Musician Archive
Thread: State of the Musician Profession
Its nice to see such strong support for you New Jedi!
w00t!
Hi,
I didn't see it mentioned too much in the posts so far (although Torean mentioned it a bit), so I guess I'll bring it up. 
I'd like to see more performances in other areas besides the cantinas, like in the hotels, theaters, and even at the outdoor areas where there are usually a Nalargon and Ommni Box set up with a microphone and speakers!
Since we can't all be in the cantina, could there be some way to make it more desirable at times for people to play at other locations? Let us heal battle fatigue and buff at these places. Give us some other incentives to use these venues, which for the most part, are empty, except for the occasional player-run event, like the recent Intrepid Jam Bonanza or Groovefests on the Intrepid server.
I have no idea what could be done to provide incentive to play in places like these, but it just seems like such a waste to have these places be empty. 
It'd be nice to have a reason to play in these places, if nothing more than for a change of scenery since most cantinas (the one's I've been in anyway) always seem to look very similar to each other. 
NewJedi wrote:
I. Gameplay
3. Better gig missions. Almost unanimously, Musicians want gig missions that pay better, that are somehow skilled to entertaining skill, and (perhaps) are more interactive, to discourage AFK’ing. Again, I’ve stickied a thread in the Musician forum with player suggestions about how to make better missions.
4. More content. A large number of Musicians say they want more content, especially post-Master content. Some ask for epic quests, or some special role in the GCW, or at least the chance to obtain a Holocron. Others have suggested new elite Musician professions, such as a Bandleader (who could have a backup Musician and could do group effects, spins, as well as dance/music bandflos). (See Monkey’s excellent thread on this topic for an example.) People want more to do as Musicians.
6. Mind heals and other ways to be useful in a combat group. Lots of people cite ‘usefulness in a group,’ by which they usually mean mind heals or at least better buffs. No one wants to be an EQ bard, but a number of Musicians have proposed a craftable ‘holostim’ or ‘recording’ that could confer a mind heal. Those who oppose mind heals say it will dilute the role of the entertainer and that it doesn’t make sense. Those who support them say a mind heal would give entertainers more gameplay options, and that a holostim is no more magical than existing medical stims and ranged heals, which rely on technology from a galaxy far, far away.
10. There is divided opinion on Ceremonial and the Mandoviol. In my recent thread asking for everyone’s "top issue," at least 7 Musicians asked that Ceremonial and the mando be put in the Master Musician tree – but almost as many other Musicians posted in disagreement, arguing that the mando is the only thing that makes Master Entertainer worth having. I’ve had about a 50/50 split on the issue in previous polls.
12. A few Musicians think newbs should be able to play high-level songs if grouped with Masters. But many Musicians disagree. My previous polling found a majority opposed to any change.
II. Bugs
2. Targeting of the nalargon and ommni box. I’m not sure whether this is a "bug" or "gameplay feature," but either way it annoys a large number of Musicians. You can’t play these instruments unless you keep them targeted. You can work around it to some extent by emoting with the command line, but it’s still undeniably annoying. Also, the instruments can be moved around by others. Some Musicians tell me they can even be stolen, but this hasn’t happened to me.
III. Balance
1. Money-making for entertainers. I’ve already listed gig missions in the "gameplay" section, but money-making is also a balance issue. Entertainers are of course weak militarily, but unfortunately many are also weak economically – which means we’re weak on both fronts. Our buff may help our cashflow. But many Musicians want the devs to look to additional ways for Musicians to make money. I’ve read suggestions that Musicians have the ability to craft recordings or holostims which could be used by one or more professions (entertainers, Squad Leaders, maybe medics?). Of course better gig missions would help.
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Again, I invite your comments. Thanks for your attention.
Gameplay 3 and Balance 1 : My Number one issue ... When the CH and Pet changes that have been mentioned go live , It will kill the game for me as my current means of Income are GCW faction missions... I would love to be able to Play and use my Musician Skills to do Missions and Gigs with Skills of my level , to make Money ... Currently this is something that I cannot do. 400c/15minutes Entertainer missions as they stand vs 1800 - 2000c/15 minutes for GCW missions ... The decision isn't a hard one to make ... I would love to be able to play for 15 Minutes as a Musician and get the same or similar as I do now for GCW.
