Changing rarity via converters

[AboveTheChemist]

But it looks like maybe the converts treat all IOs in a set as having the same rarity?

That is what I have ultimately concluded from Shinobu's information and from my own experience. I'm sure there is probably a reason why apparently uncommon IOs appear in rare sets and vice versa, based on drop rate and/or the salvage types required to craft them, but in terms of trying to make money via enhancement conversion, it only really matters how the converter sees them.

 

Of course my experience is far from exhaustive so it's certainly possible that there are cases that do not fit the above conclusion, and I am going to continue to keep an eye out in case I happen to run across one.

[Mr. Vee]

There are a couple without rare salvage that con rare and that the converter actually treats as rare, but the marketeers are well onto them. Orders don't fill fast enough to bother really.

[Snakebit]

 

 

Except it depends on donations which will start to dry up as people lose interest. This is a "not for profit" deal which means a couple of poor months on donations will bring the end. The new car smell fades fast when people find nothing left to work towards.

 

 

This argument won't be compelling until it takes longer than a few minutes to reach their funding goal. Based on July's goal, they need 200 people to donate 20 bucks. They had 188 people donate an average of 30 bucks in July in less than half an hour. and crushed the goal. There are right now 5031 people logged in.

 

There is absolutely zero evidence that this scenario is on any horizon...certainly not enough to justify making changes based on financials.

[Griffinmills]

 

 

Except it depends on donations which will start to dry up as people lose interest. This is a "not for profit" deal which means a couple of poor months on donations will bring the end. The new car smell fades fast when people find nothing left to work towards.

 

 

This argument won't be compelling until it takes longer than a few minutes to reach their funding goal. Based on July's goal, they need 200 people to donate 20 bucks. They had 188 people donate an average of 30 bucks in July in less than half an hour. and crushed the goal. There are right now 5031 people logged in.

 

There is absolutely zero evidence that this scenario is on any horizon...certainly not enough to justify making changes based on financials.

 

Even though my natural inclination is to be pessimistic, I agree.  I think Justice Believer put it best a few pages back.

 

They had several thousand players for several years without having to do the broad fundraising they are doing now.  I really don't see in the short term having any fundraising issues even if the server pop was cut in half overnight...Long Term is more difficult to say, but too early to worry about

[Waypoint]

Uncommon To Hit Debuff, Defense Debuff, Knockback, Fear, Sleep, and Disorient almost always convert to Rare when converted to the same type. Then you can just convert that Rare to something else. It's by far the easiest method I've done for getting Rares.

 

On a personal level, I don't use those sets in my builds often so I will usually have stockpiles of those for easy conversion.

[AboveTheChemist]

Uncommon To Hit Debuff, Defense Debuff, Knockback, Fear, Sleep, and Disorient almost always convert to Rare when converted to the same type.

You can strike the "almost" from that statement. There are some uncommon (yellow name) IOs in rare sets that the converter treats as rare. See my two previous posts on this page for more details.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Uncommon To Hit Debuff, Defense Debuff, Knockback, Fear, Sleep, and Disorient almost always convert to Rare when converted to the same type. Then you can just convert that Rare to something else. It's by far the easiest method I've done for getting Rares.

 

On a personal level, I don't use those sets in my builds often so I will usually have stockpiles of those for easy conversion.

 

Keep in mind there are some very profitable uncommons.  Steadfast Protection I’m looking right at you.

[Waypoint]

Uncommon To Hit Debuff, Defense Debuff, Knockback, Fear, Sleep, and Disorient almost always convert to Rare when converted to the same type. Then you can just convert that Rare to something else. It's by far the easiest method I've done for getting Rares.

 

On a personal level, I don't use those sets in my builds often so I will usually have stockpiles of those for easy conversion.

 

Keep in mind there are some very profitable uncommons.  Steadfast Protection I’m looking right at you.

 

Sure, but if you're always running Lv50 content, you are only getting Lv50 recipes.

 

Steadfasts are 20 merits from the merit vendor. You can run an Apex/Tin Mage around 30 minutes for 80 merits.

[Myrmidon]

Today, to finish off the basics for my last set of alts, I converted 14 level 20 Miracle uniques for less than 30 million using merits, some cheap salvage (most of which came from storage bins) and uncommon Healing recipes. The monetary value is what the merits-to-converters would be if I just sold them on the market.

 

 

 

I have no complaints about this system.

[Ozryk]

Is anyone else worried about the ability to change rarity via converters damaging the long-term health of the market?

 

Not even a little bit. The primary driver of inputs into the CH/BM is players farming stuff. Anything which makes recipes more abundant is good for players. Anything which makes them less abundant is bad for players. The only thing that would be actually bad for the market is if loads of active players stopped playing.

[Waypoint]

Is anyone else worried about the ability to change rarity via converters damaging the long-term health of the market?

