Musician Archive

/startmusic executes a /dump command. It would limit macros to being only flourishes. Anyone who goes AFK for a while will have to activate their flourish macro after starting the music, and they cannot stop because putting a /startmusic in their macro will kill it. Won't end the AFKers, but it would make it harder to do.

Also, give the pyrotechnic effects a practical purpose. I love using them, but if the audience cared about them then it would help with AFKers because either A) they don't use them or B) they have them in their macro which causes them to run out of action so their macro stops.

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sciguyCO wrote:

See, I should've refreshed the page. I put this into the gig mission thread (since you asked about interactivity there). Oh, and I do not take credit for this idea, I saw it somewhere on the boards a month or two ago.

One idea I really liked was that entertainers could get "special events" similar to the pop-ups that occur during sampling. These would be things like "a customer really wants to hear/see a flourish run of 1, 7, 3, 8" with "ok, do it" giving bonus xp (and maybe cash)and "I'm too tired" as selections. While the pop-up is displayed, the entertainer gets no music xp or healing xp (although they still heal listeners/watchers).These pop-ups could also include song requests, FX requests, and maybe instrument requests. Choosing to do them should give some small but tangible reward (probably cash and/or xp), and declining should give no penalty. And I think it's important that the healing ability be retained, so entertainers who really mean toact as heal-bots in out-of-the-way cantinas can do so.

Another option: remove the song title parameter from /startmusic and /startband. You can no longer do "/startmusic Jazz", you have to pick Jazz from the selection window. I suppose careful macroers could make sure they don't run out of action, but once they're stopped, there's no starting back up without someone at the keyboard.

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well for the first time in a long while, ive seen a thread that is put together without attacking anyone on either side of the fence, and i 100% agree that this would be a very good solution to the problem...

would the extra clicks be a little annoying like the artisans complain about.. well i tinkered with an artisan after they added the pop-up window, yes it was annoying and could have been done better for them for the improved results of clicking... if the entertainers got this pop-up and it follows sciguyCO's description... then yes, it would be a minor annoyance, but it would also be worth the effort at the same time as not "killing" the afk'ers, and causing more trouble on the boards but giving them a reason to stay at the keyboard.

anyone goes afk to go pee or do whatever... so I think the no xp or heal should be on a timer... after 15 minutes of afk.

Honestly I can't comment on this one since myself (and I'm sure many more) have macroed and AFK their way to Master Musician. So I guess it's ok now to suggest a nerf to this one since you got yours and made it to Master Musician, Entertainer, or Dancer. How many of you would have stayed musicians if it were not for macroing and gaining xp while AFK..? I would argue that most would have said that this "S u c k s!" And that too much xp is required to become a Master Musician.

The solution is at your finger tips. Disband the person from the group if you don't like it, and deal with the situation when the person returns and is pissed off at you for disbanding them while they were dealing with real life concerns (and trying to enjoy the game).

I suggest leaving the AFK system alone. Add content that promotes active game play. Don't nerf a current system, build on what you got.

If people want to have macros when they are afk, they should be able to but,

1) they shouldnt be able to get any experience points

2) and receive no tips

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Xb3 wrote:

Honestly I can't comment on this one since myself (and I'm sure many more) have macroed and AFK their way to Master Musician. So I guess it's ok now to suggest a nerf to this one since you got yours and made it to Master Musician, Entertainer, or Dancer. How many of you would have stayed musicians if it were not for macroing and gaining xp while AFK..? I would argue that most would have said that this "S u c k s!" And that too much xp is required to become a Master Musician.

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So since you can't comment on this we shouldn't read your post, right? Sorry, but not all masters macroed their way up. Heck, I'd say the masters who kept those skill points assigned for more than a week are the ones least likely to have macroed. If it's too boring to push buttons to play starwars1 on a slither, vituoso on a nalargon isn't going to interest you much more. And yes, I have a full time job, and yes I havea life outside of SWG.

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The solution is at your finger tips. Disband the person from the group if you don't like it, and deal with the situation when the person returns and is pissed off at you for disbanding them while they were dealing with real life concerns (and trying to enjoy the game).

I suggest leaving the AFK system alone. Add content that promotes active game play. Don't nerf a current system, build on what you got.

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Disbanding is only a partial fix. There's the fact that while leveling, heal xp is sometimes a valuable resource that gets diluted by macro entertainers. Also, music/dance xp gets diluted the same way, since macro-ers will often take the "prime" real estate in cantinas, reducing the audience at-keyboard players can perform to.

And "nerf" is supposed to mean taking a valid skill/playstyle and reducing its effectiveness. Since I don't consider the ability to AFK macro a valid skill, you won't hear me calling this a nerf.

I guess i'm really missing something here - what is the the big deal if someone wants to macro?

Gaining music/dance or entertainer experience is just not fun. Period. It takes an incredibly long time, I know I spent most of my time with my sound turned off. Even if they give us more varied songs - if you have to go to the lowest common denominator in the group to play - you are STILL grinding out the same old said tired tunes.

People that are so hot to stop healing when folks are AFK are gonna be the first ones screaming when they have 600 BF and there isn't an entertainer in sight when THEY want one - like oh 3 in the morning.

I have MM now. Now when I WANT to go be social I can - or, if I want to fire up my MM in my store to play for my customers while they browse (which is why I took it up to begin with) I can. Note - MOST of that time is going to be AFK - at least on that box while I go do other things.

I'm still not seeing why this is a problem.

