Musician Archive
Thread: 2 Ways to allow master musicians earn a living
Among all the wishes and problems us elite musicians face, we all agree that there needs to be a better way to earn credits without relying on tips and newbie entertainer missions that reward 150cr on average.. Here are 2 ways that have been discussed before that I would like to bring back up again for the devs and some to read:
1) Mission Rewards... This area is in a huge need of an overhaul.. To reward a master musician 150cr is just so insane and illogical it boggles the mind.. Missions need to be rewarded according to skill boxes filled.. For this example I would use the "music knowledge" tree to determine the mission level or reward.. A novice musician should be able to receive mission that reward in the ballpark of 300 cr per LOCAL gig.. Whereas a master musician should be rewarded 800 cr per LOCAL gig.. What I did was simply add 100 credits per box filled. I would also like to see missions that are touring gigs with much better rewards in the area of 1,000+ above the cost of traveling..
2) Salary.... This is a new area where a musician should be able to earn a regular steady income for playing in cantina's, hotels and theaters.. NON-afk.. I understand the importance of afk macro'ing, but I do not want to see an afk musician earning credits while afk overnight.. Before I discuss the formula I would make it so that anyone one that earns an "afk" status, the salary system is cut off.. So how do we install a new salary system that is fair?... I would set it up that a musician that enters any of the 3 buildings that allow mind healing (theater, hotel, cantina) would click on a new machine next to the bartender.. This allows you a 60 minute window of earning credits while playing.. After the 60 minutes you either play for free or have to go back and reclick on the machine.. The salary will be based soley on a fixed % of the music/healing exp you gain.. So if you do nothing but stand there, you receive nothing.. You will have to either have listeners or play flourishes... The higher the instrument and song played the more you make.. This would somewhat reward the master musician more then the novice, similar to missions..
I know that eventually you'll max out your experience and non will be recorded, which would effect the salary system, however one way to correct that is to allow MASTER musicians ONLY to "cash in" experience.. I believe currently the max experience for master musician's would be 2 x 225,000 = 450K? Am I correct there.. I would set the "cash in" at 1%.. If a master musician is maxed out at 450K and wishes to sell back some of his exp so that he can still be included in the "salary"area, they could sell back 225K worth =2,250 credits.. I know some will say that, "OMG a way to earn money while afk overnight.".. True it would allow someone to afk macro 100,000 exp points that can later be "cashed in" for 1,000 credits, but I think the damage would be minimal.. This is why I chose 1% and nothing higher then that..
In conclusion the whole idea here is to promote musicians.. keep them wanting to play.. One thing I would do if BOTH systems were implimented is reward each different based on the destination of the mission, or location of the "salary" building.. Why have 3 different buildings when it seems hotels and theaters are virtually un-utilized.. I would submit that Theaters pay the best missions, then hotels, then cantinas.... Whereas the salary would reward Cantina's the best, then hotels, then theaters.. How does one do that on the salary system.. As I had mentioned it would be a fixed percentage.. A cantina would be at 50%, hotel at 40%, and theater at 30%..... A master musician that plays in a cantina earning 9,000 exp points per hour would make 4,500 in credits for NOT being afk, whereas the same musician would only earn 2,700 in salary at a theater, but the missions would pay more in theaters then cantina's...... This allows a variety of options a musician would have to earn money, depending on what floats their boat..
I personally see NOTHING wrong with a master musician earning 4,500 an hour.. This is still significantly less then what other Master Elite professions make, but it's a beginning..
The "importance of afk macroing?!?" There is no importance to it. Afk macroing is for those lazy, worthless excuses who dont deserve 1 xp point. If they are too lazy to sit at a keyboard and hit the keys themselves, then they need to go to a different profession. ALL afk-macroers are a disgrace to the entertainer/dancer/musician profession. If i ever get in a group with one, i make it a point to stop the band and kick them. I enjoy the satisfaction of that loser coming back from work or waking up to find they stopped playing 30 minutes after they started their pathetic afk macroing.I could have used those stupid afk-macros but i pride myself that i'm not lame like the weak, talentless afkers.
Ahazi Server
Master Musician(who didnt use those afk macros and did it the RIGHT way)
Two things I would like to bring up..
1) AFK entertainers will be a necessity in player cities.. A PA guild with maybe a handful of entertainers, remembering that only 17% of the players in the galaxy even have this skill, let alone the less then 2% that even have it at an elite level.. I see nothing wrong with a PA member AFK'ing in a new player city cantina so that they can virtually guarantee healing for ALL those that play in off times.. I have been on the opposite side of this issue and have seen dozens of times walking into the cantina in Kaadara and NOT seeing ONE single live playing entertainer there.. In fact it's normally 1 single regular AFK dancer which belongs to a guild and she keeps playing AFK or not, so those in her guild at whatever time of the day can be healed..
BTW.. This person AFK'ing is a Master Dancer, so there is NOOOOOOOOOO incentive for her to gain experience, but she does it as a service to those combatants that have NO options.. I myself have AFK'd as a master musician simply because there was NO entertainers in the smaller off planets.. I"m not getting exp, nor am I get tips.. What I'm doing as with many others is providing a service to those that need healing during those non busy hours of the day..
