Musician Archive

If you want to prevent AFK macro'ing you need slice the exp needed for master musician/dancer in half! Its rediculas. No one wants to work on musician non-AFK cause it would take a month otherwise!

I am sorry, but AFK entertaining needs to be restricted. I do agree not elminated entirely but it is way way way out of hand. I remember the cantinas when you could go in and join a real live band of musicians and dancers that were ATK. Sure some would occasionally go AFK to fix food or something but only for 5 or so minutes.

I think that Player structures should have the option to allow AFK entertainment. This is due to the fact that player structures in Player cities seem to have a lower level of available entertainers. Additionally at this time they seem to have less draw. So leave that option up to the owner.

In the NPC cities change the settings. Allow afk entertaining at one specific location (all afk entertaining is done at the theater, or hotel) while the other location (the Cantina) is live entertainment only. (or could be the other way around). If you go AFK in the live entertainment only area then your character would stop performing. Personally I would advocate stop performing and sit down when AFK(out of the way) but simply stopping is enough.

This allows the break up of the large lag points at the cantinas allowing smoother gameplay. Additionally it still allows the AFKers who are simply trying to get a lvl or so to go ahead and afk away. Also it would allow those (and some do) who prefer an AFK performer to go and watch/listen there.

It would also free those who wanted to be in a live band, perform live, and interact with live entertainers to do so at a known location. This would enhance the listener/watcher's experience and that of the player.

I also agree for performance issues AFK characters should not be able to talk. This would cut down a lot of Spam and lag around cantinas, bazaars, and starports. There needs to be some sort of ingame ad system thatcould be done.... Not a Bazaar of itemsbut a Bazaar where for 30 creds you can place an ad of x# words... thats your advertising instead ofspamming.

Anyway just wanted to throw down my 2cents.

Rasorow

Musician/Artisan

Here's my ideas on afk'ing. Why don't the Devs put in some sort of systemwide /dump on a set timer. e.g. every 15- 30 min all macros get dumped and have to be restarted. This would make macros long enough that you could run off and fix a bite to eat or go to the bathroom, still be long enough to have a good routine set up to entertain, and it would disable the afk'ers to a certain extent. I can't imagine how hard this would be to implement, but i think it would solve the afk'ing in many areas of the game. If you have to be back at the keyboard every 15 - 30 min to restart your macro. However long the devs feel, though i'd say at least every 30 min but no sooner then every 10 min. The cantina are turning into a wasteland of afk people. Though some of those people aren't afk, mearly in groupchat and missing parts of spatial due to all the macro babble. Btw, this would help solve all that babble in front of the starports too. Lag can be bad enough at times with all the people at the starport, no need for them all to be spamming too. Anyway, didn't mean to drift off there. Most of the afk problems stem from having macros that run on too long. Place a limit on how long they can go, or do a systemwide /dump so that people have to restart thier macros.

How about let it go. Quit bothering people that want to go AFK while musicianing. Its a very tedious activity, its not like the AFK people are taking your "business" so just drop it. You don't want an AFK'r in your group then kick them, problem solved. In my instance, my alt on my other comp is a musician, I use him to buff myself, as well as heal my own wounds. And I put him AFK in far off planets where no musicians EVER show up, and just macro him out, many people are very thankful for that, due to them now having to travel to a "large" city to go get healed up.

Quit trying to control peoples play style, you take away the AFK function and you might as well sell your stock...

How about fixing the buff system, theres a start, why can a doc buff 6 stats in a little over a minute, but we can't even buff 2 in 3 minuts for 2 hours? As well as docs buffs lasting 3 hours. Fix that system, then we can talk about how you want people to play a profession as they choose...

/mood disgruntled

Ok. Tossing in my two credits' worth...

On AFKing. I like the timer idea..personally, in RL, I am a housewife and while I was grinding, something would come up that would demand my attention (usually, my spouse)...that afk flag would have to go up til I dealt with it. I even have a macro (not looped) that I would kick on that would run for a while, before Arithon would settle down and blend into the band til I came back. Usually about 10 minutes tops. Had more problems with lag than with AFK...(Alas, AFK itself is a necessary evil. It's only when people trying to get thru a grind as fast as they could that it became a problem...)

The rest of the time, I would be at that kb, typing away. I liked chatting with some of the people in there. I'm sad to see a lot of PCs turning into bots.

Might be interesting to see an occasional raid /attack (the infamous droidka attack on the Coronet cantina, for example) where afkers are targeted. There could be a code written in whereas the droidkas/stormtroopers/whathaveyou will target only those who have been away for 15 minutes or more. You don't need to use that TEF, then. (besides, if you use TEF, what about the neutral afkers?) This could happen say once a day at a random time. That might wake up some of the afkers...I've seen people who woudl put their characters on for a week and walk off (so it seemed.)

Also, the idea of declining xp for those who afk for longer than 15 minutes might be a good idea as well.

As for the spamming of 'heal me' or 'tip me'...I like the idea of a tip system where you have to type yes or no, no ifs and or buts....and splitting the tip with the group if you are not there.

Also, is it possible that with the Jedi quest system that we might see a decline in AFKers?

Ok. That's my say. Have a good day.

Arithon Kerson-Shadowfire

Macro's arent the problem, lets make sure we all understand this point. I macro all the time, but for 75% of the time im sitting there while it macros. Macros are a very helpful tool, i know i hate pushing the buttons over and over, when i can write a nice macro to do it for me. I understand the argument against afk'rs, but let me also set the record straight when i say there are times when i wish players that were at their PC's were afk. Some people can be so rude and unthinking that the afk'rs are nicer to deal with. and no im not talking about the PvP'rs, these are other musicans and dancers. the best way to stop afk macro'n isnt to flame um to death or take away the xp if your afk, lets face it even us players that sit and watch our screens get up and go eat dinner, let afk make 1/2 the xp make it twice has hard to macro. How about a generic title for all classes, something like "<Your class>holo grinder" this way the public would know who is a real musican and dancer and who just wants to get it over with.