Player Associations Archive

Folks,

Recently we held Cantina Crawl XIX on the Chilastra server. It was the first full blown filmedcantina crawl since the CU hit. I was the producer for the event, and I'm glad to say it was well attended. At the peak of the performance we had about 100 entertainers and groupies present. (we loves the groupies...yes we do... :smileytongue However, there are some issues that I need to point out that the 8 person limit has imposed upon large scale performances. I would ask that any raid chat system that the Devs have in mind please consider the needs of large scale entertainment groups and think about these ideas I'm about to present.

1) Communications across the groups: For each Cantina Crawl we have all attendees join a speialized chat channel (/ent in the case of CC XIX). In this channel the producer of the crawl (myself in this case) relaysdirections to allof the Crawlers as to where we're going next and other pertinent information. For the purpsoes of directing the movement of the crawl between cantinas this is still sufficient, however, problems crop up upon arrival a a location.

Traditionally (since CC VI)in Cantina Crawls we form groups based around performance type and relative skill level. For example, we form a group of all Master Dancers, Post-Novice Dancers, and Newbie Dancers. We do the same thing for Musicians. In the pre-CU environment this would lead to 3-5 separate group leaders for each crawl. The producer of the crawl could then relay instructions to each of the group leaders upon arrival at a new cantina location and put together a good performance without everyone stepping on each other. In the post-CU environment with 8 person gorups the amount goes up to 6-11 group leaders. This makes it quite difficult for the crawl producer to relay instructions across to that many group leaders and information could be lost. The work-a-round I divised was to create a 'Master Dancer Group Leader' (Esharra in this case)and a 'Master Musician Group Leader' (Fragpuppie in this case).That way,I as producer onlytalked to two leaders and they relayed instctuiosn to the groups in their charge. Yes, this worked, but it creates another level of information transfer and could also lead to personsmissing information during the crawl and frustration on the part of everyone.

I suggest that any raid system that gets implemented have chat functions for both thewhole group to raid leader and perhaps subchannels for 'Master Group Leaders'to communicate to their separate sub-groups within the "entertianerraid". This way instructions will only have to be relayed across two to three personsinstead of potentially 11 persons. Thus, there will be more efficient dissemination of information and less of a chance that informationcould get lost in translations in the many tells between leaders that are needed now.

2) Limited Bandflo Potential: In the pre-CU20 person group we were able to put together big, beautiful 20 person chours lines/bands that could all /bandflo in unison andit was great. Now with the post-CU 8 person limit the days of those huge chorus lines are presently very difficult and close to impossible. It is very dfficult to coordinate a single /bandflo across two to three 8 person groups and make it look schncronous due to lag issues as the final command is issued. (and believe me, lag is an issue when you have close to 100 performers in/around a single cantina)

I suggest that in any raid system that is developed that the /bandflo command be allowed to function across the entire entertainer raid group and individual sub-groups. This ability should be toggle-able by the raid leader to give /banflo ability to a performance sub-group leader so they can direct their groups. Alternatively the sub-group leader might choose to let his/her groups /bandflo themselves. It just depends on the situation and I'm looking to have maximum flexibility to put together good large scaleperformances.

3) Other Ideas: Here are a couple suggestions I have for improving perfomace as the Devs work on grouping mechanics. They are not necesarrily problems encountered due to the CU, but they are addtions that would give performers more fliexiblity and be really cool (I think ). First, how about a /bandflo's visual effects commands. For example, /bandfloFireJet for musicans. That would certainly make for a hot performance. Similarly, we could get the IDs involved with the ability for people to issue group holoemote commmands (/groupholo holonotes). Of couse, any members that were not of the skill level or did not have the appropriate holoemote effects would simply not perform the animation/effect.

Ok, thats my report on the lessons and ideas from CC XIX. Rothin, sorry I took so long to put this up, but my real life work got me very busy for the last couple weeks. I hope this is some useful feedback you can take to the Devs. I welcome any comments or ideas about this particularly from the persons that were good enough to be my Master Group Leaders during the CC (Esharra and Fragpuppie). They might think of something I did not. One thing is for sure, after having directed music for most of the crawls (like 7 or 8) and produced the last two, I feel as if I'm genuinely qualifed to herd cats now. I would not miss it though, it's always a blast and one of the things that keeps me going as a full time entertainer in SWG.

P.S. for those that have no idea what a Cantina Crawl is, please see www.furplay.com/swg for more information and the cool videos Javier has put together for them.

Party on!