Nono Sultrina! Don't stop writing, this is a very good and informative thread

I think it is very good to let us know what tools we all have availible to enhance our dance routines. To make them even better then we thought they could be.

I did some mixing of my own this weekend, with a not so very good result!

Nynna was in a beauty pageant, the Miss Tatooine, and she was going to perform a music/dance number. So there she was playing ceremonial on her mando, the last flo in music was to be flo 6 (throwing the mado up in the air) then she would /startdance lyrical2 right away and go into flo 1.. But ofcourse I had forgotten to put in a /stopmusic macro, so the flo 6 from music carried over to the dance. Flo 6 in lyrical2 is borrowed from basic..And on top of everything else, her pack was full, so as I had a simultanius clothschange.. She ended up dancing basic on her knickers... What a talent! Panic!!!

Anyway!! I need to get over that one... Your school can save another dancer doing the same silly misstake that I did. So in answer to your question..

No! Your thread is not dead 

I just have to get this off my chest.

The current mind set among entertainers goes something like this. I must get exp so I can get the next song/dance and to do that I must be in a large group and I must get max exp so I can grow quickly to master so I can have fun. Nothing could be further from the truth. This mode of thinking will ensure that entertainers never reach their full potential because there is always just one more person out there who only knows SW1. I know it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s true. If you’re not enjoying the class now there isn’t much to enjoy at master.
  We have to change the way we look at our class to get the most out of it. We have to work together that means master have to help the new guy, but it also means the new guys have to help the masters. There is simply no reason in the world for a band to play SW1 all night when it only costs 1000 exp to get rock. You can earn 1000 exp solo at a star port for crying out loud. When the band changes songs (and they need to do this often) if you can’t play the song start dancing or move to the side and practice with the rest of the guys that can’t play the song.
  When the band changes songs the band leader should make it known they are about to change to <songname> so those who can play it can float back over and join the band. There is no malice here no one is trying to “gimp” your exp they are trying to keep the show fun and when you’re a master musician you can be part of it all the time. In the mean time won’t it be great too look forward to playing something other then SW1 as you grow? Don’t get me wrong with a full band SW1 sounds great and a lot of high level bands simply don’t play the fast stuff enough. Work together and make the show and not the exp the main goal for the whole group we will all be better off for it.
  Dancers have and obligation to support the band too! If the band is playing rock don’t grind exotic it doesn’t look right. Change your clothes and dance to suit the band they are setting the tempo. If you just have to grind exotic because you’re so close move off the floor. Always remember the show must go on!

Nynna’s pots reminded me of a bunch of things that need to be discussed and tonight’s topic will be on the hidden evils of macros. I like macro’s I think they are invaluable in entertaining. I am going to assume that no one that reads this thread AFK macros for 8 hours a day and if they did before they got here I hope they have discovered how much more fun it can be at your keyboard. That said there are some very important thigns to know about macros so they don’t get you in trouble. The quick and dirty of it is

1. Macros can not react to changes in your dance environment.
2. Macros are ridged in their timing and the game is not.
3. Customers are smarter then you might think
4. Macros don’t make us better dancers

Ok the first one is kind of obvious but none the less true. You read the dance school and went back and got all the drift out of your formal macro and can now dance the night away on cruise control never leaving your little spot on the floor. Now someone has parked themselves right in the middle of your dance area and you’re dancing all over them.

The second one is a weird thing that happens in the game and is very important. If your macro has a 3 second pause in it that’s exactly what your going to get. Lag can make a well written macro practically useless. Worse yet is every time we get a big patch it tends to throw the timing of the world itself out of whack (don’t ask me why but it does happen.) Normally in two or three days these broken macros work fine again or you can change all the timing and change it back again later.

Third people are very good at recognizing patterns so a dance done by hand rather then macroed has that something “extra” and even a mistake in timing on a live dance can make the dancer doing it seem all that more professional.

The last one is the real key. Writing a macro for a good routine can teach you a LOT about your dancer. Mashing that macro over and over can make your forget everything you learned writing it.

