Entertainer Archive

Heh, im only a part time Entertainer, but I do like the idea of having a 'Muscial droid' Having just one song to play at Novice is really getting annoying and something to add to the whole sound would be great, even if it could be programmed to do little fx like the more advanced entertainers

I posted this before on the main discussion board where it received a handful of mostly positive responses then sank without a trace. I’m (cheekily) reposting it on the entertainer, droid engineer, chef and merchant profession boards because it contains suggestions for all of them, and because I’m still hoping the devs might see it and comment

I know I know. There are a ton of things that need fixing in the game and nothing else is as important as Joe’s latest pet peeve, but, well, I’ve noticed that cantinas and hotels (C&Hs hereafter) aren’t quite the social hubs that they ought to be, especially with all these AFK entertainers these days (who I don’t blame at all btw- its dull work grinding your way up to master musician the ‘proper’ way), and being a constructive kind of a critic I’ve had a few ideas which I think would improve the game for EVERYBODY. To anticipate some posts: I know that Devs have ‘higher priorities’ (in the eyes of most posters), but they might consider implementing these ONE day.

Now I know some of these ideas are probably already implemented and I just don’t know about them. Others may have been posted elsewhere and I just haven’t read them. Indulge me nonetheless though, because I’m sure there are a few good original ideas below, some of which at least might not be tremendously difficult to implement…

1) Dull one first: more mission NPCs in C&Hs. For my money, there should be more missions available IN such places than outside in the street (especially in those places that are currently infrequently visited by players). Put junk dealers & more trainers in there as well. Make sure the population turnover is respectable so there are always new faces.

2) NPCs to modify faction. At the moment you gain N fp with one faction but lose 2xN for their opposing faction. Difficult to correct. Make it so that by conversing with NPCs in C&Hs you can change (or at least level out) non-rebel/imperial faction point standings, if only by a modest amount each conversation. Make conversation trees such that picking the appropriate responses (not necessarily the obvious ones) increases your chances of a positive response. IMHO high-level Image Designers should be able to achieve the same thing (on a side note here- let master IDers change your game name. People who gave their characters dumb names and now want to change them will be clamouring for this ability, as well as aspiring Jedis when they appear: can you IMAGINE what will happen to you when word gets around that your character Joe is force sensitive?!)

3) You might have social puzzles in cantinas that involve talking to lots of NPCs in the place and figuring something out- a bit like the old pirates/bounty hunter intelligence quests I’ve heard about. Rare things of course, which will move about, but entertainers in particular would appreciate something interesting happening in their usual haunt.

4) Transport NPCs. Stick a few pilots in C&Hs, so that you have a chance of finding a cheaper fare if you ask around in C&Hs. You know it makes sense. In the same vein you might find a few NPCs offering cheaper cloning/insurance etc.

5) C&H notice boards. Charge a modest fee to leave a message for X days. ‘Goods for sale’. ‘Goods wanted’. ‘Avoid Bubba he ripped me off’. ‘Visit my shop’, etc. Make it really easy to study this board from anywhere within the C or H. Let people peruse it with a /readNotices command while they’re being healed up for example.

6) Food & drink vendors in cantinas & hotels- anyone can put food or drink up for sale in them but make fees very cheap (free for qualified chefs?). Then you must MAKE FOOD & DRINK (F&D hereafter) INTEGRAL TO THE CANTINA/HOTEL EXPERIENCE; the following are suggestions to that end:
Energy food specifically for dancers & musicians so they can dance/play for longer without resting (not just action stat buffs- food for entertainers that is easyish to make and affordable to buy)
Special food & drink with special effects:
F&D that can be used on NPCs to increase mission payouts, increase odds/amounts of faction point modifications (see above) or decrease training costs.
F&D that grants short-term dance abilities! (I promise you, it’ll sell, especially if you implement ‘Partnered Dancing’ described below.)
F&D that increases BF & mind wound healing rates for the user
F&D that increases, eg, musician experience rates for a period.
F&D that makes your name flag / HAM bars appear bigger to other players for a limited time
F&D that allows you to change / hide your name flag from other players for a period?
I’m sure there are other short-term special cantina-improving benefits that F&D might offer (along the dance ability line) that could add further interest to C&Hs. Special spices too. Please please add it to this thread if you think of one.

7) Partnered Dancing.
Difficult to implement I’m sure but WELL worth it. Allow players to dance WITH EACH OTHER (you know, waltzes, tangos etc). I walk into a cantina, see an attractive master dancer, and select Ask To Dance on their radial menu. They see: “JOE has asked you to dance. Would you like to accept?”. Suppose they do- we start dancing. I get healed more quickly. They get more xp, and are more likely to be tipped by me than a passive dancer in a crowd would. Watch the fur fly as dancers compete for punters and punters compete for dancers! Would certainly discourage all those AFK dancers. The dance performed by the pair would by default be the lowest level one known by both partners, but of course I could buy some special drink (as above) and thus do a more advanced interesting dance for a while. If I didn’t know any dancing at all I might step on my partners toes a bit. They might even take a little bit of damage from it (especially if I was a 12ft Wookie). Oh for extra fun add a Cut In option to the radial menu of people who are dancing in this way. Probably best if you can only do it every 30 seconds minimum. DON’T require the partners to be in the same group. Its already an unnecessary pain that you must (ungroup then) group with someone just to train them.
This needn’t necessarily require new animations you know. It could just be two people doing a synchronized dance facing each other. But new ballroom-dance style animations *would* be good.

8) Let merchants place & manage gambling tables in public C&Hs. Make them PvP gambling experiences. That would be a great alternative to duelling (in fact it would then be the only PvP alternative!)

9) Let DEs build & sell mobile vendor droids. These might have limited capacity & substantial maintenance fees, and would I guess only be usable by merchants of a certain level, but let them have these vendor droids follow them around in cities, including into C&Hs, and everyone will appreciate it I think. Otherwise empty buildings will be lively in no time.

10) You should also let DEs build jukebox droids. Just as medical droids can allow healing anywhere, jukebox droids could allow entertainers to heal BF anywhere, and could additionally provide orchestral backing to musicians, or provide music when no musicians are playing. If you put the above ideas into action you need no longer blackmail players into visiting cantinas (because they’re the only places you can heal BF), you’ll encourage players to colonize other smaller cities (and other establishments within the same city- currently everyone seems to bunch up in the same cantina) and you’ll get entertainers out into the field a bit more.

So theres my 2 cents.
Cheers.

(oh and by the way, I for one LOVE the game. Warts and all).

Ask to Dance= good

Player made Gambling=good! it would be nice to have sabaac and the chess type game that R2 and Chewie played

JuKeBox= eh, i would like a radio system, where you can play music on a broadcast system, and people could listen to you. The more people listening, the more xp you get. A nice way of healing people who are far away, or arent in your town and would like to here you. Make it only useable in towns and camps

Food vendor= GOOD