NOTE: When looking into how to improve Entertainer Missions please keep in the mind the other songs that Musicians get as well and how much action they take , when setting Time requirements for missions ... SW1 and Rock should not be what all Mission Time requirements are based on.
Gameplay 4: I don't want to be a bard ... But I would love to have something to add to the GCW as a Musician ... Currently there isn't really anything that we add to it ... I'm not sure how this would be implemented without us turning into bards (everything I come up with is to bardish) but it is still something that I would like to see..
Gameplay 6: As an Enterainer the only class in game that can heal Mind WOUNDS , it completly sucks that there is absolutley nothing that we can do for Mind damage ... Seeing that Combat Medics get this is greatly disheartening.
Gamplay 10: Mandovil SHOULD be Master Entertainer Only ... Ceremonial should not be Master Entertainer only ... It should be Master Entertainer ... Leave the Mando where it is , but Give Master Musicians access to Ceremonial ... It does not make any Logical sense that a Musician cannot play a Song , just because they Don't Dance , or Image Design.
Gameplay 12: I think it would be good if Newbies could Play some Of the Higher songs based on Skill at a reduced amount of EXP ... IE Someone with Music 2 , should be able to play Music 3 , or Music 4 songs at a reduced amount of EXP , although not all songs ...
Bugs 1: This is very annoying , and I would love to see this fixed ... However , I would rather See mission payouts for Entertainers and other issues above addresed first.
make tipping impossible when someone is afk. I never tip and afk musician anyway, but live ones get good rewards from me
BrandonIT wrote:
I'm willing to try it. Maybe a mind-stim that only Dancers or Musicians can apply (restricted via a 'medical use' skill like the doctors have). It would make us more useful in combat that's for sure. There's definite balance issues involved (such as how can you kill someone when they can regen all their stats?) but it's worth a shot I believe just to keep the elite entertainer professions viable.
A holorecording that fills the mind pool would ideally do two things:
1) Degrade through use, so that eventually people would have to get a new recording
On this note, each recording would be of a limited total number of plays. Not because holorecordings necessarily decay, but because you wouldn't want the
2) Not instantly fill the mind pool.
On that second note, I feel a holorecording mind-heal should work sort of like a bleed in reverse; that is to say, it would replenish some mind each "tick" while it was running. To simulate people getting bored of the pre-recorded music, each "tick" would be subject to a divisor (i.e. would get smaller). The amount of the tick would depend on the level of the song ("this is a really good song"), while the divisor would be smaller as the level of Ent. Healing increased ("these guys are really goodat playing this song"). The lastdivisor for agiven recordingwould continue to apply for as long as the recording was originally on, so if you kept listening to the same recording for a really long time, it would be an equally long time before you weren't sick of it anymore.
In order to keep constantly replenishing the mind pool, one would have to have a huge collection of different recordings from differentartiststhat were constantly switched.The recording artistsshouldbe getting usage XP from this.
Recordings of bands would be generally more effective than recordings by individuals. Obviously there should be limits here...not sure how this should scale.
My two creds anyway.
I do have a "Skilled Musician" on one server, but I rarely play him because of my social ties with my main (A Ranger). This issue involves Ranger, Musicians, Dancers, and Entertainers (if Master) alike.
It was discussed that Ranger camps should allow BF healing (which it currently doesn't). While I think some were saying (just to get it considered) that it should only work for Master Musicians and Master Dancers, that's too restrictive.
So basically: Ranger camps should allow full entertainer benefits, enabled by gaining one of these three skill boxes: Master Entertainer, Novice Musician, Novice Dancer.
The change would help all 4 classes to be more valuable to hunting expeditions (especially in large-scale combat like Krayt hunts and battlefields where either Doctors are present and reviving, or you clone in places like Mos Taike, and automatically run back to the group for healing). The restrictions would ensure that people couldn't pick up Novice Scout (for "Basic Camp" schematic) and Novice Entertainer (for their choice of first-level dance or song) to avoid more dedicated professionals.
