Musician Archive

Ok first off I would like to say that I afked in the past but stopped a while back. I didnt feel I was getting my monies worth. Secondly, I would like to say that for the most part I did it outside of a cantina setting. However, I see a lot of concerns about this issue and I understand all of them.

About this particular situation, I agree that you were demanding when you expected the group you joined to change for you. That is not very fair. However, it is not fair for your group that you have been in to say that they want to solo and for you to leave. The band leader of that group must really be bad because as an recovering AFKer I will say that anyone who is at the keyboard has priority. I expect that I maybe kicked from a group if I am in one so that people who are at the keyboard can play. As a bandleader myself, I always give the real players priority. I think it suck you were treated that way.

Just my 2 notes,

Brog

If your AFK musician enemy is playing nalargon or omni-box... just wait till his macro sets him down to rest, then target his omni / nalargon and use it yourself, that will move it, then if you move it out of his range, it will dissapear and go back to his inventory, and he cant play anymore

Its so much fun... but I dont know if you need to actually be able to use the omni / nalargon yourself for this to work.

I must confess to beingan occasionalAFK musician. However, I do this because I play at a remote location and rather than leaving them without someone to heal BF and mental wounds Istay in until Sony kicks me. I do put her into a corner so that if another musician DOES show up,He/she/they can be center stage. It's not my intention to usurp someone who is actively there.

This being said ... I am there a great deal of the time managing my character and I make it a point to thank the people who tip me.

It took me 9 weeks to make master musician ... I have a group of folks who often come to me for training (which I, like so many others, provide free of charge) ... I make instruments and give them to other musicians free of charge ... AND ... I ALWAYS ask the people who join me what their highest song is so that everybody in the band gets to play. Beery ... what they did to you was wrong. I'm sorry you were caught by the inconsiderate ones 8(

Now, only twice did I ever go afk while at Theed and that was to make a very fast run to the 7-11 They all had no problem with it and I let them know the moment I had returned. I got back before my character actually went afk. If they had expressed a problem with it, I would have left the group.

Just letting ya'll know the other side of the occasional AFK player. The player who performs a service for folks who would otherwise do without an entertainer.

My biggest AFK pet peeve is when a group leader goes away. If you are GL ... you should turn over leadership to someone else who can invite folks as needed.

9 weeks? Wow. It took me like 9 days to make Master Musician. I am an unrepentant macro using AFK'er. I DON'T condone how that guy treated you at the beginning of the thread, and I DON'T expect to even be included in a group when I'm AFK. Like someone mentioned above, I haunt less populated areas, often the only musician at all, and frequently the only entertainer period. The tips are better this way. (People complain about no tips? Get out of the big cantina's... I've made 100K over a three week period just in tips. Small potatoes to some, but as a new character with no friends or guild on the server yet thats huge!)

People, SONY obviously doesn't care about recursive macro's. They made it part of the game and have done nothing about stopping it.Miners do it, entertainers do it, and artisans/craftsman WISH they could do it more effectively. At least the entertainers get to talk and interact with people in the cantina. Getting to Survey 4 without a macro is a study in brain numbing boredom.

If it's a feather in your cap to have reached high status without a macro fine. Advertise it. Put it inyour biography. Drop it in conversation constantly. There are some who will watch or listen to you preferentially because of it. But the AFK macro isn't an exploit or bug. Its part of the game. Get upset at rude behaviour and use the tricks listed above in this thread. But getting upset about the "lamers" in general is ridiculous.

Tzaii Sithak, Lamer and Lizard -- Master Musician Sunrunner

"My biggest AFK pet peeve is when a group leader goes away. If you are GL ... you should turn over leadership to someone else who can invite folks as needed."

That's my biggest pet peeve too. My second biggest pet peeve is when someone hands over GL to you without telling you. Last week someone slipped me GL and I didn't realise until I'd been away from the group for half an hour crafting. I finally exited the crafting window and saw all these messages saying 'what happened to the GL'. I was so embarrassed.

FYI you can get music xp in the middle of nowhere, I got it at a shuttle port in theed with no one near me

I AFK play. Let me explain why...

