Alchemy and Crafting Thread

[-Hisoka]

best thing will be to bring back TW2 alchemy system / animations - was much better !

alchemy gets pointless and useless in the end . and easy / annoying

but in TW2 u HAD to use alchemy if u wanted to survive.


not sure why they did alchemy /med the way they did it but its not good at all .

 

[-Hisoka]

Tw2 med/alchemy/difficulty was much better

am i the only thinking tw2 alchemy / meditation / and difficulty was much better compared to tW3?

 

[ZeroAffex]

Witcher 1 alchemy was my favorite of the series. I have posted numerous times early after initial release but felt compelled once more to throw it out there that I would really love and appreciate if CDPR would address Alchemy in W3. Honestly was hoping something would be done by now with all the complaints. Maybe let us turn on or off Alchemy difficulty or maybe add it to the existing games difficulty levels so people who don't want to bother with itand want to use the current simple version has a choice! Currently it lacks depth, it becomes rather boring soon into game, it removes a large aspect of the game completely out with the need to explore to obtain herbs and monsters for brews and makes no sense that alcohol restores potions! Ive read Sapkowski books and never came across this. Haha. Zoltan and Dandelion would be filthy rich if it only took alcohol to make potions, as they always seem to have booze near and usually are in need of money! Ruins some of the immersion for me as well as the fact there are no animations for even chugging one down.. I can live without animations though, but would really like to have an alchemy system closer to W1 if anything remove alcohol restoration for potions and make them finite so gathering plants and herbs doesn't feel pointless soon after leaving White Orchard. It could also be a way for dedicated people to make some a few extra coins selling ingredients since there would be a demand for them. Though I am not in it for coin, I am in it for role play and this definitely contradicts the world I know my Geralt to live in. A large part of the fun for me in W1 was the hours I spent looking for herbs to craft potions and here I am in W3 with this massive world yet it doesn't beckon me to do that. Potions and alchemy are everything for a Witcher yet in this game they seem less than important and really you can get by without using most of them even once! I am done. I have hopes that with all the cool features and polishing done so far since release that Alchemy will some day be addressed. Until then I will make late night sleep deprived rants time to time. Haha! Thanks for reading though. Goodnight!

-Zero

 

[_Filozof]

Please make it so the Alchemy menu while at a herbalist or alchemist has an "auto-fill from vendor" option.

Meaning: I want to make a Swallow potion. I have 2/2 Ginatia petals, 1/1 Black pearl, and 0/2 Blowball flowers.
Now, instead of me having to wait for the 5 second animation and slowly and painfully (for the thousandth time) work my way with the joystick to the blowball item in the Shop part - it's just there in the Alchemy part. If the vendor has it in Shop then it is on offer at the same price in alchemy.

So what my suggestion would look like is:
Swallow:
2/2 Ginatia petals
1/1 Black pearl
1/1Redanian Lager
2/2 Blowball flowers (vendor items)

Price to craft: 9 Florens

I hope I explained it well. I hope you implement it because its painstaking on consoles to move about the shop menu.

 

[-Hisoka]

Witcher 1 alchemy was my favorite of the series. I have posted numerous times early after initial release but felt compelled once more to throw it out there that I would really love and appreciate if CDPR would address Alchemy in W3. Honestly was hoping something would be done by now with all the complaints. Maybe let us turn on or off Alchemy difficulty or maybe add it to the existing games difficulty levels so people who don't want to bother with itand want to use the current simple version has a choice! Currently it lacks depth, it becomes rather boring soon into game, it removes a large aspect of the game completely out with the need to explore to obtain herbs and monsters for brews and makes no sense that alcohol restores potions! Ive read Sapkowski books and never came across this. Haha. Zoltan and Dandelion would be filthy rich if it only took alcohol to make potions, as they always seem to have booze near and usually are in need of money! Ruins some of the immersion for me as well as the fact there are no animations for even chugging one down.. I can live without animations though, but would really like to have an alchemy system closer to W1 if anything remove alcohol restoration for potions and make them finite so gathering plants and herbs doesn't feel pointless soon after leaving White Orchard. It could also be a way for dedicated people to make some a few extra coins selling ingredients since there would be a demand for them. Though I am not in it for coin, I am in it for role play and this definitely contradicts the world I know my Geralt to live in. A large part of the fun for me in W1 was the hours I spent looking for herbs to craft potions and here I am in W3 with this massive world yet it doesn't beckon me to do that. Potions and alchemy are everything for a Witcher yet in this game they seem less than important and really you can get by without using most of them even once! I am done. I have hopes that with all the cool features and polishing done so far since release that Alchemy will some day be addressed. Until then I will make late night sleep deprived rants time to time. Haha! Thanks for reading though. Goodnight!

