Musician Archive

Message Edited by Beery on 07-18-2004 10:15 AM

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Warryyr wrote:

You've got a point. That junk does sound pretty bad. I think AFK'ing should go away, but with the current macro system I doubt it can be stopped...it's unfortunate.

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Xyrdre wrote:

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JohnMarble wrote:

A patron will target the musician andtype the new command, causing the muscian to get the system message...

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I didn't want to comment on this in the In Concept thread (thought a reply there might start turning into off-topic clutter), but here's my worry about anything that the patron gets to initiate.

What happens to the entertainer's sanity if 11 people do this at once? Or if a few people do it repeatedly, for an extended amount of time? Far, far worse than tell hell to be bombarded by anything as inobvious as flooding system messages placing requests for randomized flo combos.

The same question really applies to TH's posted concept. It all might sound fine and good in a single, one-on-one environment. When I go out performing in public though, it's pretty much never just one on one. Letting a room full of patrons flood me with system messages would likelyhave me right back out of the cantina but fast... as a means of saving sound mind.

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Drygo wrote:

This is my first cross post ever, so please forgive me. But, I'm hoping most of you will agree I have a good reason for it. I posted this in the In Concept thread and I'm hoping several of you will follow my lead and share your stories. Hopefully I am not violating any kind of directive by doing this. Every time something like this happens to me, I plan on posting it there.

I went to the Coronet Cantina, and spent approximately 3 hours there.

I had my master dancer title up and advertised that I was buffing. I didn't spam. But, every 20 minutes or so, when I had a lull in buffing I would "say," not "yell" or "shout" that I was mind buffing.

During that time I got approximately 10 customers. Not bad, could have been better, used to be better before the scourge of buffbots. I remember a time where the second I stepped foot in Coronet I'd have people asking me for mind buffs and it was non stop. Not anymore. Ten over the course of 2 hours while actively advertising. But, like I said, it wasn't really that bad considering how things are right now.

Then, around the beginning of my 3rd hour of being in Coronet, a buffbot took up residence. She spammed how she was doing AFK buffs about every 10 seconds or so. All of a sudden, I had no more customers. That last hour I was unable to sell even one buff. Yet, when I looked over at the buffbot and targeted her, I would see on average 5-10 customers in her group. I was no longer viable. I was obsolete. And, this isn't even considering the time when she wasn't there and all the customers I missed having because they were off getting buffed by a bot in a private player cantina somewhere.

So, naturally, I left, as there was nothing left for me to do there.

Issues:

1) Obvious example of no longer being able to sell our services. This happens to nearly every master on every server nearly every day.

2) So we leave, and people wonder why we aren't around. Well, duh...see what happened to make us leave.

3) They create more buffbots.

4) Vicious circle ensues.

And, people don't realize how much of a detriment this is to our profession, and people don't understand why we aren't there? Please, take a look at what I wrote above, and follow the simple logic of what happened to me. And, then follow the simple logic that this is happening to all the master dancers and musicians across your server. Are you still going to tell me that this is the fault of the entertainers and that we need to step up?

AFK by itself isn't the problem, the buffbots are. Please fix this.

And, I would encourage all the other entertainers out there who have a similar story to tell every day to post it here so that we can show the extent of our problem.

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Zilod wrote:

a buff bonus on atk entertainers will change nothing in my opinion

look at doc buffs for people doesn't matter to much if the buff is 2.2k or 2.5k or if the buff last for 2:45 or 3:30 hours...

the get in line to the first doc they spot, even better if that doc give them for free or they can chose how much to pay him (like a buffbot)

same for buffbots in private cantinas... people will get used to go in that cantina because know ther's a buffbot 23/7 and will not even try to search an atk entertainer.

and as you said if people consider it downtime buffbots are still better, they have not to ask for anything just go there and get in group, then return when the buff is done.

as said before, givin just a bonus to healing or buffing is a very poor solution, the afk/buffbots are too radicated to be of any help, they have to stop this bad behave and let entertainer population rigenerate

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Mind is different though,

Doc buffs are so high, people are hitting over 2500 now on Scylla. 2500 plus even 400 gives you 2900. With regen rates and such, 200 less points wont really matter. I find time very important, I will ALWAYS use a doc who has longer buffs, even if they are weaker.