Lazarus Long, Master Ranger - Intrepid
omadnay wrote:
Alright!
I've been a Master Musician since very, very early on when this game started, but I have not taken part in our profession forum. Don't ask me why, because I don't know.
I am now comitted to taking some kind of role in this forum.
*excepts warm cheers and dodges rotten tomatoes*
All the things that I have issue with are represented in your list... but of course some of the ordering is definately off line with my own list.
So, I've copied the list and re-ordered it to my liking. I left your numbers as is to easily see how I have re-ordered.
"I. Gameplay
4. More content. A large number of Musicians say they want more content, especially post-Master content. Some ask for epic quests, or some special role in the GCW, or at least the chance to obtain a Holocron. Others have suggested new elite Musician professions, such as a Bandleader (who could have a backup Musician and could do group effects, spins, as well as dance/music bandflos). (See Monkey’s excellent thread on this topic for an example.) People want more to do as Musicians."
Yes, when I reached Master Musician, I wanted to go to Jabba's Palace and meet one of my idols, Max Reebo. I was hoping to possibly play some music with his band and such. So, when I got to the Palace and learned that the only way to get inside was to kill people... I began to realize that this game wasn't equally open to both combat and non-combat professions. This is the type of thing that I mean when I say that I want more content as an entertainer.
Everything in this game is obtainable by how capable you are at killing things... and funny enough, most players seem to say that the combat system is extremely lacking... yet it is still the sole basis for advancement in the realm of NPC interaction.
"3. Better gig missions. Almost unanimously, Musicians want gig missions that pay better, that are somehow skilled to entertaining skill, and (perhaps) are more interactive, to discourage AFK’ing. Again, I’ve stickied a thread in the Musician forum with player suggestions about how to make better missions."
The fact that this is listed as number three indicates that you still do not understand how much of an insult those terminals truly are. Could easily be number one... and clearly coensides with our content issue.
"10. There is divided opinion on Ceremonial and the Mandoviol. In my recent thread asking for everyone’s "top issue," at least 7 Musicians asked that Ceremonial and the mando be put in the Master Musician tree – but almost as many other Musicians posted in disagreement, arguing that the mando is the only thing that makes Master Entertainer worth having. I’ve had about a 50/50 split on the issue in previous polls."
I absolutley feel that these two things should just be included in the Master Musician box.
People like to say... "well, then what is the point to becoming a Master Entertainer?"... One point would be that you get two Master Musician Abilities without having to spend all the skill points! That is a pretty good reason without having to mention any other ones.
Can a Master Artisan make a droid that a Master Droid Engineer cannot make?
This isn't a discussion of what a Master Entertainer wants... it's what righfully should belong to a Musician. If Master Entertainers are lacking anything... that should be addressed without having to make Master Musicians suffer for it. It bothers me greatly that after all those skill points spent that I cannot play every musical instrument and every song (as the Master Box text indicates).
"5. Self-buff and other improvements to our buff. Most Musicians want a self-buff, though I’ve read one or two dissenting posts here (at least one of which was by a Rifleman ). Many Musicians have also requested an improved interface and better feedback for our buff. E.g., people request a graphical representation of when our buff is being applied, or at least a system message confirming that the buff is being applied. Some also ask for a guide to the buff, perhaps in the CTL-H Holocron."
Absolutely give us a graphical representation for our Buffs and some system messages would be great.
Doctors can self buff right? As a real life musician... you better believe I get a thrill and a mental rise out of playing my onw music, so that part of the equation is certainly no problem. I don't see why it's a problem for me to be able to buff myself, because it is truly annoying when you buff a group, go out with them and get dropped because of your mind pool damage. "I spent all that time buffing their minds only to have my non-buffed mind targeted and depleted!!"
"6. Mind heals and other ways to be useful in a combat group. Lots of people cite ‘usefulness in a group,’ by which they usually mean mind heals or at least better buffs. No one wants to be an EQ bard, but a number of Musicians have proposed a craftable ‘holostim’ or ‘recording’ that could confer a mind heal.
