Musician Archive

With all the ranting about various problems and issues in the game, to start my post, a disclaimer: this game is amazing; otherwise, it wouldn't inspire such passionate criticism. People only care about what's dear to them. That said, I hope what follows comes off more as a logically-reasoned series of suggestions concerning entertainers for updates in the near future:

1. Gig missions should really be worth more for higher levelperformers (a la destroy missions for higher-level marksmen and brawlers) and for farther distances traveled (a la delivery missions). As it is, a bad slitherhorn player performing at a neighborhood cantina away from keyboard will actually make more than the master musician who travels across the planet to play a level 67 difficulty mission (complete with countless flourishes and a brilliant light show) in a majestic theater. Why? Because the shuttle fare will actually cost the master musician all his profits. Something's not right there, and I'd imagine the changes would be amazingly easy to implement. This has got to be top priority of all the changes--otherwise, musicianship will forever remain a mere hobby, and the entertainers will fast abandon their performing skills in favor of something (I hate to say it) worthwhile.

2. Macros: in essence, they need to go. Don't get me wrong--there's nothing inappropriate with macros in general--but one should really not be able to macro one's way through an entire profession. It cheapens the skills and deadens interaction in the cantina (who wants to talk to an AFK Mon Calamari who's been gone for the last 2 hours in an empty cantina? A sad sight indeed...). Furthermore, to me, tips should NEVER go to AFK performers, as they often do.

3. Instrumets: they could use some decay (otherwise, the market floods), should yield better experience/healing for higher quality instruments (it's true for weapons; why not instruments?), and logic says that crafting them should be worth, as expected, crafting experience. Again, I wouldn't think these changes would provide too much coding difficulty.

4. Performing suggestion: add a 40-credit cover charge (cantina), 60-credit admission (hotel), and 80-credit ticket charge (theater) which gets split evenly among all performers who are currently performing and have flourished in the last45 seconds. Then, have hotels heal faster--and theaters much faster--than cantinas, making the charges proportional to value and encouraging players to stop in other locations (how many garden-variety brawler power gamers have never beheld the magnificence of the theater, I wonder?)

5. Politician tree suggestion: rename the entertainment healing column in the entertainer tree "Stage Presence." Sounds odd, but hear me out: "entertainment healing" is a vague idea, not really connected to a real-life notion; "Stage presence," on the other hand, is a skill very distinct from the actual ability to perform one's art, and therefore makes sense as a separate skill. The skill mods can remain the same, just change the name. Then, make the politician tree base itself off this column. Finally, another profession would overlap entertainment abilities, finally giving entertainers a good reason to do what they do (sounds a tad harsh, but really, we're short on reasons to keep our skills right now).

On that last suggestion: this may seem weird, as aspiring politicians would then have to dance or play in order follow their chosen profession. Such a setup, though, already has a parallel: people looking only for scouting skills need to harvest creature resources for experience. In order to have access to the corpses, they need to help kill the animal; thus, they need some sort of fighting abilities. Similarly, then, it seems reasonable to ask politicians first to have some performing abilities outside of politics.

Hope that wasn't overload, and if thisbelongs in the musician forum, my apologies (I thought not, as politicians don't necessarily fit there). At any rate, my two cents.

--Terian Janssen, Master Musician, Bria

Your "beloved correspondent" enjoyed reading this post. Some comments:

<< Gig missions should really be worth more for higher levelperformers >>

I agree, and I suspect a lot of our fellow Musicians do as well. Personally, I'd like to see even more content to gig missions: some sort of badge or goal to work toward, or Musicians' Union Faction Points, or something. Anyway, gigs were already on our top-five list in our first Report, and now I'm hearing lots of complaints about the new terminals, both here in this forum and in-game. I suspect the new gig terminal missions will make it onto our next Report's top-five list. (By the way, I intend to start generating the next list once we have the devs' official reaction to our first list.)

