Musician Archive
Thread: Please listen to me, I'm doing the Entertainer Quest!
Page 1 of 1
Warryyr
Wed Sep 22, 2004 7:31 am
#1
Just warming you up for the new crop of bot spam.
I did some testing last night on TC2-Ahazi.
Trained up to Novice Musician. Built several instruments and placed them on the Bazaar because I couldn't find any on the Character Builder Terminal. 
So I thought I'd help out any other Entertainers looking for a Mandoviol or whatever.
So I thought I'd help out any other Entertainers looking for a Mandoviol or whatever.Anyhow, the audition went fine. Then came the popularity thing. Yeah, ran to Theed Cantina, met no fewer than about 4 players AFK macroing and two were asking to be listened to. One kept barking every 15 seconds, asking to be listened to because they were doing the quest. Another kindly informed me that the new song cost 400k xp, and he was playing until he reached the xp requirement. When I said I wasn't too pleased about that xp thing, guess what his reponse was. "Don't worry, just set a macro and you'll be there in no time."
*shudder*
Well, I proceeded to say, oh whoops I need buffs, and then ran to Theed Spaceport's front steps. I sat and jammed there, and had a thought copied onto the clipboard. When I would see people randomly wandering around wondering what to do with all their free goodies, I pasted the following into the Chat window:
/think I sure hope people listen to me so that I can test the new Entertainer Quest! It only takes a moment!
I was kind of upset I had to ask, but figured the thought bubble smoothed things over, versus saying:
/shout listen to me i am doing the entertainr kwest to get my new song thankk's. (every 20 seconds)
The truth is, it really is somewhat challenging to get people to listen to *just* you - especially in a group. I swear AFK bots must have customer magnets or something, so many people run right to them and watch or listen.
Bottom line: I didn't get as far in the quests as I would have liked. I did one iteration of the show/gain popularity thing, and then it started repeating. It all seemed rather uninspired. It got tedious pretty fast. The shows were the most fun. Why? The stuff the audience members say. I had more fun running around talking to the audience rather than onstage trying to figure out their mystical satisfaction rating. Go figure.
Favorite audience member quote (I took a screenshot):
"Why is it that so many Dancers in the cantina look all spaced out? What's with that?"
Made me laugh....then think. Joke? Devs finally fess up to being clueless regarding us? Yeah, I know - joke. Kind of a shame they had to even reference AFK entertainers when this is new content for our professions. They must just like taking jabs at us. It must be really fun for them.
Conclusion:
Would like to complete the quests once another TC2 opens up. Novice Musicians don't *appear* to be asked to play songs/do effects they don't know during the quest. New wave of macro spam headed our way. New crop of AFK'ers in Theed and Coronet likely, for those who need to get the 400k xp and take the "easy" path to it.
Due to the Feedback Thread for this Quest being totally and completely devoid of any Dev interaction at this point, the xp requirement will probably stay and not another word will be spoken to us. Delightful. I really wish they'd just given us a new song and dance, then put this quest in later after they destroyed this stupid AFK thing. There's no real "work" involved here for the macrotainers. Once again, it cheapens us and anything we've "accomplished." Anything we worked towards, they achieved while sleeping or playing golf. This reward is *not* prestigious when i can be obtained by someone merely touching 1 key on their keyboard and going to bed.
I'd also really like to know what the hell we did to the Devs to be completely undeserving of any response to our concerns or opinions on this new content. If they did this to folks during the Jedi testing phase, they would have gotten holy hell unleashed upon them, and people would have ran from the game like rats from a sinking ship. We get to sit in uncomfortable silence as precious days to DO something about our concerns, or discuss them, slip away.
More to come.
picklesSW
Wed Sep 22, 2004 7:43 am
#2
I had a similar experience on Test Center (the original one) the other morning when I went over there. I went to New Unity, which is supposedly heralded as one of the best cities on Test Center, and enter the cantina.
First, I'm dismayed by the fact that there are no less than 10 people in the "AFK alcoves" they have set up. As if that wasn't bad enough, the 3-4 live entertainers on stage don't welcome me, or say hi, or act friendly...they simply say "Watch us all so we can do the quest". Not even a please. They continued to do this to everyone who walked into the door.
At this point, my "best case" reaction from the devs is for them to just GIVE the freaking song to the musicians, nix the quest altogether, and toss the broken dance out the window.
First, I'm dismayed by the fact that there are no less than 10 people in the "AFK alcoves" they have set up. As if that wasn't bad enough, the 3-4 live entertainers on stage don't welcome me, or say hi, or act friendly...they simply say "Watch us all so we can do the quest". Not even a please. They continued to do this to everyone who walked into the door.
At this point, my "best case" reaction from the devs is for them to just GIVE the freaking song to the musicians, nix the quest altogether, and toss the broken dance out the window.
Warryyr
Wed Sep 22, 2004 7:52 am
#3
picklesSW wrote:
I had a similar experience on Test Center (the original one) the other morning when I went over there. I went to New Unity, which is supposedly heralded as one of the best cities on Test Center, and enter the cantina.
