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...