Universal Salvaging Tool (was Auto-Salvage)

(click here if theme music doesn't play)

About The Plugin

Features

• Only the materials you designate are salvaged and combined to form low and high quality bags of the workmanship you specify. 
• When combining partial bags of salvage, largest bags are completed first, using combinatorial analysis to ensure that no units of salvage are wasted. 
• If bags of exactly 100 units cannot be made, then no bag bigger than 95 units will be created, to facilitate completion later. 
• If you specify that bags don't have to be exactly combined, then complete bags will be created with as little waste as possible.

Safety first!

• Inscribed and equipped items are never salvaged.
• Other classes of items, such as tinkered items, items with major or minor cantrips, and items with level VI that are racial, ranked or dual/triple clothing/jewel, are all protected by default. 
• Every item is identified before being processed to ensure information about the item is current.
• For additional protection, items can be added to the Exclusion List where they will never be salvaged under any circumstances. 
• Finally, all items are verified when they are moved to ensure the wrong items don't get moved by mistake

Download

• Universal Salvaging Tool 1.0.15 preview Installer (206 KB)

• Previous versions, history and source

Additional Notes: 

• If upgrading, make sure you uninstall any previous versions before installing the new version. Your settings will saved.
• If reverting to a previous version, your settings may not load correctly. Verify settings before continuing.

If you experience any problems

First, check out the Frequently Asked Questions.
If that doesn't address your problem, visit the support board, which has a powerful search engine.
If you can't find your problem on the support board, then post it!

The Status page

Salvaging is initiated, and the current status is displayed, on the Status page. It contains the following fields and controls:

Items To ID - Number of items remaining to be identified. Only items of materials designated in your configuration are considered for salvaging.

Items To Salvage - Number of items remaining to be salvaged. Inscribed items are never salvaged. Items that are tinkered, items with major or minor cantrips, ranked items with level VI spells, and dual/triple clothing/jewelry with VI spells are not salvaged by default. 

Items To Combine - Number of partial bags of salvage remaining to be combined.

Items In Ust - Number of items or partial bags of salvage about to be salvaged or combined.

Main Pack

The Main Pack page contains the controls salvaging items and combining salvage within the main pack.

Combine - When pressed, starts combining partial bags of salvage in your main pack.

Range

The Range page contains the controls for salvaging items and combining salvage within a portion of the main or other pack.

Pack, Start, End - Displays the current range pack and the slots within the pack on which to operate.

Set Start - Sets the range start to the currently selected item. Changes the range pack if the selected item isn't in the current range pack.

Set End - Sets the range end to the currently selected item. Changes the range pack if the selected item isn't in the current range pack.

Salvage, Combine, Salvage & Combine - When pressed, starts salvaging, combining or salvaging and combining only the items within the current range.

When Running

Once salvaging starts, additional buttons appear at the bottom of the Status page, for use mostly when in manual mode.

Pause - When pressed, pauses the current salvaging process to be resume later. Can be invoked with @ust pause. When pressed, changes to:

Resume - When pressed, resumes the currently paused salvaging process. Can be invoked with @ust resume.

Clear - When pressed, the Ust is emptied and the next item(s) are processed. Can be invoked with @ust clear.

Stop - When pressed, the salvaging process is stopped immediately. Can be invoked with @ust stop.

Note: To cancel salvaging while in Automatic mode, just enter combat/casting mode.

The Salvage page

What materials are salvaged and combined can be tailored on the Salvage page. It has three tabs: Materials, Exceptions and Protections

Materials

The is where you specify what materials you want salvaged and combined based upon quality. For each material, you can specify the minimum and maximum qualities to salvage, and what ranges of qualities to combine.

Enabled / disabled - When checked, items and partial bags of salvage of that material will be salvaged or combined. Unchecked by default.

Salvage Range - Specify the quality range of items to be salvaged. Changing this value will automatically enable items of that material for salvaging. The default range is 1-10, meaning everything will be salvaged.

Combine Ranges - Specify the list of ranges of salvage to combine. Changing this value will automatically enable salvage of that material for combining. The default value is 1-7,8,910, meaning w1-7 salvage will be combine into one bag, with separate bags each for w8, w9 and w10 salvage.

Test Item - When pressed, indicates whether or not the selected item will be salvaged (or why it wasn't). If an item will not be salvaged, all the applicable reasons will be listed.

Using the Material List

By default the list is sorted alphabetically by material name, with unused materials listed at the end, but the list can be sorted by any column.

