Musician Archive

---

kirah_ashlin wrote:

I don't see the devs being very receptive to making different coding changes for each branch of the entertainer tree.

---

---

FrankieDrden wrote:

experimentation for instruments rocks!

I want a Krayt Slitherhorn

---

I want (in this order):

1) To make it harder to buffbot the Musician profession.

2) To have something definite to reply with when people say Musician buffs "don't cost me anything" to do - at least then I could talk in terms of resources and crafting, since the combat players can at least understand that.

3)To have some sort of input into our changes so we don't get BACK HANDED like the Image Designers and get something thrown at us that makes us scorned the galaxy over (for who knows what personal reason someone has at the time).

I like the idea of instruments decaying. Though I think it should use the same system as lightsabres.
When a Jedi create a light sabre it do not decay, however the enhancers (crystals or pearls) in it does.
Now lets use the mandolin as an example. What if we once we created a mandolin had to open and put in some "mandolin strings". Instruments and the decaying components should have at least 3 lines of experimentation: action cost, healing bonus, and "decay rate".
The dancers could be given some holo emitters that drew the same "traces" that melee combaters have after thair weapons (as the system should include them as well).
They could even add the decaying components loot drops.

Now that we are at it. Why not let artisans create these items, and at the same time give some customization options on colours and perhaps even shape.

But for a anti AFK/buffbot function, this would not be functionel. Add code to stop people for playing for more then say 2 hour's, and the macro users use would make macros that ran for one hour and then stop and resumed playing. Making tuning instruments a required act every so often would make them stop playing and then switch instrument with 24 in a hot key par and 6 bars that is 144 more then the 60 they could cary.

I have an alternative method of removing the AFKers and buff bots though, and in just 3 steps.
1) Fix band flourishes, so that they give Xp just as normal floes do nor, and for the entire group.
2) Remove the group bonus XP for performing individual flourishes, but keep in on the fixed band flo's. Now if you wand to advance fast you have to be in a coordinated group, so at least the music in the cantinas will sound better.
3) Remove entertain healing XP, replace it with some kind of "audience knowledge" xp. And grand this for playing for NPC's and as part of the reword in gig missions. Now the afk grinders have no reason to hang out in cantinas to get that healing xp.

As for the buffbots a item along the lines of the doctors buff packs would be good, but that have already been mentioned many times.
More specifically it could be a "neural Alfa/Beta wave enhancer" (one for dancers and one for musicians), say maybe one that could only be applied when both BF and mind wounds was down to zero so the cantinas would be kept in the loop for them somewhat.
Make it depend on say conductivity and manageability, and use metal and polymers. As an ex crafter I am confident that would not force us to hunt all over the galaxies for the very best components, and if they wanted they could require use to make "recordings" on the so we could not just mass produce them in factories but had to spend time making them ready.
I am 100% sure that would stop buff bots, not only because it would definitely be an ATK process, but because buff bots would not be wiling to spend all thoughts resources on complete strangers.

---

starcraftWS wrote:

---

FrankieDrden wrote:

experimentation for instruments rocks!

I want a Krayt Slitherhorn

---

Fear my Voritor Scale Bandfill

---

Fear? Ha! Report! That bandfill is soooo exploited and triple-sliced! You're not getting away with this, you 'sploiter!

---

Galanthias wrote:

stupid

---

Well, thank you for that. Move along, little troll....back under the bridge with you....

---

Tarnak_Archvold wrote:
2) Remove the group bonus XP for performing individual flourishes, but keep in on the fixed band flo's. Now if you wand to advance fast you have to be in a coordinated group, so at least the music in the cantinas will sound better.

---

Oooh, I like this idea. Maybe more people would keep their speakers on!

---

Warryyr wrote:

Ok, so I know this might be met with some resistance. I mean, when was the last time you bought a new instrument? We're broke enough as it is, without paying for new instruments all the time. But, follow me on this...