 

Not even a little bit. The primary driver of inputs into the CH/BM is players farming stuff. Anything which makes recipes more abundant is good for players. Anything which makes them less abundant is bad for players. The only thing that would be actually bad for the market is if loads of active players stopped playing.

 

Not necessarily. The player count on the private server was drastically lower than what homecoming is, and the market was very similar there as it is here.

[loyalreader]

There are many ways to play CoX. Some people like to farm. Some like to pl. Some like to solo. Some team. Some choose red, some blue, etc.

 

I'd guess most of the folks reading and commenting in this section of the forums see the market as a way to play the game. But I'd also guess there are *way* more people who couldn't care less. The truth is you don't need to min/max (another way to play the game) to be successful in CoX. So influence is, largely, irrelevant.

 

If you just like arresting bad guys and going through the general content of the game, teaming to do TFs or radio missions, you'll get plenty of influence and recipes. More than enough to make your character viable.

 

No need to remove enhancement converters. They are helpful to people - like me - who use them to improve the recipes they get through drops. If it 'breaks the market', I can assure you that won't break the game for most. In the meantime, you can enjoy making millions because that's how you like playing the game. If you don't, you can stop and figure out another way to enjoy playing the game. Like creating really cool characters and entering costume contests (yep, another way to play the game). People have made millions that way too.

 

[Star Slayer]

Influence and high end builds being easier to come by will keep me playing longer. I don't want to spend hundreds of hours per character to get them where I want them.

 

Munki and Justicebeliever have it right. I promise you more people quit the original CoX because they were tired of the secondary grind once you hit 50 to have a premium IO setup that cost billions. I was one of them, and I was a fairly wealthy player with multiple farm incarnates fully slotted out. Nothing like seeing your build go up hundreds of millions of dollars because your slotting requires a single IO that the profiteers and marketeers are currently pillaging people on. Great for you if one dropped. Not so great if you had to acquire financial means to buy it. Marketeering non-stop for a week or grinding endless for a single IO will kill a playerbase much faster than simply allowing the market to balance through conversion.

 

The strength of City of Heroes is there's so many archetypes and gamestyles to experiment with, and so many robust slotting and set bonus options at 50 for various playstyles even within each AT. There's a reason ALTitis is a thing, and always has been, a thing in CoX. The more people get to enjoy different characters at the higher tier of slotting capability, the better.

[justicebeliever]

Munki and Justicebeliever have it right

 

Munkilord has it right, of course.  Wait...I have it right as well?  I can’t wait to tell Mrs. Believer.  Scans page 5.  Nothing there.  Scans Page 4.  Nothing.  Page 3, some comment about a sandbox game.  That’s not it.  Page 2...aha, that’s the post...scans post.  Oh, Mrs. Believer, guess what someone said about me on the forums today?  Well yes, “Obnoxius Blowhard” was said.  But I mean on the City of Heroes forums...oh yeah, that’s right you don’t care about CoH.  Yes dear, I’ll be right along to fold laundry.

[Mr. Vee]

Influence and high end builds being easier to come by will keep me playing longer. I don't want to spend hundreds of hours per character to get them where I want them.

 

Munki and Justicebeliever have it right. I promise you more people quit the original CoX because they were tired of the secondary grind once you hit 50 to have a premium IO setup that cost billions. I was one of them, and I was a fairly wealthy player with multiple farm incarnates fully slotted out. Nothing like seeing your build go up hundreds of millions of dollars because your slotting requires a single IO that the profiteers and marketeers are currently pillaging people on. Great for you if one dropped. Not so great if you had to acquire financial means to buy it. Marketeering non-stop for a week or grinding endless for a single IO will kill a playerbase much faster than simply allowing the market to balance through conversion.

 

The strength of City of Heroes is there's so many archetypes and gamestyles to experiment with, and so many robust slotting and set bonus options at 50 for various playstyles even within each AT. There's a reason ALTitis is a thing, and always has been, a thing in CoX. The more people get to enjoy different characters at the higher tier of slotting capability, the better.

 

+1 to this. Not even mentioning the grind that was incarnating every alt. It's so nice not to have the long lag between a toon hitting 50 and its being in final form for running things for fun.

[MunkiLord]

Influence and high end builds being easier to come by will keep me playing longer. I don't want to spend hundreds of hours per character to get them where I want them.

 

Munki and Justicebeliever have it right.

 

Munki and Justicebeliever have it right

 

Munkilord has it right, of course.

 

If we all take one thing away from this thread, I feel it should be this.

 

I'm also curious to see if Star Slayer can keep up this post to influence ratio.

[justicebeliever]

Influence and high end builds being easier to come by will keep me playing longer. I don't want to spend hundreds of hours per character to get them where I want them.

 

Munki and Justicebeliever have it right.

 

Munki and Justicebeliever have it right

 

Munkilord has it right, of course.