Too sum it all up we all need to stretch, run too the little dancers room, pop food in the oven ect., and we should not feel chained to our keyboards. For this reason by all means write your self a nice dancers little helper macro to keep your boogie on for 3 -5 min. If you’re going to afk longer then this have a seat. Macro complex dance routines and then mess with the timing to see what looks smooth and what doesn’t. Then challenge yourself to look as good or better then your macro! See how many ways you can break out of the same routine you’re now doing by hand into a whole new routine. There are infinite subtle changes in a dance routine done by hand and only one result from the macro.

As always thanks for reading,
Sultrina

Just a heads up,

I've been workign on my mini book and named it "Sultrina's Dance Acadamy" once I'm sure I like the format I will start posting it in here with a nice bold heading at the top with the title. The idea being we can continue discussion here of advanced dance technique and still provide those new to it a step by step set of lessons so they don't get lost. The Acadamy will start from the very begining and ramp up to were we are nwo and behond. In the mean time for those of you working on mixing and such here are some tips.

Study your flourishes it is key you can picture you dance moves in your head

Practice timing and mixing by hand you will learn so much more that way

Make a dance card it realy is a invaluble tool

If you have been practicing and arnt happy with yoru results by all means post any questions you have here.

Paithz started a thread that summed up asked how to make a good dance card so Ill talk a little about this. A dance card does two realy important things for you. First is it calls to mind a flourish so you can find it quickly I'll use Moonwalk as an example because I think when we all see the same thing in our mind when we hear the word "Moonwalk". By knowing where to find it (flourish 7 basic) we can use it when it would look good for the circumstanes were in. The second important thing to know about a flourish is its "parts" (this comes in handy when mixing) now in the case of  "moonwalk" we need to know it's "displacement" or how far it moves us off our mark in this case "lft 3/right 6/lft 3". Now in the case of (basic flourish 4) I call it "knee pump/big arms" it doesnt move my character on the dance floor but it does have two main parts "knee pump" followed by another move entirely I call "big arms" if you watch the flourish you will see these parts distinctly and for mixing thats important. Now Paithz also asked about flourish times and all I can say is this way lies madness but once a long time ago I cared about such things too so I will tell you how to accuratly time a flourish.

First tiem the flourish in question with a stopwatch or the "one one thousand methode" and add 2, you MUST add 2.

Now make a simple macro;

/startdance <dance you want>;

/flourish <flourish you want>;

/pause <time you got AFTER adding 2>;

/changedance <anydance but the one you are working on>;

So for example you want to time "Moonwalk" (times are fictional because like I said I don't do this anymore)

/startdance basic;

/flourish 7;

/pause 9;

/changedance rythmic;

Now be SURE you know what flourish 7 in rythmic looks like and if it is the same as the flurish your timing you MUST use a different dance to time the flourish. Also in your macro dont forget your semicolins it is CRITICAL. Now we get to time our flourish and learn a little about mixing at the same time.

Step 1: run your macro and if your character switches to Rythmic's base dance your ready for Step 2. otherwise add 1 sec to your macro untill this happens.

Step 2: Subtract a second from yoru macro and run it again if your character "mixes" (does Rhythmic flourish 7 for free) then your ready for step 3. Otherwise repeat Step 2.

Step 3: Add .1 (1/10 of a sec) and run macro. If your character goes back to Rythmic base dance and no longer "mixes" your ready for step 4. Otherwise repeat step 3.

Step 4: Subtract .1 (1/10 of a sec) and you have your timing

NOTE: I have timed macros out to 1/100 of a sec to get what I wanted but never had to go behond this. Those of you with anilytical minds will notice my posted methode makes you do some extra steps, this is because it is fool proof. Educated guesses can shorten the process

Ooooooo heres a little treat I copied from another thread. Thank you Tiaga for setign me strait on this!

Sultrina wrote:

Lightshows:
I ‘think” it could just be my imagination. As we progress as a dancer your lightshow animations get bigger and more elaborate. If this is true please let us call the old animations as master sometimes a little light show is better then a big one.

It's not your imagination....  In fact, theres even a smokebomb you've never seen if you don't know how to call old ones..  If you remember, the first smokebomb is a puff of smoke going outwards...  Try this command while dancing:

/smokebomb 1

You'll see something you've never seen before likely.  Now, if you're paying attention, I just answered this request for you.  You can call any of the old light show effects by following the command for it with a 1 2 or 3.  (Well, 3 is the highest)  When doing group dancing, being a guy I'm often in the middle to balance out the line..  So I often use /spotlight 1 to give a nice effect over all the dancers without drawing attention to a specific dancer.  Also sometimes I like to do /distract 1 with waltz when there is bass, timing it with the first beat of every measure.  For some dances, /distract 2 makes a nice effect to change costumes behind as an alternative to smoke.