<< Instrumets: they could use some decay >>

I agree. A lot of people have voiced the same view, though not quite as often as they've mentioned the issues that made our initial top-five list (distinct sounds, more songs/flos, tipping, gigs, newb integration). I bet this also makes it into a future top-five list, though. I note that item decay is one of the top two issues in the Tailor Correspondent's list.

<< Then, have hotels heal faster--and theaters much faster--than cantinas, making the charges proportional to value and encouraging players to stop in other locations >>

I love this idea. The new gambling casinos are a step in this direction: I've actually started performing in hotels now. But the ultimate performance venue is the theater. Personally, I'm hoping to direct an opera or musical in a theater, but that's a one-time thing, not a continuing arrangement such as the one you describe.

<< Politician tree suggestion: rename the entertainment healing column in the entertainer tree "Stage Presence." >>

Also a fascinating idea. Politics does involve a certain amount of show-biz, and of course some politicians got their start in entertainment.

Thanks for a thought-provoking post. I'll be interested to read our colleagues' reactions to some of your ideas.

Hi Terian,

I think your post has lots of valid and interesting Ideas, I myself aspire to be a politician, unless it means I would have to give up any of my musical skills, then, no way in hades

Gig missions, I agree 100%.

Macros, I unfortunately disagree, and this coming from a person who has yet to make a musical macro. Only for the reason that macroswould be awesomeif used inunison with others to make great concerts. Just need to figure out how to sync them up. If anyone knows how, let me know, I would love to start testing with a few folks

Instruments, we are one of the poorest, if not THE poorest class. I am pretty indifferent on decay for instruments. If it is implimented, yes there would be a market for instruments, but mainly for the casual musician or multi skilled musicians for whom music is not a full time job. I myself have only sold a few instuments because of the couple of people who attained master before me and I do not want to compete with friends that way. We are a small community ya know

Surcharges, this would probably bring down on the heads of entertainers everywhere, the wrath of the masses, and would cause people who do tip, to start thinking that they are paying for a service when they enter, so they would feel that they do not have to tip. It is a good idea however.

Politician BaseClass. Entertainer? Well that would be awesome, most of us are already in the "spotlight" so to speak. I had thought that they might also consider the Merchant, as it is a valid choice as well. But I really like the entertainer base, myself

Nice post, hope to have many, many more from ya

Durney Kova- Master Entertainer / Master Muscian - Lowca

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2. Macros: in essence, they need to go. Don't get me wrong--there's nothing inappropriate with macros in general--but one should really not be able to macro one's way through an entire profession. It cheapens the skills and deadens interaction in the cantina (who wants to talk to an AFK Mon Calamari who's been gone for the last 2 hours in an empty cantina? A sad sight indeed...). Furthermore, to me, tips should NEVER go to AFK performers, as they often do.

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I HATE to b***h about this issue again, but are we at this again?

I don't know how long I am going defend AFK macroing, but argh let me give it another shot.. Frankly, I am nota person good at letting things drop, unless the opposite does the same...

Again, how does it cheapen the skill?

Anything might cheapen the skill/profession if they BOTHER YOU.

This is Subjective isn't it? I for one, never bothered by AFK Macroers myself, and it's NOT just that I do it myself.

I just don't think I should mind/worry aboutwhat other players do, it's NOT my business to do so.

All it takes is YOU get annoyed, and you find some people (A lot than I anticipated I admit) that agrees with you, and "AFK Macroing cheapens the profession" seems to be Legitmate.

But, NO,Hell No it IS NOT!

"People who feel like someone else is "cheapening the profession" need to step back and remember this is a game, not a contest and most certainly not a way of life." - Falryx

On to deaden the Cantina - Perhaps you rather see no players in the Cantina at all, than seeing 5 AFK macroers... I rather see AFKers who might occasionally come back for 5 minute live, than not seeing them at all for a week. And, I mentioned Gazillion times, I do NOT care about tips, Only Xp.

Perhaps it issad (I can feel that), but Fod God's sake give people frigging Freedom of playing style! It's NOT your job to tell other people how to play this game!