Those who oppose mind heals say it will dilute the role of the entertainer and that it doesn’t make sense. Those who support them say a mind heal would give entertainers more gameplay options, and that a holostim is no more magical than existing medical stims and ranged heals, which rely on technology from a galaxy far, far away."
Group usefulness... man as soon as we're done doing our thing for the group before combat, they have no need to protect us IN combat, thats for sure. Except for the severe mind wounds... but with Dancer's and our buffs, now they really don't need us afterwards. So, yeah a group usefulness would be nice... maybe even an ability to stay alive would be more helpful. You know... musicians always keep playing and never get hit with that stray blaster fire! (In fiction... not RL)
I still haven't decided if a holostim would be a bad thing (make our actual presence not as needed). Since I haven't decided yet, I figure that I'm just being too much of a purist to the way things have been and am pretty much open to this being a good idea now. Care will just have to be taken to make sure the live thing is always much better than recordings.
"8. Crafting improvements. Right now experimentation does nothing relevant to instruments. Perhaps the decay-on-death feature on TC will change this. But Musicians also ask for other crafting improvements – the chance to make instruments that look different, for example. Or sound different, heh."
Right now, with the entertainers economy the way it is... it is hard to really think about how the different resources could affect our instruments.
However, visual customization is certainly a great idea. Thats a big part of the show biz
"11. New cantina features. Some players propose that cantinas house a bulletin board – a central message-posting place. Others have suggested that cantinas have billboards announcing when a particularly accomplished band is playing. Others have proposed that NPC cantina managers might pay bands to perform or do gigs or some such."
Other things are more pressing needs that really put these type of frivilous features on the back-burner... unless of course the cantina managers are combined into the gig missions and/or content issues, which would seem logical. A bilboard would be cool for those in the profession, but that seems like a little too much to implement... and for what purpose?
"9. Dynamics. Some Musicians have requested the ability to change a particular instrument’s volume. They ask for the ability to perform crescendos and decrescendos."
I find this slightly interesting, though mostly useless and certainly should not take up any developers' time until many other things have been accomplished.
"1. New songs, flourishes, instruments – and distinct sounds for each instrument. This is still the most commonly-cited issue for Musicians. The devs have promised new songs, instruments, flourishes, and effects, but we don’t have a timetable for their arrival. Note that I’ve lumped in "distinct sounds" with "new songs" because these concerns are usually cited together."
Like I said, I've been playing this music since day one... while I'm hopeful that some day things will be added, it is far from a priority to me that this be done anytime soon. However, I have always assumed that this will be done on a regular basis (perhaps yearly?)
"2. Discourage AFK-macro’ing. Many Musicians wants the devs to find ways to encourage people to be at their keyboards. Some Musicians in this forum argue that AFK-macro’ing is not a big problem, but most Musicians say they want the devs to encourage "live" musicianship – perhaps through interactive gig missions, better content, more usefulness in combat groups, improvement of our buffs, etc. I’ve stickied a thread in the Musician forum on these and other player suggestions."
A lot is made about the AFKers... I don't do it... I try not to group with those that do... and it is really quite easy to avoid those that do it... so I really don't care much about it. I think too much has been made of this and the fact that it's number 2 on your list reflects that. What exactly is the problem here... people have figured out that they don't tip AFKers and if people go seeking out AFKers then those are people that aren't going to tip any way, so I think this is just an issue that is very popular, but holds very little substance. To me they are non-interactive NPC's and they don't bother me. Hey, if I was a traveling marksman that wandered into an otherwise empty cantina and only an AFK entertainer is there... it's like being able to get rid of BF and mind wounds off of an NPC. I have no problems with that. It becomes a concern when talking about paying missions (if they are ever altered to being something worth doing) and in that case... a simple acknowledgement that the player is there at the keyboard while doing such missions is all that is really required. Just make it something that cannot be macroed.
"7. Music composition. Many Musicians want to be able to compose music, or at least improvise MIDI-style on their keyboards, but copyright concerns appear to be a formidable obstacle. Could the devs comment?"
