Musician Archive
Thread: From your Correspondent: inviting suggestions on AFK'ing
BriRaptor wrote:
Ugh I have to say as a Master Ranger/Master CH that travels a lot, forget to clone a lot, and just gets into a lot of trouble I cant see why there is such a horrible resentment towards AFK entertainers. Those are the only ones that actually help me while im out in the less populated cities and towns. All you of "real" entertainers spend youre lives in the popular bars and because of that obviously have no idea that there are many town with NOT ONE ENTERTAINER so im glad to have as least one kind soul that has created a character to just afk entertain in some of these areas. I have NEVER seen any problems with afk entertainers getting tips and more watchers/listeners from people in bars NEVER EVER NEVER so i have no idea what you people are bitching about just let them be they help me out and honestly the only people complaining about em are the people that never see em anyways cuase you never leave youre little bestine canteena (at least thats one of the most popular spots on my server bria).
Nobody asked me to come elsewhere, except for one person, which I'm still considering.
Try searching for active entertainers, post on your server forum and you might find a live band in your remote cantina next time you go there.
And I know that Bestine and Anchorhead are popular places on Tempest. I'm not in those places, although alot of entertainers I meet move there eventually.
If you really want to address this, not because someone 'cheated' but because it is anoying in a cantina, steals tips, nerfs denyservice, and generaly detracts from the profession.
In the cities, implement a rotating schedule(cantina/hotel) of where healing and healing exp is granted. Make it every 3 hrs or so, or random.
This will also make hotels a bit more lively. And anyone away from the keyboard will not be able to macro a walk from cantina to hotel.
You can keep the 'good samaritin' at the outposts, until they become afk factories as well.
There is already a night day schedule, tag onto that.
Put a message when you enter cantina / hotel (like not normal operation hours msg)
But really, why would anyone tip, if they can get healing from an AFK bot, especially an annoying, spamming AFK bot.
Ugh I have to say as a Master Ranger/Master CH that travels a lot, forget to clone a lot, and just gets into a lot of trouble I cant see why there is such a horrible resentment towards AFK entertainers. Those are the only ones that actually help me while im out in the less populated cities and towns. All you of "real" entertainers spend youre lives in the popular bars and because of that obviously have no idea that there are many town with NOT ONE ENTERTAINER so im glad to have as least one kind soul that has created a character to just afk entertain in some of these areas. I have NEVER seen any problems with afk entertainers getting tips and more watchers/listeners from people in bars NEVER EVER NEVER so i have no idea what you people are bitching about just let them be they help me out and honestly the only people complaining about em are the people that never see em anyways cuase you never leave youre little bestine canteena (at least thats one of the most popular spots on my server bria).
Well, as a Master Entertainer, I don't see why we shouldn't have NPC giving out free pets to everyone. We could also have a free camp appear out of nowwhere when we sit down in the open that camouflages us. How about that ? That would be the ones that actually help me when there is no ranger/CH around to do it for free.
There are no entertainers in those places, because one macrotainer can make you useless. I won't consider paying travel expenses of two evenings worth of entertaining just to find out is already a macrobot there. Low reward, high risk. Not gonna take it. Find someone else.
You have never seen any problems with AFKers in bars ? Lord. Are you really that naive ? I have not seen any /maskscent bugs either. Guess why ?
hehe, ok I know what you're thinking..."What!?" But honestly, medics can get a TEF from healing overts, why shouldn't we? Here's how it could work...
Overt walks in clicks on you and you are sent a pop-up in red or whatever to either accept or decline healing the overt. So you physically need to accept this to continue. In most cantinas the majority of people you heal aren't overt so it won't be such a pain as say consentiong to every single patron. Plus, I've always wondered how we managed to slip out on the whole TEF situation. Of course, overts will have to tip a bit more to get healed, since they are putting you on the line. I know many many entertainers don't wish to fight but if you had to consent than you basically would never have to.
Obviously the afkers wouldn't be there to make that decision so they couldn't continue macroing, or healinguntil a decision was made. I don't know how someone could get around this so maybe its possible to do that but I'm pretty sure you'd need a 3rd party program that actually uses your mouse to do so...which is definatly against EULA.
This is a thought I've been mulling over, it may have been mentioned before but I guess I missed it if it were.
Please respond, maybe this is just the start of a good idea 
-Sen
Hello, this Luka Aran. Im a master dancer on lowca and a BABE (yay!). Heres something i posted on the dancer boards:
Anyway, ive been watching my sister try to become an artisan and i noticed how when she tried to survey sometimes this menu would pop up with an option (imparaphrasing here) : newresource concentraion discovered.Do you want totry andaccess (300 action) or ignore and continue working?
Here the artisan stops mining until this question is answered, although the character is still kneeling like shes still working. Heres what i propose as a dancer/muscian afk fix:
1) Dancers when dancing, as well as musicans i suppose, they will recieve a similar, random message every once in a while telling them they are able to hit a dance step just rightfor an increased (one time) action cost or to continue dancing like normal. If they select yes and are successful (based on dancing skill and the type of dance) the dancer recieves triple xp for that one flourish. Selecting yes and failing causes the dancer to fall on their butt (which is the usual fail animation). A new animation for a succesful try is not necessary (but would be cool hint hint devs).
2) Selecting "no" allows the dancer to continue to dance like normal at noextra action charge.
