Musician Archive
Thread: do you guys see it this way too?
Page 2 of 2
Warryyr
Sat Oct 23, 2004 8:37 am
#14
Beery wrote:
"We needed the Devs to step in. They failed us. They made new little shippies for the kiddies to play in, and ohhhh their concerns were so very important. MUST help the kiddies! So polite to the free Beta players - hail Jump to Lightspeed! Forget everything else!"
Well Warryyr, the JTL beta testdoes have its non-combat advocates, and I'm not the only one. But I fear that getting in on the beta test wasn't enough to actuallyget anything positive donefor us non-combat oriented types. I can advocate until my typing fingers are sore for non-combat content to be added, but I don't think it will do much more good than will such lobbying outside of the beta test. The die was cast in the smoky boardrooms of Sony/Lucasarts and they decided thatJTLwould havelittle orno non-combat content, as we were told a few weeks ago by the developers. Until the suits decide that this game will have non-combat content I'm afraid all we can do is eitherhope fornon-combat-oriented playersto be considered with the merit our numbers dictate, or elsefinally throw in the towel.
Note that JTLdoes not appear to worklike the regular game. I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that you can't advance at all as a pilotunless you actually shoot stuff (that is just reflecting what the devs have said in other posts). In the regular game I've managed to get half-way through the Jabba's Palace quest without killing anything (if your target gets killed by others, you get the credit), but JTL advancement seems to be 100%tied to your actual personal combat accomplishments. As the devs have also said, there is no transport or mining content as yet. In fact I think they havesaid outright that there would be no such content upon release. I remain hopeful that such content will come within the next year or two, witha 'pilot revamp'.
In short, I thinkJTL is a case of"deja vu" for us folks. Look for JTL to bring us only promises ofa whole new set of space fixes and content additionsthat push musicianfixes well out beyond 2005, if we ever get them.
I agree. The non-combat roles in JTL are very disappointing. About all there is - Shipwright (which you don't need JTL for) and you have your SoroSuub Luxury Yacht which will hopefully be *truly* invincible as stated before. Since the Luxury Yacht can hyperspace, you can also travel with it. Seems to be a logical extension to have some sort of transport service available.
In fact, I know that your group gets pulled up into the SoroSuub...so theoretically you could create a "transport service" for people who want to jump straight to Corellia from Lok. This, of course, assumes they don't have a SoroSuub themselves and do it for free. Some won't, though. So wait until that shuttle takes off and people are mad - then say "Now flying straight to Corellia for only 1500 credits per person!" I wonder if it would work....maybe try grouping with people and then select the Travel option on the Starship Terminal. I wonder if you could all jump straight there....
I agree that anything for us will most likely be late 2005 if we're lucky, probably 2006. JTL and Combat and Combat-oriented professions need a lot of work. There's no doubt about that. Given recent experiences, I don't expect anything but getting pushed aside for them. Oh well. Best we can do is stick together through it. There's going to be a bumpy road.
I just hope they fix the looping macros SOON! haha
psikobunny
Sat Oct 23, 2004 10:45 am
#15
At least we get to heal/buff on Multiperson ships, that was an important issue raised and resolved by the noncombat people in Beta.
Beery wrote:
Well Warryyr, the JTL beta testdoes have its non-combat advocates, and I'm not the only one. But I fear that getting in on the beta test wasn't enough to actuallyget anything positive donefor us non-combat oriented types.
NewJedi
Sat Oct 23, 2004 4:09 pm
#16
I dunno Beery, it's tough to predict, no?There's still lots of ground-game to be played. The Jedi grind alone will keep people on the ground for a long time, it seems to me. My guess is that there will still be plenty of need for planetside entertaining, but who knows.
dimmu-borgir
Sat Oct 23, 2004 5:57 pm
#17
i can see the whole ghost town thing happening, it was like that on test center, i have a feeling this is going to be like the first desertion of cities, only now, bigger.
