Musician Archive

Hello, everyone, I'm NewJedi, better known as Ricky Starwalker,a Master Musician on Chilastra. I've been selected as the Correspondent for our profession. I've described my background more fully in the "welcome" thread elsewhere in this forum; you might want to take a look at my post there. My charge from Q3P0 is the following:

<< These are other community members who will work with the people in the individual profession forums to create weekly Top 5 lists of issues/requests. Remember these are just fellow players who are here to help you. They don't have special powers. They are here to represent you, not lead you. Please give them a warm welcome and help them with constructive comments. >>

Accordingly, I'd like to use this thread to develop a Top 5 list of issues and requests within the coming week. Since Q posted his charge yesterday, I suppose that gives us until next Tuesday to create our first Top 5 list, but to be safe I'd like to invite comments byMonday night if at all possible.

In particular, I'd appreciate it if you could list your topissues or requests in descending order of importance. In other words, if "more songs" is your top issue, please list it as number 1. Don't feel confined to a list of 5 things; feel free to add as many as you like. But do try to prioritize them so that we can compile a fair list of the top five issues and requests. Also, feel free to enter into give-and-take in this thread; that will help us distill the issues.

Incidentally, a couple of peoplehave already postedin a thread on "Issues for NewJedi"; I'm cutting-and-pasting those posts into this thread. I might ask those posters to review their posts and ensure that they've listed their issues in descending order ofimportance. You should feel free to revise and extend your remarks in this thread as you see fit.

Once again, thanks for joining me in fostering a constructive dialogue with the devs. See you all in the cantina!

-- NewJedi (a/k/a Ricky Starwalker, Master Musician, Chilastra)

In a thread addressed to me, Kronx posted a list of top issues for musicians. I'm cutting and pasting Kronx's post here to make sure it's included in this thread.

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Ok, let's compile them in one nice place.

1 - Musicians have to play down to the lowest member of the group, meaning SW1, all day, all night. God help us all. This can make it hard for newbies to find a group if higher level musicians don't feel like listening to SW1 again.

2 - Musician XP is dependent on playing the highest level instrument or song, meaning, for example, if we join a group playing SW1 and our current max instrument has the slitherhorn sound, we're stuck with that god awful main riff.

3 - Single flourishing in a tick after a double flourish in a tickgives half XP, when doing nothing gives more XP.

4 - If you are playing a song before being invited into a group, you can continue playing a different song once in the group. This sounds horrible, especially when the person refuses to stop.

5 - There is only one stringed instrument available only to master entertainers. A second should be added to master musician. (I wantsssss it!)

6 - Most of the drum loops have very abrupt transitions between segments

7 - /cheer only gives XP to one member of the group

8 - /tipsplit would make it much easier for everyone in the group to share tips.

9 - For God's sake please change the base riff to SW1. For all that is sacred! Please!

10 - At this point there's really no reason to be a musician at all. Someone who fills the entertainer boxes can heal rather well on their own. Perhaps high-end musician content could include recording performances which could act as buffs and be soldor having an increased ability to coordinate group members.

11 - We hatessss the SW1 base riff. We hatessss it forever!

12 - Ommnibox and Naglaron are buggy. I'm not sure of the details, but apparently you have to keep the instrument targetted or you stop playing.

13 - Wookies get all the girls

14 - Gig missions could use some indicator to let us know it's working.

Can;t think of anymore. Anyone? Anyone?

1. Get a statement from devs that the mandoviol and ceremonial in master entertainer has been tested thoroughly and is now "working as intended"

2. Change timbre of duplicate instruments.

3. Get a statement from the devs that not being able to "deny services" is working as intended

4. Change timbre of duplicate instruments.

5. Option given to either band leader or customer to split tips between all band members. This command needs to either affect the whole group or not, and should not be given to each person individually or it will cause resentment to those that aren't splitting while they are taking a share of everyone else's tips.

NewJedi, do you have some discretion to determine what is an "issue" and what is a "whine"? I fear that if people whine too much about certain issues, that don't need attention and don't need fixing, they will cause the real issues to fall through the cracks. Please don't let that happen.

Thanks for that post, Hijo. Would you still like me to cut-and-paste your longer list from the other thread?

LoL, Hijo, I think we're posting at the exact same time, so our messages crossed in the mail.

Anyway, I've been instructedto represent your collective top-five "issues" and "requests."That instruction implies both that we should identify the biggest problems ("issues") and the most common constructive suggestions for improvement ("requests"). That said, I do agree with the basic thrust of your post: yes, we should identify problems, but I especially hope we can present the devs with positive ideas for change.

Cudayn posted a response to Kronx's issue #5, on the mando, in another thread addressed to me. I'm cutting-and-pasting it here to be sure it's included in this discussion:

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Kronx,
/cheer
Overall good post. But I do have an issue with #5. I want a unique sound to be on every instrument, and if a second stringed instrument were added, it would cheapen the cost of having worked hours and hours to attain Master Entertainer.

If, a second stringed instrument were added, I would want my Mandolin replaced by yet another very unique instrument, and that would lead to yet another round of, I want one of those too.

I worked darn hard to get my mandolin, its the "reward" for having had to dance my self crazy and do mind numbing Image Design on folks to attain that nice Master Title.

When I whip out the mandolin, I am easily recognized as a Master without having to always wear a title, which I very rarely do. If the mandolin is given to Master Musicians, or even a second stringed instrument, where is the reason for even having become a master Entertainer? It would cheapen it to a novelty and there would be absolutely no point to a Master Entertainer.