There is enough bad music in this world... please don't give the power to the players to create more. I, in no way feel that this is nescassary at all, and if you knew me in RL you could possibly find that surprising.
"12. A few Musicians think newbs should be able to play high-level songs if grouped with Masters. But many Musicians disagree. My previous polling found a majority opposed to any change."
What??? No way!!
"II. Bugs
1. The stat bug. Far and away, the most commonly-cited bug is that our buff often mangles the buff recipient’s stats. This seems most likely to occur when the recipient already has some other buff up, such as a doctor, dancer, or Chef buff. Again, I’ve stickied a thread in the Musician forum in which players have posted details on the bug."
Yes, yes and yes
"2. Targeting of the nalargon and ommni box. I’m not sure whether this is a "bug" or "gameplay feature," but either way it annoys a large number of Musicians. You can’t play these instruments unless you keep them targeted. You can work around it to some extent by emoting with the command line, but it’s still undeniably annoying. Also, the instruments can be moved around by others. Some Musicians tell me they can even be stolen, but this hasn’t happened to me."
Make this problem 1 a) please. I've been dealing with this for a long, long time... I certainly thought the targeting problem would be solved by now. It's things like this that made me finally realize that I should take part in this particular forum and not just the general and galaxy forums.
"3. A "gap" at the end of flourishes. Many Musicians have posted that they hear a 32nd-note gap or delay at the end of flourishes or loops. I myself am not sure whether it’s a mere gap or an actual delay of the first beat of the next measure. Either way, it’s disconcerting. Can the devs comment?"
I don't get my musical rocks off by listening to this stuff, but then again I know some people get real annoyed by things like this, and it can destroy flourish improv/jamming between two or more musicians... but I don't know what the actual difference is between the parties involved. I mean, none of us are experiencing everything at the same time, the same exact way in the SWG world. Lag is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.
"4. Inability to /register at a small tavern or cantina. I haven’t tried this myself, but I just read a post asserting that you can’t /register in such a spot."
I have definately experienced this... I wasn't sure if it was intended or not. Honestly I haven't been using the register ability anywhere, it's something I have been meaning to implement, but I still haven't figured out if there is any point. It seems to me that the places that registering in may be most beneficial, are the places that we currently cannot register within.
"III. Balance
1. Money-making for entertainers. I’ve already listed gig missions in the "gameplay" section, but money-making is also a balance issue. Entertainers are of course weak militarily, but unfortunately many are also weak economically – which means we’re weak on both fronts. Our buff may help our cashflow. But many Musicians want the devs to look to additional ways for Musicians to make money. I’ve read suggestions that Musicians have the ability to craft recordings or holostims which could be used by one or more professions (entertainers, Squad Leaders, maybe medics?). Of course better gig missions would help."
Until Gig missions are fixed, it's hard to say if anything else needs to be done. Certainly, with our Buffs bugged the way they are right now... it is very difficult to rely on them for a big cash flow. We need them to work as regularly as the Dr.'s Buffs do.
"2. Holocrons for entertainers! The devs have indicated that they’ll give crafters a chance to obtain Holocrons. What about entertainers?"
Please, please, PLEASE comment on this Developers!! This is an obnoxious end of the musician's (all entertainers) inability to be directly involved in game content. So far my experiences with this are that all musicians should now hook up with Imperials and earn ATST's so that you can go find yourself a holocron. That is a horrible sollution. This game has a long way to go to truly reward all players equally. I discovered this when I first started to attempt NPC theme parks. The recent holocron craze has brought greater frustration upon us due to this dilema.
"3. Bandflo XP. In my most recent poll, one or two Musicians asked that bandflourish XP not be confined to the leader. But others argue that granting bandflo XP to everyone will only encourage more AFK-macro’ing. More generally, as our profession has matured, XP issues seem to have dropped way down the priority list."
I understand why it is this way, and feel like it can stay this way. There are times when performing just outways the need for xp and there are times when it is OK to focus on your xp. For those lower skilled members performing... you'll have to suffer the xp cost until afterwords.
I hope that my opinions are found to be helpful.