RaidenIV
Sat Oct 23, 2004 10:21 pm
#18
Today I started playing my Musician/Image Designer Character on Naritus again for the first time in a month. I got to Theed, the place I had always hung out, noticed a lot of the same people, including the buff bot that had been sitting in the exact same place a month ago when I stopped playing. I had a fairly good time in Theed, then went off and did some stuff with my guild. Later that night, I decided I would try the Coronet cantina because I need a lot of musician healing experience and thought more people would be in coronet. I was correct, but it was the worst experience I've ever had. There were around 20-30 people in the Cantina. 95% of them were in the first circular area right in front of the doorway. In total, there were around 5 buff bots in the cantina and then 5-10 afk entertainers. As far as I could tell, I was the only entertainer actually there. I made my way down to the floor of the 'real' area of the cantina and set up. Asides from one other person afk macroing in the corner, I was the only person in this area.
After an hour of me greeting/welcoming everyone who walked in far enough for me to target them and me being the only person actually playing, I had a grand total of 2 people listen to me. Over 60 people walked in that cantina, TWO of them walked far past the buff-bots to listen to me.
To me, this is mind boggling. It is impossible for me to play as a musician, simply because of all the people who DON'T play. I need approximately 170 000 entertainer healing exp to complete my last two boxes of Musician. I was in need of the same two boxes one week before I stopped playing this character, and I amassed a grand total of 7000 entertainer healing exp after playing in the Theed and Coronet cantina's for nearly 8 hours today. Since I'm not a master and can only provide a measley 75% buff, most won't consider me for that, and since theres 10's of macrotainers that people don't feel any need to tip, why choose me? The majority of the population in this game cries like a baby if they have to interact with someone else to accomplish something.
One of two things needs to be done, and soon. A) Don't allow enterainer commands to be macroeod. I have my flourishes and songs hotkeyed just like a combatant would his attacks, and pressing them requires very little effort and thinking on my part. B) Do away with the whole Entertainer profession and make NPC Buffbots in every cantina, because really, that's essentially what the game has become, you might as well save those people that extra money.
I'm not looking forward to spending 2-3 weeks on simply getting 1 and a half boxes to Master Musician due to the brokeness of macro's and what potentially is a great profession if people bothered to play it.
Gknee
Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:45 pm
#19
I know from playing beta that people were thankful for entertainers...but agian...beta is a microcasm (sp?)
Beery
Sun Oct 24, 2004 12:53 am
#20
"Combat Macros are used for more then afk grinding, in many instances they are absolutly neccissary for success in a fight, both PvP and PvE. As a pistoleer my shots are very very fast, it helps to have macros that do a set of shots in order."
I had an oldcharacter who is a pistoleer, and yes, macros help, but no one has ever suggested doing away with macros. It's looping macros that they're talking about removing, and the ONLY time I've everneeded a looping macro as a pistoleer was when I wanted to cheat bylevelling while I was AFK for a few hours (which I freely admit I did on numerous occasions- because I hate combat and in those daysI felt Ineeded some kind of major combat skill). You wouldn't be defending that type of activity, now would you? 
The simple truth is that combat types AFK macro their way to success just as much as entertainers do, but with combat it's harder to see the cheating going on because it takes place out in the wilds where a cheater can be alonerather than in a cantina where the cheaters are surrounded by many people. The big backlash we've had for cheering the devs decision to do away with looping macros is because the manycombat AFKersdon't want to have to actuallyplay the game.
Message Edited by Beery on 10-23-2004 04:01 PM
Beery
Sun Oct 24, 2004 12:59 am
#21
"At least we get to heal/buff on Multiperson ships, that was an important issue raised and resolved by the noncombat people in Beta."
So can someone remind me - what's left that will make players visit towns? Are we entertainerswho love the cantinas going to be the only inhabitants of ghost towns after JTL goes live?
It could be argued that being able to buff and heal on ships is a feature that is against entertainers. It depends on whether you love entertaining inthe cantinas or not: if you don't, then it's a positive; but if you do, it's definitely a negative. It's certainly another nail in the coffin of the game's cities. All we need now is for Image Designers to be able to change stats outside an ID tent and there'll be no reason ever to go to a city. 'Star Wars Galaxies' will become 'Star WarsWilderness - the Ghost Town Simulator'.
Message Edited by Beery on 10-23-2004 04:25 PM
Page 2 of 2