The first time you click in any row, it becomes the material which is affected by the list boxes below. 
If you click on the "All Materials" row, you will change the settings of all useable materials (settings for unused materials must be changed individually). 
If you click in the first column it will toggle the enabled/disabled setting for the material.
The next time you click on the same row, it will be sorted by the column you click in. Clicking on the same row, same column again will reverse the direction of the sort.
Note: this means you can only enable or disable a material if you click in the first column the first time you click on a row.

Sorting is "proper", meaning the order of the previous sort is preserved unless values of new sort dictate otherwise. In this way, you have full control over the order of your salvage list.

Example: If you want to see only materials you have enabled sorted by skill and by effects within each skill, then:

• First, click in any row to select it
• Click in the Effects column of that row. Materials will now be sorted by effect
• Click in the Skill column of the same row. Materials will now be sorted by skill and by effect within each skill
• Finally, click in the Enabled column of the same row. Materials will be sorted with enabled materials first, then by skill and by effect within each skill

Exceptions

If you wish an additional layer of protection, you can specify items which should never, under any circumstances be salvaged no matter what, by adding them to the Exception List.

Add Pack / Item - When pressed, adds the currently selected item or the contents of the currently selected pack to the Exception List. Salvage and items which cannot be salvaged will not be added to the list unless they are equipped. When added, the items will show up in the list by name and icon, along with current pack and slot location. Packs can be either: Main Pack, Pack 1-7, Equipped, or "Muled" meaning not currently in your inventory. Currently, this status doesn't stay updated, but look for that in a next version.

Add Equipped - When pressed, all the items you currently have equipped will be added to the Exception List

Add Inventory - To make sure that you finish hunting with everything you started with. When pressed, everything within your inventory will be added to the Exception List

Remove Pack / Item - When pressed, removes the currently selected item or the contents of the currently selected pack from the Exception List without having to locate it first.

Remove All - To reset your list, especially after adding your entire inventory. When pressed, clears the list. Faster and less frustrating than deleting nearly 300 items one at a time .

Test Item - When pressed, indicates whether or not the selected item will be salvaged (or why it wasn't). If an item will not be salvaged, all the applicable reasons will be listed.

Using the Exception List

Click on an item's icon to remove it from the list. Click on the item's name or location to select it.

Protections

This is where you specify what items you want protected based upon their characteristics. All these protections are set by default.

Tinkered Items - When checked, indicates tinkered items should not be salvaged.

Major Items - When checked, indicates items with major cantrips should not be salvaged.

Minor Items - When checked, indicates items with minor cantrips should not be salvaged.

Racial VI Items - When checked, indicates racial items with at least one level VI spell should not be salvaged. 

Ranked VI Items - When checked, indicates ranked items with at least one level VI spell should not be salvaged. 

Multi-spell VI Clothing and Jewelry - When checked, indicates that clothing and jewelry with 2 or more spells including at least one level VI spell should not be salvaged.

Test Item - When pressed, indicates whether or not the selected item will be salvaged (or why it wasn't). If an item will not be salvaged, all the applicable reasons will be listed.

The Config page

The configuration settings are used to tailor how the plugin behaves. It contains the following controls:

ID items before salvaging - When checked, freshly identifies every candidate item before salvaging to pick up newly changed inscriptions and tinkers. Can be unchecked if you haven't inscribed or tinkered anything since you last examined it. Checked by default.

Auto salvage items - When checked, automatically salvages items. When unchecked, items are moved to the Ust automatically, but you must press the Salvage button yourself. Unchecked by default.

Auto combine salvage - When checked, automatically combines partial bags of salvage. When unchecked, partial bags are moved to the Ust automatically, but you must press the Salvage button yourself. Unchecked by default.

Exactly combine ranges of single workmanship - When checked, salvage within combine ranges of single workmanship (such as 8-8) will be combined into either complete bags with no waste, or partial bags of 95 units or less. When unchecked, partial bags will be combined to produce complete bags while minimizing waste. Checked by default.

Exactly combine ranges of multiple workmanship - When checked, salvage within combine ranges of multiple workmanship (such as 8-10) will be combined into either complete bags with no waste, or partial bags of 95 units or less. When unchecked, partial bags will be combined to produce complete bags while minimizing waste. Checked by default.

