Rudra

Sorry it took so long for me to get around to testing this. I just ran the first mission of Agent Watkins arc. And the zoombies and embalmed all exploded on me as they were supposed to.

That is a "you" thing. The game considers all characters to be their own entities and having their own experiences. If you have alts that are supposed to be variations of the same character and they are all supposed to have the same badges and accomplishments, then you need to play them through that content. Don't make a Temporal Warrior then and you can go get the badges you want for that character. See my first response in this post. (Edit: Here is where your alt argument falls apart. Say you have a level 50+3 character that you want to make a variation of. So you make that new alt and guess what? That alt is level 1. It has just started. So now that alt has to build back up to level 50+3. And you may as well take that alt through the same path you took the original character if you want to say "this is the same character with the exact same experiences, just in a different form". And every new version of that character you decide to make will also start at level 1. You can even have multiple variations of a single character that are all at different levels in the game.) Once being the operative word. And only if they have not already played it on another character to get the associated badges automatically. Considering the OP is "I think this would encourage people to play the story content instead of just farming all the time.", that goes against the OP. Making badges account-wide will do absolutely nothing to get players to look up actual story arcs in AE and play them. And I'm willing to bet that you know that. For that matter, there is nothing preventing players from playing actual story arcs in AE right now. So it is a lack of interest on their part as far as I can tell. And considering how AE player made stories are hit or miss, and how bad some of those misses are, I can kind of see where they are coming from. And making badges account-wide will address that how exactly? Because I don't see any way for badges becoming account-wide to incentivize players to go do that content again. What content outside of possibly trials and Advanced Mode requires different classes and power sets to play? Most TFs and SFs can be solo'ed these days. There are single AT TFs and SFs being run as well. Then do so. AE is in lots of zones. Go run all the custom missions you want. Go get the badges you want. You are not providing any compelling arguments for why badges should all be account-wide.

Dark Watcher at minimum should know even before you do any Vanguard missions. (Edit: Most likely Lady Grey as well, and probably anyone in Vanguard's intelligence unit.)

You could also just dismiss the FFG and re-summon it when you're ready to fight. Like how I dismiss my MM pets when I want to get through a map stealthily. (Edit: You said you have the recharge down to 6 seconds. If you are avoiding combat for any reason, using any form of stealth, 6 seconds of recharge is nothing. And you won't have to worry about the FFG getting aggro'ed while doing so.)

And that is countered by we can already purchase the badges in question and there are already threads asking to be able to just buy other badges, especially accolades. I am very much opposed to adding to the array of badges we can purchase. I am of the opinion badges should be earned by the character getting the badges by doing the content. Especially in the case of accolades which at least one previous thread has asked to be able to purchase. Expanding the window in which something that can already be purchased is available for purchase does not open the door to requests for more badges to be purchasable. This suggestion has nothing to do with badges that must be earned by doing content. It is only about badges that can already be purchased and requires no actual game play to get. Edit: So the suggestions you and @Glacier Peak are concerned will start happening if this is implemented already get asked for. Kind of hard for this to lead to that starting when it has already happened.

Wouldn't that only apply to the power set's feedback thread and not a thread complaining about the feedback thread?

What I'm glad I might be changing your mind, but I'm not going to have a lengthy debate on the matter. (Edit: Especially if the response is to remove the purchase ability entirely.) If you have questions or concerns, I will address them for you. I'm not sure what more I can say beyond what I already did. Between the desire for things like the anniversary badges to become account-wide as stated on the OP referenced thread or having an expanded window of opportunity to get, I'm more in favor of the expanded window. However, I don't feel strongly enough on the matter to engage in a lengthy debate on the matter. If you have further questions or concerns, I will address them to the best of my ability. If you disagree with me on the full year window though? That's fine. We disagree. I'm not inclined to argue.

This isn't something I'm going to put effort into fighting for. If we disagree, we disagree.

Except it isn't. The requirement for the Exultant badge was to log in the game between 11 AM ET on Saturday May 1, 2010 and 11:59 PM ET on Monday May 31, 2010. If you did not log into the game during that window, you missed the opportunity to get that anniversary badge on that character. And yet we can go to Luna every year and buy the badge from her for 100 Reward Merits. That badge's window of opportunity is gone. And yet we can still go back and buy it. We can have 1,000 characters per server. And for players that collect badges and play lots of alts, that is a constantly growing problem of accessibility. Back on Live when we could have 48 characters per server, and only if we bought the expanded character slots? Getting limited access badges was much less difficult. There are players with hundreds of alts as opposed to Live's 48. Surely some allowance for players with lots of alts can be accommodated? The issue I have with this argument is that the only badges I am talking about are badges we can already purchase. The request isn't expanding what badges can be purchased. I wholeheartedly agree with you on not expanding what badges can be purchased. However, anniversary and winter badges can already be purchased. All I am asking for is an expanded window for those with lots of alts to do what the game already allows.