First, I'm dismayed by the fact that there are no less than 10 people in the "AFK alcoves" they have set up. As if that wasn't bad enough, the 3-4 live entertainers on stage don't welcome me, or say hi, or act friendly...they simply say "Watch us all so we can do the quest". Not even a please. They continued to do this to everyone who walked into the door.
At this point, my "best case" reaction from the devs is for them to just GIVE the freaking song to the musicians, nix the quest altogether, and toss the broken dance out the window.
Yeah, I also visited New Unity Cantina on TC. I played my super-secret alter ego.
What agigantic disappointment.
No one said a word to me. Except, of course, to watch so and so or "listen to me because I'm doing the quest."
I was a Novice Entertainer. No one offered help. No one really even said a word to me. I met a friendly little Bothan in Theed Theater who told me I could find lots of folks in New Unity. That Bothan was really the only friendly one of the bunch. Only because he was the only one who ever talked to me the whole time in New Unity.
I would imagine, when I was in there, there were no fewer than 40 or 50 entertainers. There were a LOT in those alcoves, all lined up. There were several onstage who never said a word. Hardly any said anything to anyone. Several just kept smiling and kissing each other for hours. I got pretty bored with trying to start conversations and getting nowhere. When I log back into TC, I'm leaving there and never going back. Big disappointment. Just looked like one big Macrohouse to me. For all I know, the smiling and kissing people could have been macroing that, too.
You_Myst
Wed Sep 22, 2004 7:53 am
#4
picklesSW wrote:
I had a similar experience on Test Center (the original one) the other morning when I went over there. I went to New Unity, which is supposedly heralded as one of the best cities on Test Center, and enter the cantina.
First, I'm dismayed by the fact that there are no less than 10 people in the "AFK alcoves" they have set up. As if that wasn't bad enough, the 3-4 live entertainers on stage don't welcome me, or say hi, or act friendly...they simply say "Watch us all so we can do the quest". Not even a please. They continued to do this to everyone who walked into the door.
At this point, my "best case" reaction from the devs is for them to just GIVE the freaking song to the musicians, nix the quest altogether, and toss the broken dance out the window.
i give a yes and no to this 
they should nix the popularity part to save the spammers and at the same time GIVING the afk buffbots an advantadge since they are the primary 'people' listen/watch with.
maybe replace the player popularity with npc popularity... basically the same thing as the exsiting entertainer mission terminal quests, but without the pay... you have to play 'something' long enough at the mission location to get the credit of however many npc's are there.
also, newjedi hit the nail on the head in another post... the music and dance quests are tied together at the theater manager, cant put in one witout the other without a total rewrite of the quest npc and make everyone wait even longer. i say fix the silly dance, make the tweaks that are needed for both professions,then put it all live
Reachwind
Wed Sep 22, 2004 7:58 am
#5
I chose the option of cancelling my account.
It's clear to me now that every part of the game I derive fun from is going to be ignored or revamped in an unpleasant direction (this quest is the future of entertainer.)
I have 6 weeks left on my current subscription. If I haven't seen the major bugs fixed or some new workingcontent in that time I am done with SWG for good.
Message Edited by Reachwind on 09-22-2004 07:59 AM
Vorpaks
Wed Sep 22, 2004 9:33 am
#6
What time were you on Warryyr? I was on last night and at one point all the live ents ran over to the theatre to help someone do the final quest. We ran around like crazy talking to the audience while he started the quest. I never did get to find out if he finished it because I crashed and my computer screamed "DEFRAG ME NOW!"
I understand why people afk level on TC2 though - it will only be there a short time (if it is not gone already) and everyone wants a taste of the new stuff.
Everytime I've been there though the majority of ents have been live. One reason people run to the afk ents there is because the afkers are telling them they need listeners. So they run over to listen, trying to be nice. I quickly learned to ask people to listen to me for a sec and they were totally cool with it. The people saying that they are just leveling for xp are making sure people know they DONT need listeners so everyone listens to the folk who need it.
Personally I have had good experiences talking with the ents in New Unity - perhaps it was just that time of day you were on? Were you on TCPA? I was there when NewJedi was testing the Music quest and the place was jumping. A lot of fun people to talk to. Next time you are on TC add Paks and Kie to your friends list. I'll have some BF for you to heal.
I am having a lot of fun with the quests... but then again, everything Entertainer is still bright and shiny and new for me.
TC: Paks, Kie, P'kas
TC-Ahazi: Siger
We ran around like crazy talking to the audience while he started the quest. I never did get to find out if he finished it because I crashed and my computer screamed "DEFRAG ME NOW!"I understand why people afk level on TC2 though - it will only be there a short time (if it is not gone already) and everyone wants a taste of the new stuff.
Everytime I've been there though the majority of ents have been live. One reason people run to the afk ents there is because the afkers are telling them they need listeners. So they run over to listen, trying to be nice. I quickly learned to ask people to listen to me for a sec and they were totally cool with it. The people saying that they are just leveling for xp are making sure people know they DONT need listeners so everyone listens to the folk who need it.Personally I have had good experiences talking with the ents in New Unity - perhaps it was just that time of day you were on? Were you on TCPA? I was there when NewJedi was testing the Music quest and the place was jumping. A lot of fun people to talk to. Next time you are on TC add Paks and Kie to your friends list. I'll have some BF for you to heal.
