Musician Archive

Self-Buff

Built-in Timer

Some kind of graphic

And fix the text! "Erdeid directs their performance at you." (what am I, schizo now?)

I thought the group buff was borked?

And fix the text! "Erdeid directs their performance at you." (what am I, schizo now?)"

If you are going to complain about grammar, at least be right. Their is properly used in a gender inspecific way as this. From m-w.com listing for "their":

2 : his or her : HIS, HER, ITS -- used with an indefinite third person singular antecedent

You're right, Tiaga.

But is there a need for a 'gender inspecific' pronoun when the game offers a % command for "his / her"?

Sorry, just a pet-peeve of mine.

You mean the same substitution that gave %TT performs a bandflourish? I agree though, it does seem kind of silly. But it is correct usage.

Whoa. Deja Vu.

While it'd be nice to know the buff is done, it usually takes about 5 minutes. I use this macro:

/setperform;
/pause 330;
/echo MUSICIAN BUFF COMPLETE;
/echo MUSICIAN BUFF COMPLETE

Just target the person, push the button when you want buff someone. It allows an extra 30 seconds for lag or letting you retarget the omni box/nalargon and go back to playing. Only you will see the echo message, so you can leave your target in suspense if you want.

Just thought I'd dispense some perls of wisdom. I'm sure that adding a graphical effect to the buff that clearly shows how close it is to being done is probably way, way, way, down on the devs to-do list. A message that tells us when the buff is done would be nice though...

Since they didn't put it in, I suspect that how long you've been buffing the person isn't even checked till they do /stoplisten. It just sets a flag saying what time you started buffing/they listening and then calculates the buff strength & duration at the end.

Walking out of range does NOT give me the buff in a lot of cases. Actually... I've NEVER seen the buff kick in just by walking out of range. Maybe I didn't go far enough? I can leave the cantina, get a "you have stopped listening to xxxx because they are too far away" and no buff. Then 10 minutes later on the raid, I can do /stoplisten and *poof* insta-buff =) It's even worked that way after dying and cloning...

What the fsck, eh? =)

I believe the devs willimprove the interface for the buff eventually; they just didn't have time before it went live. I've asked them to improve the interface repeatedly, most recently in my State of Profession post. That said, I'm still very glad we have the buff; it generally works quite well for me. To respond to some of Pendarin's comments:

1. Sometimes you can at least tell if the audience member is /listening to *someone* by watching their avatar: if they are unarmed, they clap and cheer and whatnot. (If armed, they don't, and most people do stay armed.) Because you can't be sure, the best way to make sure they're listening is simply to ask them to do so.I generally do. They don't seem to have a problem complying. You're right that our buff may be fussier about this than the Dancer buff.

2. Ask them to continue /listening for up to 10 minutes, then to /stoplisten. Again, most of my listeners don't have a problem following that instruction; I buff mostly for guildies and city-mates these days.

3. Play for five minutes minimum, ten minutes optimally, with the targeted buff. More than 10 minutes doesn't seem to matter. Twenty minutes minimiumfor the passive group buff; more than half an hourdoesn't seem to matter. Flourishing matters, or at least so say the devs; I routinely flourish anyway. I'm not sure the song or instrumentdoes -- I seem to confer the buff just fine playing Rock -- but why not just choose one of the top 4 or 5 tunesto be safe? I've had equal meaure of success with ommni, nalargon, and chid horn.

4. In my experience, the Music and Dance buffs can kick in a long time after the recipient first gets /setperform, so long as the recipient eventually /stoplistens. Butagain, I simply ask my customers to /stoplisten after 10 minutes or risk not getting the buff. In my experience, most people who want the buff aren't going AFK for hours.On the contrary: Most of my customers are anxious for me to be done withit so they can get outside and fight or DNA sample or whatever.

5. I don't know, because I only have MasterEntertainer, but my guess is: yes. You're conferring a different buff when you dance. Why not play it safe and type /setperform one more time?

6. I do know this: typing /setperform twice won't stack the buff on itself, as it did in its earlier form on Test Center. (You could quadruple the recipient's Mind stats by typing it over and over.) My guess is that it's the first instance of the buff that counts, but I'm not sure, because I got out of the habit of trying to buff anyone twice when the stat bug was extant. If you're/setperforming twice in order to confer a different buff -- dance -- thenI would expect the dance buff to start from zero.

7. I change instruments and songs routinely while buffing, and it doesn't seem to stop the buff from working. Even stopping altogether doesn't seem to prevent it from working.

8. Are you sure a choreographer only buffs to 75%? They seem to buff me to 100% -- just for a shorter period of time. At least that was the case when I tried it on Test Center a couple days ago.