-Zero

agreed
both tw1 and tw2 handled alchemy much better

 

[Riven-Twain]

I've been replaying Assassins of Kings a bit lately, and, ach . . . I miss armour enhancements in Wild Hunt even more, now! 'Twould be rather nice if we could add just a touch of extra damage resistance, or a wee vitality bonus to our gear. . . .

 

[web-head91]

I've been replaying Assassins of Kings a bit lately, and, ach . . . I miss armour enhancements in Wild Hunt even more, now! 'Twould be rather nice if we could add just a touch of extra damage resistance, or a wee vitality bonus to our gear. . . .

i thought there was a mod that already does that in some way:
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1112/?

 

[Riven-Twain]

i thought there was a mod that already does that in some way.

Quite interesting, and full commendations to the mod's creator, but, in my case, it looks to change just a wee bit more than I'd want. Many thanks for the suggestion, though!

 

[moonknightgog]

The Witcher 3 alchemy system is just....bad. It simplify things that didn't need to be simplified.
Just bring back The Witcher 1 alchemy system. That was good. There's no need to change something that already works well.

 

[Shahinsohrabi]

Mutagens and alchemy

hi guys, i just finished main story and ended up having XX foglet mutegen and XX other monster mutagens wich is just useless. i was wondering if CD project could bring a nice idea to mutagens that makes them more intresting. Here is the idea: what if the mutagens from monsters have diffrent passive abilities like 5% sword speed or 5% damage to steel or silver sword. i know that normal mutagens can be combined to make stronger version, but then player have to make a descision to use a mutagen that gives 10% bonus to red/green/blue ( or ) use a monster mutagen that gives him only 5% pluse a cool passive ability, for example warewolf mutagen gives him not loosing stamina while running or fiend mutagen gives him a 5% resistance to damage from monsters. another idea is that what if the monster mutagens have the same random bonuses as the yellow blue or relic swords have, you have noticed when you create a sword or an armor it gets a random bonus like 4% igni bonus or 6% aard bonus etc.. if those monster mutagens get that passive random bonus it will make the game more intresting.
Another idea i had in a long time is this: what if there is a minigame in alchemy menu wich player can combine the reagents and discover new powerfull formulaes just like witcher 1, since we end up having alot of alchemy reagents with no use.
sorry for my englis i hope you understand me and thatkyou for your time.

 

[Mezziaz]

The Witcher 3 alchemy system is just....bad. It simplify things that didn't need to be simplified.
Just bring back The Witcher 1 alchemy system. That was good. There's no need to change something that already works well.

Indeed, what Witcher 3 did with alchemy and potions was definitely the worst gameplay related change from earlier titles.

I only find the new system acceptable on the lowest difficulty levels but on "Blood and Broken Bones" and "Death March" it has no business being there.

 

[AnklaX]

In alchemy build, the "Brewing" ability needs a change. When a potion is consumed, one randomly selected potion gets consumed without additional toxicity. From the list of these potions, please remove the Cat potion because when fighting outdoors, it's more a hindrance than help with the screen suddenly going all bright. If I'm in a dark area, I take Cat beforehand anyway. To make myself clearer, Cat should never be consumed randomly.