Basically, as it stands, instrument quality has no impact on us. And, instruments never decay. I'd venture to say that's a bit unrealistic. As someone who plays music in real life, strings break and instruments need work occasionally to be in tip top shape and sounding great. And nicer instruments last longer and sound better.

I propose that instruments decay gradually, until eventually you have to repair them. The rate of repair would be very similar to how vehicles work - the better the instrument, the slower the decay. Instruments should only need to be repaired if they reach 0 condition.

So, you may ask, how is this going to stop buffbots and AFK'ers....well, I'll tell ya! You need to keep your instrument TUNED!

First off, as you progress through Musician, you get an instrumenttuning bonus. Lower level musicians won't be able totune their instruments as much at a time as a Master can - maybe it'll take them 4 tunings to get it right and get their instrument back to full - similar to how a medic heals a patient a little at first, then they get better gradually. This will give Masters a role after they gain their Mastery, they can tune better than anyone else. Masters should be able totune instruments back to full, so that they last longer - in one try. If a lower level Musician wishes to have a Master tune their instrument so it lasts longer, they can trade it to the Master for tuning.

Now, as you're playing, the instrument slowly decays. Let's say every hour or 2 hours a box pops up that says "Your instrument is getting out of tune. Please enter "yes" in the box if you wish to tune it." If you don't tune your instrument, it will decay at a drastically faster rate - until it gets to 0 condition. Maybe something could be put in, so that the music sounds REALLY annoying and out of key if you don't tune yourinstrument (discouraging people from listening to AFK'ers who don't tune their instrument). If you don't respond to the tuning box within 30 minutes, your instrument's condition is set to 0 and you stop playing.

Should your instrument reach 0 condition, you will stop performing. You cannot use that instrument. Now, it can only be repaired by a Master. Masters can repair it back to full condition, but only Masters have a 100% chance of success with repairs -you cantry it yourself, and risk destruction of the instrument if you're not Master. The instrument must be traded to a Master for them toaccomplish repairing it.

If one attempts to equip a new instrument once your current one is at 0 condition, a box pops up that says "Would you like to attempt to repair your instrument that just broke, before using a new one? Enter yes or no." This prevents people from buying crates of slitherhorns or whatever, and just setting em up in the hotkey and macroing that all day, for a new instrument each time theirs needs repairing. As for people who set up a ton of slitherhorns in their hotkeys and switch them all day long (so none of them reach 0 condition), they're met with a box every 2 hours that says "You've been playing for awhile, don't you think you could use a break? Enter yes or no." If they don't respond in 20 minutes, a /stopmusic and /dump is issued, and a /disband.

I think this would pretty much allow people to run macros (which I use to talk to my customers, and ensure I buff right every time) but it would very much encourage at the keyboard play versus being AFK.

Thoughts?

---

It won't do a darned thing to help. Nothing, nada, zilch. Why? Cause I can defeat it without even trying very hard. Buy 20 slithers, put them in every hot key box on a panel, run a macro that chooses the next horn in the next box every 1:55. Done. Defeated your system. When I come back from AFK I retune the ones that need it and set up my box again.

There is no way to stop AFK except by removing recursive macro capabilities. None.

---

Electro wrote:

It won't do a darned thing to help. Nothing, nada, zilch. Why? Cause I can defeat it without even trying very hard. Buy 20 slithers, put them in every hot key box on a panel, run a macro that chooses the next horn in the next box every 1:55. Done. Defeated your system. When I come back from AFK I retune the ones that need it and set up my box again.

There is no way to stop AFK except by removing recursive macro capabilities. None.

---

A saying comes to mind. Where there is a will there is a way. Now even removing the ability to start macros from macros will suffice. After all the macro can just ticker a hotkey in the tool bar that have the macro in it... unless you stop macros from using hot key as well.
The AFK'ers will always find a way.

The only true way to remove the AFKing is to remove the motivation, or to make the consequences of AFKing to high. And somehow I dough SoE will start to ban AFKers and buffbots.