Musician Archive
Thread: From your Correspondent: inviting suggestions on AFK'ing
I have Master my Musician mostly with AFKing, i turn SWG on an go to Work, after 5 hours or so i have made lesser XP and lesser money, than a Fighter Proff in 5 hours. The only what you can do as Musician is Flourish here flourish there an again.. if you stay ina 20pep group you have always a Novice , i don't want to play always SW1 or Rock, when i able to play Ballad. But i think start macro, gain XP turn sound off an do someting other.
Think at Player Citys,if you can go AFK the cantinas in player citys are more usefull.
How about an option for people listening to entertainers like /specialrequest
When you use /specialrequest it will give you a list of options that entertainer can provide and the cost for each. If the entertainer accepts he/she will get more exp and some cash, and the spectator get's faster healling and/or buffs
I recently mastered musician, and I spent some of the time afk, admit it. But I wasn't always afk. So now that I'm master, I don't feel forced to go to the capital cantinas with the healing expto get in the maximum sized group for the entertainer exp. Now I can travel to the smaller places and just not worry about that, travel around and do buffs, if I get bored just leave.
One night I was in some mining town dive, and was grouped with a few people, playing. I spotted a master musician come in, so I invited him to the group. He got up there with us, and without saying a word, the guy goes afk. **edit**? I just don't understand this. Why would you need to go afk when you're a master? The guy travels from town to town, so he can go in and leave the keyboard? It's actually become... the way to play the profession. At first I just thought the guy was nuts, or old habits die hard.
But no, I've seen two other master musicians doing the same thing! What the heck is the point of going afk when you don't even get anything out of it? What are they grinding when there's nothing left to grind? Does anybody have any idead WHY they would be doing this? Am I missing something?
Myself, I'll stay at the keyboard and shout out buffing services, or be there to sell it. These guys, it's sort of like they're crafters who never make anything.Anyway, the current situation has made the class designed for socializers the most anti-social class I've ever seen in a mmorpg. It's becomethe class where the way you play it, you don't even interact with the game, let alone other people in it. Completely insane. I interacted with people more as a pistoleer, actually. Working my way up musician, patrons would be in and out, and everybody in my group was usually afk.
Alright, first off, let me say that the entertainment tree and specifically the Musician Tree is the most boring waist of time that i have ever spent on a game in my life. If you feel differently, hey good for you. I dont care. Had it not been for the holo i would have never become a jedi, because I would have never picked up first, master entertainer (and mind you i was very excited to get the hell out of the cantana and never step foot in one again) then my second holo said Master Musician, I wanted to throw my computer out the window. I am trying to get my healing xp as quickly and out of the way as possible. I have to deal with server restarts, LD'ing and just plain dropping off the game. I dont want to step on anyone so i play music in a group off to the side. I dont ask for tips, i dont cause trouble i dont talk and the time passes by slowwwwwly. So dont come and falme people who dont want to do this profession and have given up there profession that they truly loved which was Doctor/pistoleer and let us go upon our way and get the hell out of the most boring spot in the galaxie.
Very truly yours,
Mayor Sretsi Wolfinger
Honestly, with all due respect. Entertainer professions are designed for those that wish to do them. Everyone grinds Entertainer professions for the simple sake of "getting it out of the way" or for Holo purpose. Yes, it is one of the only professions you can almost entirely bot. You complain because it is boring and that you had to sit and do it. Well hey, at least you didn't have to run around getting resources and sitting in a click fest for hours upon hours.
I mean seriously entertainer is an easy profession, I started it in week two because I idle a lot. I'm a roleplayer so I found being in the cantina playing music and hanging out with people to be as enjoyable to me as most of my other tasks within the SWG game. I made my way to master musician and master entertainer without a lick of being afk, aside from perhaps running back and forth making dinner or what not. I was sitting there chatting with everyone anyway and so it really didn't detract from my time. I still sit and play all the time and its one of my most enjoyed past times of SWG. I regret the day I will have to give it up for the sake of keeping my sanity, but alas I will have it back.
In resolution to the afk'ers I complain about them a bit, but I find it a waste of my breathe. If you wish to grind it, by all means do. The only time I feeling it a detraction is when I'm doing my best to perform in a Cantina and the afk people are standing in the doorway, or dancing into the wall, just in general pulling away from the fun atmosphere and making the cantina look ridiculous. This is the reason ent healing xp exists. It requires you to heal others with your abilities to gain xp to advance the tree. I personally do not group with afk people because I am attempting to perform and they often times mess it up. They do not gain healing xp in that respect because the ent group is getting it.
The special events idea is great, and I would really enjoy seeing something like this. However, I also feel at times I am playing or buffing and do not wish to acknowledge this event. Also I use modal chat, those boxes popping up would jump me out of my chat box and cause me to possibly press a key that would cause me to move and stop playing. The worst break to buffing someone is hitting them with a 4min buff because you hit a key, now they're stuck with that until it wears off in a half hour. I have no need forxp, healing or otherwise and events are great but the ability to turn them off would also be beneficial. Perhaps while they're off I would gain no xp. Again, thats fine, I'm a performer I often times when going up the tree found myself playing a less than my best instrument for the sake of balance and sound.
So I acknowledge all adjustments to afk, again they cannot be reflective of an afk timer. The special events window seems the best at this point, however it could interrupt us that are merely playing for other reasons than xp gain. I believe healing from music should be reflected regardless of xp gain. If someone wants to afk heal that is fine, but they should not gain xp. If i wish to toggle off my special events, thats fine but I should still heal and buff as normal, with no xp gain, for example.