I am having a lot of fun with the quests... but then again, everything Entertainer is still bright and shiny and new for me.
TC: Paks, Kie, P'kas
TC-Ahazi: Siger
NewJedi
Wed Sep 22, 2004 2:02 pm
#7
My guy Richie was "live" at theNew Unitycantina most of last (Tuesday) evening, except for a brief stint. I was there from about 8 or 8:30pm til 1 am EST. Sorry I missed you guys.I certainly would've given you a cordial welcome. Others were "live" when I was there too: Fragpuppie, Kira-Lynn, Galadriel', the Combat Medic whose name I forget, and a few others. Still others were sending me tells and questions in groupchat. And actually I don't remember anyone spamming about the quest last night. It was quieter on that front than it has been all week.
And in fairness to TC, remember that it's a small-population server. NU is one of the few cantinas in which there is a critical mass of people. TC also has, in my opinion, a more mature player-base than the average live server. But yes, the AFK plague hasn't passed over TC. In some ways, the smaller population on TC exacerbates the AFK issue, since it's harder to find people who need fatigue or wound healing.
Incidentally, being on the "side" of the cantina doesn't always mean you're AFK. I was dancing off to the side with some AFK people, but only because I was doing Formal 2 and I hate trying to do that onstage, where there is limited space. Fragpuppie was live much of the time, and he was also off to the side.
As for the quest, I like it. I had fun doing it, and I am happy to help others complete it by /watching or /listening to them for a moment. Sure, it'll generate spam. It will also generate some interaction between performers and audience members. You take the good with the bad. If you want a quest that depends on interaction with the audience, you're going to have to tolerate some spam. It seems to me we should try to see the good as well as the bad here, so that we encourage the devs to give us more and better content. I hold to my view: this is a fabulous new song, supported by an entertaining set of quests, and I would like to see much more of this type of content.
Banthabutcher
Wed Sep 22, 2004 2:34 pm
#8
Aye, similar experiences here as well.
I went to Tyrena and started playing at the Blue frog on TC-Ahazi (because my TC character was just rerolled... fine time to do it, eh?). At first people just blew me off, but then I started having some passing conversations with folks. Then I just nicely asked the populace to help me test this quest by listening to me, even if it was just for a second. A few people obliged and I eventually got my 10 people requirement.
Then I got Master Tailor and proceded to give out free hawtpants to whoever listened to me. It started going pretty fast after that
However, I think it will be much easier on Live. As NewJedi mentioned, TC has a very small population compared to Live. Also, buffing should give you a lot of listens (if you can compete with the bots that is...).
I still think everyone in a group should get the listen if the player just listens to one person, though. I'll go make a post on the feedback thread.
kirah_ashlin
Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:17 pm
#9
Wow, Warr and Javy, I'm sorry you both had such bad experiences at NU. I pretty much took up residence there the past several days(in case no one on Bria noticed my absense)and have found nothing but friendly, helpful people there. I've seen the place packed - with patrons, not justentertainers. I've seen the entertainers asking (almost always politely) for patrons to watch or listen to them - including myself. No spamming and certainly no macro kissing.
Itis a shame that bad experiences canturn people away from what is actually a very nice player city. I hope you will reconsider and return sometime. I feel certain that what you experienced was a fluke.
And, NJ . . . you're never going to get my name right, are you?
picklesSW
Thu Sep 23, 2004 4:55 am
#10
I was definitely there during off-peak hours, so that was probably why I found few friends, but still...I expected the generic denizens of Test Center to be a bit more friendly and less...dewdish.
NewJedi
Thu Sep 23, 2004 10:19 am
#11
I'm surprised about the d00dishness and the friendliness. It may be that more mature people play at peak hours, when they get off work. Me, I've found the people on TC consistently more mature and less d00dish than on live. In fact, a common to reaction to d000dspeak on TC is: "That's *so* Live server." Hehe.
Warryyr
Thu Sep 23, 2004 2:46 pm
#12
Well, I'll give it another shot. First impressions are always pretty important, though.
I understand that I may have hit it at a bad time.
I'm wondering what the point is in doing anything on TC for this, though. Even on TC2. Given the 400k xp requirement, which I think is lame and baseless, I have no hope of ever getting that amount beyond knowledge 4 of Music in any timely manner. In fact, no Entertainers in great amounts will be able to fully test this content, which is sad. Sure, they had the presence of mind to give Jedi hopefuls a boost with a visit from the Old Man by default. When comes to us, eh, stupid Entertainers. Let 'em AFK their xp. Who cares. That's like 1.5 million xp I'll need to amass. Not including Entertainer healing xp. Not gonna happen anytime soon. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Then again, maybe the Entertainer Quest isn't happening anytime soon, either. Maybe it'll be in 10.4 - err 10.5 - which is actually 10.6, by which they meant 11.2 - but that'll end up being categorized by letters, so 11.1 will be 11a, and 11.2 will be 11b, except that b will be pushed to c, thus our quests will end up in 11c. Or was it 11d. Unless the schedule gets revised. 
Page 1 of 1