Well I hope I have presented my point of view in as well and concise a manner as to convey my feelings and to show, hopefully, the bad downside to giving a Master Musician a stringed instrument/mandolin.

I love my main class, I just wish people would tip a little better so that I was not forced to go hunt to support my clothes habit. :-)


Durney Kova - Master Entertainer / Master Musician - Lowca

1st off, good luck NewJedi with your new (and probably thankless) responsibilities.

My issues:
1) Entertainer groups should be able to split tips. A /grouptip that autosplits would be good for customers, and a setting that the band leader can turn on autosplitting of temps would be fantastic.

This to me is by far the biggest issue with Entertainers. I consider the rest of my suggestions as gravy for now, though things that become more important in the future:

2) Different sounds for different instruments.

3) More songs (especially more based on Star Wars themes -- listing all the great possibilities would take forever)

4) More flourishes for any given song. Eight is great, a dozen would be buzzin (sorry, lame rhyme)

And for long term balance:

5) Wounds that only musicians or dancers (as opposed to entertainers) can heal.


I don't think the ability to deny others the ability to listen is a good idea. For one thing, I think it'll make other players resentful of musicians and dancers. For another, when we get player owned cities, I suspect those cities will become the focal healing places, and not the established cities. Player owned cities will be able to have a cover charge, and other requirements for enforcement.

Atiknin
(Gramon Blatt, Rodian Composer of Chilastra)

1. More songs, at least in the early stages so that we don't have to play sw1-sw3 all the time.

2. Different sounding instruments for same sounding ones now... ie slither/traz

3. Only the leader should be able to do /stopband

4. Group tipping option. Not /tipsplit or whatever. If a person wants to tip group, have them do /tip group. If a person wants to tip a single person, then they can do that as well. Tip splitting should not be an option.

5. Fix ommni box and nalargon so you can target other people and speak and do emotes.

6. Make it so that we can't move while playing. Often times I'll hit a movement key on accident and stop playing. Or maybe some leeway on this. A couple of steps before we stop.

7. Entertainer clothing for Wookiee's. Yes, I know wookiee's aren't made to wear clothes, you can see that in the disparity in the amount of clothes for everyone else compared to Wookiees. But we are entertains too!

1. Fix the entire gig mission system. The main problem here is that you have to get them from an NPC, and in most cases you will only get 1 gig that will give you a profit after travel expenses of about 200 credits. Either make them available from terminals so that we can pick up a couple missions to the same town or increase the payout based on musician skill level.

2. Give people a reason to take us on hunting groups. All we can do is heal mind wounds, which most people, except for medics, don't really even use their mind pools that much. The ability to heal battle fattigue in camps would help this, or maybe in a dream world our songs could help out in battle (ala EQ style)

3. Fix the /startband and /changeband bugs. Right now if someone issues those commands while a musician is sitting down they become bugged and are continually playing music. The game gives them a "you are already performing" message but they can not play at all and do not recieve musician expirence. The only way to stop is to do a complete logout.

4. Make the higher level instruments soundslightly different. There are only 5 sounds: Horn, Woodwind, Steel Drums, Violin/Guitar, Bass/Organ/Percussion so newer instruments are usually only upgrades. Just a slight change in the higher level ones would be great just so they would add new sounds. It stinks to be at musical knowledge III and still be making sounds of a fizz.

5. Ran out of ideas, so just going to go with "more songs"

NewJedi,

Here are my current issues with the class:

1. Provide the ability to tip the group and have the tip automatically split between members. Customers should obviously still have the option of tipping a particular member of the group. /batlash

2. Make sure that the different instruments available have different sounds. This would add a lot of variety, even when playing the current songs, depending on the composition of the band.

3. Fix the perpetually playing music bug (see post above).

4. Add more songs. I understand that the possiblity of letting musicians create and upload new songs was considered then dropped (for technical and legal reasons), and what a pity as I know some really talented real life musicians playing this game, so we have to rely on SOE to add a bit of variety from time to time.

5. Nothing comes to mind right now.

Wendelius

1. please read this thread as it has many good ideas

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=musician&message.id=786

i especially like the posted idea listed with my blend of it of course i think this would be great

2. i agree that /tipsplit should be an option i am sorry but i know the rest of my band are not pulling 5k/ hr but rather 2/k so why should i drop my income by half if the ppl are tipping me... for other tips we already split them anyway... ne time a tip over 1k comes in we ask... for the band or me? so there you have it

3. more songs more songs more songs

4 more song control

5. more sounds on the instraments

6. a cantina owner class that also has better 'conducting' abilitys for performances to sound better

1. Different sounds for each instrument & more instruments (with different sounds of course )

2. New songs and flourishes.

3. Volume control per instrument group. I can't tell you how many times I want to dull the waa waa of the slitherhorn while it is playing SW1. It might also allow for more customization in songs where maybe the bass line or woodwinds can have a "first" position in the song. Will add some variety at least.

4. Bugs as mentioned above.

5. /grouptip which gets evenly distributed and/or a way to see who is in the "troupe" so someone won't accidently tip the solo slitherhorn guy when it was meant for the 10 piece band.

6. gig missions so they mean something. right now they are basically pointless.

Thanks

Tarac Haldon of Mos Espa, Bloodfin