Musician Archive
Thread: From your Correspondent: inviting suggestions on AFK'ing
I think if the devs put Mind healing packs in the game you'd not have afk macro'ers and the ones that visit the cantina will be there to RP instead of coin slot bf healing.
I personally use dancers to heal bf and mind wounds so I can quickly get back into what I enjoy. Fighting, not chatting. and the music is awful. I play stones while I play.
I think most people forget, that even if the devs add mind packs back into the game, people still have to visit us for BF healing. As for healing while AFK, whomever said terminate the performers ability to heal the minute afk goes up, excellent idea. No heal = no xp = no master = incintive to play the game. As for kicking afk'ers from groups. Well on my server, in the town I'm in, the only afk'ers are the 2 newbies that haven't been there before. We always seem to have 2 different afk'ers every night. Point is, on my server, those of us who don't afk have managed to chase the afk'ers out of certain towns by being verbal against them and by refusing to group with them. That brings up a secondary issue: Just cause 2 guys are grouped and playing music, there is no rule that they are the "entertainer" group, and there is difnately no rule that they have to invite you. We have a new epidimic of people "expecting" to be invited to groups no matter what. A large chunk of the masters where I am have all agreed to stop playing down to star wars 1 for some newbie that is probably going to afk. Boy, people love it when we refuse to invite them to group. Point is, there is no such thing as the "entertainer group." Get that idea out of your head. Maybe if people learned to ask, Hey, could I jam with you guys a little bit? Instead of saying, can I get an invite to the entertainers group so I can get my ent. healing xp power leveled? When people group in this game, it's cuase they have fun together and they usually play the game together quite frequently. Just because you see a group that you would like to join, show them some respect and consideration, don't deman or expect that they have to invite you, especially if you are novice to the profession.
---End rant that seemed to drift off in some odd direction chasing a new crusade.
Suggestions:
1: add more songs for each rank: in RL, even beginning musicians know more than a single tune.
2: add more instruments: also, vary the sounds the current ones make---one or two sound exactly the same.
3: allow instrument choice: let musicians choose an instrument they want; let them specialize much earlier. For example, I hate wind instruments (in RL) but love strings. Include a basic progression of string instruments which I can choose at every rank and allow me to choose to specialize only in that type of instrument or not. In short, mimic real life just a tad bit more.
4: First, FIX flourishes. I've brought up before the 'attack delay' in flourishes and in the looped music. It's off, I believe (as was advised by another musician here) by as much as a 32nd note/beat on every song. Sure, most non-musically trained people don't hear it. But those who are, do. I can't stand it; it makes me very reluctant to do ensemble performance---because it's much more noticeable if I do. Please, please make the Devs aware of this and get a response, NJ?
5: Next: add more flourishes; add solos based on skill ranking.
6: add Composition: allow bandleaders to program in an interface all aspects of a song, based on instrument, skill and style. Then, players will execute these during the song. Of course, allow for players to add in their own licks here and there. I realize this takes away a bit of self-control in bands, but feel it would mimic RL a bit more AND make for greater performances. I'd suggest also that this composition interface would allow lower level musicians to join in higher ranked songs (known by the band leader)---perhaps just playing small parts (and of course, not receiving the same amount of xp). Currently, the disparity between various musical rankings is a downer for gigs.
7: up the exp! The primary reason this is happening is because the exp to progress is astonishingly low. It's horrible. Take into account the fact that we can only play one song of our highest rank over, and over, and over and over again with only limited flourishing and no solos or composition. Who on earth can really endure that for long? If I could figure out how to program a macro to wrack up exp so I could play something else! I certainly would---just so I wouldn't have to hear the same old, same old ever again.
Overall, the reason this is happening is lack of variety, and unnatural constraints on music. The Devs have done an awesome job on the music system as a whole, a good start! But now, it's time to expand, tweak and fix it, adding in more real life aspects: function and form.
thanks
Kirk2
Auraveda wrote:
A second solution (somewhat less serious) is to create a second timer that after 15 min of no keyboard/mouse input the character gained a TEF to everyone. There have been numerous times I just wanted to shoot someone with a really annoying macro. That would leave it up to the people in the room to decide the fate of the AFK ent.
OMG - YES! I was playing in Moenia one night and this fellow had 2 separate AFK macros going. The first was his music macro. He obviously had forgotten to stick a /startmusic command in there because when he ran out of action he stopped playing and never started again. His second macro alternated between shouting an advertisement for a local merchant, and reminding everyone to /tip. He was AFK, NOT PLAYING, and asking for tips. I could have just added him to my ignore list, but I hate doing that. I would have much rather shot him in the head.
You know I've been thinking about this a bit and something similar to this could be a really nice solution to the whole AFK problem. One reason that AFKent is so prevelant is that there is no risk associated with it. Making some sort of risk associated with leaving your character on autopilot would go a long way towards alleviating the problem.