As this is quickly becomming the reposetory for the good tips about dancing, I thought i'd post another elementry one wich i beleive i hadn't seen here yet.

Some time ago when i was out there dancing i came across somebody who was always standing in one direction (facing the different patrons that walked in when she greeted them by targeting the patron; your head twists when you target a person). But her body remained in one direction. I pointed her to the fact that you can also twist your body by using the numers 1 and 3 on your keypad. This rotates the direction of your body without stopping you to dance.

paith'z

The 1 and 3 keys?!

/kiss Paith'z

Yay!!

I had the distinct honor of meeting Sultrina and Harvy not too long ago.  Suffice to say, she is truly a delight. 

I wanted to add a little suggestion for you other entertainers out there.  When I first started dancing, I became overwhelmed when a number of patrons came in and started tipping.  I was trying to dance, keep up with Spatial converstation, manage a /tell, and thank those that were handing me tips.  I would thank one person for a heal, and miss two tips.  I'd find one of the tips, and thank them, and miss two more again.  Since not thanking my tippers troubled me, I started looking around under Options (CTRL-O) and found that you can color text that comes up in chat.  If you go the the Chat Color button, you can type in custom words, and give them a specific color.

So now, when I get a tip, the word 'tip' shows up as red, and I can easily PgUp to see who gave me the tip.  The word 'heal' comes up in yellow, so I can be sure to thank the medics too.  Another possibility is to note the word 'you,' as this will draw your attention to any emotes or actions that target you specifically.

Color your text, and never miss a 'thank you' ever again! 

Sultrina, you knowledge never ceases to amaze me!

/giggle Sultrina

/beam Sultrina

I don't know if this sounds wierd or not... but I would love to have Sultrina's dance shool in game.

i.e. I would love to come to Bria and see you perform. What do ya think? Could we set something up for all of us aspiring dancers?

Zanise

Thank you so much Sultrina for this Dance School!

I am a master dancer (just 4 days old though) and I learnt so many new things by reading this! *prints out a copy* Thank You! /bow

I'm almost ready to start posting lessons from "Sultrina's Dance Academy". Once again this is a step by step guide on the topics we have covered allready and more. You will see a header like this one ....

Sultrina's Dance Acadamy

On top of each page so it's easy to follow the lessons and still have them posted here were we can also continue to discuss the topic too. Once the book is thick enough Ill make it availble on the web for download in word format, maybee someone out there can convert it to PDF as well. You should see the first lessons soon (I need to write a few more to see if my lesson plan format holds up)

Sultrina's Dance Academy

(Introduction)

You sit on a bench patiently waiting for the shuttle that was supposed to whisk you away to fame and fortune. They say when it rains it pours and that exactly what it’s doing now, it’s pouring rain. The only protection from the driving rain is some beat up paperback you found on the bench. Clutching the book over your head you try to make yourself as small as possible under it. Whose stupid idea was it for you to become a dancer anyhow? Oh that’s right you tell yourself, it was yours. It’s all that flyers fault from the local dance school with its promises of fame and fortune. That’s when the fever hit you. That’s when you decided you were always meant to be a dancer. You certainly weren’t meant to be well dressed though, just look at yourself; an old dingy shirt that is now shades of grey thanks to some idiot using the local public wash machine to dye something black, a pair of lose fitting white pants that used to not look so bad until you let your novice tailor friend “fix” them. Now they have some furry diaper sewed onto them to cover up the huge rip you put in them the last night of dance school. Let’s not forget the red pumps you thought were pretty sexy with your black dress. Sadly the person that stole your clothes from your locker at school is now wearing your black dress and lucky you, you still have the pumps. Here you sit here in the rain looking like an orphan wearing dumpster diver hand me downs. The school did teach you two dances Basic and Rhythmic, but then a lot of people know those dances. The shuttle finally arrives so you board and taking the only empty seat. The smelly bald guy you’re forced to sit next to looks at your clothes and the soaked book in your hands and snorts. The book! You forgot all about your makeshift umbrella. Turning the book over you see the title “Sultrina’s Dance Academy”. Ya right, you’re a professional dancer what do you need with some stupid paper back telling you how to dance? Oh well, you think it should be good for a laugh, and you could sue one about now. Flipping open the cover you start to read ….

