Entertainer Archive

First, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Drabin Praetorian and I'm one of the few bards that enjoys a travelling troupe. I have been in numerous games and my favorite game of all time has to be a MUD called Gemstone III where I played a Bard for many years.

I am now making a transition to SWG and I have many questions.

I officially started last night and a few very nice creative people from Radiant helped me get into a band and start my apprenticeship training. Unfortunately, there were so many people in the band and with all the people there, I felt a bit foolish to interrupt their gameplay/roleplay with game questions. I feel the right forum for this type of Q and A is right here. So here goes.

I noticed that after I joined the band and I tried to start playing it said that the level of my skill was not equivallent to what the band was playing. I asked a few times and then I noticed I was playing via animation but not with music. I tried to Start playing one more time and it said you could not begin a song while animating. I really felt novice about this time. I typed /stop and managed to stop the entire band and heard people say, "Huh??? who stopped us!!" Now I wanted to crawl in a hole and cover my head with a large tent. I hate feeling foolish but that's about how I felt.

So, here are my questions.

1. How do you play in a band when they are playing a song over your current level?


2. What is the proper way of joining a band and initiating play?


3. If you join a large band should you use a lot of flourishes or just a few and time it well?


4. What are some of the things you should do and some of the things you should not do?


5. How many flourishes should you use at one time and how often?'


6. Does your instrument dictate how much game experience you achieve or the song/style you play?


7. Are there any travelling bands on Radiant or groups that play in other areas besides Cantinas?


8. Do you have to play in a cantina?

Thank you very kindly in advance. I don't have any questions concerning roleplaying. I havea very extensive background in that area and that comes second nature to me. However, the in-game areas are still a bit sketchy to me.

Thank you kindly.

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Elricstorm wrote:

1. How do you play in a band when they are playing a song over your current level?


2. What is the proper way of joining a band and initiating play?


3. If you join a large band should you use a lot of flourishes or just a few and time it well?


4. What are some of the things you should do and some of the things you should not do?


5. How many flourishes should you use at one time and how often?'


6. Does your instrument dictate how much game experience you achieve or the song/style you play?


7. Are there any travelling bands on Radiant or groups that play in other areas besides Cantinas?


8. Do you have to play in a cantina?

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1. You can't. You can work on your dancing or healing skills during those songs, but you can't play.

2. If you are asking about the /startband command, I believe some people still experience problems with it, and so I wouldn't recommend using it unless otherwise instructed. Having said that, no one in our cantina seems to get bugged from it anymore, and we use it all the time. I would just ask the group when you join.

3. Large xp groups usually don't coordinate their flourishes, and in general it doesn't matter. To get the best xp you need to flourish twice in a row each time you flourish (that has to be a bug, has anyone put that on their correspondent list?). After a couple of base patterns, perform a couple more.

4. Do not let anyone tell you how to play your character. That is about allI need to say. (But please don't beg for tips... that's about the only thing that bugs most people. DO welcome people to the cantina if you want to make money)

5. Oops, see number 3.

6. Instrument. However, pre-novice musician the song seemed to have some impact on xp, however others claim differently.

7. Dunno. Most good travelling groups will be looking for master or near-master performers though.

8. Short answer: absolutely not. However, the best tips are still being made there, in my experience.

BTW, for future reference:

/start and /stop = /startband and /stopband (starts/stops everyone)

and

/startm and /stopm = /startmusic and /stopmusic (starts/stops only you) (recommended)

4. Well I find musicians who talk to people while the play the horns a bit ridiculous unless you're a Twi using lekku language. But there are plenty of other emotes and things to type out there if you want to be creative.

Things not to do? I suggest that you be present and acknowledge and work with the other entertainers in the band. In group chat some groups don't mind ooc questions, or use /tell xxxx to ask someone if you have a question. I've generally found entertainers supportive of other entertainers. You can also ask things and be taught in character if you're creative.

Next you might want to realize there isn't a "bard" equivalent to this game. There's suggestions of making entertainers "bardish/skaldish" in this and other forums but the state of the profession is strictly a non-combat, social, healing class. Some of us feel healing is essential to being an entertainer, some of us feel entertaining is essential, some mix the two.

Some patrons don't care if you're creative or learning or put thought into your performance and just want you to heal their wounds and they leave, without any interaction, thanks or a tip. Some patrons consider your value in how entertaining you are while you heal them and thank you as they deem appropriate. Some patrons just like the social aspect and come to see you do something entertaining.

If you are verbally abused or insulted with emotes or someone spamming, you do have the option to /denyservice or /ignore anyone who does so. There's a lot of discussion about /deny going on because they just implemented it. Some entertainers see it as a threat to the image of the profession, some as a valuable service, some don't care. You need to understand that anyone can heal themselves off of you without your knowledge or permission by listening to you in order to understand where the debate is coming from.

If you're really interested in being an entertainer then look for or ask about other places to play then just a public cantina. Even if you're not master quality there are private venues that might want you there. And if you roleplay a musician welll that's sometimes more valuable then skill which can always be learned.

Some servers have bands that practice and make songs and perform, or combine with dancers to put on shows and do gigs for money. So always keep an ear out for them or ask about them on your server boards.

Musicians and dancers can leave the cantina and heal elsewhere if you want to. You can heal mind wounds in camps in the wilderness and in any private/public player-owned building from a PA Hall to a house to a shop. But Battle fatigue can only be healed in a cantina or player-owned building. Battle fatigue is accrued by those engaging in fighting and presents a barrier to quick healing of other wounds that are physical or mental. The game sort of makes everyone who fights have to find a semi-social outlet to relieve the battle fatigue by finding an entertainer to get rid of them *if* they want to heal their other wounds faster.

There's a lot of controversey about that game mechanic as well.

Making a looping macro and going away from keyboard while playing music will often put you in the middle of controversey or a moral conundrum too. You can do it there are tools in the game to do it, it is against the rules of the game for unattended game play in the EULA and the developers have stated they did not intend for people to do it. There's plenty of threads on all camps about it here.

Ways to make money. There are mission terminal for entertainment gigs, there are also missions you get my conversing with npc's that give out entertainment missions. The mission terminals aren't cost -effective but you might want to do one just to feel what they are like and no the complaints. The missions given by npcs are twice as much money but still not cost effective for time and travel. Some people do well with tips in cantinas to their mind and others do not. Time, place, and patrons all effect that as does your own actions and how you deal with your environment.

Musicians in a band must all play the same song, although any instrument is fine. You get instruments by making them or purchasing them or maybe getting a spare off another entertainer. You can play more instruments the more experience you gain in the game. Some instruments are hard to get to, some like the mandeviol require a great investment in the entertainer tree then just being a musician.

There are 2 types of experience you gain as an entertainers. Healing exp and Musicians exp. You may gain Musician exp anywhere. If you're waiting for a shuttle or at the starport or in the middle of the wilderness you can take out your instrument and play or dance and gain something for it. Healing exp only comes in camps, cantinas and player'run housing. They both dump into broad pools that at higher skill has to cover multiple branches.

My advice, if you love to roleplay find a place or group that supports your roleplaying habits. If you're just curious about the job then play with it. Musician is a well thought out very good profession. It is entertaining and you can do a lot with it. You'll never miss a note or break an instrument or fall down or hurt yourself or anyone else with it. There's plenty of opportunities to figure out to go where people want you whether its out hunting, at a party or PA or in a cantina.

If you see some master musicians you might want to cling to them a bit and see what there issues are and what there fun has been.