- Omadda Szool
Kauri
I think you have really hit the nail on the head here !!!! Its so true if they are cheap enough to seek out an afker then they wont be tipping you live
Involving Musician missions, I have run a few from time to time that never seem to work. I would go to the waypoint, begin playing or dancing (Whatever was required) and I would continue to do so for 15 to 20 minutes with no results. At this point, you don't know if you're doing a mission that is broken (We've all experienced that) or if you just need to do it a little longer. I always figured that a Master Musician would not have to spend as much time playing as a lower skilled musician would, during a musician mission.
So, in short, we need some notification(s) that we are currently taking part and on the way to accomplishing our current mission.
- Omadda Szool
Kauri
First off, let me say 'Excellent Post', it covers everything that I can think of. There aredifferences of course but I'm going to quote the original post and put my comments afterwards. So let's get to it...
I have placed my comments in yellow then followed with a agree/disagree in blue.
NewJedi wrote:
I. Gameplay
1. New songs, flourishes, instruments – and distinct sounds for each instrument. This is still the most commonly-cited issue for Musicians. The devs have promised new songs, instruments, flourishes, and effects, but we don’t have a timetable for their arrival. Note that I’ve lumped in "distinct sounds" with "new songs" because these concerns are usually cited together.
We need more songs and instruments. Absolutely. Current instruments sounding
different is definitely important in my book. But this whole category deserves attention.
Conclusion: Absolutely Agree
2. Discourage AFK-macro’ing. Many Musicians wants the devs to find ways to encourage people to be at their keyboards. Some Musicians in this forum argue that AFK-macro’ing is not a big problem, but most Musicians say they want the devs to encourage "live" musicianship – perhaps through interactive gig missions, better content, more usefulness in combat groups, improvement of our buffs, etc. I’ve stickied a thread in the Musician forum on these and other player suggestions.
I do not agree thatAFK'ing is a problem. However, that being said, there is something to the improvements you have suggested to make "live" playing more interesting. We definitely need more usefulness in combat groups (covered later), buff improvements (covered later), and more interactive 'gig' missions (covered later). All would be useful in cutting down AFK'ing during normal entertaining.
Conclusion: Disagree that AFK isaproblem to be"fixed".
Agree with improvements to "live"suggested.
3. Better gig missions. Almost unanimously, Musicians want gig missions that pay better, that are somehow skilled to entertaining skill, and (perhaps) are more interactive, to discourage AFK’ing. Again, I’ve stickied a thread in the Musician forum with player suggestions about how to make better missions.
Better pay is essential. Money is very hard to come by as any entertainer. More interactions as suggested would make the gigs more than just a grind as well.
Conclusion: Completely Agree
4. More content. A large number of Musicians say they want more content, especially post-Master content. Some ask for epic quests, or some special role in the GCW, or at least the chance to obtain a Holocron. Others have suggested new elite Musician professions, such as a Bandleader (who could have a backup Musician and could do group effects, spins, as well as dance/music bandflos). (See Monkey’s excellent thread on this topic for an example.) People want more to do as Musicians.
Nothing to add. The thread is a good start. We need more to do...
Conclusion: Completely Agree
5. Self-buff and other improvements to our buff. Most Musicians want a self-buff, though I’ve read one or two dissenting posts here (at least one of which was by a Rifleman). Many Musicians have also requested an improved interface and better feedback for our buff. E.g., people request a graphical representation of when our buff is being applied, or at least a system message confirming that the buff is being applied. Some also ask for a guide to the buff, perhaps in the CTL-H Holocron.
Self-buffing was originally rejected because of the danger of combat classes becoming Musicians just for the buff.I believe the49 Skill Points required to just reach Novice Musician is a fair price to pay for the ability to mind-buff. We deserve the ability to buff ourselves as well as our customers.
Personally, I feel we should get MORE for our buffs. I do not understand why the mind buff was split between two Master professions. I believe each (Dancer, Musician) should have the ability to buff all 3 mind stats. The other HAM buffsare all able to beapplied via 1 tree in Doctor. Why do we have to Master 2 seperate elite professions in order to get the ability to buff 3 stats?
