Musician Archive
Thread: State of the Musician Profession
DarinW wrote:
Somebody please point out the logic here.
I believe that to be impossible, mate.
We're on the same page.
- Omadda Szool
Kauri
I've also noticed that there don't seem to be as many organized bands. ADaM does paid gigs, and the group leader for the night usually tends to split the proceeds up amongst whoever is there, but I see a lot of people who have either gone out on their own or who are contemplating the idea. If you're playing by yourself, you don't have to worry much splitting the tip.
Just wanted to say about the improvisation idea. That it would be sick to be able to do that. Speaking as a musician in RL that would add a huge part in our profession in SWG. It would also be good for like "concerts" and even just cantina stuff cuz then you can have your own little lick orwhatever that youplay with "x" song.
And more songs would be good too... And more variety in instrument sounds. I was dissapointed when I got my fanfar and found out is sounded just like my slitherhorn. *grr*
Oh, and I think people who AFK-macro are lame. I never do that.
That is all for now. Have a good day and rock on.
I would also like to chime in and say that I agree fully with all issues you have addressed NewJedi. Entertainers have definitely been on the short end of the stick in this game.
I'm attempting to take matters into my own hands.
I'm probably one of the few Master Entertainer/Master Musician players out there. I've had a strong supportive network of guild members and friends which have helped me economically.
Now I'm attempting to spread this on to as many entertainers as I possibly can by offering membership in my guild which I have recently been made leader of.
My solution was form a band and offer services to the player public. So far things are going decently. The business is not quite yet flowing in, but I'm hoping after a little time and PR it will pick up.
At present my guild band is 11 members strong and still accepting recruits, and I'm able to work more towards making life a little easier for my band members as I'm soon to be elected Mayor of the player city my guild is based in.
It was my high hope to make a name for entertainers with this band and attract the eye of the devs to our plights. This thread I hope will also get the attention needed.
The one thing as a musician I wish were possibly is the allotment of a few more skill points, to allow people like me who have Mastered Entertainer and Musician some defensive capability with an elite comabt skill of some sort. I am attempting to aim for Rifleman but I'm going to come up short skill point wise. Granted I just recently had to adopt Novice Politician to answer the call of my city to fill the slot of Mayor. But still that leaves me in a very vulnerable position.
A solution I propose to this is perhaps the creation of a hybrid elite profession mirroring the Combat Medic profession, Combat Medics from what I've seen so far have been able to pursue other medical professions such as Doctor with plenty of skill points to spare. The combat medics are able to defend themselves if attacked. Me on the other hand as a Musician either have a very small amount of combat skills OR none whatsoever. And guild members and friends will not always be available to come running to my aid.
This is the one thing I feel should be paid the MOST attention to. Especially as a Rebel Musician, I am particularly vulerable. Even if there was a way for entertainers to Earn Faction points so they could get faction pets to protect themselves with would be good, possibly even a easier and more possible fix.
Thats all I have time to say for now.
I love the idea of earning faction points with music. Now, you can take faction gig missions from NPCs, and in fact I've tried to do so on a couple of occasions -- but I always managed to mess up the gig somehow. I assume those give faction points. It would be nice, though, if we could also get gig FPs from a faction mission terminal.
FWIW, I'm also a Master Entertainer/Master Musician, and with that combo I still have barely enough points to Master Carbineer and keep Novice Medic. I have a friend until who recently who likewise was MM/ME, plus Master Rifle and Ranged Support III. She was pretty deadly. Also, we do get a +7 bonus to melee and ranged defense as a MM.
All that said, I too wish it didn't take so many skill points to be a ME/MM. I'm not taking a position on the age-old "who should get the mandoviol" controversy; just wishing I had a few more skill points. 
Give Master Entertainers something unique that is not a song, dance or instrument. Something only Master entertainers can do, for example give them the ability to enhance the healing power of the band. If this is a band full of new novice entertainers, it would boost their exp ratings as well as the heals they administer. Or, give them a unique control over a band, like the ability to synchronize the band. Basically give the Master entertainer skill something that deals with band control, performance, or something else like that. Don't hamper Dancers or Musicians by making them learn Master Entertainer if all they want is all the dances or all songs and instruments. Not only would this give an opportunity for true performers to shine and be the key members in a band such as mine on Corbantis. But it would grant Musicians and Dancers precious skill points which they could probably use elsewhere.
Xb3 wrote:
It would be cool if Master Entertainers could sing. Sing in some cool Star Wars language. Now that would be different, since singing is the only form of entertainment not in the game. Maybe some cool moves to flourish also.
There is the /sing command. It works like a mood. You can type /sing /rap and /recite. I agree some animated "singing" flourishes would be fun.
dimmu-borgir wrote:
Entertainer Module for Droids: if doctors get them, why dont we? it only makes sense that i can camp the starport with the docs
Hear, hear! When one of my best buds first started working on Droid Engineer, one of the first things I asked him was if there was some speaker/projection module.
But then, if we got a droid holoproj module that gave us a small radius of fatigue-healing space, we might actually be useful somewhere other than in the Cantina. [sarcasm on] And we can't have us being anywhere but barefoot, flesh-wrapped and in the Cantina, now can we? [sarcasm off]
I swear, I still think the dev team is a bunch of misogynists. Unwitting, perhaps, but nonetheless, a higher proportion of entertainers are female. I feel the need for some Performer's Liberation.
I. Gameplay
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 know this is way down the official list but it's much higher on my personal list 
When grouped, dont force all musicians to play the same song. Instead, have a listening player only hear the musicians that are playing the same songthat the listening person clicked. If they choose to watch a dancer, have them hear the "best" song being played by the band. This way the musicians hear thier own music - for better or worse - and the customers have the choice of variety in what song they would like to hear.
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 personally like the idea of the cantina "paying" it's entertainers. I'm not sure of the best way of doing this, but I was thinking of some kind of base amount proportional to the amount of healing being done (basedoff xp?) and scaled similarily to xp to give a little more if you're in a large group andproportionally a lot more if you're the only one in the tavern/cantina. (Lets give incentive for someone to go to those expensive planets like Dantooine just to play music and help those fighter-types)
It could be offered in an accept yes/no window in a lump sum payable either when you leave the cantina if under a certain time, or in hourly increments or something to keep afkers from gaining even more than they already do. I would also recommend a minimum of 30 minutes of play time so only serious musicians would qualify. (The rifleman who came in just to heal himself or his two buddies so they dont have to tip would not get paid for it...)
Jiggle: Actually, isn't the /sing command now borked? I can't seem to get /sing <songtext> to work now -- not since the mount patch. /carol, /recite, /rap, etc. still work fine.
dimmu: I love the idea of a droid that permits entertainer healing (and buffing). Maybe a C3P0 type droid?
Ismaril: I've heard that gig missions can sometimes send you to player cantinas. If so, and if the devs improve gig missions to scale with audience size,performer skill, and perhaps some sort of NPC interaction,would that come close to what you're proposing?