Sir Jedi:

It seems I may have struck a nerve, so perhaps I should explain. My worries about AFK macro monkeys has nothing to do with me personally: I'm not trying to promote my non-AFK ways at the expense of those who choose to, say, multitask while playing this game. Perhaps more importantly, I'm in no position to make that call. Rather, this suggestion comes mainly at the prodding of others, culminating from such Hall of Fame comments as "well ur just a musishin waht do u know u just macrod thru everything." I added that to my post not on my behalf, but on that of the entertainment community as a whole--nobody likes to be regarded as insignificant based on one's abilities. I guess I'm just a little tired of being dismissed as a "lesser" player simply because I play music.

As for the surcharges: yes, I agree, it'll seem like a mandatory tip and would mean the tips themselves would fall. The problem is, at least for me, they're barely there at all anyhow: I'd say about 1 in 7 tips (at least for me--perhaps I should wear less clothing and become a Twi'lek, no? ), and of those, very few give anything significant (30 credits for full healing seems almost like a slap in the face from a rich bounty hunter, but who am I to judge). Still, the amount I'm calling for is, essentially, peanuts: even I, penniless musician that I am, would pay that. Just a thought.

Synchronizing macros: good call. And in fact, perhaps a drastic sweep against all flourish macros is uncalled for--my solution may be off, but methinks recognizing a problem is still valid. Cantinas might be more empty if we killed the AFK simplicity, but not for that reason. They'd be empty because (newsflash) nobody wants to be an entertainer. THAT'S the problem to target.

Politician: I'm standing by this one. Politics is all about connecting with strangers in large numbers and winning them over--in other words, performing. A business background would also make sense, but only in addition.

My other two cents.

--Terian

Quote:
Macros, I unfortunately disagree, and this coming from a person who has yet to make a musical macro. Only for the reason that macroswould be awesomeif used inunison with others to make great concerts. Just need to figure out how to sync them up. If anyone knows how, let me know, I would love to start testing with a few folks
End Quote

The answer here is /bandflourish. I started toying with songs in beta, but it fell to the wayside come the live launch. You can write a song with one soloist (yourself) in this format:

/startband (chosen base song)
/bandfl 3
/bandfl 6
/wait (about 7 for the XP tic)
/flourish 1 (here's the solo bit)
/bandfl 5
......
/stopband

Voila. This will start the group at the same time on the same song, then lead them through their paces for most of the song. If each concert member writes their own song, then you can use groupchat to coordinate who goes next.

Tormud of Gorath

well some of your ideas are great but....

Gigi missions

the way it should work is at the entrance to every canteena is a NPC promoter or owner

the entertainer goes to him and sees a list of gigs for that canteena diffrent gigs will be the ammount of time you haev to play for and the bay is based on the time length of the mission you take and your skill level

you take a gig say for 30 min go into that canteena and play for the 30 min after that you get paid your ammount agreed on

if you cant do it all in one setting thatys ok mto do 15 min then later 10 min more then 5 later just so your totaly PLAYING time the agreed on ammount

now the place can charge a couver charge this is exactly how they do it ether you haev a drink to buy Min or a couver charge to enter

so the people need healing pay the cover charge (entry fee) you get paid by the promoter so you dont need tips

players can tip you more for a good performance so you still want to shake it but they dont haev to and you dont need it as you are getting paid

dont need a split tip becouse you are all getting paid by the promoter

Macros

they are a good thing as you can work out the exact best sound for a song and set it up

then when you play you jsut start it up

there is no way to stop the cheat AFK macros UO and other games try for years and people jsut find a wat to do ity anyways so all your doing is stoping the honest person

insturment decas well why not everythingshould decay to keep the crafters working

also insted of a action cost there should be devices you build to makethe specail effects

smoke gernades small fire jet shooters flash bulbs

so insted of a free show out of noplace you are actualy making the devices

these things would work well and all would benifit