 

[jj284b]

Witcher 3 requires a bit different approach to alchemy than Witcher 2 or Witcher 1... UI is made different, combat works a bit differently. You have quickslots, and no eating/drinking animation, which kinda suggests they wanted it to be a bit more dynamic.

Anyway, i think even with this, alchemy could be made a bit better. Main problem of W3 is actually abundance of resources.. if everything is abundant, you loose the thrill of getting something special.. same with alchemy, if you can replenish your potions with any alcohol with a simple 1h meditation, what is stopping you doing it as often as you want? at certain time, you end up with inventory full of alcohol, so you are completely selfsustained, you dont need any food, water, anything...

Easy way out of this would be in these simple steps:

1. White Gull as only strong alcohol capable replenishing potions. - In previous games and witcher books, white gull was special halucinogenic alcohol made by witchers. it cannot be bought, therefore it has to be created, preferably from special alcohol and rare plants (mandrake root, verbena, misletoe come to my mind..) Its purpose would be only to replenish potions and nothing else, while there could be several recipes how to make it from different types of alcohol)

2.Alcohest as alchemy base used to create potions. Instead of Dwarven spirit for level1, and White gull for level3 potions, everything would be handled through Alcohest. Multiple recipies would be needed, again, to allow creating alcohest from normal alcohol and common plants. This way, player would need a lot of alcohest bottles for his alchemy creations as each potion would require a bottle. he would also need to keep gathering base plants (white myrtle, celandine, arenaria etc..) for the same reason..

3. Dwarven spirit, Nilfgaardian lemon, Temerian Rye and other standard alcohols would be all needed in recipies to make alcohest. (preferably each alcohol type own recipe)

Now, all alcohol should be removed or at least drastically reduced from standard loot, while amount of alcohol available at Inns should increase up a lot. Player would have to visit Inns to buy alcohol, therefore he would have to spend his money instead of hoarding money for no reason...

 

[Won-tolla]

When I've just started playing, I was lost in admiration looking at new crafting system. I didn't have a single sword/armor diagram yet, but the system of smelting alloys and creating highlevel material out of lowlevel sounded very, VERY appealing. I was like "wow, I can explore the world, gather some hundred of weak swords, unguarded minerals, silver pots and other trash, melt half of them to create several Dimeritium bars, then sell another half and use this money to create uberswords in the begin of the game!" Though, the reality was... a bit less funny. Level requirements? Oh well, ppl have said everything concerning this stupid idea already. But the worst part was that when you reach needed levels, materials become just too goddamn easy to obtain! When I've finished the game, I had both master swords of Gryphon and Bear (plus several custom), master Cat, Gryphon and Ofieri armor sets, AND I had 12 Dimeritium bars + 29 Dimeritium ore left. Smelting? Who needs it? The same applies to Chitinous shell, Hardened Leather and so on.

Though, as I've said, the idea was definitely good, so it would be nice to actually encourage players to use it. Here are some ideas for this area...

1) It's definitely TOO EASY TO STEAL. I mean, I can just enter any house and take everything I want, while peasants / townsmen just looking at me? Get real! They should call for guards, or at least such deeds should affect reputation (which, say, could result in questgivers sending PC to hell instead of giving quests). Stealing should only be possible when nobody is at home, or everybody is sleeping (AND you make no noise, too). To be short, play Skyrim, for example, and you get the point. Stealing should be a way to obtain materials for a really devoted thieves rather than for everyone. Most players should be encouraged to gain materials as trophies from combats, abandoned houses, drowned/buried treasuries and contraband.

2) As an alternative (or rather addition) to the previous point, remove highlevel materials (any Dimeritium, Cured Draconid etc) from drop. Make it craft-only. At least, on highest game difficulty level.

