Musician Archive

Yet another update.....

There are, occasionally, AFKers in the Cantina I play at.I have come to accept them as a few are in a guild that a few people I have become friends with, are in. However, one is a Master Ent/Mus/Dan and I think I have ever seen that person live maybe twice. I did a group invite to them to see if they were really a buff-bot hiding under my nose in the cantina, and sure enough......it was true as they had the accept going

I love playing my character, but sheesh, I just feel like I am getting a very raw deal here. And doubley so given that statement by TH now so long ago about recursive macros going away and we still have them. Yeah they will probably stay in the game until after the revamp, so we just get to continue suffering.

Back to the main subject though, there has been a steady increase of non master AFKers, people who are just leveling for whatever reason, FS / to be a bot / to become a master without playing. I have not sent an ingame mail to any of them asking why they are doing what they are doing because so far I have been doing ok on tips. But once again, with the AFKers in place, people are running into the cantina, watching them ( And maybe me too?) for a moment and then running off. Even with me greeting them.

JTL better be all that and a bag of chips to to help tide me over until the CB. if its not,I don't know ifI can make it much longer.

Durney Kova

Master Entertainer / Master Musician / Master Image Designer / Novice Dancer

The irony and justice may be that these AFK perfomers don't realize that they can't use their XP for the trees they want. They will then have spent hours of AFK time that could have been used to actually playfor points that dothem no good at all

Elwyn LyteFoot - Corbantis server

In my experience (with entertainers in three galaxies, yes, yes, I am a masochist) there is a small decrease in AFKers overall, but they still tend to crowd the "popular" locations and the buffbot menace continues to grow by the day. In fact, at least half of the current crop of AFKers are, I believe, buff-bots in training since they have such self-respecting names like -Desire and Nice'Jug's- I kid you not - with one mastery working on the other and no badges at all.

Honestly I wish the devs hadn't said a word about removing unattended gameplay, all it did was get my hopes up to be dashed yet again on the rocks of reality as they continue to do nothing.

Lately I have been finding a semi-awareness about non AFKer entertainers. Whether its to heal up or get buffed, I get quite a few regulars and new people everyday coming to listening, especially when they see the banter and entertainment going on. As for looks, a male wookiee doing exotic 4 is kinda funny ya know People seem to be more entertained by that of late than not.

Buffbot's occur lately but it is becoming pretty uncommon to see them...a few of us live ones, together or even competing for customers, unofficially agree to buff for an hour on the same grounds around a buffbotter, and it has been driving them away

It helps my musician / dancer is on during the same 2-3 hours every night, especially for regular's =).

I was just in Cor Can on Chilastra....and compared to recent weeks, it was a ghost town.

It looked like back when you had trouble filling a single group. However many were AFK, unlike the good old days.

Fragpuppie Uber
Master Entertainer, Master Musician
Guild Leader - Performer United Professional Society (PUPS)
Founding Member - Frag's Puppies
Contact S'ita for bookings
President and CEO - Fragpuppie Enterprises and Uber Instruments
Coronet, Corellia, Chilastra

Lorelai Seabreeze------Annalize Seabreeze
Jedi MLS Mdef healer 3xxx enhance xxx2
Tri Master Ent Dancer Musician

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I noticed an initial decrease on Kettemoor. But, I don't think it's much of one, and seems to be just as bad as before, if not worse. The Coronet Cantina not only has the infamous buffbot, Shalina, but a couple of other buffbots who actually seem to be taking business away from Shalina. Shalina tends to park herself in one of the side rooms and threatens to /ignore people who don't pay. The new crop of buffbots in Coronet park themselves at the entrance of the Cantina and don't charge. Of course, being right in front and being free, they get most of the business. I can't say I feel sorry for Shalina. In fact, I get some perverse pleasure from seeing her business dwindle. But, of course, it's at the expense of having other buffbots. Coronet is a cesspool and will remain a cesspool until when/if the recursive macro is ended and unattended gameplay is made a thing of the past. Plus, as others have mentioned, there are a lot of future buffbots grinding. And, the hologrind unfortunately just turned into the FS grind. So, I've seen a lot of "characters" with either Master Dancer or Master Musician going afk in order to gain sense experience. I even saw someone post in the dancer forum that this is what they were doing. I'm sure a lot of others will be doing the same since they can do it afk, without any effort. Unfortunately the end of the hologrind didn't really end the afk grind. I had high hopes that it would. But, it appears that one grind replaced another. And, people still find a lot of value in grinding entertainer professions afk to make their way up the FS trees. So, unfortunately, I don't see the afk ending until the devs make it end...if they actually go through with their intent to do so. But, it's iffy. And, until I see it actually happen, I can't help but be a little pessimistic about it.

While there's afk everywhere, luckily the Theed Cantina seems to be a haven of sorts on Kettemoor for large groups of atk entertainers. Of course, Kettemoor was a server that started the afk/buffbot madness later than most servers. So, just because Theed is nice right now, doesn't mean it will continue to be. I can have a lot of fun in Theed right now. But, I'm still extremely fearful that it will eventually become like Coronet. This is why I'm extremely hopeful that the devs will actually come through with their intent to remove extended overnight at work/school afk play.

It's such a shame, because I have been having an awful lot of fun lately. I always find things to do in SWG. It just sucks that my favorite professions, the entertainer ones, consistently become the least enjoyable to play because of afk and buffbots. I suspect I'm going to have a lot of fun when JTL comes out. But, still, the long term sustainability of my enjoyment with this game really depends on what the devs do regarding afk. It seems they don't like it. They've made statements as such. I even remember reading some JTL blurb where the devs talked about how they were developing that part of the game to be pretty much afk free. It's too bad they didn't think of doing that with the core game. I think they realized the afk macro system was ultimately a mistake. I hope they've learned from this mistake. But, the fact remains that it was given to the playerbase and it's extremely difficult to take it away once they've had it. JTL on the other hand is a whole new ballgame, and if they actually make it afk free you will never find people whining about not being able to play JTL while afk. The same thing would have happened to the core game if it was like that from the beginning. But, it wasn't, so now we have a huge battle because poeple have gotten so used to it. It's unfortunately. But, the reality is that a game that doesn't allow afk is always a better game. And, nobody would ever have complained about it if it was like that from the beginning. I just hope the devs can chip away at the afk and disregard all the whiners who will be incredibly angry about it. Because, truthfully, if the afk does leave, it is something that will be forgotten. A few months after afk is gone nobody will even think twice about it. But, as long as it's here people will always be battling over it. The fighting will never go away as long as afk exists. So, here's hoping that the devs make the right choice and stick to it. It will be a healthier, more satisfying game in the long run.

Tempest had a HUGE decrease between pubs 9 and 10. However,with folks getting into the village, there's been a definite rise again. While they play, the most efficient method to gain xp for the Senses branch is healing. While at work/school/sleeping, most efficient is to AFK your way with Ent. Any xp is good xp in their eyes. Any free xp is great xp.

Mo'Ste Elosk
Mo'Set Elosk
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May the Force grant us
the Wisdom to discover the Right,
the Will to choose it,
and the Strength to make it endure.