Conversion of salvage to Empyrian merits

[lemming]

5 hours ago, Rudra said:

With that, players can use their inf' to buy up salvage, especially the vr ones, and get the equivalent of 6 vet levels 3 Magisteriums; or one and a half Hamidon raids ignoring the emp' reward lockout period. They can also use their Reward Merits and AE merits to get more vr salvage to do the same. That will firstly drive up the costs of vr salvage because now it is a highly convenient means of getting emp's. And secondly, if we can buy our way to incarnate status like that, you know full well the request to buy our way up the levels will follow. It isn't even a slippery slope argument, it is an inevitability.

Good news!   They're dropping buying incarnate salvage with influence since it's a horrendous expense.    (plus I need to not leave a thread and come back after someone edited their mistakes away...  I see you realized that it's incarnate salvage)

Edited 23 hours ago by lemming

[Rudra]

10 minutes ago, lemming said:

I see you realized that it's incarnate salvage)

No, I didn't. I asked if it was. If it is, then I rescind my opposition just like I said I would. (Edit: Because the title just says salvage and regular salvage also comes in white, yellow, and orange varieties.)

 

Edited 23 hours ago by Rudra

[lemming]

12 minutes ago, Rudra said:

No, I didn't. I asked if it was. If it is, then I rescind my opposition just like I said I would. (Edit: Because the title just says salvage and regular salvage also comes in white, yellow, and orange varieties.)

Well, since it's about incarnate items and MsSmart showed the conversion stats of incarnate salvage, thinking it would mean regular invention salvage seems a stretch.

[Rudra]

18 minutes ago, lemming said:

Well, since it's about incarnate items and MsSmart showed the conversion stats of incarnate salvage, thinking it would mean regular invention salvage seems a stretch.

Then the author can clarify that and my opposition is rescinded.

[BlackSpectre]

I just want something worthwhile to spend left over threads on. Don't really care what it is... conversions or items doesn't matter as long as it's better than super inspriations.

 

OH, and would like a revamp of the mission architect ticket store so that there are worthwhile things to buy there with threads as well.

[Ukase]

A few months back, I read something in the forums that motivated me to dust off my farmers and put them to work aiding my lesser used alts to get more vet levels for those emp merits. Pre-page 4, I would create a new farmer just to passively farm emp merits so I could transfer transcendent merits and omit the very painful, tedious, boring process of watching newer players forgo the street sweeping in Lambda. 

I about lost my lunch when a couple of efficient players found a place to stash Desdemona safely (presumably) and skipped past many of the mobs that provided this iXP. 

I even set out to do an old school lambda, and didn't get enough to start the trial, because they all wanted to do Speed lambda. I get it. I would just rather do it the old way to get that iXP, rather than do multiple runs of speed lambda, even though it is more efficient because you get more reward tables in a shorter time. 

So, here's the reality: getting incarnate salvage outside of iTrials is simple for me. But, it's not always easy, and it's not always fun. A lot depends on how sturdy your character is, and the composition of the team or league you're on. I'm not above dual or triple boxing when the population is low and collaboratively completing missions in Dark Astoria for multiple reward tables. 

I'm all for a character earning their own way. Just not every character, every time. Sometimes, you have a group you team with and you're wanting to make a certain AT/powerset and you want it ready ASAP, not after a few days of grinding out the same content yet again. 

The downside of making this reverse conversion is sadly clear to me. A player like me with my many alts, it would be so much faster and easier to t-4 my new alts! And..then, poor Okie has one fewer player to help him get triple threat. Teams WILL be harder to fill. It will take longer. Some folks may choose to grind out the stuff in DA, or simply convert stuff themselves like the folks that want to right now. Now - that's not to say that's a bad thing. I'm sure Cobalt and the rest of the dev team know we're fairly used to the iTrials and could use something new. And they've been doing really well providing that something new. That labyrinth...that has aided my alts in incarnate salvage like no other trial ever could! But I have to ask myself, how active would I be in the post 50 game if I just had to unlock hybrid before I was t-4? 

I would invariably complete whatever badges I felt I should and then start on the next alt - despite my wish to trim my stable down to 30-40 primary characters. 

I'll say this - I'd love it. But I also recognize the change in player behavior that might result from it. While I do find most iTrials boring, I love Magisterium and Underground. Underground is one of the longer itrials. Fewer players participating would disappoint me. So, I'm of a mixed mind on the issue. 

How about y'all let me do it, but nobody else can - that'd be cool with y'all, right? 

I will say this: I will continue to create characters for vet levels just to send to the alts so I don't have to suffer through speed lambdas and the boring BAF and Keyes until such time I'm told that behavior is forbidden. (never when the server population is even close to the threshold, only when less than 700)
Not every character I make will get that assistance. I'm on a Fire/Earth blaster now that's done everything from scratch. It's managed to secure the requisite inf goal I set with every character. T-4 Barrier, Clarion, working on Rebirth, Ageless and Incan. 
T-4 in the others. Only vet level 24, I think. Gotten really lucky with some reward tables. Did a lot of DA arcs, solo. All of them, actually. Some more than once. It's a lot less of a grind when the character is fun to play. Sadly, I've only got about 40 fun ones out of all my characters. The rest were just to see what they were like, and maybe to learn more about the sets. 

 

The option if they decide to say no is simply to farm the vet levels on another character. Tedious, mind-numbing, but sometimes therapeutic. So, if they want farming to continue, say no. It still will continue even if they say yes, but at least by me - much less so. 