Suppress expected messages - When checked, will suppress expected "You obtain xxx units of Salvaged Material" messages. A message will still be displayed if less than full yield is achieved while salvaging items or when bags are completed while combining salvage. Unchecked by default.

Salvage command - Enter the word or chars you wish to use to invoke the salvage command, without the "@". The default salvage command is "@ust".

Move delay - The number milliseconds to wait between actions. Valid values are 0-999 ms. The default value is 10 ms (which is enough for my pathetic Win 9x system). My Win XP system likes 0 ms .

Commands

U.S.T. supports the following commands:

	@ust salvage	Starts salvaging items in your main pack, without affecting your current settings
	@ust combine	Starts combining salvage in your main pack, without affecting your current settings
	@ust doit (or @ust all)	Starts salvaging items and combining salvage in your main pack, without affecting your current settings
	@ust stop	Immediately stops the salvage process
	@ust pause	Pauses the current salvage process, so that it can be resumed later
	@ust resume	Resumes the previously paused salvage process
	@ust clear	Clears the current contents of the Ust and continues processing
	@ust show	Displays the U.S.T. window
	@ust hide	Hides the U.S.T. window
	@ust reset window	Reset the U.S.T. window location
	@ust add hotkeys	Adds the U.S.T. hotkey definitions to the Decal Hotkey System
	@ust help	Lists this help text

Hotkeys

U.S.T. can use the Decal Hotkey System to define hotkeys. With DHS installed, type "@ust add hotkeys" to have all supported keys added to DHS.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it work for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, or Windows ME?
Yes!

Does it work in windowed mode?
Windowed mode is support by v1.0.5 and higher. No configuration is required for v1.0.8 and up.

I installed the plugin, why can't I see it?
If you can't see the plugin, you're probably missing of the required dependencies. You must be running:

• Decal 2.5.0.5+, 
• ImpFilter 2.8.0.10+, and 
• MS XML 4.0 SP2

I have all the required software installed, but it doesn't do anything
Technically this isn't a question, it's more a statement really,... However, if you're having troubles getting it to work:

• Make sure you have the current memlocs.xml and messages.xml for Decal.
• If you just upgraded to the latest version, make sure you uninstalled the old version, before installing the new one.

Why did it remove a shortcut setting from my hotkeys bar?
This can happen if you told U.S.T. that more rows are visible in the main pack than there really are. Check and correct the value on the Config page.

Why won't it salvage any items?
Check your salvage range for the material in question.
To find out why an item wasn't salvaged (or to find out if an item will be salvaged) select the item and click the "Test Item" button on the Salvage page.

Why won't it combine an partial bags of salvage?
Check your combine ranges for the material in question. It could be that there is no other salvage within the same range to combine, or you may have specified you want to "exactly combine" salvage and neither a complete bag or a partial bag of 95 or less units could be formed.

Why not always combine salvage at the same time as salvaging items?
When salvaging items, there may be protected items that you wish to salvage manually. If salvage is combined before this manual step then the resulting partial bags cannot be considered as part of the analysis to complete bags (because they don't exist yet ). This might mean the chance to form an exactly complete bag will be missed. In this case, the result would be either a near-complete bag whose completion will be deferred (if the "Exactly Combine" setting is used), or completing a bag with slightly more waste than would otherwise be required (if the "Exactly Combine" setting is not used).

Why not always exactly combine salvage?
It's usually eventually possible to exactly combine salvage into complete bags when combining multiple workmanships, but that may not be true when combining single workmanships if you always get full yield from your initial salvages. In this case, w1, w2, w4, w5 and w10 salvage can be combined exactly, while 2 units will be lost when combining w3 and w6 salvage, 4 units when combining w8, 5 units when combining w7, and a whopping 8 units when combining w9 salvage. For this reason, it's suggested that "Exactly combine ranges of multiple workmanship" remains checked and that "Exactly combine ranges of single workmanship" is unchecked. 

Support

If you have a question not addressed by the FAQ
Take a look at the Universal Salvaging Tool support board, which has a powerful search engine.
If your question isn't addressed on the support board, then post it!! 

Also looking to hear any concerns, problems, suggestions or feedback you may have.

Disclaimer

While every attempt has been made to ensure that no virtual items are accidentally destroyed, I assume no responsibility or liability if that should occur.
I will, however, accept full responsibility for any enjoyment that use of this plugin might provide.
As always, all decisions of the judge are arbitrary, capricious and final!

I can be contacted at archui@email.com, 
(though the support board  is probably a better place to reach me )