Musician Archive
Thread: Either the Buffbots go or our profession is doomed.
Sylune_heart wrote:
Some people are even advertising on the galaxies forums that they have a buff bot running at a location. I even read somewhere that some are even setting up camps now near POI's to get traffic to the bots. Its getting far to out of hand now. Even people that were die hard atk entertainers are now buying second accounts and having there entertainer account as a personal buff machine.
Now people buying second account just so they can have a buff whenever they feel like it wherever they feel like it. This alone causes problems, thats why orginally the devs decided to make it single character per server on a single account. To get rid of "Mules"
Either of these two above will work, which will the devs choose down the road? I dont know. I am hoping its number 2. But if it isnt i will still play an entertainer and still have fun doing it. Regardless
Ceta
Wow after reading all that I was shocked to see it came from you. I really hope you read this.
I'm pretty sure I'm the one your talking about with the advertising on the galaxy forums since I'm the only one I see. Also I'm pretty sure I'm the one your talking about when you mention setting up a camp to get more traffic.
Would it make you feel any better to know that I'm the same guy that jammed with you and sky in front of the coronet starport the other night just for fun because I actually enjoy being an entertainer.
Orhow about ifpeoplewere at the keyboard spamming to give buffs instead of being afk.
How about if I told you that my character isn't a mule and I only use him as a buffbot when I'm sleeping to make some extra cash since no one is at these places providing this service you seem to hold so dear. If you want to make this better really you should head out to these outposts and offer buffs and healing and provide a "service" to the people who want it out in these remote areas. Trust me the demand is there and maybe most people would want live interaction with their entertainers I know I like it better when people are around.
The point is for some of us it isn't just about having a mule account to recieve or give buffs. I actually enjoy providing this service and helping out where I can. Whether its doing a little afk buffbotting or busting out the horn to play a few notes while waiting for the shuttles.
To be perfectly honest I just got home after working 14 hours I'm kinda tired but I'm still going to log in so I can help the players on yavin if they need healing or buffing.
Message Edited by jodocow on 04-29-2004 07:55 PM
Message Edited by jodocow on 04-29-2004 07:57 PM
OK, fine. You're all right. It's the end of the profession, we're all doomed. Game over.
I'm just giving my perspective on my gameplay on Starsider server, which is about every night, all night,and I make a lot of money at NPC cantinas, even with buffbots around. Maybe I should have specified that, sorry that I didn't. I see so many people totally ignore AFK entertainers and walk straight up to me. I think the predominant reason people are using buffbot macrotainers for player cities is because foot traffic in player cities is rapidly decreasing. They're desperate for some business/visitors. Free buffs, well- it's easy with entertainers because there's no overhead. Might not be right to the profession, I admit.
I'd just rather not bring doom and gloom to the situation, and deal with it as best we can. Statements like "Either the buffbots go or it is the end of our profession as we know it." are not productive, and besides I'm sure there are fixes in the works as we speak. So, I really don't think it's the end of our profession as we know it - maybe we won't make insane amounts of cash in a night anymore, but the cash comes and goes.
My experience has been that it's not so big of a problem, not sure about your server or your particular experiences. My business income from buffing hasn't been affected whatsoever. And if it does, I guess I'll just find another way to make money, there's plenty of ways in this game.
I'd just rather see ideas of how we could remedy this, or work around the buffbots, than have a thread proclaiming the demise of our profession because of AFK people. I'll just exit this negative thread right now, as I don't feel any need to be flamed just because I'm enjoying my game experience and I'm still making lots of credits per night through being a non-AFK buffer.
sorry if i upset anyone.
Warryyr
Thanks, Civil, for expressing your experiences in-game. This is what I'm talking about. Somedays I'll go to Coronet Cantina and see 3 buffbots, but still make a lot of money (many folks just mock the buffbots). However, if things are slow, I'll sometimes wander into a player city and find an empty cantina. Time for me to actually do some laundry, watch some tv, etc. I set up my operation, let a buffbot macro go, sometimes i'm right there at the keyboard (noting moochers who don't tip and adding them to "the list") and sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I advertise my vendors. Wandering people drop by, or see my messages, and I find that very handy.
But, I figure, if just one guy comes in all beat up and thinks "oh good! an entertainer, thank god!" and utilizes my services, they'll remember that the next time they see me online and not AFK. I have actually grown a decent business of customers through my occasional buffbot sessions. They /tell me "are you buffing?" and i say yeah, they show up and pay. A few have even apologized for not tipping me awhile back (if i call em on it) and make up for it. The usual reason is "i just forgot."