3) If a dancer does not answer this question (which by design will not have a typed command linked to it - so no macro exit is possible) they will continue to dance but after 1 minute no xp will be awarded to the dancer. After 5 minutes of not answering, the dancer falls down (landing in a sitting position) and stops dancing (dancer will not be able to start dancing again for at least 10 minutes while they collect themselves, he he).
** Now for the tricky part:
1) Dancers (and musicans) can be immune to this random "opportunity" if they are in a group with at least one other muscian and dancer andthey have peformed a group/band flourish in the last 5 minutes. This will protect scripted band events (such as plays or dance routines) from being interupted by the new random "opportunity"
2) Players will of course have had to allow their characters to recieve band/dance flourish commands from the leader in order to be protected.
*** now i know that there is still a way around this fix but it will require at least two people to be afk dancing together in a group with one of them band/group flourishing, which is something most afk dancers wont want to do because 1) only one member gets xp on group flourishes and 2) most afkers dance alone or write macros to join other groups. In the second case, if that group isnt using band/group flourish, the dancer isnt protected from the random question.
Anyway, sorry if someone else thought this up first ( i didnt see it on the boards but i havent looked everywhere). I think its a pretty cool fix, it hurts afking and makes use of the falling animation. It also gives dancers a little more interactivity and rewards for dancing. What do yall think?
Chimera13 wrote:
Anyway, sorry if someone else thought this up first ( i didnt see it on the boards but i havent looked everywhere). I think its a pretty cool fix, it hurts afking and makes use of the falling animation. It also gives dancers a little more interactivity and rewards for dancing. What do yall think?
Your proposed solution does nothing. I can still afk sample all night long, even with the popup boxes asking me to continue. The only way to stop afk is to eliminate /ui action toolbarslotxx and eliminate the use of calling a text file.
This issue is never going to go away. I just wish half of you would put this much energy into someone constructive instead of bitching about tips and afk.
Playing a CH/Ranger/Rifleman on another server, I know what its like to venture to a remote location, only to die in a unfortunate way to find no entertainers in the cantina at all. At times, I would wait hours for a entertainer, and still nothing. I wanted people who were of adventuring classes to not go through that if I could help. My Musucian spends alot of his time on remote areas. Once he arrives at the cantina, there may not be anyone around, so instead of leaving, I would park him AFK with a macro, and check on him ever so often. If I had customers, I would come back and conversate a little, but it surprised me how much crap I was given for being AFK. Why in the hell does anyone care? If you do care that much DO NOT TIP THEM, its that simple. I did not create my Musician to get rich, for some seem to think so. In retrospect, I look at being a Ranger. Many a time was I AFK sitting in my lovey High Tech Field Base Camp, when a lone adventurer would find it. Not once have I got a nasty remark for that. Remeber people, your core entertainers are not battle hard, and ready to kill like combat classes. If we are going to give entertainers crap about AFK'n, then do it to everyone.
I would say #1 thing to do to promote more active musicians is make each instrument sound different.
#2 thing would be more songs so that at each level you get maybe 2 or 3 songs instead of just one. There are simply not enough songs to provide a high level of entertainment to the musicianworking his way to the top.
#3 More effects so that at each level of tech you get new effects not just new versions of the same effect.
#4 This is more something to just keep in mind. In many cases, when I am in a cantina and I discover that the majority of the people playing around me are afk or just plain not flourishing, I use band flourishes. I would prefer that those jokers are away, we all look better in sync anyway. Another time is when playing 2 hour gigs. Let's say there are 4 band members and we have to play for 2 hours. Well, sometimes it is nice for one person to do band flourishes for 30 minutes. The band looks sooo much better that way.Thiswould be hampered by some kind of timer if you don'thit a key.
If music is more fun a skill to use, more people will want to play it that way. I give great salutes to people who have mastered music by playing with the small choice of instrument sounds and songs we have been given thus far.
And we must always remember that this is a new thing, I don't know any other game that provides something as cool as real bands playing music together. It will change and get better.
Being an entertainer is supposed to be FUN!
Exactly ! I dont understand why people feel the need to AFK Macro to get to Master.
Sure they may have the title Master Musician/Dancer, but they wont have the social interaction and experience to be good entertainers. Entertaining in my view is not about being able to play a Nal. Its about socialising (otherwise why play the most social profession?) and having fun.
Someones bound to say at this point 'My local cantina is always empty' Fine !! Go find another. Move around, talk to people, help a Newbie, help a medic (medics are our friends). Im 80% of the way to Master now, and the BEST part of it has been chatting, making friends, helping people and the odd bar brawl.
Sorry just my 2 creds
Zo'ot <FX>
Tyrena
Bria
ozzoo wrote:
Chimera13 wrote:
Anyway, sorry if someone else thought this up first ( i didnt see it on the boards but i havent looked everywhere). I think its a pretty cool fix, it hurts afking and makes use of the falling animation. It also gives dancers a little more interactivity and rewards for dancing. What do yall think?
Your proposed solution does nothing. I can still afk sample all night long, even with the popup boxes asking me to continue. The only way to stop afk is to eliminate /ui action toolbarslotxx and eliminate the use of calling a text file.
This issue is never going to go away. I just wish half of you would put this much energy into someone constructive instead of bitching about tips and afk.
That won't work either. I already worked around both of those.