[MsSmart]

On 11/15/2025 at 10:06 AM, arcane said:

This would just make farming empyreans a little too easy I think… thinking of all of my various spreadsheet needs and thinking of all of the toons that have scored T3/T4 drops after finishing their own incarnates and reading your very generous exchange rates where a lucky drop can be worth more empyreans than 3 veteran levels… sounds a little too close to winning the lottery IMHO. Sorry Sue 😞
 

EDIT: In general I am not opposed to some new way to deal with old threads and incarnate components, but the jump from selling immortal recoveries to the particular proposed exchange rates above is way too great. I have given you a thumb left so as not to dishearten you with a thumb down.

Sorry sweetie, but I do not get the sell part for my suggestion, nor the concept of farming as you stated, my concept/definition for farming is going to AE and abusing the mobs for exp and inf, would you consider chain doing TINPEX farming?

[Rudra]

7 minutes ago, MsSmart said:

Sorry sweetie, but I do not get the sell part for my suggestion, nor the concept of farming as you stated, my concept/definition for farming is going to AE and abusing the mobs for exp and inf, would you consider chain doing TINPEX farming?

Farming is taking any mission and running it repeatedly for xp and inf'. AE makes it easy in that you can set up a one-shot mission and complete it, then restart it very quickly over and over. However, farming can also be done outside of AE and that was how farming was done prior to AE. And in many cases, how farming is still done. For instance, the Council mission with the 20 portals that have to be closed is a popular farming mission. As long as the portals are not all closed, the map can be completely cleared safely, the mission reset, and then run over repeatedly.

[MsSmart]

On 11/15/2025 at 5:21 PM, Rudra said:

The point is that we already have the means of transferring emp's. The emp' breakdown option lets us use up unneeded emps. The OP is a request for a way to craft emp's from salvage. With that, players can use their inf' to buy up salvage, especially the vr ones, and get the equivalent of 6 vet levels 3 Magisteriums; or one and a half Hamidon raids ignoring the emp' reward lockout period. They can also use their Reward Merits and AE merits to get more vr salvage to do the same. That will firstly drive up the costs of vr salvage because now it is a highly convenient means of getting emp's. And secondly, if we can buy our way to incarnate status like that, you know full well the request to buy our way up the levels will follow. It isn't even a slippery slope argument, it is an inevitability.

 

I'm not a dev and I cannot speak for them. Neither would I try to. However, I see nothing good in the OP. Neither do I see it as being "equal to what already exists, except as an alternate approach". We have specific means of acquiring emp's. And the OP massively expands that. I'm not going to pitch a fit if the devs implement this, though I doubt they would. I don't care if I am the only voice of dissent saying any of this. I'll live with my loss if that is the case. I won't stay quiet about this though.

 

Edit again: If the OP is only referring to incarnate salvage? Then I don't oppose the OP any more. However, I will ask why not just use the sidegrade, downgrade, or breakdown options incarnate salvage already has then?

 

I said from the beginning it was salvage, my providing a justified exchange table should have been a blinding flash of the obvious. To address your standard work around with the intent to deny the QoL is that your suggestion does not yield emps! just more trash.

[MsSmart]

18 hours ago, Rudra said:

No, I didn't. I asked if it was. If it is, then I rescind my opposition just like I said I would. (Edit: Because the title just says salvage and regular salvage also comes in white, yellow, and orange varieties.)

 

Rudra what is the title of the suggestion? Perhaps you should try to read my post with an open mind and suffer less of Sue Syndrome  :<)

[Rudra]

Just now, MsSmart said:

I said from the beginning it was salvage, my providing a justified exchange table should have been a blinding flash of the obvious. To address your standard work around with the intent to deny the QoL is that your suggestion does not yield emps! just more trash.

Yes, you said salvage. And as long as your intent is salvage, I oppose your suggestion. If your intent is only incarnate salvage, then I am no longer opposed. And your response now saying just salvage tells me you are not limiting it to just incarnate salvage. So my opposition remains.

[Rudra]

Just now, MsSmart said:

Rudra what is the title of the suggestion? Perhaps you should try to read my post with an open mind and suffer less of Sue Syndrome  :<)

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

[MsSmart]

4 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Farming is taking any mission and running it repeatedly for xp and inf'. AE makes it easy in that you can set up a one-shot mission and complete it, then restart it very quickly over and over. However, farming can also be done outside of AE and that was how farming was done prior to AE. And in many cases, how farming is still done. For instance, the Council mission with the 20 portals that have to be closed is a popular farming mission. As long as the portals are not all closed, the map can be completely cleared safely, the mission reset, and then run over repeatedly.

Classic definition of farming, thanks for describing, but the reason I made the response is because I felt the poster had a different definition of what farming was

[MsSmart]

1 minute ago, Rudra said:

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

And the very beginning of the post was all about incarnate salvage, 1+1=2?

[Rudra]

3 hours ago, MsSmart said:

And the very beginning of the post was all about incarnate salvage, 1+1=2?

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.

 

3 hours ago, MsSmart said:

Classic definition of farming, thanks for describing, but the reason I made the response is because I felt the poster had a different definition of what farming was

You provided your own definition of what farming was in the statement I responded to about what farming is. You specifically said:

 

4 hours ago, MsSmart said:

my concept/definition for farming is going to AE and abusing the mobs for exp and inf

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.

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Rudra
Edited to add missed comma. And again for spelling and grammar.