I think its unending cycle. If there were no afk entertainers and all of the entertainers went back to coronet and other major starports then players in the outskirts wouldn't have a way to get healed or buffed.
In an ideal world there would entertainers in all cantina's but its going to take alot more then removing afk entertaining to get that to happen.
I'm still not convinced that removing holo grinding and afk entertaining is the solution to all the problems you guys have.
)...My problem was, there was never a Master Musician around to give me buffs when i needed them, and Brandy doesn't seem to suffice...Your suggestion that we not really on buffs is an assault on your profession, because it's one of the things that keeps us TKMs coming into the cantina...As a TK, i can go out for hours and only collect a handful of BF, so there's never much reason to stop in to the cantina...
,
TavBarlous wrote:
Hrmmm...I'd have to say I disagree with the notion that buffbots and AFKMacro-tainers are the end of the profession...
I've mastered Musician 3 times with three different characters because of a draw to the profession. However, the last time I mastered Musician it was for a more selfish reason...You see, I have this Master TK who likes to go out and get into more trouble than he can handle...by doing so, he gets more XP, he becomes a stronger character, I have more fun, I have the opportunity to get more rare loot(which is a thrill to me, even if it's just a sunguard in a really nice color
If everyone relied on Brandy and Muon and other such enhancements, but ceased to rely on music/dance buffs, there'd be nothing to draw us non-ents to the cantina for interaction with horses of a different color
As for the AFK Macro-Tainers...well, they're merely an /addignore away, and most every player knows about this feature, and utilizes it...then, they merely become colorful backgrounds...If you're concerned that it slows your framerates down too much, then work harder for a better computer...
The Big, Bad point to all of this is that you really shouldn't complain about the way other people choose to play a "game"...It's an on-line community, and implicit in the meaning of the word community is a necessity to satisfy as large a group as possible, without neglecting anyone in the process...If it bothers you so much that these "non-ent"-types are invading your cantina territory(amd that's what your argument boils down to), then you may need to find another game to play, maybe one that isn't on-line, maybe one that isn't multiplayer...
I pay 30 dollars a month to play a game on-line with friends, and I'll be damned if i'm not going to make a character that I want to make for whatever reason i want to make it...If i want a buffbot for when you're off crying behind your boyfriend's harvester about the unfairness of the galaxy, then I'm going to have me a buffbot...
If you have legitimate problems with the game(your character is consistently buggy, the game crashes on you even though you have a pentium 8 56.4 gig terminator machine of the future, or you simply tire of the limited selection of tunes available to your musician), then complain about those...If you have issues with people playing as they wish...well...I'm afraid you may be disappointed when they continue to do what they want, regardless of your wishes...
/addignore me for having a buffbot
Sarki'sra, MasterMusican/MasterDancer/MasterEnt
Mastered Artisan, Mastered Weaponsmith(yes, I contributed to my community...i don't just sit and b*^ch)/
Phi Sigma'Pi, TKM/Master ID,
mastered medic, mastered marksman, mastered CH, mastered Doc
~P.S.~ Not a hologrinder
I'm disturbed by a couple of your assumptions here...
You stated one of our main points almost exactly and then veered off from it. you said "It's an on-line community, and implicit in the meaning of the word community is a necessity to satisfy as large a group as possible, without neglecting anyone in the process" and "If you have issues with people playing as they wish...well...I'm afraid you may be disappointed when they continue to do what they want, regardless of your wishes..." As some of my entertainer collegues have noted, the point is AFKers don't contribute to the community. They are not people and they are not playing...they are computers driven by endlessly looping mindless emotionless macros.
Second, you made it sound as though all entertainers are female or otherwise attracted to males...again, this is not true. Many of the great entertainers are male. (don't believe me, check out the 2004 Men of Galaxies calender) The entertainment community is highly diverse and we welcome anyone who has a desire to help people to join us in it.
Finally, you seem to think that people with low-end computers are the only ones affected by lag...again, this is untrue. I experience server latencyoften and my computer is a Pentium 4 with dual 3.06 gig processors, 2 gigs of RAM, 256 MB video card, 240 Gigs of harddrive space over 2 disks with lots of space left over on both.I'm on aT1 connection. I guarentee nothing's wrong on my end, but I still lag sometimes especially when I enter the macrotinas in Coronet and Theed.
BTW,you gave us permission to /addignore you, but I don't see a server mentioned anywhere in your post... jk, I wouldn't ignore you unless I came across you in-game and you were abusive in some way which I assume you wouldn't be.