Given the discussion being held on the "Recommendations for Reworking Badges" thread, I am presenting an idea to see how it will be received. For badges we can purchase but only during a specific window of opportunity each year, like the anniversary badges and the winter badges that we get for just logging in during the event, what if we could purchase the badges we missed all year? This would help alleviate the strain on players with lots of alts that struggle to cycle through their characters for the login badges as even if they fail to cycle all their characters they want the badges on, they can still go back and buy them. The character would still have to be logged in during the event to get the badge for free, but it would take away the pressure of playing catch up on characters they couldn't log in during that window of opportunity, so they won't wind up in a compounded situation of still trying to log all desired characters on during the event and also have to go back and find the characters that missed the previous years' badges, driving them even further behind. I'm not asking for more vendors to make those badges available, just for the vendors that already sell the badges to have those badges available for purchase all year.

From what I remember, the people who post on the forums are a "fraction of a fraction" of the overall player base, so using that as a measure of what most would want does not hold water. It does show intent though. And flies in the face of the OP's "would encourage people to play the story content instead of just farming all the time." And for those characters that are not badgers, who cares if they don't have all the badges? Play what you want and don't worry about the badges then. No one is forcing anyone to pursue all the badges in the game. And I don't recall giving any numbers for complaints, so I'm not sure where you are getting an "as many posts as you have suggested" from because I have not implied any quantities of posts/comments. (What I did was state that the requests themselves are proof of intent to not play existing game content. Otherwise there should be no "problem" because the character will get those badges anyway.) Players will play what they want to play. Badges are incentives to play content and/or accomplish in game tasks. If players want badges, then they should accomplish the in game tasks that award those badges. If they don't want to do so, then oh well, don't do it, and press on. Look, I get that a lot of the badges are a pain in the keister. And at least one badge I very much hate pursuing. (The hunt down 1,000 random civilians in mayhems one. I go after it anyway because, well... badge.... However, I still think the dev that added that should be beaten for it.) There are some badges I actually understand the desire for them to be account-wide. (In this case, I can see the anniversary badges being account-wide. They are only available for a brief period of time, players with lots of alts have difficulty getting them on all the alts they want them on, and even though we can go back and buy them, we can only do so during the anniversary period when we are cycling characters for the new anniversary badge.) Story arc badges or defeat badges though? Things we can pursue all year if we want? No.

Players are going to play what they want to play. However, badges still serve as an incentive to play content. I don't have hard numbers for how many players will stop playing most content if badges become account-wide, because such numbers can't be gained except by measuring player activity after such thing were to happen, but one thing I have seen over and over is that if incentives are taken away, people stop doing a lot of it. Edit: Actually, the proof is in the requests for account-wide badges. The requests are almost universally some form of "give me all badges I may already have for all characters I may ever make so I can stop doing the content those badges come from".

Then you need to re-evaluate the powers you are prioritizing on your Scrappers, the enhancement slots you are assigning to said powers, the enhancements you are putting in said slots, and/or your approach to combat with the mobs defeating you.

When everything is the same, it is boring. For instance, Controllers are terrible tanks, however, Controllers are excellent at locking enemies down and keeping them from even fighting. A debuff based Defender or Corruptor excels at hampering foes, but some foes are resistant (or effectively immune) to some debuffs and debuffs are less effective the higher the level difference between the PC and the higher level mob, even before you add in the Purple Triangles of Doom. (Edit: For instance, good luck slowing any of the 5th Column/Council wolves.) A buff based Defender or Corruptor loses out on some abilities when running around solo, but those buffs never lose efficiency/power no matter how much higher level the ally receiving the buffs are compared to the Defender/Corruptor. And in many cases, like Force Field, that buff based Defender or Corruptor is going to be more help to the team on higher difficulty missions than the debuff based Defender or Corruptor. When it comes to support characters, there are sets that are easy to leverage while solo and there are sets that are restricted in their ability to be leveraged while solo. If your intent is to run solo, then either don't take the more team focused sets or learn how to leverage the powers they have. If your intent is to team, then take any set and learn to leverage its powers. Every set has its strengths and weaknesses, or are better optimized for certain situations than others. And that makes the game more interesting and gives players more options for how the game can be played. Not all power sets should play into the same play style.