Hi my names Sultrina and I’ve been dancing ever since beta. I’m writing this book because there are a lot of little things about the dancer that aren’t well known that make the dancer both fun and challenging to play. The topics I’m going to cover are complex and if you want to get the most out of them you will find dancing is harder and more challenging then combat ever was! You will also find if you took on this profession to simply be social and kick back you can still find a lot of toys for your imagination here. Don’t ever feel you are too casual of a gamer to contribute to serious entertainment. Diana Ross wouldn’t have sounded as sweet without the Supremes. So whether you want to take charge of the floor or be a backup dancer I hope you find this guide both fun and informative.

This guide does not replace the documentation on dancing that came with the game it builds on it. So if you haven’t read the manual do that now.

The majority of techniques discussed here can be practiced by a novice entertainer. That’s right a complete novice can do most of what is in this guide. That means you can start enjoying your dancer today! For that reason I will give examples of each topic using Basic and Rhythmic when possible.

I doubt anyone will ever master the techniques I am showing here. I know I haven’t! You can always look smoother, gain more polish or develop a new routine. You can never master dancing I don’t care what your tag says. As you go through the guide don’t try to finish a lesson try to loose yourself in a lesson you will have a lot more fun and learn more that way.

You need a good place to practice and you need to practice often. Busy cantinas are a great place to show off, but they don’t make for good places to practice because of the extra lag and the overwhelming urge to chat. The IDEAL spot to practice leaves you in solitude for and hour and then one or two customers trickle in so you can try out what you learned on them. It takes a bit of research to find these places but it is worth the effort. Remote cantinas like this tend to be desperate for entertainers and you can find yourself well cared for during your stay. For the dancer on a budget theaters and hotels can offer good spots to practice as well. I am very fond of dancing on the beach too it offers a nice view of the ocean and helps me work on my tan. 

Let’s begin.

Message Edited by Sultrina on 04-08-2004 11:06 PM

Sultrina's Dance Academy

Lesson 1 (Getting the Boogie On)

TERMS:
Base Dance; The dancing your character does when it is not flourishing.
Flourish; A special dance move the player can call on demand.
Command; One of the games slash commands. I enclose them in braces for clarity but don’t type the braces.
[/smile] means type /smile

So you just got your dancing shoes and are eager to try them out?

Use the command [/startdance] to bring up a list of dance styles. At this point you have Basic and Rhythmic, click basic and then OK and you will start dancing. Now watch your character dance for a few minutes. You will notice that each base dance is really a few seconds of dancing animation that loops. See if you can find the pattern and anticipate when it is about to loop. This is very important as timing is the building block of everything we will do here at the academy and it may seem like a small thing now but what you just learned is more then a lot of people know about their dancers at master level.

Under the Abilities & Commands menu click the other tab add the flourish 1-8 commands to your quick bar slots F1-F8. Now press the F1 key and watch your character boogie! Do flourish 1 a few times and watch all the movements you do. Watch the hands, feet and overall body language of a flourish. Now start a dance card. It’s simple really just write down what you see. Yes write in the book! There is no wrong answer; I won’t even be collecting your papers. A dance card lets you find a flourish you like at a glance. When your done with Basic use the command [/stopdance] to stop dancing and then the command [/startdance rhythmic] to start dancing Rhythmic without having to pick it from the list. This time use the command [/flourish 1] to do your flourish. Now alternate doing each flourish with the command [/flourish 1-8] and the function keys and see which you like better.

                                    Basic                                                                           Rhythmic
1.                                                                                1.
2.                                                                                2.
3.                                                                                3.
4.                                                                                4.
5.                                                                                5.
6.                                                                                6.
7.                                                                                7.
8.                                                                                8.

