Musician Archive

Entertainershave their complaints...

(And the rest of the players have their own complaints about them)

No solid, reliablegame mechanics for Entertainers to make credits...

Entertainer missions pay out 200 credits, regarldess of skill level.

Buff process...

No proper interface, 12 minute process, inconsistent results, when it works... it would be nice to have a longer duration, no ability to buff ourselves.

Our professions have been tainted and in some ways taken over by AFKers.

Most of the "community" see entertainers as the embodiment of unwanted down-time... hey, youCAN miss two shuttles waiting to gain our beneficial effects.

Many players state that they cannot find musicians or dancers for buffs on a reliable basis... especially late at night.

Many subscriberspay forsecondary accounts simply so that they can havetheir own buffbot(s) forwhen they want them.

The argumentsabout the removal of recursive macros brings these issues up over and over again... often causing a clear rift between true members of the entertaining professions and the serious high-end combat-gamers. These two members of the SWG community can have their problems solved together, with the same answers.

The type of players thatMOST OFTENactually "play" an entertainer areNOT the types of players that focus on keeping down-time to a minimum... that focus on gaining and stacking every possible bonus for their own advantage, allso that they can compete (and hopefully win more often than not) against other like-minded and equally-preparedplayers.

The types of players thatMOST OFTENfeel it is of the upmost importance to constantly be doctor buffed, properly food/drink buffed (according to their own tastes and needs), dancer buffed,AND musician buffed are NOT the types of players that are content with chatting and emoting with other players and never once entering combat in an entire gaming session.

I'm not exactly defined by either of these.

When the game launched, I created a few different characters on different servers.

One was an entertainer.

I'm a veteran video-gamer (I grew up playing video-games with my older brother and my neighbors) I had never extensively played an mmorpg before, and I was on adial-up connection... so I decided that learning the game (and seeing if my connection would hold up) would be best done by playing this entertainer character.

Well, after some time, I molded a nice character concept, enjoyed playing the game this way and (somewhat obsessively) raced towards Master Musician, entirely ATK.

I was one of the very first masters on the server... at that point however... I was completely sick of being inside and playing music... and was champing at the bit to ventureinto the realm of combat.

I had never intended for the cantina to be my only field of enjoyment... it was going to simply be where I earned my living (LOL).

Adventure, excitement... that's what I always wanted to take part in... I wanted to have two roles in this universe. One as a great performer and another as a great adventurer. (I've never really been one to set my sightsfor anything less than great)

So, I did all this... I found it most disappointing that I could not earn close to as much money performing as I could by running destroy missions.

I found it upsetting that being a master musician offered me no benefits for any of the theme parks, locations, NPC's, content... nothing.

I saw devs talking about how the entertainer professions are "social" professions and thus are different.

Well, thats all fine and dandy, but they'll be a socially oriented profesion regardless of what personal benefits yougo ahead and give them.

Ahh... "personal benefits".

That is the point of this post.

The main issue that has caused most of the problems, regarding the entertainment part of this game, thatBOTH the entertainers AND the non-entertainers have is...

The entertainers have very little -to no personal benefit.

Give the entertainers some actual in-game benefit for themselvesand you just may gain more dancers and more musicians that will fill the population and perhaps be around more often to perform the services that so many people want more of.

Give them the ability to buff themselves, and you may find more combat oriented players satisfied with combining their combat skills with those of entertaining... many of them just might be more than happy to have another facet of the game to play in.

Give the entertainers legitimate ways to earn credits and it won't be such a burden to spend 106 or more skill points on this role-play/character-based profession.

Fix the buff interface (or more accurately create an interface) so that it is NOT a half-ass implimentation ofthese professions'very important service.

Cut down the time it takes to apply the buff services so that it doesn't tie the entertainer down so much and prevent them from doing more business or going out and enjoying another facet of the game. (not to mention free up some of the negativity that solely-combat-types have towards ents for this reason)

Give them access to some NPC locations, based entirely on their skills (or reputations). Most players don't hold theperformers in high regard... at least let NPC's recognise their status. Allow them to play for royalty, the Emperor, Princess Leia, high-up nobles, low-life scoundrels... all in special places that require certain entertainer skills to enter and also based on their faction. Have a special den where a master musician can audition for Jabba the Hutt... without the entertainer having to kill thugs and run missions for Jabba's underlings. These types of missions should have big payouts and should be limited as in how often they can be accessed. Crafters have high-end items they can craft, combatants and adventurers have high-payout destroy missions... give the ents high-end concerts.

Perhaps, givethem maintenance reductions (artists may not always make reliable money, but they tend to live better than their inome would normally allow... society cuts them some slack).

Maybe give them a luck bonus...

Give them something more than a crafters lot in life with nothing to craftor sell.

Medics can heal in combat, crafters harvest resources, craft and sell.

Entertainersperform a servicein safe environments. That is it as far as game mechanic benefits.

Now... the role-playing/character-depth benefits obviously have NOT been lost on me... otherwise I wouldn't still be one.

I spend 106 points because my character is supposed to be as talented a musician as can be. (cover your eyes you mandoviol/ceremony playing **edit** master ents!!!)

Not many players such as myself are willing to make that game-mechanic sacrifice simply for character immerssion.

Heck, I battle with this decision an awful lot.

I just do not believe for one second that if they granted more self-beneficial (or even other community beneficial) skills, bonusesand/or abilities that it would unbalance this profession...

NOR do I think it would turn the profession for the worse, by inviting other types of players to join our ranks.

(and I mean actually join, not afk bots)

Now, there are a lot of difficult ideas that can be suggested... but these simple ideas can and should have been implemented months ago.

The big debates over afk bots and their silly-headed role-playing rivals can be answered by one thing that the entertainers have always wanted...

Make the Entertainer Professions actually viable.

That could solve the problems forBOTH sides of these Big Debates.

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