course, and Rationale

Right now, based on the feel I get from the boards and the word on the streets from the servers I've visited, I believe that it is of greater concern to the entertainment community that our source of entertainment healing XP not be threatened.

If entertainer healing was limited factionally, and further limited by PvP enabled/disabled status, that would not add opportunitiesto acquireEH XP, but reduce opportunities. The general feel that I get is that the community feels that EH XP is already hard enough to get, let alone if our opportunities to get that XP were lessened by significant amounts.

The choice in battling here would be then between:

• Preservation of the source of half of our XP requirements in leveling - the half that we cannot generate through actions of our own. This is of greater concern to future generations of Dancers and entertainers than current masters, but clearly affects the environment within which current masters play,

or

• Fight for the image and inclusion as true healers, even if it were to cause detrimental effects to the ability of leveling entertainers to gain that difficult to obtain EH XP, in the hopes that it would create an image whereby future development would grant us additional functionality as healers.

Pushingnow togain the limitations imposed on healers, without havingthe necessary additions we'd need to really function as 'true' healers already in place, appears to be counterproductive. However, I will of course listen to the voice of the community. If you feel that it's a really good time topush for that, in light of the limitations it would include, as your Correspondent I will of course represent the collective community view to the best of my ability.

It is my belief that the addedfunctionality required to cast our roles in the gameas 'true' healers would not come with anything short of a profession revamp, and then only if a healer role was the primary goal of that revamp. Even with the collective dev eye turned our way, development resources will still be finite, and I thinkwe'll have to pick and choose what revamping we want to come about. For these reasons, I think that if the Dancer (and entertainer, as a whole) community wants to push for the 'true' healer role, revamp time would be the time to do that. Or, we focus our revamphopes, dreams and desireson entertainer gameplay outside of the combat support role. I'd love to get both for us - but sneaking suspicions tell me that we'll likely have to choose.

The Future

I think that Panthu is also right about the sort of limbo that the game is in surrounding the role of entertainer healing, and with entertainers in general. I think she hit the nail on the head when she said that EH isn't something that we're supposed to do, but something that happens around us, in the devs' collective minds - as looking at it that way goes a long way towards explaining some of the past dev reactions that we've had for functional requests. The missing part to the equation, of course, is the gameplay for the entertainer player.

I'd personally be thrilled if we had entertainer gameplay for our game fun, and our 'functional' stuff (BF healing, for example)happened on the side as a byproduct, rather than being our "jobs" in SWG. I would also like it if there was some role that we held that was desirable to other players, but not seen as necessary to their core of gameplay (as mind buffing is currently), that would help bridge some playstyle boundaries. An attractive environment not related to combat enhancement or negative-effect removal, but something that other playersmight occasionallychoose to spend time doing while not going out and shooting it up. If the cantinas could only be seen as playgrounds foradditionalavenues to havefun in SWG,rather than required stops in and out of combat, I think that everyone would be much happier campers with the whole arrangement. In such an environment, EH could be something that just happened around us, conceivably, or would prove to then be unnecessary as a hook to draw players back into the cities periodically, and could be done away with.

Conclusion

A lot to think about, and a lot to absorb. But, the more we do think about these tradeoffs and ideas, the better that the 'social' playstyle could evolve into something truly unique in gaming. And I'd like us to be right there to help show the way to do it right. One way or another.

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Message Edited by LeBob on 02-10-2005 06:31 PM

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LeBob wrote:

Thanks Warryyr, I will try to get an answer on that too!

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Thank ya

I appreciate it. Even if they don't respond, lol.