Image Designer Archive

So, I'm finishing up mastering ID for the third time - my first time under the new system (with timers, but reduced timers). For background: The first time I mastered ID, I did it in the first days of SWG, where nobody had spice, or food, or mind buffs. It took me three weeks of heavy grinding (not really powergaming, but definitely spending a few whole weekend days.) The second time was on TC. I got my hands on some brandy and mastered in a couple hour-long sessions. Not ideal for the first-timer, but since I knew what I was doing in the profession, I felt as if I didn't need to reinvent the wheel by doing the grind "the slow way."

Under the "new" system (reduced timers) it's taken me about 2-3 weeks, but I've had a lot of time off because of the holidays, and I have an alt account to be my victim at all times. I haven't been focusing on much else in-game.

Here are a few things I've noticed - I'm sure they have been mentioned here, but these things may be more important to the grinder than to the master.

1. I wish you could accept before the timer ran down. Don't get me wrong, you would still have to wait for the timer to run down in order for the change to go through. But if you're happy, and your customer is happy, you tend to kind of drift off chatting and all of a sudden, there are people waiting in line, and you've been over-timer by 2 minutes. Chatting is good, I agree, but having to watch the timer tick while you are chatting is monotonous. It would be better to accept, chat a bit, and when the screen disappears, well you're done. For the grinder this would be HUGE because you would cut down on lag time between sessions.

2. The screen is too big. Very much too big. Way too big. I would love to be able to resize it. EDIT: the reason why is that when you have the screen up you can't see who is coming in the door. There will be times when a patron says my name in spatial, or waves to me, and then just walks out because he thinks I am not there, when really I just didn't see his message with that huge screen obscuring half my chat and 3/4 of my screen. I want to be able to see who comes into the tent, so I can greet him or her, and I REALLY want to be able to respond to greetings! I used to tab down the interface, but sometimes that can cause a mystery cancellation in the middle of a session, and nobody wants that.

3. Tents are lonely. Yeah we all know this. I remember when I ground ID the very first time, and I practiced on dancers in the cantina. They were dancing and getting xp, I was making little changes and getting xp, and everyone was happy. Now, I'm alone in my tent, and I have to get someone to help me who can't even get xp at the same time. It's less than fun. It's hard to find a "victim" who is willing to sit in a tent, it was easy to find a victim who is already dancing/playing music in a cantina.

4. The xp tiering in entertainer makes no sense. 1k for box 1, 5k for box 2, 10k for box 3, 15k for box 4, but then only 10k for novice ID, and 10k for tier 1 boxes in ID. It seems a little unreasonable to expect that you can gain 15k in box 4, especially when you don't have stat migration yet. The xp progression should go something like 1000/2000/4000/8000 in the entertainer boxes. That seems reasonable.

5. The xp tiering in ID make no sense. In all other professions, the xp gain becomes quicker as you gain levels. With combat profs you can take down lairs faster. With entertainer profs you get higher songs/dances to make xp go faster. Crafting profs get bigger and more complex things to make which yield more xp. We get the same change over and over and over. Therefore there shouldn't be as severe a ramp. Instead of 10k/20k/30k/40k it should be 15k/20k/25k/30k, a more gradual progression. Either that or xp should stack.

6. It takes longer than the timers would seem to indicate. This is particularly apparent when you are taking turns practicing ID on another person, because while you are playing the victim you are not getting xp. Therefore it takes twice as long to master as would be estimated from the timers. Under the "old" system, when working as intended (pre-brandy) when you ran out of mind, you had downtime which slowed down your progression. During that time, you could play the victim while your mind regenerated (or dance or craft or do pretty much anything else). In other words, you could make productive use of the gating downtime, and in that case teaming up with another ID would be highly beneficial.

7. The ID interface disappears, and until the xp comes up, you have no indication that the other person accepted, and no way to cancel if the other person does not accept. It would be better if the interface did not disappear until both parties accept.

8. The boxes do not say what you get when. It's very hard when you're trying to plan what boxes to train.

9. Inability to register. I was seeking out an ID for training, and I blindly flew to Coronet, not knowing if that salon was staffed. I would love it if you could register at a salon, and the customer could see from any planet, not just that the salon were staffed, but the names of those registered. That way the customer could "call ahead" to find out if you had the requisite skills, before showing up.

10. The tents are a lousy place to get apprentice xp, and training. I ground the entire time in the Theed tent, and I didn't have sufficient AXP when I hit master. The only training I've done is on dance skills... but who comes into the tent for dance skills? The vision of "ID's helping each other out" is not really working in practice. For the majority of the time it was just me by myself. This is a significant observation because I was playing on Starsider, a fairly high-population server.

