Musician Archive

I posted the following on the Dancer forum. As the roles of Dancer and Musician are so similar, I am guessing that our abilities--especially the buffs--work the same way. I am asking Dancers to take some notes and figure that I can improve this test if I ask Musicians to make some observations as well. Here is the message:

Hello, after reading the various posts about the buffs, I have a hypothesis that I'd like to see tested. I may not have much chance to use this test, and one person's test may not be conclusive anyway. I'd like to ask the other dancers (and musicians too) for their assistance in this endeavor.

Based on comments that the buffs last longer as the dancer uses flourishes and special effects and that the buffs still kick in even without flourish, I am starting to suspect that the duration is a direct result of how much action we use as we /setperform.

If you would be willing to help me in this data collection, I'd really appreciate it, and I hope that we can come up with something conclusive to return to the dancer/musician community. In addition to your diligence, you will also need a guinea pig player who won't mind sitting around doing nothing (a crafter or medic would be great as they can do still do work while being subjected to your tests).

I'd say the first stage is to test the short-term effects of the buff. Test the results while burning 200 Action points. This may require a calculator on hand and careful attention to the screen as you watch your Action go down (through normal performance as well as during flourishes and lights). With your guinea pig, I suggest you do the following:

• Perform with no flourishes until you use 200 action. Have the subject stop watching/listening. Measure the length of the buff.


• Perform with constant flourishes until you use 200 action. Have the subject stop watching/listening. Measure the length of the buff.


• Perform with constant special effects until you use 200 action. Have the subject stop watching/listening. Measure the length of the bfuf.


• Perform with constant flourishes and special effects (I hope you're a fast typist and calculator operator; maybe you should bring a friend). Have the subject stop watching/listening. Measure the length of the buff.

If the buff lasts too long for patient measurements, we can reduce this value to 100. I'm honestly not sure how long such a buff will last, but I suspect it would be less than half an hour.

My hypothesis is that all four cases will result in four distinct buffs with equivalent durations.

If it turns out that my hypothesis is incorrect, then I'll have to find something else to believe in.

But if I am correct, I'd like to move on to other tests (200 action vs 400 action = 2x duration; formula we can figure out to maximize our results; etc.). But those tests will be useless to adminster if I turn out to be wrong.

So, who's with me? Who wants to help test this hypothesis and turn it into a fact? *grin*

Argh, someone pointed out to me that Quickness will affect the Action burned. So much for that idea.

I wonder if it's related to how much action would normally be burned based on the normal costs before factoring in Quickness. But that would be very difficult (if not impossible) for us to figure out without actually seeing the code.

I guess this test is useless after all. Pity that.