Image Designer Archive
Thread: Tonight's ID session Warning: not safe for 56k
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Just_Bri
Sat May 29, 2004 8:47 pm
#1
I went back to my usual haunt in Theed tonight, and here are some views of how the night progressed. My appologies if the text is hard to read, but I have to make the windows transparent in order to see around me.
The first shot is from several days ago. It is of a customer I was having a difficult time with.
The next is from this evening, as soon as I walked into the tent. I got pounced by everyone there! And then, even the person I was working on didn't respond to my questions untill I asked three times. It is hard to RP when your customers are paying no attention...
After I got the first wave of poeple out of the tent, I was able to get started with the entertainer that was in the tent ( the one yelling for help from the previous picture )to help them get some more skill boxes. Here we are explaining how the tent works and the best exp.
A little later, I had to explain to a customer how to pay... He didn't know how /tip worked. While I was doing that, someone asked me in tell what happened to our profession...
Shortly after that, I had a customer that went away for a while during a session. After he left I backed the chat buffer up a bit so I could screen shot it for you all. As you can see, if you are going to torture me by leaving me all alone while I do your stat migrations, I have no shame about having some fun at your expense.
A little after that, there was another wave of customers, including one from earlier.He haddecided that he didn't like how he had arranged his stats when I migrated them earlier in the evening and wanted to put them back. Everyone please take special note of the first picture - proof that you don't have to have minimum weight and maximum bust size to get an admiring eye. ( I have bothvery close to the middle of the slider bars.)
The verdict for today - Stat migrations themselves arn't evil, but they are at best mentally draining. Giving your customers just the right kick in the pants to talk to you can be tough at times. Everyone please make sure you help the Entertainers in the tent, even if it disrupts your own "grind". Once they get Novice ID, they can share the migrations with you.
While the migrations may have been nessissary for the further development of the ID profession, the implimentation should be changed so that it is less fatiguing. Please let us get the people who are not interested in being social out of our tents as quickly as possible so we can move on and spend more time with those who are interested in spending time with us!
Finnally, the skill trees still need to be arranged so that there is content accessable at all levels - even entertainer! For most of the evening I was refusing all actual image changes except those refered to me by the Entertainer I was assisting ( Kta ). I know Kta couldn't have been to happy with having to tell half the people he saw "Sorry, I can't do it."
Message Edited by Just_Bri on 05-29-2004 11:59 PM
Just_Bri
Sat May 29, 2004 9:17 pm
#2
Oh, I forgot - I think I got about 100 exp today that wasn't from stat migrations. Partially because I was sending the cutomers elsewhere, but also because there just wasn't anyone really asking for a new look. It would really help us if there was an in-game reason for people to visit us other than stat migrations. ( I really don't like stat migrations; not because of the migrations themselves, but because of the implimentation. )
Message Edited by Just_Bri on 05-30-2004 12:18 AM
KeyTokikoMima
Sat May 29, 2004 11:46 pm
#3
I empathize. It just feels like doing Stat Mitigations is a waste of your time.
That's the #1 requested Image Design Change, and doing them results in the same XP as if you Image Designed yourself, as well as sucking up ten minutes when you could be doing actual design work on the people that needed it.
I really think they should have make Stat Mitigation require Body Customization IV, at least. I don't think the problem of Stat Mitigatingwas adequately addressed in the mini-publish.
I do agree with you about bust and weight adjustments. Minimum weight just looks... thin. Not anorexic, but like you don't have enough calcium in your diet and a stiff wind might break you in two. Combine that with max torso, and suddenly I wonder if the avatar has gland or back problems.
I'm sure everyone has noticed this, but I look at the body sliders of every male avatar I image design.. and offer Max size, max muscle, and minimum weight if they don't have that already. 90% of the time, I get an enthusiastic yes. Who says guys don't care about their looks?
Just_Bri
Sun May 30, 2004 9:12 am
#4
More misconceptions about the profession.
Edit: My bandwidth died. Please try again later.
Message Edited by Just_Bri on 05-30-2004 12:14 PM
Just_Bri
Sun May 30, 2004 12:45 pm
#5
As I see it, aquiring the ability to stat migrate did the following to our profession:
Changed our customer base: Previously the only people that would go to an Image designer were those with an interest in getting a new look. By implication this means that the customer had an interest in something other than combat. The game doesn't have many people like that outside the Entertainer Professions, as it is a combat-centric game. By the same token though, the game has more people in it that wish for something other than combat by the simple extension of it being the only game out there with content of this type.
Now our customer base has had added to it all players that have a need to put on armor. This is not a bad thing in and of it self, however it has been the observation of myself and otehr Image Designers that many of these players do not want to participate in non-combat content, which they view as "downtime". It is startlingly simple when viewed after the fact. Action oriented players view inactivity as inherantly bad. We are caught in the state that our "up-time" is the action orented player's "down-time". Since "down-time" is bad, those with whome they are forcd to interact with during this time are "bad" by association.
There are a few things that can be done to improve the situation, which have all been covered elsewhere, but I will sum up.
First: Remove the onus of the forced interaction by streamlining the process, and making the actual procedure invisible to the player. We as image designers are aware of why the timers were implimented, and we are aware of why stat migration was included in our range of abilities. We are not nessissarily questioning these things. What we need as Image Designers is not to have in our faces ( and more importantly not in our new customer's [the action-orented players] faces )the visible reminders of the limitations we now operate under.
