Improvements to Entertainer Missions

Improvements to Entertainer Missions
This idea/suggestion is Open. You can respond to ask questions or discuss the idea and either vote it up or down if you believe it should or should not be implemented, respectively. Popular suggestions and ideas will be considered by the development team to become reality in-game.
Proposal
  • Implement better reward scaling on entertainer missions
  • Add a "tips" system based on NPC requests during a mission performance
  • Reputation system (stretch goal)
  • Venue displayed in mission terminal rather than distance/direction
Justification
Entertainer mission terminal rewards do not scale appropriately. A Novice Entertainer will get the same as a Master "everything" 250 point performer. This is in contrast to a combat mission which rewards around 7 times more credits at maximum level yet takes less time to complete
Motivation
Entertainer missions provide a lot less reward/incentive than a CL80 combat mission.
Going to focus this on entertainer missions, but some points equally apply to artisan missions too.

At it's most simple, entertainer mission rewards don't scale when compared to combat missions. At CL80, you can pick up a destroy mission rewarding just over 8000 credits - two missions can be completed in 7 or 8 minutes. As a fully maxed out master entertainer/musician/dancer/image designer (i.e. all 250 points used), missions still only reward 1200 credits and often require you to travel to a completely different settlement to complete (adding either additional time or shuttle costs) and require a 10 minute performance.

My proposal is two-fold.
  • Firstly the rewards of missions need to scale in relation to the "level" of the performer rather than CL (in R3 entertainers will likely only be CL1)

  • Secondly I'd like to see a "bonus" element to entertainer missions. My thinking is this could be a "tips" system, where a group of NPCs spawn at the venue when you arrive and start. During your performance there is a "mini-game" component where you aim to keep them happy with special effects, and requests (song changes, specific flourishes etc passed via a /tell or /group), sort of similar to the theatre manager questline. If they're happy at the end of the stint there could be an encore section where you can play for an extra few minutes. Once your performance is finished you get a tip based on how happy the crowd is and how long you've played
As a "stretch proposal" what would also be amazing is a reputation system. When you receive a tip, your reputation goes up based on how good you were (and down if you left the crowd dissatisfied). Get good enough and it'll increase the NPC spawn (groupies!). With more NPCs there will be potentially more tips, but more challenging to keep the crowd happy as there are more requests.

As a foot note, I'm not advocating a gigantic boost to entertainer rewards. As a max'ed out entertainer the potential rewards per hour should be on par with a CL80 combat character undertaking missions - this should factor in things like the cost of travelling to another settlement if it doesn't have a starport. Having a mini-game component rather than a straight up reward also adds in a new element to the game that requires interaction rather than being afk. I also appreciate that the the tips part is a lot more complicated than modifying the scaling on the missions! Increasing the amount of credits available will also have the benefit in that you're more likely to get entertainers travelling to obscure venues which will make it easier to grab an inspiration buff whilst out and about.

As a last aside it would be really handy to have the venue listed rather than a distance/direction ;) (sorry, I'm really stretching the 1 proposal per PV now!)
 
This is a really good idea, and great way to add some active gameplay to Entertainers.

I think to add on to your idea, if they spawn NPCs to watch, the Entertainers should also get XP for that ,after completing said minigame, XP that they typically would only get if a player was actually watching or listening to them, the Entertainer Object Use XP(?).

This would give new entertainers a more interactive way to make credits and train their skills, also for those entertainers who are a bit stale on standing in the same cantina for hours. Go do a mission, geotage the location your doing the mission at with the Proffesional Locator script, and maybe youd get a crowd of NPCs( for the minigame ) and players( who are looking for rebuffs) showing up in cantinas that dont typically get love.
 
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Reactions: Grogar
In regards to your second idea, I really like it (I really like it all but I only have this part to add something to), what if we made it so you could talk to NPCs inside the cantinas and ask something like "What brings you here?" and they respond something to do with a certain style of dance, music or even effect they like and the idea is the closer you get to pleasing most of the cantina NPCs the higher the reward?
I do also think there is a way to implement a mini "legacy" style questline for ents.