Granted, and to be clear, I don't actually care about the OP either way, but isn't that where the rest of us come in? Showing said newer players what is what and how to identify things?

Isn't it already pretty clear in the name? They both say either "Task Force" or "Strike Force", and those are specific to sides.

It is different. Melees and Sentinels get armor sets. Armor sets are personal use only and cannot be shared with your teammates. Support sets are for helping allies. A support character is supposed to be providing others support. That is kind of the whole idea behind "support". To aid others in accomplishing goals/objectives. If a support character wants to solo? They still can. They aren't going to be as effective solo because their powers are geared towards helping others, but they can still do it. (Edit again: Just like on the battlefield, you can treat your buddy's sucking chest wound, but no way you can treat your own. You provided support, but you need someone else's support for the same thing.) (Edit: You are drawing a false equivalency.)

Not what you are looking for, I know, but you can convert shards to threads and use threads to buy super inspirations. If you don't want those, you can sell them on the AH for more inf' for your alts or to buy other things like temp powers and pets.

The arcs are not started or completed for her in Ouroboros. (Edit: And obviously they aren't started or completed for her in the contacts list. Again, he is not on her active or inactive contacts lists.) If Tavish Bell does not somehow turn up on her contacts list after all this, seeing as how we are out of options to even get him for her any more, then instead of running the arcs from Tavish Bell normally together like we were intending, we are stuck running it through Ouroboros. We should not be in this situation in the first place though. We went through every contact that introduces Tavish Bell and while I was able to get him, she has not. That is a problem. That our linked characters have to go through Ouroboros to have the same progression is annoying, but that nothing we did got her access to Tavish Bell despite them being the proper ways to get access to Tavish Bell is bullshit. (Edit: I'm not angry at the devs over this, just at the game.)

Correct, new events happen when they are released. That advances the game's time line. It does not change any previous parts of the game. Again, Penelope Yin can be found in the game simultaneously as a child in Faultline being protected by some Clockwork at her father's shop and as an older teen hero in Independence Port. The game's time line advances as the devs advance it, not as real time advances. And even when the time line advances in the game, previous content is still at its place in the game's time line.

Pick a stance. Either you want players to play the content or you don't.

If you discount the level badges (including vet levels), there is a very large percentage that are tied to specific missions and arcs. If those badges become account wide, then there is less incentive to do regular content than to just farm rather than more reason to do so. A very large number of badges are held by TFs/SFs, iTrials, and other story arcs. If they are account wide, why is there a reason to run that content when you can just sit in a farm and max out because you automatically got all the badges from a previous character? Edit: Also, if you can't find a team that is running the specific patron content you want? Then either form your own team for it or just solo it. The patrons are not difficult and you only need the first arc for the pool unlocks. (Any patron arc unlocks all the patron pools.)

I did ask. And the author's provided clarity was "salvage". Even after asking if the author only meant incarnate salvage, the response was simply "salvage". If the author had responded with anything clarifying only meant incarnate salvage, the discussion would not still be ongoing and it would obviously have been my own misunderstanding. Edit: When a request for clarity is given and the originator of what is in contention refuses to make a simple statement, and instead maintains the original stance without added clarity or makes attempts at inference rather than clarity, then the inference being presented to me by others is wrong. Edit again: My mistake. In the author's post 3 up, (s)he/they do specify incarnate salvage. So my opposition is rescinded.

I live in a world where clarity and lack of specifics matters. You did not provide specifics, so specifics don't matter. Your provided the rate at which emp's can be converted to incarnate salvage, but that just means you established a baseline for your followup conversion rate. This is something I have to do a lot. Take an element from one matter and use it as a reference for another. Lack of specifics will always tell me it is open-ended. So if you only mean incarnate salvage, say so instead of trying to be so coy about it. You provided your own definition of what farming was in the statement I responded to about what farming is. You specifically said: So my response is to tell you that is not what farming is, but just one part of what farming is. Edit: Oh, right. As far as your question about chain doing TinPexes? Yes, absolutely. TFs/SFs can absolutely be farmed. Not all of them are conducive to it, especially ones like Citadel that keep bouncing you around zones, but TFs and SFs can be farmed. If you are chain running anything for the rewards, regardless of whether you are pursuing rapid mob defeat xp and inf' or task completion reward tables like in the Dark Astoria arcs? You are absolutely farming.

Your title says "Conversion of salvage to Empyrian merits".