Second: As our Corrispondant has informed you ( the Devs ) recently, the grind up the entertainer tree and into Image Design itself is agonizingly dull. Entertainers find themselves in a position of not being able to use thier Image Design skills on anyone other than themselves. Non-human Entertainers find themselves unable even to complete the "new Player" tasks presented by the helper droids. The uneven distribution of what content we have is a primary consideration in our ranks, and the most good could come to the profession if this content was evaluated for re-distribution among the skill trees.
Third: New content. New content. New content. In the world of high fashion, where not having the hottest look equates to non-existance, it is game breaking on the individual level to be unable to deliver that look. Because we lack new content we fail to get return customers. Also, many professions in the game produce good or services that expire in one way or another, requiring replacements. We do not. Once a player achieves the specific look they wish for thier respective avatars they never have a desire to visit image designers ever again. There are many solutions for this, which have been descussed ad-nauseum in our forums. These discussions have been met with silence or the response "We do not have the art resources to devote to that at this time." We as Image Designers feel it is not unreasonable for Sony to employat least onededicated artist to produce new art content for the existing non-combat professions. These professions include, but are not limited to the following.
Image Designers
Entertainers
Musicians
Dancers
Tailors
Architects
Politicians
Merchants
All of these professions have the same needs as far as new artistic content is concerned. They represent one quarter of the existing in-game professions.
Kwee
Sun May 30, 2004 1:26 pm
#6
Excellent post Bri
Just_Bri wrote:
As I see it, aquiring the ability to stat migrate did the following to our profession:
Changed our customer base: Previously the only people that would go to an Image designer were those with an interest in getting a new look. By implication this means that the customer had an interest in something other than combat. The game doesn't have many people like that outside the Entertainer Professions, as it is a combat-centric game. By the same token though, the game has more people in it that wish for something other than combat by the simple extension of it being the only game out there with content of this type.
Now our customer base has had added to it all players that have a need to put on armor. This is not a bad thing in and of it self, however it has been the observation of myself and otehr Image Designers that many of these players do not want to participate in non-combat content, which they view as "downtime". It is startlingly simple when viewed after the fact. Action oriented players view inactivity as inherantly bad. We are caught in the state that our "up-time" is the action orented player's "down-time". Since "down-time" is bad, those with whome they are forcd to interact with during this time are "bad" by association.
There are a few things that can be done to improve the situation, which have all been covered elsewhere, but I will sum up.
First: Remove the onus of the forced interaction by streamlining the process, and making the actual procedure invisible to the player. We as image designers are aware of why the timers were implimented, and we are aware of why stat migration was included in our range of abilities. We are not nessissarily questioning these things. What we need as Image Designers is not to have in our faces ( and more importantly not in our new customer's [the action-orented players] faces )the visible reminders of the limitations we now operate under.
Second: As our Corrispondant has informed you ( the Devs ) recently, the grind up the entertainer tree and into Image Design itself is agonizingly dull. Entertainers find themselves in a position of not being able to use thier Image Design skills on anyone other than themselves. Non-human Entertainers find themselves unable even to complete the "new Player" tasks presented by the helper droids. The uneven distribution of what content we have is a primary consideration in our ranks, and the most good could come to the profession if this content was evaluated for re-distribution among the skill trees.
Third: New content. New content. New content. In the world of high fashion, where not having the hottest look equates to non-existance, it is game breaking on the individual level to be unable to deliver that look. Because we lack new content we fail to get return customers. Also, many professions in the game produce good or services that expire in one way or another, requiring replacements. We do not. Once a player achieves the specific look they wish for thier respective avatars they never have a desire to visit image designers ever again. There are many solutions for this, which have been descussed ad-nauseum in our forums. These discussions have been met with silence or the response "We do not have the art resources to devote to that at this time." We as Image Designers feel it is not unreasonable for Sony to employat least onededicated artist to produce new art content for the existing non-combat professions. These professions include, but are not limited to the following.
Image Designers
Entertainers
Musicians
Dancers
Tailors
Architects
Politicians
Merchants
All of these professions have the same needs as far as new artistic content is concerned. They represent one quarter of the existing in-game professions.
Gyopi
Sun May 30, 2004 5:07 pm
#7
It just feels to me like stat migration has become almost the sole purpose of image design. I thought that one of the goals of the image design changes was *not* to change the nature of image design, but at least for now it seems to be completely changed! Hopefully once things calm down a little it will go back to being basically about making people look good, which is the fun part!
Just_Bri
Sun May 30, 2004 5:10 pm
#8
Gyopi wrote:
It just feels to me like stat migration has become almost the sole purpose of image design. I thought that one of the goals of the image design changes was *not* to change the nature of image design, but at least for now it seems to be completely changed! Hopefully once things calm down a little it will go back to being basically about making people look good, which is the fun part!
I have just finished my sixty fifth total stat migration. My brain hurts, OK? I am exausted, and I am shaking. My rewardis to train from
1-1-0-1 to 1-1-1-1. I just tried to ID myself to see what new ability it granted me, and I can't figure it out. I can't seem to ID anything on myself that I couldn't ID before.
Is this the game that the devs invisioned?
Message Edited by Just_Bri on 05-30-2004 08:13 PM
Message Edited by Just_Bri on 05-30-2004 08:22 PM
Kwee
Sun May 30, 2004 5:50 pm
#9
Body I gives you the ability to dye one half of wookiee fur. There's a chart in my ID guide (see FAQ) 
Just_Bri
Sun May 30, 2004 6:24 pm
#10
Edit: Never mind, it is off topic and beside the point.
Message Edited by Just_Bri on 05-30-2004 09:27 PM
Kwee
Sun May 30, 2004 6:50 pm
#11
No clue what you were going to say, but yeah it's weird that Body I is one half of Wook fur 
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