Musician Archive
Thread: A note to all those people who can't get buffs because you play during off-peak hours.
Straker_Atrella wrote:
The problem lies deep however. The thing is many people bought and play SWG for different reasons. Some Entertainers bought it to socialize, some to craft, others bought it to fight, and many many bought it because they wanted to bea Jedi.
A Jedi is a fighting class mostly, it is going to attract a certain mindset of people. Action based people who like to "do" stuff.
That was the whole problem with the hologrind. It forced a certain "type" of person into professions such as crafter or entertainer. Professions that many of these "active" people would never try in a million years. Yet they wanted their Jedi. They NEEDED their Jedi. They would do those professions they didn't care about if they had too.
They never said they would be happy about it though. They CERTAINLY would do those professions in the fastest easiest way possible.
Many of them can't even comprehend that some people ENJOY the entertainer profession. It's playstyle is so alien to them. Just like that fact thatsome combatents have little desire to interact with people at all. The concept is alien.
I don't think afk or the macro system is the heart of the problem. Sure you may have had some AFKers before the grind, yet those people WANTED the profession. At some ponit in time, they would actually be doing it.
On Scylla, this is how I think the problem started, your server may vary, but this is for Scylla.
1. The world was happy and joyfull, people played together in Harmony.
2. Some people found you could afk through a profession. While distastefull, not a big deal, eventually they would be playing it.
3. Along came the Hologrind, forcing people to play professions that were contrary to what the player would ever play.
4. The cantinas became swarmed with AFK dancers, these people had zero interest in the Entertainer professions.
5. Entertainers began to quit or leave the profession. There was very litle content for them, and they hated sharing the cantinas with zombies.
6. Soon the only Entertainers around were AFK grinders, Mind buffs were very hard to find.
7. Tired of not finding buffs, people with zero interest in role playing an Entertainer bought a second account so they could get them whenever. Not for profit, but for convieniance, they then set them up as buff bots for their friends.
You can argue the order if you want, but on Scylla, that is how it went. Heck buffbots can still be hard to find at times.
So Klayton, yes I agree that while AFK totally helped push the Entertainers away, lack of content did not help. It was the AFK forced by the Hologrind and not the buffbot that led us to today.
The contempt was there long before AFking became the norm.
Players didnt want to be forced into cantina's to get healed.
Contempt for healing classes predates this game.It got carried into it.
Once the recursive macros are gone there will be one less thing to point at to justify the contempt but it will still be there.
Tammylynn wrote:
I wish more people would understand thet not all 'live' entertainers park themselves in one spot and stay. Try inviting us on your group/guild missions. If anything you will get a laugh while I hit a Rancor with my mando! Why search for a buff when you may have a friend that will be happy to go with you.Just something for all all the hunters/pvp people to think about.
Just to expand on this, not all entertainers are pure entertainers. Some of us *gasp* have combat and/or medic skills. We can easily spy in cantinas, even when grouped, and easily have an element of surprise. You can master any two of musician, dancer, or entertainer and still master another combat profession and have novice medic.
4. The cantinas became swarmed with AFK dancers, these people had zero interest in the Entertainer professions."
These don't reflect the facts. AFK macroing has been with us as a major problem well before the hologrind started, and it's still a major problem after it's gone. The hologrind might have increased the problem by 20% or so, but the fact is, many players just like to increase their level - that's all they want out of the game - and if they can do it without actually playing ATK, all the better for them.
However, your main point stands. AFKers, and the resulting contempt for all entertainers,have been driving real entertainers away. It's a vicious circle, and it can only be broken by players giving real entertainers the respect (and the money) they deserve rather than lumping all entertainers in with the AFKers, or by real entertainers continuing to play even though they are disrespected, or by SOE stepping in and making AFK play so difficult that it becomestoomuch of an annoyancefor casual players to attempt. I think the latter is the only realistic solution.
Message Edited by Beery on 10-23-2004 03:40 PM
Skelek wrote:
Side note:
getting ride of looping macros will not fix the problem.
All you need to do is write one set of commands in notepad. ie what would normally be one macro that would loop
Instead of looping, Cut and paste them 1000 times to make one long text file.
Upload the command.
Run it.
Sorry to break it to you, but macros have a character limit.
Along with interrupting macros from calling themselves or other macros on an endless action loop, the Devs have also mentioned adding a time limit to the macros. That would eliminate macro1 from running out about the time macro2's pause ended, letting macro2 take over and run until the pause from macro3 ended (all of these macros having been started at the same time).
However, since it's been two and a half months since the Devs posted about recursive macros going away, with no followup or comments from a Red Name.... I don't see anything happening to improve our profession. Kinda makes you want to go play another game, doesn't it? Hey! EQ2 comes out next month! I wonder what SOE's intentions are here.
But guess what. Halo2 comes out very soon also. Guess what game they're gonna drive me to.