If it's not fun, don't be a musician. It's no more or less fun as a master. If you just have it to heal, you can do that just as well at any skill level, there is no need to "grind".

Being an entertainer is supposed to be FUN!

Your not supposed to go afk, and start screaming TIPS! on a marco sorry again.....

hmph no fun. i will never understand that. i have done many things, killing, crafting, healing, and entertainment and i have found that playing music is by far the funnest of them all.

i am a master musician now and was never afk for more than 5 minutes the entire time. i have been a MM for over a month now and STILL go to the coronet cantina and play there.

I will never understand the point of AFKing as once you reach master what then? you obviously didnt think it was fun in the first place what make you think it will be fun when you obtain master? it is the same thing as when you were a novice. Now with the upcoming increase in mind buffs we are able to do i can see an actual POINT in afking. This will only lead to more afkers.

i am going to plead for you to not make it so we cannot use macros. everytime i play i use a macro. it frees myself up so i dont need to worry about playing, and can worry about what entertainers do - entertain and socialize.

personally i like the suggestion of the auto timer performing making it so the afker recieves no xp but can continue to heal people.

oh and can we get a function where we can sell xp? i have 900k musician xp and 500 ent healing xp and want to do something with it hehe

Hiya Wire

A few Months ago I would have agreed with you.

But little by little this is more prevelant and it is effecting our Rep as a class.

As far as leveling Well I dunno compared to some leveling grinds I've done thru my gaming career this seemed one of the most fun.

I can make friends chat goof around,barter buy sell,trainand do some serious leveling in a 20 piece band. This is really good exp. Also very doable with some fun factor.

We train each other and rarely is a Musician and Dancer short on Apprentice points.

Because we are such a cooporative class the ones at the keys are a bit tired of the spam macros and the NPC imitators. Myself included.

Heres the deal tho, here's the double edged sword. I was heading out to go hunt other day in Tyrenna, just as I'm about to head out player comes and says hey can I please get a heal noones at the cantina. I certainly take the time to get this fellow back into fighting shape then go off on my merry way.

The Entertainer community is certainly going to have to be prepared for these requests if afk is actually touched.

We need working Entertainers, Musicians who wanna Band up, who wanna try different stuff. Not NPC imitators. Gigs are great but yanno what their work. If the Cantina scenario doesnt have any attraction for you, gigs will bore you also. Some Gigs last 4 hours or more. Myself? I love doing gigs

Prioritized I think we need more Instruments .songs,flourishes etc. But I do see this growing. As it grows it lessens our importance.

I read here someone said well sure you got your Mastership using AFK,why not hose afk now. Just doesnt get it There are actually people that made Master thru playing. LOL

This alone illustrates the trend

Regards!!!!!

Here is obviously the main dilema in the afk musician issue. An afk musician can sound identical to a 'there' musician if they're skilled enough at macros (or another musician is not skilled at stringing flourishes) and they both heal idenically. The only major edge a 'there' musician has is the capacity to emote suggestive winks to bring fire to the loins of tippers with greater accuracy. The only way to make the gui chatroom that is the cantina more receptive to an entertainer who lacks the afk tag is to somehow give them a feature that requires the pressing of a button, rather than the automated pressing of a button. -I- don't have the answer but I certainly think that every musician wants access to writing their own songs (or at least thought about it) and would promote their new music, although I spoze that's still not a real solution. I've personally never been outdone by an entertainer that wasn't there tips wise, so I guess I'll continue to claim my pressing of the F5 key is somehow better than theirs, and should moral high ground. In terms of reducing xp, please don't at least until they get the ability to play rock. Starwars1 hurt my ears, and I'd rather they do that somewhere where I don't have to deal with it instead of dead center in muh cantina. I hear that song in nightmares right before a zombie eats me or as I'm falling off a cliff. Let them make it stop however they will

Greetings,

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Waho wrote:

/startmusic executes a /dump command. It would limit macros to being only flourishes. Anyone who goes AFK for a while will have to activate their flourish macro after starting the music, and they cannot stop because putting a /startmusic in their macro will kill it. Won't end the AFKers, but it would make it harder to do.

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this and the suggestion to remove the 'songname' parameter from /startmusic (or /startband songname) is a very bad idea. If you ever made whole songs with /flo, /sing and /some_effect, you will have noticed the only way to get decent timings between flourishes and /sing is to use a macro or alias with /startmusic(band) songname at the beginning. If you try to start first and activate the macro later, the /sing lines will never be at the same (and right) spot. Maybe you can do it with a very good connection, but it does not work from over here in europe with ping times around 200.

Another proposal, the pop-up events while you play to click a button...

If this is implemented the same way the artisan surveying events are set up, it will destroy pre-made performances. The sampling requesters pop up at random times and *stop* further sampling till you click a button, even if you are fast with the mouse you will loose 1 sample cycle.
Now imagine a band doing a performance with aliases or macros and band members getting pop-ups at different times stopping them. Can you say 'instruments stoping and restarting at random times sound all bad during a performance'? I knew you could :-)

Please - don't remove one of the few (even if it is a pain to use) tools we have to create something other than a random flow of flourishes!

The best solution with the least impact on people actually playing their characters would be an afk timeout stopping exp gain, not the healing for the audience.

Of course the 'die hard' afk'ers would find a way around to simulate keystrokes with 3rd party utilities and cancel the afk status, but this would probably be the case with every solution the devs implement /shrug

Cheers, Salome