The suggestions given for improvements andsystem-feedbackto the buff process are great. They should be implemented post-haste...
Conclusion: Absolutely Agree
(+dancer/musician should get all 3 buffs, not justa sub-set)
6. Mind heals and other ways to be useful in a combat group. Lots of people cite ‘usefulness in a group,’ by which they usually mean mind heals or at least better buffs. No one wants to be an EQ bard, but a number of Musicians have proposed a craftable ‘holostim’ or ‘recording’ that could confer a mind heal. Those who oppose mind heals say it will dilute the role of the entertainer and that it doesn’t make sense. Those who support them say a mind heal would give entertainers more gameplay options, and that a holostim is no more magical than existing medical stims and ranged heals, which rely on technology from a galaxy far, far away.
I'm willing to try it. Maybe a mind-stim that only Dancers or Musicians can apply (restricted via a 'medical use' skill like the doctors have). It would make us more useful in combat that's for sure. There's definite balance issues involved (such as how can you kill someone when they can regen all their stats?) but it's worth a shot I believe just to keep the elite entertainer professions viable.
Conclusion: Agree
7. Music composition. Many Musicians want to be able to compose music, or at least improvise MIDI-style on their keyboards, but copyright concerns appear to be a formidable obstacle. Could the devs comment?
I doubt I would use it but it's definitely an improvement. But it may bring more dysfunction to the profession than it helps. Such as what to do with someone who really isn't all that great at improvising. It may just fracture groups more thanonly-can-play-lowest-songalready does.
Which is funny becausesome do notdesire newbies to be able to play anything but newbie songs, but yet they'd give them the ability to compose any song they want with just a Novice Entertainer or Novice Musician title and possibly be even *better* than the system music. I don't understand the dichotomy of thisposition.
Conclusion: Indifferent
8. Crafting improvements. Right now experimentation does nothing relevant to instruments. Perhaps the decay-on-death feature on TC will change this. But Musicians also ask for other crafting improvements – the chance to make instruments that look different, for example. Or sound different, heh.
Being able to change the colors of the instruments would be a *great* improvement.
Maybe efficiency experimentation gives a slightly higher XP per tick?...
Conclusion: Agree
9. Dynamics. Some Musicians have requested the ability to change a particular instrument’s volume. They ask for the ability to perform crescendos and decrescendos.
I'm not sure I am comfortable giving everyone this ability but I do agree that a balance pass should be done on the instrument volumes on all songs. The horns seem todrown out any of the higher end string-based instruments. This shouldn't be the case as you almost always only have 1 upper-level instrument player while everyone else is blowing on a Kloo Horn or lower.
One idea I would be comfortable with: Give BandLeaders the ability to dynamically specifiy a player as a 'soloist'. That person would be givena slight volume increasein the song and the other instruments would drop in volume just slightly. This would prevent the chaos of everyone wanting their instrument the loudest.
Conclusion: Agree
10. There is divided opinion on Ceremonial and the Mandoviol. In my recent thread asking for everyone’s "top issue," at least 7 Musicians asked that Ceremonial and the mando be put in the Master Musician tree – but almost as many other Musicians posted in disagreement, arguing that the mando is the only thing that makes Master Entertainer worth having. I’ve had about a 50/50 split on the issue in previous polls.
I have no opinion.
Conclusion: Indifferent
11. New cantina features. Some players propose that cantinas house a bulletin board – a central message-posting place. Others have suggested that cantinas have billboards announcing when a particularly accomplished band is playing. Others have proposed that NPC cantina managers might pay bands to perform or do gigs or some such.
The 'marquee' idea is intriguing. I envision an outdoor'marquee' over the cantina door that can be set via an interface inside that only 'Master'-level dancers or musicians can set. Have the sign be based on them being *in* the cantina. If the person who set the sign leaves the building, it automatically defaults back to blank.
A central message forum for a city would be interesting but the possible abuses would be many and would require monitoring depending on how much freedom is given to post.
Conclusion: Agree
12. A few Musicians think newbs should be able to play high-level songs if grouped with Masters. But many Musicians disagree. My previous polling found a majority opposed to any change.