I've finished up all my xp requirements and right now I'm seeking 20 more axp (more difficult than it sounds) and then a master ID to train me the last 2 boxes and then master. I'm unwilling to yell "training blah blah PST" so I thought I would join an entertainer group and jump in with training in basic dance skills when needed. However, I had a run-in with the entertainer group leader (long story) and I ended up leaving the cantina unhappily. (A little tip for those of you who like to gossip - you can hear EVERYTHING that happens in the cantina from outside the cantina, even so far away as the ID tent in Theed. Talk meanly about other people in group chat, not spatial.)

Was it fun? Well, no. I found the first time the most enjoyable - meeting people in the cantina, grinding ID until my mind bar wore out, taking turns with other ID's. This time, I felt like a prisoner and just wanted it to be over already.

The first day, I met another ID, and we took turns ID'ing each other and that was a lot of fun. I was really jazzed to meet someone to talk to - it was like the "old days." Then I realized that it was more efficient to grind ID on my alt than it was to take turns with another ID. Sad but true. That same ID hit master the next day, and I haven't seen her on the server since. I don't know what it is about ID that is making people drop it quickly. Back when it was easy to master, people would master it and keep it (unless hologrinding). Now they seem to tire of it as soon as they hit master - maybe because the grind was so un-fun in the first place.

As for the people I met - well you take the good and the bad. I had some great customers and some lousy customers. The lesson I took away from that is to always set a price up front. Always. There are those who will tip you more if no price is mentioned, but there are some who will need 3 migrations to get their stats right, and then walk out with a "kthxbye."

As a master ID since shortly after launch, it was very frustrating not being able to do EVERYTHING. I found myself annoyed by my constraints, and almost embarrassed to have to say "I can't do that yet."

I hope to gain my master title shortly, and join your ranks yet again, with a new knowledge of what the new breed of ID's have to endure.

ID's, veteran and new, I salute you.

Message Edited by NJ62 on 12-28-2004 02:33 PM

Message Edited by Maisland on 12-28-2004 10:08 AM

I'm delighted to report that I hit master ID today! A friend of mine was giving up his goal of master entertainer, and I managed to teach him ID 1 again since he had a smidgen of surplus ID xp.

Then to the tent I went. I got ambushed for stat migrations, which I now felt I could charge 10k for - okay yeah, I wasn't a master, but I was completely capped, and didn't need the xp.

Just as I had done enough stat migrations to afford NPC training... a master ID logged right into the tent! I waited a good 3 minutes before sending a polite tell asking for training when she finished loading and I got my master title right then and there! W00t.

So far it's been better to be a master ID. People just treat you better and tip you better. I found it very silly that 20 axp stood between respect and no respect, but there you have it. Doing the grind again made me realize that I very rarely use my master-only colors, or my master-only abilities, but when I had been a master for so long, the level of my abilities tended to blur together. I am glad to have the master title again, though, even if I use those abilities only rarely. I hated thinking to myself "please don't let him ask for a nose job, I haven't trained face yet."

As for my alt, well I have a confession. /whisper I like the starter skin colors for twi'leks! My main has always been that beautiful golden yellow and I can't bear to change her, because I haven't found a color I like better. My alt started out as a light blue, and is now as close to white-white as you can get, but I didn't like how I looked in the new colors - I really wanted more light shades to choose from that don't look dirty.

I've had enough interesting customer stories to last a month - the Jedi who wanted green hair "in a hurry because bounty hunters are chasing me", the grizzled veteran who wanted more grizzle, the guy who said "make me fat and black" and "is that as fat as it gets?"... I luv them.

As for the people I met - well you take the good and the bad. I had some great customers and some lousy customers. The lesson I took away from that is to always set a price up front. Always. There are those who will tip you more if no price is mentioned, but there are some who will need 3 migrations to get their stats right, and then walk out with a "kthxbye."

The guy who walked out without paying for stat migrations came in today and wanted a stat migration. I declined by saying "I realize that I never stated a price up-front, but you left after three stat migrations without paying a single credit. Not one credit. I don't wish to help you." He responded by sending me 5k and said "okay, I paid, now?" I told him "my price for stat migrations is 10k because I am a master and do not need xp."

He then turned around immediately and asked the other ID in the tent to migrate him. I guess he couldn't come up with 10k to cover today's session (yet he didn't ask for his 5k back that he had tipped me). The other ID said "Sure - it will be 40k. 30k for what you owe n'Jessi for those other 3 migrations, and then 10k for the migration today." The customer stomped off, and eventually found a novice ID whom he tipped 2k. At least he tipped her!

It gets weirder:

Customer: /challenges me to a duel.

Me: (Declines duel) Why on earth do you want to duel me?

Customer: for experience

Me: are you in here for image design?

Customer: no, for your death.

Me: Shoo. Go take some missions and go away.

He left and popped into the tent a moment later saying "sorry" and then left again.