9. My listeners never seem to mind telling me whether the buff kicked in. I always ask.

---

Pendarin wrote:

My problem is:

1. I don't know when I can /setperform because I don't know when a person is listening to/watching me. If I do my /setperform before they're listening, the buff won't work.

2. I can't stop playing because if they happen to /stoplisten while I'm not playing, they won't get the buff. [This may have been fixed already.]

3. I don't know for sure:

a. How long I need to play/dance.

b. Whether the dance or instrument or song matters.

4. If the person I'm buffing goes AFK, am I supposed to just keep playing until they get back? What happens if I /setperform on someone else...does the buff take effect on the previous person?

5. If I stop playing music and start dancing, do I need to /setperform again?

6. If I /setperform on the same person in the middle of a buff session, does it reset the timer?

7. If I change songs/instruments, do I need to /setperform again?

8. A choreographer may buff someone to +75% (or whatever). Can I then buff them again for the extra +25%? If so, do I have to dance for the full 8 mins (or whatever), or would I accidentally shorten their existing buff if I don't?

9. As a dancer, I can keep my customer as the target to see if the buff took. As a musician, I'm left up to the good nature of the customer to tell me.

_______

I'm not complaining that we have the buff. I'm complaining about the way it was implemented. This and the dance flourishes they added present a mindset that the quality doesn't matter as long as there is something. Myself, I prefer quality over quantity. I would have rather waited until the dance flourishes were polished and tested. I would rather have waited until there was adecent interface, let alone an interface at all for buffing.

---

Thanks NewJedi. You're aboslutely right in that work-arounds for most of what I mentioned is simply asking the cooperation of the customer. I just hate nagging people. One scenario that's frustrating is when there are 3 people waiting for a buff and the one I'm buffing goes AFK when their time is about up.

I don't buff for money and maybe that's why I'm more of themind that I'd rather have the nice interface to go with the buff.

The truth is that this buff has gotten a little better since it was introduced and if incremental improvements are made, we may not have to wait long for an easier system.

My problem is:

1. I don't know when I can /setperform because I don't know when a person is listening to/watching me. If I do my /setperform before they're listening, the buff won't work.

2. I can't stop playing because if they happen to /stoplisten while I'm not playing, they won't get the buff. [This may have been fixed already.]

3. I don't know for sure:

a. How long I need to play/dance.

b. Whether the dance or instrument or song matters.

4. If the person I'm buffing goes AFK, am I supposed to just keep playing until they get back? What happens if I /setperform on someone else...does the buff take effect on the previous person?

5. If I stop playing music and start dancing, do I need to /setperform again?

6. If I /setperform on the same person in the middle of a buff session, does it reset the timer?

7. If I change songs/instruments, do I need to /setperform again?

8. A choreographer may buff someone to +75% (or whatever). Can I then buff them again for the extra +25%? If so, do I have to dance for the full 8 mins (or whatever), or would I accidentally shorten their existing buff if I don't?

9. As a dancer, I can keep my customer as the target to see if the buff took. As a musician, I'm left up to the good nature of the customer to tell me.

_______

I'm not complaining that we have the buff. I'm complaining about the way it was implemented. This and the dance flourishes they added present a mindset that the quality doesn't matter as long as there is something. Myself, I prefer quality over quantity. I would have rather waited until the dance flourishes were polished and tested. I would rather have waited until there was adecent interface, let alone an interface at all for buffing.

Until the interface is improved... I usethe following aliases.

bufffaw: /tt ((I can enhance your focus and willpower by 100% for up to two hours.)); /tt ((To receive this enhancement please /listen to me and tell me when you are. I will then focus my attention on you and play music for eight minutes. Do not stop listening at any time until I tell you.));

buffmind: /tt ((I can enhance your mind by 100% for up to two hours.)); /tt ((To receive this mind enhancement please /watch me and tell me when you are. Then I will focus my attention on you and dance for eight minutes. Do not stop watching at any time until I tell you.));

bufftimer: /echo \#66CC66\Start buff timer; /pause 60; /echo \#66CC66\7 mins to go; /pause 60; /echo \#66CC66\6 mins to go; /pause 60; /echo \#66CC66\5 mins to go; /pause 60; /echo \#66CC66\4 mins to go; /pause 60; /echo \#66CC66\3 mins to go; /pause 60; /echo \#66CC66\2 mins to go; /pause 60; /echo \#66CC66\1 mins to go; /pause 60; /echo \#66CC66\Buff finished target person! ; /pause 3; /tt Your buff is finished, you can stop watching/listening now.; /smile;

If you buff a lot, you may want to set up amacro on tied to atoolbarslot to: /setp; /bufftimer; all in one so that you don't forget to start the timer when you /setp. I hope that helps!