Again I say, leave the entertaining to those that wish to do it. If you don't want any part in it, by all means leave us be and work out your own solution.
Regards
-Ghrey Ke'lok (Performer of Arts, Studio located in Camelot (Tatooine) on Sunrunner)
As much as I would have liked to go through this thread and read each person's comments before posting...it's just too long and I haven't much time. I do feel this is a very important subject and feel I should interject something that might not have been mentioned.
I'm not sure that the suggestion to have /afk trigger something will keep people from being away from their computer and continue entertaining mindlessly. Can you say Nostromo Gamepad? It does keystrokes and keeps the flourishes going without sending your character into an afk state. Well, that's what I've experienced. I'll admit to having gone AFK while performing to assist those, in the city I belong,entering the cantina for heals...and of course, it helped in my experience. I also participated in the main cantinas and would go afk after being an active participant most of the day. Finishing up just the few hours remaining before the servers were reset.
I would love to seeno afk entertainers (unless they are just away for a short time)...my solution would be to remove it from the "voice of the holocron" altogether and bring some true meaning back to the profession. It has caused a great deal of lag in the main cities as a result of 20+ people in Theed and Coronet mainly afk grinding their way up so they can move on to the next holocron.
I do like the idea of the "tip window". There are many times that I have missed seeing tips through all of the flourish/experience spam on the screen. You could actually remove the spamaltogether. If someone wants to see that theyflourished or gained expin type, they can use the combat messagebox.
It has taken me several months to master the profession. I'm one of the few and the proud and do offer what I can to make my performances as realistic as possible.
Rhoda Rambala
Independent Master Musician
Naritus
There are many times that I have missed seeing tips through all of the flourish/experience spam on the screen. You could actually remove the spamaltogether. If someone wants to see that theyflourished or gained expin type, they can use the combat messagebox.
I'm sorry but you all are wrong.
Sure I would prefer dancers and muscians to be at keyboard for it allows the game to be more roleplay and immersive, but I have done dancer and the like and can tell you it is not fun.
Entertainers are the doctor of the mind, only difference is, is that they are confined to the cantina. There should be droids that allow them to heal outside of cantina too. But as of right now all dancer/muscian is, is a huge cost of SP that is only useful in a cantina. They can't even buff themselves. And to just be in a cantina like that is being nothing more then a tool to keep the game moving smoothly and most definatly not worth no $15a month.
I like dancing and being in the cantina and talking in the group and what not, but leveling takes so much time and requires you to be in a hot spot grouped with the majority that it isnt worth mastering to not keep. And keeping it limits what else you can do ingame. Personally, I don't see why anyone would go dancer or muscian and keep it as their main professian. So for those who do I am greateful for I know it isn't that fun or varied in gameplay. And if someone wants to be AFK they should be able to. Otherwise we'd have no entertainers. Not enough for the game to work correctly.
Hey Rhoda, are you the person who just made Master Musician? Grats. Anyway, I wanted to reassure you that I (if no one else) read every post in this thread. I occasionally try to summarize the ideas here for the devs, because the devs tell me they're interested in ways to make our profession more fun so as to encourage at-the-keyboard play.
NewJedi wrote:Anyway, I wanted to reassure you that I (if no one else) read every post in this thread.
(I am embarrassed to have to say that I did not read this whole thread before posting.)
I'm trying to develop constructive ideas for the devs, and I don't want them to have to wade through any more threads than necessary.
When you are tagged as AFK, you are warned by a system message "You are now appear to be AFK" and then your avatar fades to 100% transparency.
-- Sure, you will still get musical/dancing xp, but you probably will not get Healing xp because new-comers to the cantina (with new mind wounds & BF) will not be able to see you, and therefore will not watch/listen.
-- Sure, you may still be able to get Ent.Healing XP if your group allows you to go AFK, but the fact is with a non-afk accomplice you can do nearly anything in SWG. (Consider Tumble-To-Stand, Mind-Poison, and ID-Macroing as just 3 examples.)
-- -- Of course, if everyone in your group goes AFK, then you will all become invisible & thus no new "clients."
-- Sure, you can run a macro like "/afk;/pause 1;/afk" (or whatever that was someone posted) but not everyone will do this, and even a couple fewer "(AFK)" zombies would be a welcome relief.
-- -- Optionally, the game could have two types of AFK. The "/afk" thing would serve only to bounce "/tells" whereas the user's client-software would mark/say whether any keyboard/mouse input has happened, and this would be the overall/no-avoiding type of afk. I am not talking about letting people type "/afk" so that they can walk around invisible.
I believe this option strikes a fair balance between the desires of active performers (who wish to receive the attention they deserve for the time and effort they are putting into their game play) and the AFK/Holocron Musician/Dancer (who want nothing more than to "get through" these professions so they can open another Holocron).
-- Active players will get the choice clients, and AFK players will still make progress toward their Jedi-dream.
An addendum to this idea is inspired by the game "America's Army" (First Person Shooter) video game. When I am AFK, you could make my client software always show me as 100% opaque, yet on the server-side you hold back my presence from other clients. I am unable to interact with any player when in this state. It would/could be as though I am logged off. (In "AmericasArmy" you see yourself & your teammates as US-Soldiers & your opponents as NON-US soldiers, and the other team sees YOU as the non-US soldiers (and themselves as US-soldiers). This is a very clever use of the client-server relationship in my opinion.
I hope that this suggestion does not fall on deaf ears simply because it is on page 9 or 10
sincerely
Fersch