In RL, I'm a paramedic and I don't have the time I used to playing the game. I've leveled up my melee guy on another server, and now a bunch of old friends popped onto a new server. I don't have the time to make a warrior type, but they can use the occasional musician so here I am.

Here is my "code of ettiquite" to AFK macroing that I subscribe to in an effort to give non AFK entertainers top priority.

Firstly, anytime I'm afk, I do the /afk flag. I have nothing to hide here, and I know many prefer not to tip the AFK macroers and I can respect that.

Secondly, anytime I'm afk, I stand WAY off to the side in the cantina alone. That way, as people enter and see the main band, they get their healing there. If no one is playing, they look around and can find me in the corner. I usually get very little entertainer xp, but enough that its nice.

Thirdly, I'm never in a group afk. Thats just rude. I stay in my little corner and do my thing, when I can come back to the keyboard, I join in the main group and have a good time.

I understand many of you simple don't condone this and I can respect your points of view. For me, and my $11.95, this was the most economical and efficient way to contribute to my friends groups, so here I am. If anyone else has constructive suggestions on how else to minimize the impact on non AFK folks, please list them and I'd be happy to help. I don't want to take away from anyone elses fun.

Beery, I know what you mean about the stealth leader switches. I was in a hurry once, but the leader of a group needed training. So she invited me, and as I'm training her, shemakes me leader, and goes AFK! She knew that I needed to leave too...I was not pleased. After I asked if anyone wanted to be groupleader, and got no responses, I disbanded the group.

Yeah. I always disband the group if no one will take it. Sometimes they don't like it, but if they're not willing to accept the responsibility, then they need to accept the consequences.

/agree Beery.

These days Ialways state up-front that I will not play in groups with long term AFKers. If the group doesn't accept that then I go elsewhere, or solo. I also let the groups I lead know that AFK long term will be kicked.I have no problem with folks going AFK for a reason, and will be back, but I really hate how the constant AFK mob have cheapened and are slowly killing our profession. Some entertainers obviously have taken a great dislike to me over this, but strangely enough more and more are agreeable, and many are now doing the same.

Heh, When I'm group leader and I need to leave I always ask for someone to take lead, but no one ever want it. It's weird. After a little while if no one responds I'll make leader the person in the group who has been most vocal and seems to actually be at the keyboard the most. I'll also make an announcement of who the new group leader is. Perhaps I'll have to try threatening /disband in the future instead.

I'm growing really tired of these AFK leaches, last night there were 3 ( THREE ) AFK musicians, there is one I don't mind because he's nice and helped me reach master entertainer but the other 2 just kept playing starwars 1 without even flourishing and they didn't even respond when I told them they aren't getting any xp like that and that they made the whole band sound awfull.

My solution now is to /stopband and switch to ceremonial, I refuse to have my fun ruined by xp leaches who don't even leach xp. Sadly the other musician only goes as high as folk so he/she disbanded last night while I played Ceremonial, probably angry with me but I really do not care about them who are not there to pay attention to the band. As group leader I get very nice compliments when i'm in the performing mood and I even had someone runout to get money after he danced and cheered for almost an hour and he came back and tipped each and every one of us.

When I have to leave I always ask in the group who I can make leader and usually there's a dancer I know who likes being leader and I make them leader.

Hi peeps and fellow musicians,

I'm a Master Musician on Kauri.

At least there are some AFKers who have a sense of behaviour and play out of the way when they're AFK. But the others...straight ignorant.

If I'm groupleader, the AFKers will first get a normal approach via spatial, then wait two or three minutes.

If there's no reply, I send a /tell and wait again about a minute before I repeat that /tell.

Still no reply /kick.

I've given up on bandmusic changes and stop band music, because it can interrupt your performance significantly. Imagine, you're having a great jam and want to get rid of an AFKer...best way to do that undistubed in your performance is the good old /kick.

When there are SW1 players of course I downgrade gladly...because I was there as well and I was always thankful for those who let me join the group and grind up with slithy-starwars1.

But AFKers get a kick as soon as it's confirmed.