2).. The other poster.. your math is off a bit.. First a recording tic for exp is 10 seconds.. it happens 6 times a minute.. this is 360 times an hour.... multiply that by a simple 30 pts per tic on average, and you come up with approx. 10,000 experience pts per hour... X 50% salary rule and that is 5,000 credits per hour of income at the master level.. True you could get into a 20 man group in Theed and make twice that or more... However, we are comparing apples with apples and oranges with oranges.. A 20 man combat destroy group could make so much more then what you are inferring.. So lets not compare the income of a 20 man music group to that of a single solo'ing combative... It's not the same..
Thanks..
the max for musician xp is 900k. playing a nala in a group of 20 nets you around 130 xp per tick (4 secs)
that works out to be a salary of almost 2 credits a minute. meaning 120 credits per hour. - your better off doing the ent missions...
The better gig missions is an old idea, yet still something that is sorely lacking. 150 credits for a mission still seems more like a slapin the face to me. The only entertainment missions that I'm willing to do are the ones given by faction NPCs. Atleast then I can get something I can't normally get easily, FP.
EvenI still have trouble making tips, no matter how well I play. Quite simply, I don't get payed what I know I'm worth. The only way I can actually get tipped is advertising my mind buffs, and even then half the time they run off w/o paying. Then they come back wanting more 
Just a lot of cheapskates on Sunrunner I guess.
The salary idea seems good, mechanics of it could use some work. Perhaps working the /register ability into the pop-up window style interface would be a good idea.
Lets do a little brain-storming on this idea, and maybe present it to the developers or something. (Lets not hijack the post into a AFK flame war)
The better gig missions is an old idea, yet still something that is sorely lacking. 150 credits for a mission still seems more like a slapin the face to me. The only entertainment missions that I'm willing to do are the ones given by faction NPCs. Atleast then I can get something I can't normally get easily, FP.
EvenI still have trouble making tips, no matter how well I play. Quite simply, I don't get payed what I know I'm worth. The only way I can actually get tipped is advertising my mind buffs, and even then half the time they run off w/o paying. Then they come back wanting more Just a lot of cheapskates on Sunrunner I guess.
The salary idea seems good, mechanics of it could use some work. Perhaps working the /register ability into the pop-up window style interface would be a good idea.
Lets do a little brain-storming on this idea, and maybe present it to the developers or something. (Lets not hijack the post into a AFK flame war)
TaimaishuYun wrote:
wait why should we got 1k credits a hour when combat classes can get 1k credits in a matter of minutes
Well I'm one of the first to ask less ridiculous missions. But combat classes use weapons and armors which decay. Our clothes/instruments don't decay - so far.
It will certainly change with the decay patch but from now I see it is fair that the combat classes earn more than us.
What is not fair is that we need to play hours to even buy a travel ticket.
The main problem will occur when people will see that entertainers can't live in a player city because they'll never have the money to pay the taxes.
MusicalPimp wrote:
Its not the master afkers that are the problem. It is the players doing it to get xp while they go to work, sleep, or whatever that are the problem. They are a disgrace to the profession. If they are too d*mn lazy to stay at the keyboard and hit a couple keys, then they dont deserve a single point of xp. They are the ones that make us look bad. I can understand the ones who dont need the xp and are doing it in PA cities to heal, but not the weak ones too lazy to sit at the keyboard. The combat classes cant hit a macro and leave their keyboard knowing they will rack up in xp while they are gone. They have to stay attentive at their keyboard and pay attention. I have enough in me to stay at the keyboard. I am a master and i did it the right way. I could have wussed out and used macros, but i chose to be dedicated.
I don't think combat AFK macros are hard to make. I think you just need to use the cycle target command then attack. Not that you even need one. You can simply find a spawn of low level agros and go AFK in the middle of them. Kor Vella comes to mind as they have a nice static spawn of thugs in the middle of the city.
Agreed.. lets stay off the AFK war.. anyways..
Good to see some support and ideas that we need to look at ways an entertainer can earn a living beyond the "slap in the face" entertainer mission that are in place currently..
My favorite choice by far is "register" play inside cantinas and hotels.. AFK playing will get you suspended from this option.. Maybe just a easy coding of paying a flat rate salary to the Musician, based on his skill level, that pays per 10 second tick.. While you are playing, and with each passing tick, a master musician can earn21 credits per tick reguardless of how big a group you're in, and then make it28 credits per tick for harder off world location as an incentive to be there as well.. OK.. why did I choose the numbers of21 & 28.. Simple, there are 14 boxes total in the Master Musician tree.. divide that by 2 and you get 7... From that number you either pay 3 credits PER 2 boxes filled, or 4 credits for off world locations.. Granted initially a novice musician will only earn 3 credits per tick playing, but in an hours time that is still 1,000 credits per hour, plus earning exp to advance more. Max rate would be master musician off world making 7,000 an hour..
This wouldn't take a rocket science to code in and would be the simplest of ideas.. granted maybe not the fairest way, but something to start with..