Musician Archive
Thread: Loot System changes and In Concept concerns
Thunderheart wrote:
Helstrum wrote:
TH,
I read your post and the webpage.
However, I see no routes to involve Droid Engineering into this new loot system right now. Is that just because of the early stage?
Please tell me that we will get some Droid Engineering spice put into our lives with this change.
Thanks
Ar-Ulric
Loot is for all people - - not specific professions.
Yes, Thunderheart.
But will the loot for all people and not specific professions benefit ALL people and professions, and not some lucky chosen few?
Example: the recent loot kits. They were made to be attainable by everyone, and anyone with combat skills could loot the parts. Then each player could assemble these parts (whether looted or purchased from other players) and "craft" them themselves. They COULD have been crafter schematics, but that would've provided a benefit just to crafters - so you kept the playing field even. You only made the loot parts available to combat people, but we'll not mention non-combat characters' content issues right now Also, anyone wanted to obtain these loot parts because anyone could get some nice new decorations for their place - which is always fun.
Example of initial loot proposals: Various loot provides various benefits to different professions. There still isn't much mention of non-combat loot opportunities, but oh well. Loot will provide benefits to scouting, crafters, weaponsmiths, armorsmiths, and such. A lot of professions. Unfortunately, a fair amount of professions are noticably absent from loot benefits.
A loot piece that let a Doctor build a stim that could heal Mind wounds benefits the looter and the Doctor.
What loot will there be that will benefit Entertainers to compensate for giving up their Mind wound skills to Doctors? How will Entertainers obtain it? What is there to benefit Squad Leaders? Group terrain negotiation bonuses? How about a benefit to Smugglers, like some storage units (i'm thinking like they pulled off the Falcon after the Imperials boarded it - right before Han and Luke took out those stormtroopers). The storage units would allow access to a secure means of moving an additional 250 items ofinventory to a player's new house, so the Smugglers could smuggle stuff through space? Maybe the storage units would just let Smugglers have additional inventory space anyways - I mean, they smuggle right?
Could Merchants use a loot kit craftable deed for a casino, or maybe just some gambling terminals? I know a lot of folks would love to place some of those Lugjack machines or Jubilee Wheels, or maybe some other mini games to gamble with. Personally, I want some gambling machines in my cantina.
Speaking of cantinas, could Master Musicians or Master Dancers get a loot kit that lets you put some levels or something onto your player cantina stage? It would be neat to have different levels to play on in a cantina. Or, even better,a loot kit for a concert poster - it would function like a backpack and could be renamed by the Entertainer, and placed in a cantina (like right at the entrance, facing people as they come in) and then people could go by cantinas and know when Entertainers usually play there?
That would be some interesting loot, I think.
There are a lot of great things you have planned I'm sure, and this is the early stages of it all. So I guess I'm just asking to have benefits spread around. Sure, everyone can loot it (non-combat somehow....please?) but will everyone feel rewarded by looting it, or having another player get loot they want to use?
Why would I look forward to looting some stuff that will benefit a Scout, unless that Scout has some stuff that will let me do better Musician buffs that last 3 hours or are 200% strength? It all comes down to the person who doesn't benefit getting the loot, and just getting credits for it maybe. Or, giving it to their friends. That's not a whole lot of fun.
Thanks.
And could we geta reply about Entertainer stuff, it's been forever since anyone's really acknowledged us. We could use some reassurance.
Warryyr wrote:
A thought occurred to me, though.
If they stripped all benefits from Entertainers, it would pretty much make having a buffbot alt pointless. We could still entertain, and the only Entertainers left would be the ones who really entertain.
Gramon Blatt, ME/MM/MR
Tralmek wrote:
Banthabutcher wrote:I would hope that, down the line, that is changed to Mind Damage and not Mind Wounds.But even if it's kept at wounds, it'd probably only heal around 50-100 wounds, which isn't that much (I heal that in 1-2 ticks).And even if it does heal all your wounds, we still have BF to heal. Not to mention this would be a one-use thing, so it's not like it permanently heals wounds...The Devs aren't (hopefully) that stupid/spam Taking all bets!
ill put my theater on their stupidity.
seriously though, its nice to see the loot system getting expanded and all... but we need some damn love.
