Science & Industry

Well, how good of you to include all your reasoning behind it!
Please, explain in a bit more detail what you think the problem would be instead of just dropping 1 line basically saying "bad idea, have a wild guess why".

Let me first make a bit clearer in what role I'd see alchemy and how I'd like to see it implemented (as it apparently wasn't clear enough from my and other previous posts):
The primary source of T2 salvage should be exploration content, which is the only source at the moment (apart from salvaging T2 player wrecks). To achieve that, obviously their drop chance and amount would have to be increased somewhat substantially, as clearly it currently isn't even close to matching the (envisioned) demand. The problem with that is that it's extremely hard to hit the 'sweet spot' where T2 rigs end up being priced 'correctly' (whatever that means for CCP, still waiting to hear from them on this).
Here the alchemy would come into play: if the supply of T2 salvage materials isn't able to meet the demand (either too expensive or just none available at all), prices rise and at some point it becomes cheaper or equally expensive to alchemize them instead. This creates a demand on whatever is required to produce these materials. For reasons of logic and immersion alie I'd suggest their T1-broken-equivalent in non-trivial quantities (10 T1 per single T2 item?), maybe one or two additional T1 salvage mats in smaller quantities and some sort of catalyst or NPC sold 'control item' which is either damaged or (preferably) consumed entirely. Another possibility is to make the control item player produced and find some logical base materials for it. This can later also be used as a simple 'regulator' should the system somehow run out of balance.
Now back again to the situation: T2 parts are unavailable or too expensive so that alchemy becomes viable, this creates a demand on the base (T1) items, causing them to rise in price. Eventually this whole system will hopefully find a balance point with the majority of the T2 items still coming from exploration. If this isn't the case (meaning: majority from L4s) then the adjustment tot he loot chance/amount for T2 wasn't enough. And now for the important bit: The players aren't dependent to wait on CCP to re-adjust them again, but the market still continues to function and T2 items remain available, even though priced a bit higher than they should be!

This system effectively works as a fall-back mechanism for having perfectly balanced loot tables, which is near-impossible to pull off, especially with ever-changing demands! It stops the prices from rising above a certain point and regulates itself.
As long as loot from mag sites is enough or more than enough to satisfy the demand, the system won't have to do much at all...

Not true. The amount of T2 salvage alchemized from T1 salvage, and thus, the increased availability of T2 rigs, would be limited by the conversion rates.

Currently, armor plates sell for just under 200K each and intact armor plates sell for just over 30M each. If the conversion rate for armor plates to intact armor plates is set to 50:1, then the price on intact armor plates would drop signficantly and market availability would increase. Armor plate prices would increase, and market availabilty would drop, but, more players would salvage their missions and the price/availability would soon stabilize again - probably at a lower mark. The net result is greater availability of both T1 and T2 rigs at a lower cost. More fun for all.

But, at a conversion rate of 50:1, you would still not be flooding the market with T2 rigs, even if you converted *all* T1 salvage to T2 salvage, unless salvaging increases by a factor of 50, as well - which is somewhat unlikely, even if you farm L4s 23/7, and would not be sustainable, anyways, over the long term.

And, note that every T2 rig which is installed in a ship is *permanently* eliminated from the market, since it cannot be removed from a ship, nor can it be reprocessed into T2 salvage - it can only be destroyed. This is the most significant difference between rigs and ships/modules.

In truth, the players who would be negatively impacted by T1->T2 salvage alchemy are mostly null-sec dwellers, who farm player wrecks for T2 salvage - for direct sale in empire, or after converting the salvage to T2 rigs. Under the current game mechanics, this is much more lucrative and easier than running sanctums, L4s in empire, harvesting moon goo, or buiding supercap ships. It only took me 1-1/2 weeks to train up a salvage alt, and I made a quick 0.0 roam for wrecks. Sure, I eventually got popped (and podded), but not before I had salvaged over 20 intact armor plates, 5 capacitor consoles, and other goodies totalling up to just under 800M ISK. In exchange, I lost a cheap salvage dessie, a set of +1 implants and a no-cost medical clone - and got yelled at in local for "stealing" salvage. Do the math. :)

So you are happy that you will effectively turn Mag sites into utter poo? I mean c'mon, they are already being mostly ignored in the first place, this will make them even more useless to run.

Your happy sunshine assesment of what you think will go on, is based on a fantacy, not facts. You want some overly complex bit of code to solve the problem, when the simple tweaking of some numbers in a table will do far more, than your overenginered featurecreep gobbledygook. If tweaking the numbers isn't enough to get people running mag sites enough, then maybe I could see putting in salvage alchemy, but at least lets make Mag sites worth running first, to see if that will get the numbers of T2 rigs produced up.

As you say, Mag sites are already "useless to run". And I agree. Mag and Grav sites need to be completely reworked, and Exploration, overall, needs a major - not minor - design overhaul to make it more engaging.

But, I suppose that we could just ask CCP to also add Arkanor, Bistot and Crokite asteroids to high-sec Grav sites, too, so that they would be more rewarding to run. Right?

No, I didn't think so. Anyways, fixing Exploration is a different subject from fixing T2 rig production.

The T1->T2 salvage alchemy solution I suggested in an earlier post is very simple, code-wise, since it is based on making minor additions to the existing ore/alloy refining system, to support the conversion of salvage. Assuming a worse-case scenario, in which the EVE source code is a complete mess, the code changes and database table additions should take no more than 1-2 programmer weeks, including testing & debugging. This would allow plenty of time for playtesting, feedback, and conversion rate tweaking on Singularity, prior to the Winter Expansion release.

Where should most of the intact components for T2 rigs come from? Exploration sites. Fixing Mag sites will help fix T2 rig production, the two are related, and relevant.

And then I always forget to get that other script/crystal. It is also just a bit convulated.

Look at the current salvage prices and take an educated guess.

Lv4 + noctics + stuff i salvage is free crowd = every one pvp in t2 rigs.

Hmm... I guess I failed in my oblique attempt to point out the neither Grav sites nor Mag sites belong in this discussion.

Most of the T2 salvage currently comes from T2 ship wrecks and faction NPC ship wrecks. This works from a game immersion POV. But, as is evident from the T2 rig market, the amount of T2 salvage from these sources has proven to be too limited.

Adding the ability to fix/repair/reprocess broken (T1) salvage into working (T2) salvage also works, from a game immersion POV, esp. since this sort of recycling is done all of the time in RL. It would increase the availabilty of T2 salvage, and thus would increase the availability of T2 rigs, at a lower cost. I don't think that anyone argues this point (T2 rig market crashes and "everyone fitting T2 rigs in their ships" are different arguments).

Mag sites are a broken game mechanic. Using one broken game mechanic to attempt to fix another broken game mechanic is a bad idea. Every time this sort of thing is tried, in practice, it invariably fails.

First, because increasing drop rates (from Mag sites or wrecks) may help fix the T2 rig production problem, but it exacerbates a bigger problem (the ISK faucet issue). The alchemy solution addresses both problems.

Most of the T2 salvage currently comes from T2 ship wrecks and faction NPC ship wrecks. This works from a game immersion POV. But, as is evident from the T2 rig market, the amount of T2 salvage from these sources has proven to be too limited... increasing drop rates (from Mag sites or wrecks) may help fix the T2 rig production problem...

My solution takes 5-10 programing hours to change some numbers in a database, with no development of code that has to be bug tested.

No, changing mag sites as such won't do a thing, they can never handle the volume and having them as main source that doesn't make any sense fluff wise.