3) Another (better, IMHO) alternative (which takes more coding effort, though) is to add another level of materials and diagrams. Say, another kind of alloy (better than Dimeritium, which requires some 2-4 bars of each lowlevel metal to smelt); plus another kind of craftable armor material (Monster Plate? made, say, from several pieces of Monster Hide and a couple of Cured Draconid); plus diagrams to create lvl38+ power weapons and armors of these materials.

4) One more alternative is to add to smiths (or maybe just master smiths) an option to create, say... "rich" variations of the same items. Say, Master Bear sword which requires 4 Dimeritium rather than 2 and 10 Monster Essence rather than 1, costs 2x more to create, but is like 20% more powerful (with the same level requirement, indeed). The same for armor.

---------- Updated at 09:28 PM ----------

Then, Alchemy. It's just one big sad fault in W3. I mean, in books elixirs were half of source of witcher power (while mutations being another half). Now you get elixirs which add 10% to your power at begin and 25-35% in the end, BUT these bonuses are stackable with skill bonuses, so actual bonus is like 2x-3x less (I mean, when you have +200% spellpower bonus from skills and armor, the best Petri increases your Igni "firepower" from 300 to just 325, i.e. just by 8%)? Are you serious? Doh, in the end it just doesn't matter if you use any alchemy or no - or rather, you use it for healing only, and for special effects like Ekhidna+Archgriffin Decoction set. Here are some ideas how to fix it.

1) Obviously, potion bonuses should be multipliers. I.e. when you have +200% spellpower from skills and items (i.e. 3x higher spellpower), Petri should add 25% on top of that (i.e. multiplying by 1.25, up to 3.75x rather than 3.25x). The same should apply to decoctions, indeed.

2) Actually, 25-35% is just too little. I mean, doh, I still remember +50% bonuses from Witcher 1 - where potions REALLY made Geralt A WITCHER!

3) To compensate the previous two, making potions and oils should be harder. Lowlevel ones should require more herbs (5x more, at least). Highlevel ones... eh, I mean, sorry, but this idea with albedo/rubedo/etc components looks just too easy. So, to create top elixirs and oils you just need to complete a single (lvl24, but still) quest, spend several thousands of crowns to buy recipes, visit common taverns time after time to buy exceptional alcohol... and that's it? Doesn't it sound just too simple? I mean, even "second tier" elixirs were funnier to create - you had to hunt for certain unique monster parts! How about using... eyes of arachas and cyclops? troll stomachs? vampire fangs? various drake eggs? leshen resin? Well, you've got the point, I hope. Just make it 100% drop from given monsters, so players do not have to reload some wyvern fight for 5 times...

 

[jj284b]

Fully agree with Won-tolla , potions are too weak compared to signs and other ingame bonuses... 15% bonus is unnoticeable to be even bothered to open inventory and select the potion to get that bonus... these should definitely be increased.. like for example Full Moon.. getting +500 health if a joke in later game, as such bonus is completely meaningless if monsters can deal over 5000 in damage... If anything, Full Moon should multiply the health you have, so it would be actually beneficial to use it in tough fights (let say 100% bonus for Superior version = you get 2x more health than without it, which is actually worth using)

Similarly, oils - first level oils giving meager 10% bonus when your weapons do 50-200 points of damage? Its absolutely unnoticeable.. It should be 50% for the base to actually be worth the time spent opening inventory and applying the oil... instead of damage bonus, higher level oils could have more charges than low level... right now the progression is exponential, and only last tier is actually noticeable..

 

[Eredin_Breacc_Glas]

An Option For Death March

I'd like the ability, for the Death March difficulty, to make it so that potions, dedoctions, bombs, and oils each have to be remade every time they're used.

This would give players a greater sense of preparing before a fight, in my opinion. It would also make the all-too-easy Death March difficulty a lot harder.

 

[FixFallDamage]

tedious, not harder

 

[Eredin_Breacc_Glas]

tedious, not harder

Some might say that. Some might not. That's why I am asking for an option to make it that way (Via the menu.).