OK so a TEF to everyone would have every overt factioned player in the game there just to shoot the red dot on the map. Further, I could see that possibly 15 min is a bit short for a timer that causes the player to consent to PvP. So here is my ammended second proposal (somewhat more serious than the last time).
30 min timer from the last keyboard or mouse interaction or game input or something.
Once that timer runs out the AFK player will automatically accept all duel requests.
It wouldn't be obvious to someone who hadn't been there for a while if the person had crossed this threshold or not so there would be fewer random killings than just TEFing them.
It allows people to go AFK grind music/dance XP in the safety and seclusion of their own homes if they really feel that it is necessary. It also makes it likely that someone out in some remote location could camp out and heal people it they felt that was necessary. However, this would leave it completely in control of the people around the AFKent to decide if they survived the night. They'd definitely think about where they were and who they might irritate before they left for work or went to bed.
Ok I'll admit that there are problems with this solution since a lot of entertainer types are not also combat types so the idea of PvP as a solution is going to be a hard sell. However, I do think that some risk to just leaving your self logged in and undefended in the game would help thin out the AFK population some (and possibly make time in the cantina more interesting as well).
How bout Marco's dont work while AFK, or make it you can't skill animate while AFK.
Those might be eaiser ways.
What I think would be a neat way to stop the AFK Macroers is something along the lines that the surveyors have now.
If it was possible from the coding make a menu pop up to be answered with options to change music or dance style get a action heal from the system ( kinda like a second wind type deal that auto heals us for 100 action )
If it isnt answered within 2 mins or so it will do an auto dump, /stopm and /stopd command then a sit and afk flag appear over their head. Part of the reason for the forced afk sign is for those that click the auto afk flag off so they dont appear to be afk at a first glance.
I've thought about this a bit over the last few days, and I'm thinking that a really elegant solution would be to just do to us what Dancers have had to deal with all along: missed notes.
Miss a note, boom, knocked out of song and you have to manually restart.
But this alone isn'ta whole answer. They absolutely need to remove:
- The /ui action toolbarSlot command.
- Unlimited /pause durations
AFKing for 15 minutes isn't killing the perception of our profession. In fact, I'd wager large that there are more people who say they have a problem with it than those who actually do at any given time. And, once you hit the cap, it's academic anyway because those who don't enjoy it will unlearn it anyway.
But the above is sort of a quick and easy solution that also adds interest to playing.
Both are highly incorrect.
Bandlero wrote:
OK, The Nerf AFK Cursador will respond
Actually, SOE has already adjusted xp-versus flourishes, XP should be left alone. What SOE should add is a function that prevents you from doing anything while AFK. People can by-pass auto afk. You can make a macro that toggles your AFK status. For an example for anyone who hasn't seen an AFK macro here goes:
/flouirsh 7; /pause 4; /flourish 8; /pause 40; /afk; /afk; /pause 2; flourish 7; /pause 4; /flourish 8; /pause 4; /ui action toolbarslot00
That macro is just a basic example, and there are tons of variations. The dual-afk command tricks the sysem into thinking you are there. That's how people can stay logged on for 12 hours while AFK and never get booted. If you are afk'ing to heal people, then fine, you don't need the xp, so go ahead and nerf xp while afk if you want. MOST PEOPLE THAT AFK DO IT TO EARN XP, not heal. Image designers cannot earn XP while AFK, isn't that unfair to one of our own? Artisans can't survey while afk, and fighters can't fight while AFK. AFK performing needs to be prevented period. SOE should make us stop dancing or playing the minute we go AFK, and make it independant of the /afk system. The minute we are idle, we get forced to stop performing.
Waho wrote:
/startmusic executes a /dump command. It would limit macros to being only flourishes. Anyone who goes AFK for a while will have to activate their flourish macro after starting the music, and they cannot stop because putting a /startmusic in their macro will kill it. Won't end the AFKers, but it would make it harder to do.
Also, give the pyrotechnic effects a practical purpose. I love using them, but if the audience cared about them then it would help with AFKers because either A) they don't use them or B) they have them in their macro which causes them to run out of action so their macro stops.
Won't work, you can set a macro to re-load the flourish commands.
Just because I want to chime in here, I'm gonna.
You cannot stop afk playing, you can try, the devs can try, but it just isn't possible unless you remove every possible way to depress a key without a body. They have yet to stop afk surveying, and have at best created more heartache for surveyors. (I am one, and I know for fact on this.) Keep chiming in, and you may very well be without any commands for your performances other than hiting a key every few seconds. I can even beat a auto afk based on a key stroke or mouse movement if I want to. You will not defeat the person who is dead set on doing it, there is not enough code in the game to make it viable, and as soon as one person knows how, everyone knows how. I keep telling people to be careful what they wish for, because you may just get it, and I'm definitely of this opinion when it comes to the music profession. Good luck though, but I wouldn't doubt that the fix will hurt as much as the problem in the first place. History preceedes us.