I agree with this change especially after spending hours playing SW1 with new players. The arguments have been said and done and everyone has their side. I'll just put my vote.
Conclusion: Agree that available band songs be based on highest-skilled band member's ability, not the lowest-skilled.
II. Bugs
1. The stat bug. Far and away, the most commonly-cited bug is that our buff often mangles the buff recipient’s stats. This seems most likely to occur when the recipient already has some other buff up, such as a doctor, dancer, or Chef buff. Again, I’ve stickied a thread in the Musician forum in which players have posted details on the bug.
Conclusion: Agree
2. Targeting of the nalargon and ommni box. I’m not sure whether this is a "bug" or "gameplay feature," but either way it annoys a large number of Musicians. You can’t play these instruments unless you keep them targeted. You can work around it to some extent by emoting with the command line, but it’s still undeniably annoying. Also, the instruments can be moved around by others. Some Musicians tell me they can even be stolen, but this hasn’t happened to me.
Conclusion: Agree
3. A "gap" at the end of flourishes. Many Musicians have posted that they hear a 32nd-note gap or delay at the end of flourishes or loops. I myself am not sure whether it’s a mere gap or an actual delay of the first beat of the next measure. Either way, it’s disconcerting. Can the devs comment?
Conclusion: Agree
4. Inability to /register at a small tavern or cantina. I haven’t tried this myself, but I just read a post asserting that you can’t /register in such a spot.
Conclusion: Agree
III. Balance
1. Money-making for entertainers. I’ve already listed gig missions in the "gameplay" section, but money-making is also a balance issue. Entertainers are of course weak militarily, but unfortunately many are also weak economically – which means we’re weak on both fronts. Our buff may help our cashflow. But many Musicians want the devs to look to additional ways for Musicians to make money. I’ve read suggestions that Musicians have the ability to craft recordings or holostims which could be used by one or more professions (entertainers, Squad Leaders, maybe medics?). Of course better gig missions would help.
I just don't think crafting sellable items may be the best way to go. I'd rather just be able to group and do something useful in combat than have to try and sell items to other players (which always has the possiblity of the economy low-balling the prices). Mission payouts are the source of income in the game. If we could do something useful in a combat group, we could be making money in that way.
Conclusion: Agree
2. Holocrons for entertainers! The devs have indicated that they’ll give crafters a chance to obtain Holocrons. What about entertainers?
Conclusion: Agree
3. Bandflo XP. In my most recent poll, one or two Musicians asked that bandflourish XP not be confined to the leader. But others argue that granting bandflo XP to everyone will only encourage more AFK-macro’ing. More generally, as our profession has matured, XP issues seem to have dropped way down the priority list.
I really enjoy "bandflo's" and just about every other musician I've metdoes as well. They add a professionalism to the performance and the songs sound so much better, especially when done with a good mix of instruments.
As I said before, I don't believe AFK'ing needs to be the driving factor in making gameplay decisions for our profession. This is a fun-factor thing for me but I hate to see people get the short-end-of-the-stick XP-wise in order for the group to sound good and be fun...
The new controls put in for "Ignore Bandflo" has also taken away the griefing and bandleader abuse that was possibleoriginally.
Conclusion: Agree, restore xp to everyone for BandFlo's.
Devs, we need just a bit more lovin'. Please take our comments to heart and thanks for the attention.
how about when you /setpeform on somebody (including yourself) you get a status bar over their head that tells you how it's going?
and how about making the way it works easier. musican or dancer buffs all three pools, and the buff strength and duration are just set by your musical mind enhancement number, not having to worry about what song and what instrument and so forth.
my musician isn't my primary character, and I was thinking about giving up musician, but if the buff system worked a little better I might keep it. as it is it really sucks that it takes a whole lot more to do a whole lot less than a doc can.
Great post it is!
Though I can agree with you, one thing to be worth thinking. On "Gameplay", AFK stuff might be down its priority, not 2nd as it is now as others said.
I'm one that agree to the idea of discourage of AFK macroing, but lots of us would like to see other features get more priority.