DarkY0da wrote:
But the only way the bots would go away would be if they REMOVED our ability to heal and buff...
Yes, exactly. That very same idea occured to me a few days back - imagine the following:
* Remove the ability to heal mind wounds and bf from the entertainer classes.
* Remove mind buffs.
* Remove skill point requirements
* Keep the xp requirements - minus the ent heal trees, obviously... weneed to come up with an alternative to those... maybe consolidate musician and dancer into one profession, with the following 4 branches:musician knowledge, dancer knowledge, musician techniques, dancer techniques
Pro's, as I see them: only those who are really interested in thse professions would take them up, gone are the buffbots and (to a large extent, there'll still be ppl leveling up) the AFKers, as there is no tangible ingame bonus to be had anymore. And with the freeing up of skill points, we would be free to take on other professions to maybe earn a better livelihood.
Cons: we would need a revamp of the entertainer mission. Not bring them in line payout-wise with combatants, obviously, but at least make them worth our time. Maybe have missions up to 6-10k, depending on the entertainers skill level. Also, there would be even less reason for the Devs to keep developing or adding content to these professions. But then, it can hardly get any worse than it is now, can it?
It's a bit drastical, but at least it would solve the buffbot problem once and for all, and it would make us concentrate on entertaining. Most of the real dancers and musicians I know are in it for the fun of it, and not as a means to buff or heal people...
What do you think about that?
Landlubber wrote:
DarkY0da wrote:But the only way the bots would go away would be if they REMOVED our ability to heal and buff...Yes, exactly. That very same idea occured to me a few days back - imagine the following:
* Remove the ability to heal mind wounds and bf from the entertainer classes.
* Remove mind buffs.
* Remove skill point requirements
* Keep the xp requirements - minus the ent heal trees, obviously... we need to come up with an alternative to those... maybe consolidate musician and dancer into one profession, with the following 4 branches: musician knowledge, dancer knowledge, musician techniques, dancer techniques
Pro's, as I see them: only those who are really interested in thse professions would take them up, gone are the buffbots and (to a large extent, there'll still be ppl leveling up) the AFKers, as there is no tangible ingame bonus to be had anymore. And with the freeing up of skill points, we would be free to take on other professions to maybe earn a better livelihood.
Cons: we would need a revamp of the entertainer mission. Not bring them in line payout-wise with combatants, obviously, but at least make them worth our time. Maybe have missions up to 6-10k, depending on the entertainers skill level. Also, there would be even less reason for the Devs to keep developing or adding content to these professions. But then, it can hardly get any worse than it is now, can it?
It's a bit drastical, but at least it would solve the buffbot problem once and for all, and it would make us concentrate on entertaining. Most of the real dancers and musicians I know are in it for the fun of it, and not as a means to buff or heal people...
What do you think about that?
a very good point, but, as much as i like to entertain, it is nice to have another purpose, in addition to entertianment. i mean, look at docs, they just sit in a starport with a droid, banktip me, ill buff you, run buffmacro, lather rinse repeat, whearas, assuming no buffbot is involved, we throw in the social aspect, in addition to the healing and buffing involved.
Actually, I'm notsure about my suggestion myself, that's why I threw it out for you to discuss 
LyteFoot wrote:
The problem I have with removing buffs and healing is that it removes any reason for someone other than an entertainer to seek entertainers out. We need a reason for people to visit the cantina or they won't and we won't have an audience.
Xyrdre wrote:
Warryyr wrote:
A thought occurred to me, though.
If they stripped all benefits from Entertainers, it would pretty much make having a buffbot alt pointless. We could still entertain, and the only Entertainers left would be the ones who really entertain.
Now you're starting to see the idea...
If we rebuild from scratch, after stripping the reasons for botting, might not greater care be taken the second time around? It's all still up in the air, and open to a lot of thought, but there are possibilities that may not be present any other way. Worth investigating, says I...
Hmm, yeah. We we'll needa freakin' way to make a living! Good lord, can they finally increase mission payouts for us? haha.