Now with Mind, even with 1000 buffs, your sitting at 2000 max. Even with full buffs, my Mind Bar still moves when I use my rifle, my others do not. An extra 250 would be great. Then you need to consider PVP, mind is incrddibly important in PVP.

The real kicker would be time. Right now Doc buffs range from 3-4 hours (yes 4.) Right now, people go get buffed, by a Doc, then they get mind buffs. 2 hours later, their Mind Buffs are gone, but they still have an hour at least on their Doc buffs. They CANT get more doc buffs, so if they go back for another mind buff, then an hour later, they need to get another Doc buff. Then 2 hours later, their Mind buff goes again, yet they now have 2 hours left on their Doc buffs.

The difference between the times of Doc and Musician buffsplays a very large role in why people enjoy having an Entertainer right near their hunting grounds, alss those are often AFK though.

By simply making ATK Entertainer buffs 15% better (so with takes things don't get crazy,)and last an hour longer, the community would rejoice. Instead of hating Entertainers for getting AFK bots, they would be happy.

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Tarnak_Archvold wrote:

If they would just concentrate on fixing the XP for bandflourish'es instead of adding this new code, or if they removed the Bonus xp for being grouped then it would have an impact on the sound quality of cantinas.

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This is true regarding the sound quality, but it would worsen the AFK problem, not alleviate it. Why? Because people wouldn't even have to run their own macros - they just have to join the group and let someone else do all the work.

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Remove the motivation for 20 AFK'ers to sit in one group and do thair own things, and you will remove the AFK groups. If you get no bonus for going to cornet, but have to share the healing XP, then the grinders would spread out to more cantinas.

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This again is true, but yet again it would worsen the problem instead of alleviating it. With the system the way it is now, if you are in a group and someone listens to anyone in that group, you get to partake in the healing XP. However, if you had that same 20 people ungrouped and all doing their own thing, suddenly they have to compete for attention so that people listen to them instead of anyone else.

I can't imagine what kind of /shouts people would come up with to try to get people to use them instead of someone else. In addition, it would make it extremely difficult for someone who's legitimately trying to level up to do so without stooping to the level of the AFK-tainers.

Besides, I like having bands in cantinas, even if they don't always sound good. I'd rather listen to a full compliment of instruments that occasionally clash with each other than listen to one person in a Kloo Horn playing the same flourishes over and over....

I don't really think there is a quick way to fix entertainer troublesenough to get us by until whenever they can get to our major problems. We have too many majorsproblemsthat have been consistently ignored. Even simple problems like the %TT typoin our set perform command.

The solution offered only takes care of one of the benign symptoms the AFK entertainers bring with them.

Unfortunately I cannot think of a simple or quick fix. I have not seen one yet that would actually accomplish the goal of keeping me interested enough to continue playing beyond the 3 months I just signed up for after having my account cancelled for 5 months. I returned because I thought I saw glimmer of progress in fixing this profession that was the only thing that I liked doing in the game.

I hate to reiterate what many have said. Putting JtL ahead of making sure SWG was a solid game only makes things worse then they are now. I have always dreamed of being a starfighter pilot along side many of my fellow players as well as my favorite characters from Star Wars. Although, it can wait, I would much rather have fun playing my musician while I wait for JtL, and I think alot of others feel the same, or just don't care about JtL and want to finally have fun with this game.

I wish I could come up with some great quick fix to propose that would make everyone happy. All I know is that TH's current proposal is not a great quick fix either.

Message Edited by TranSabal on 07-21-2004 04:17 PM