 

[Yeiiow]

I still think the Witcher 1 alchemy sysmtem was way superior to that of the Witcher 2 and Witcher 3.

Right now there is no need of ever having to gather herbs more than once, and with the overabundance of alcohol and how easy it is to meditate anywhere now at anytime, we end up having unlimited potions forever... Such a hollow system.

How to fix it?

- Add short animations to eating and drinking. Short enough that it is viable in combat if one keeps some distance from the foes and/or uses queen and its alternate cast correctly. But log enough so that one has to be careful and plan ahead, making the combat more challenging and rewarding.

- Make it so that one has to manually re-make the potions(bombs and oils too) once used up, consuming both alcohol and herbs in the process. Make alcohol more scarce/harder to get, by only allowing certain types of alcohols to be used as potion base and increasing its price. This would help re-balance the economy as well as add more incentives to explore the wilderness in search of supplies and/or buy from merchants.


-----------------------------------------------------

On the topic of crafting:

- In my opinion merchants and blacksmiths should only require special ingredients from the player(like meteorite ore, griffin feathers, gargoyle skin, etc) when asked to craft something, not materials/ingredients such as: lumber, iron, ropes, etc, they should already own and provide that kind of materials. This is one of the things i hated about The Witcher 2 and sadly it made a comeback in The Witcher 3. It just saturates the world and the inventory with pointless stuff and distracts from the immersion.

- On the same topic, lets have less "junk/trash" items please. Why would Geralt go around picking up rusty swords, chandeliers, dolls, etc etc... ??!!

- I personally wish for fewer amount of Armors and Weapons available overall, but with more meaningful customization and upgrades instead. I would like to see an upgrade system similar to that of The Witcher 2 making a comeback, where one could add leather patches for example that added more health, more armour, etc, however it should come with some visual changes added when the Armour is upgraded(like in "Mars: War Logs", or "Bound By Flame").

- Fewer amount of blueprints/diagrams too while we are at it. Why would Geralt be interested on knowing how to build a simple Temerian sword??! or a commun Redanian Armour, etc?! Keep only blueprints for decorums, bombs, potions, oils, Witcher Gear and Epic/Legendary/Unique gear. As it is right now the inventory, the world and the crafting UI is just oversaturated with shitty things that nobody would ever bother to craft in the first place, specially considering how abundant loot is.

 

[Charza]

To me the alchemy system of the first Witcher is still the best.
It had depth, and alchemical knowledge truly could make a difference in many ways.
The secondary ingredients also gave your potions some nice side effects, making it really worth it to get good at alchemy.

Witcher 2 unfortunately stripped the alchemy system down to the bare minimum, which really was a shame.
Gone were the secondary ingredients, gone was the depth.
Potions became simple buffs, and many of them were utterly useless because negative side effects heavily outweighed the positive effects. Because of this there were only 3 or 4 potions I ever found useful.
I also hated the mechanic where you had to sit down in order to prepare and drink the potions in the first place. The system was not dynamic, and Witcher 2 had many situations where potions could have been a true asset, yet you were unable to use them at that moment because you were thrown into combat situations without any opportunity to prepare at all.

Now with Witcher 3 things are a bit better again.
You brew a potion once, and the game enables you to replenish easily and almost automatically. I understand that the more classical RPG players want to manage potions themselves, but I don't think the system is that bad really. To me it feels very superior to the half baked system that was implemented in Witcher 2.
At least Witcher 3 enables you to use potions in the course of a fight, and the effects really make a difference again.
It's still not as awesome as the system in the first game as the alchemy part it self is way more simple than it is within the first game, but at least I can like the system for what it is, and to me the potions feel like an asset once more, which to me is most important.

To me the system of the first game is simply the best, and CDPR already hit the mark there.
I understand that CDPR wanted to innovate and try new things with each new installment, and for the most part it works.
I however think that the alchemy system already was perfect and also felt quite unique, so if it was up to me they could have used that system in all of the games.