 

If we all take one thing away from this thread, I feel it should be this.

 

I'm also curious to see if Star Slayer can keep up this post to influence ratio.

 

I've already +1 one Star Slayer...but since you've reminded me of this important life lesson, +1 to you as well

[Star Slayer]

Hah, thanks guys--too funny. I'll have to learn the new tricks of the forum. I'll be (plussing?) people soon!

 

Sounds weird....

[Heraclea]

My habits were formed in the days of i23, and have stuck with me.  I use my supergroup as a collective, and try to convert inf into something more immediately beneficial and avoid holding it.  I avoid buying anything on the market, preferring the sure thing of buying recipes with merits,  My levelling characters tend to be merit rich and inf poor, because my main method of levelling is to run one TF after another.  And my 'richest' characters are rather inf poor; the most I have on any one character is about sixty million. 

The converters mean mostly that now there is a point to crafting that Sleep or Teleport IO.  If I am lucky and the salvage and recipe falls in my lap, I craft it and use converters on it until  it turns into something that somebody will eventually be able to use.   Then it doesn't get sold, it goes back into the kitty with the rest of the generic IOs and random set IOs.  These will be freely Frankenslotted unless I am especially lucky and the enhancement is from a set I will want for a final build.  The relatively easy access to unslotters also means that you don't have to burn a full respec to recycle enhancements, so there's a constant trickle down of lowbie and mid-level enhancements that maybe someone else can use or convert. 

The difference between Homecoming and old live is that inf does replace Architect tickets, which I always used to use to acquire specific items of needed salvage.  Now, there's a ceiling on salvage prices, so I do use inf for that,

 

 

[Herotu]

On 5/31/2019 at 2:12 PM, Fedifensor said:

 many recipes that use rare salvage are not used anymore - you can convert an uncommon into a rare without too much difficulty.

The solution to this is to change the recipes so they don't use rare salvage.

[Yomo Kimyata]

On 7/24/2019 at 7:05 AM, Herotu said:

The solution to this is to change the recipes so they don't use rare salvage.

I don’t see this as a problem that needs a solution, but alternatively, if rare salvage prices were to drop, it would be economical to craft rates directly again.

 

The only reason I’ve bought rare salvage in the past two months is to craft purples. I’m having a hard time justifying the demand side of the equation.  I’d short the market if I could.

[Myrmidon]

On 7/14/2019 at 4:37 PM, Star Slayer said:

 

Munki and Justicebeliever have it right. I promise you more people quit the original CoX because they were tired of the secondary grind once you hit 50 to have a premium IO setup that cost billions. I was one of them, and I was a fairly wealthy player with multiple farm incarnates fully slotted out. Nothing like seeing your build go up hundreds of millions of dollars because your slotting requires a single IO that the profiteers and marketeers are currently pillaging people on. Great for you if one dropped. Not so great if you had to acquire financial means to buy it. Marketeering non-stop for a week or grinding endless for a single IO will kill a playerbase much faster than simply allowing the market to balance through conversion.

 

The strength of City of Heroes is there's so many archetypes and gamestyles to experiment with, and so many robust slotting and set bonus options at 50 for various playstyles even within each AT. There's a reason ALTitis is a thing, and always has been, a thing in CoX. The more people get to enjoy different characters at the higher tier of slotting capability, the better.

Speaking as someone that spent the first year of SBOs at the spending cap (for which I asked to be lifted twice), I have to wholeheartedly agree with this.

[wjrasmussen]

On 5/31/2019 at 8:56 AM, Murcielago said:

No but what I'm seeing is more people catching onto this trend and the price of otherwise cheap converters and recipes going up. Time to stock up!

Cheaper than 3 converters per merit?

[Yomo Kimyata]

27 minutes ago, wjrasmussen said:

Cheaper than 3 converters per merit?

Here’s the thing.  There are a few ways to get converters, and different people are going to have a competitive advantage in earning one over the other.

 

Unless I am missing something, there are four methods of gaining converters:

 

1. Random drop from mob kill

2. Convert merits at 3 converters/ merit

3. Buy it in the AH.  We’ve been using 100k as the benchmark.

4. Random drop from Hero/Villain/Winter pack.

 

(if I’m missing things, PLEASE point it out to me.  I’m not too proud to learn something.)

 

Focusing on 2 and 3.  Some people will find it easier/faster to gain 100 merits, and some people will find it easier/faster to gain 30mm inf.  For me and my constraints, the inf route is faster and more consistent with my play style.

[justicebeliever]

3 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Some people will find it easier/faster to gain 100 merits, and some people will find it easier/faster to gain 30mm inf.  For me and my constraints, the inf route is faster and more consistent with my play style.

This is me.  I don't even cash in the merit rewards.  Much faster to just /ah wherever i am at, and buy the converters