Ok this may seem like an easy first lesson, but we learned a lot today.
1. Our hot bar is set up to let us flourish at the touch of a button
2. We learned the /startdance,/startdance <stylename>, /flourish 1-8 and /stopdance commands
3. We know what each of our base dances looks like and can anticipate when they are about to loop.
4. We learned what the 16 flourishes look like and can find our favorites on the dance card

Message Edited by Sultrina on 04-09-2004 12:07 AM

Sultrina's Dance Academy

Lesson 2 (Got Rhythm?)

TERMS:
Part; A recognizable sub routine in a flourish or base dance

Today we are going to take a good look at Rhythmic.

Repeat after me “clueless/skip rope/chicken flap/slow hands/left 45”.

Now start dancing rhythmic and watch the base dance closely, “clueless/ skip rope/chicken flap/slow hands/left 45”.

When the dance starts we look ‘clueless”, then a bit like we are “skipping rope”, then a short version of skipping rope I am calling “chicken flap”, then the “slow hands” and last we turn 45 degrees to the left “left 45”. We just broke Rhythmic down into its parts so we can talk about them. Watch the base dance some more until you can recognize each of these parts.

Ok now let’s have some fun with it.
Exercise 1:
Wait for “Chicken Flap” to start then do flourish 5. If all went well you came out of your flourish into the “Left 45” position. If this did not happen play with your timing a bit until you have it down.

Why did this happen? Always remember no matter what you do the base dance is always running. That’s right your flourish doesn’t interrupt your base dance it rides on top of it. Think the base and the flourish as two pieces of film. The base dance film never stops we just cue to another piece of film (the flourish 5 film in this case) when we cue back to the “base dance film” it has still been running all this time and we happen to be at the “left 45” part of the film.

Ok so why should we care? Well in the above example we used it to toss a little flare to the end of our flourish the “left 45” move gives it a little ta-da sort of ending. At the same time we are learning to look at our dancer in a different way so we understand why they behave differently at times. Once we understand our dancer we have more control over our dancer.

Exercise 2:
Wait for “left 45” to start then flourish 3. When Flourish 3 ends wait for “left 45” to start again and flourish 3 again. Repeat three more times. Hey! Wait a sec what happened to clueless?
 We didn’t like that part so we got rid of it. We are now using what we know to eliminate a part of the dance we didn’t want. Ok now try it with other flourishes.

 NOTE: I don’t want you freaking out over how many seconds a part is or how many seconds the flourish runs. I want you to concentrate instead on what things look like and go by feel. Visual cues are not only more reliable but they will make your dancing more fluid. In dancing timing is everything not time.

Ok what did we learn today?
1. Base Dances are made up or Parts that can be used or discarded with timing.
2. The Base Dance is always running
3. Watching our dancer and not the clock can make us more fluid

Message Edited by Sultrina on 04-09-2004 12:05 AM

Sultrina's Dance Academy

Lesson 3 (Changing Gears)

TERMS:
Changing Gears; Switching quickly from one dance style to another.

Ok today were going to talk about changing gears obviously so let’s get right to it.

Click on the bottom of your short cut bar and drag it down so you have two sets of bars.
Now make the following macros (if you don’t know how to this read the manual)

This macro gets you dancing basic fast.
/startdance basic;

This macro allows you to shift gears fast make one for each of your styles.
/changedance ;

Example:
/changedance rhythmic;

This macro will always result in an error message if you are already dancing “You canot Start Dancing while Skill Animating”. You’re the only one who sees this error though and it lets you use one button to either start the dance or change to it if already dancing.
/startdance basic;
/changedance basic;

Ok that’s simple enough but I have a tip for you do NOT arrange the dances on your hot bar in the order you learn them arrange them like this; basic/rhythmic/popular/poplock/footloose/formal/lyrical/exotic. This is a more logical progression of styles in my opinion and lets you find a complimentary style much faster.

Now you can play your dancer much like a piano, fingers on the function keys and mousing over the bottom row for gear changes. The advantage of this method is you can plan ahead with your mouse and easily do two things at once (flourish/gear change). There is another way called “aliasing” it basically lets you create your own slash commands. I do not recommend this unless you are a very fast typist and for that reason I’m not going into it here.

What did we learn today?
1. We learned a little bit about macros (I hope it didn’t hurt too much)
2. We learned how to change gears
3. We learned a logical way to arrange our change gear buttons

Message Edited by Sultrina on 04-09-2004 12:04 AM