Alchemy System is a mess...

[JavilUxO]

Alchemy System is a mess...

what has happened with the alchemy system in The Witcher 3? why have I my inventory filled with ingredients which I don't need? why so many plants in the world if I just need to make the potions once? why can't I choose what potion I want to redo and which not? you screw up the fun with the alchemy system, it was good in The Witcher, perfect in The Witcher 2, making potions have a great importance in the inmersion in this world? it lose part of the essence of becoming a witcher

 

[KiriSilvermane]

I wouldn't say its a mess; its just not as interactive as previous versions.
the auto creation of potions during meditation I don't mind at all.
one thing I wouldn't mind though is having to meditate to drink potions; which I think made the need for meditation a bit more "in character" than just using it as a quick heal system.
but of course on higher difficulties meditation wont heal as much etc

 

[Faltus]

There's a neat way to somewhat emulate the alchemy system you know and love from TW1 or TW2.

You just throw away the potion once it reaches 0 out of 3 uses and voila, you're able to brew a new one using ingredients like the first time. Works the same with bombs and oils, although oils you need to get rid of right after using them on your swords since they are inifinite and don't have X out of X uses for some strange reason.

 

[Attribule]

I wouldn't say its a mess; its just not as interactive as previous versions.
the auto creation of potions during meditation I don't mind at all.
one thing I wouldn't mind though is having to meditate to drink potions; which I think made the need for meditation a bit more "in character" than just using it as a quick heal system.
but of course on higher difficulties meditation wont heal as much etc

Requiring meditation was what made it awful in Witcher 2 because you then needed to know in advance what was coming up next in order to drink the right potion. This is actually immersion breaking considering the fact that it must be quite silly to constantly run right into a fight, but then say "Hold on guys. Just gotta chug these down... wipe my sweat off... Okay! Good to go!" If anything, make it so that meditation = full effect, and just on-the-go = lessened effect.

 

[KiriSilvermane]

Requiring meditation was what made it awful in Witcher 2 because you then needed to know in advance what was coming up next in order to drink the right potion. This is actually immersion breaking considering the fact that it must be quite silly to constantly run right into a fight, but then say "Hold on guys. Just gotta chug these down... wipe my sweat off... Okay! Good to go!" If anything, make it so that meditation = full effect, and just on-the-go = lessened effect.

as you describe it yes I agree;
but in Witcher 3 the monster quests are usually based around detective work and you essentially "know" whats coming up as you research the quest and do that detective work. Werewolf, Griffin etc etc is it not more suitable for a Witcher to have learned of their prey and then prepared by meditation once you realise what your up against?
There are a few quests ive done where ive meditated just before the final battle. preparing potions, restoring health and setting up oils etc that I know will do what I need them to do.

 

[whiplash27]

TW1 had my favorite alchemy system. Although I do like the enhanced potions and bombs. That was a neat addition.

I also like that TW1 had an actual drinking animation, which oddly seems to be missing in TW3.

Potion drinking, applying oils, these things should have an animation. I know they take time in battle, but that's the point in a way. You should only be able to do them when you have a break in fighting or if you run away.

I also find it a little silly that you can create potions without a fire nearby to do so. I know this was the same in TW2, but I was hoping that the fireplace thing would be brought back especially since there are plenty of sources of fire to do so in the game.

 

[Mohasz]

I actually like the new system, maybe I'm a casual player afterall. One thing I'd really like though, is to have some kind of glossary for plants as well, I mean, so far it's totally random, I just pick everything up whatever I come by. It would be nice to actually know where to look for a certain plant.

It'd be nice to have an experimental brewing option as well. Maybe exchange an ingredient for a slightly different one, and the result would have worse side-effect or something like that.

 

[serxho92]

My favorite alchemy system was that of Witcher 1 too, but to tell you the truth i'm enjoying this new system.
What i like is that i don't have to remake potions again and again because that becomes a chore.

 

[apoc_reg]

I do agree the make once and thats it system is very strange and feels like a casual feature. Bring back 1:1 ingredient potions!

 

[Neuroflux]

One of the biggest design mistakes in Witcher 2 was having to meditate to drink potions, it completely conflicted with the Witcher philosophy of preparing for battles, since you can't know what you will fight in advance. What I'd find a cool hybrid of the two systems would be if drinking potions while meditating would increase their effectiveness, so you can truly prepare for a beast if you know what's coming. But of course you have to be able to drink potions on the fly as well.

Anyways, my thoughts on OP; I agree it doesn't make much sense that the system is automatic. Sometimes when picking up flowers and herbs in TW3 I'm wondering why I'm even doing it anymore, all I need is the substance that refills. Just one more way to appeal to the casual audience, that is not the way of true RPGs.

 

[Sycamore]

@whiplash27 - I couldn't have put it better myself. For me, sitting round the campfire meditating , brewing my potions was one of the most magical things about The Witcher. I didn't really expect that system to make a complete comeback, but I had hoped for something similar. Now we don't even get animations, and it is , quite frankly, the thing that spoils my immersion of The Witcher 3 the most. I love the game, but am disappointed that one of the most witchery things has disappeared altogether.

 

[shabushabu]

the w1 system was my favourite as well , the odd thing tough is that the devs "cheated" their own system within the gameplay because in many situations it doesnt make any sense that gerald meditates from a narrative perspective. In quests where gerald has to hurry for some reason, it just refills automatically just going to the icon. thats just bad :/

I mean the foundations are in the gameworld, so much loot , guess somebody has to mod to disable auto refill and change the alchemy script into the crafting one, if its even possible . But even then it would not be as much in depth like in w1 ( alcohol quality , rubedo,nigredo combinations etc....) Hoping ones the kit is out, it would be possible to make a indepth w1 like alchemy mod.

 

[warbaby2]

I agree that the alchemy system is... different. Like other things in the game, it doesn't quite make sense when looking at the game systems as a whole, and thus seams like a change that came later in the dev-cycle. The abundance of ingrediants in the world would speak to the fact that it originally was a proper crafting system. As it stands right now though, it's a) kinda immersion breaking and b) makes loot seam even more as simple padding. Right now, roughly 50% of all loot is just fancy vendor trash.

My suggestion: Change alchemy system in a way it needs alcohol and some ingredients... not all of those you needed when first making an item, but some. Also, don't make them auto refilling. Same goes for armor and weapons, by he way. They should break completely if they aren't maintained regularly.

TL; DR: Alchemy needs work - loot should be meaningful, not just fancy vendor trash.

Also: Drinking animations are kinda missing... but I gues they took them out because Geralt can also eat food/drink other stuff now.

 

[Faltus]

Again, it doesn't solve the issue as a whole but you can make gathering ingredients meaningful again by throwing away empty potions, bombs and oils which in turn enables you to craft a completely new potion, bomb or oil using the required ingredients again.

It's a little bit fiddly but if you like to play the traditional way this is it.

 

[draconis184]

And most of the potions are just plain useless. All I ever needed was tawny owl, swallow and thunderbolt. It's pretty irritating how you can only put 2 potions at anytime. Then you have to open up inventory to change.
The autorefill is just... I don't know what the game designers at RED were smoking. Alcohol refills bombs? Damn. Mad logic right there.

 

[BWB]

It would be nice to go into your alchemy screen and seeing you are missing a certain ingredient, mark that as a needed item, and next time when you visit a merchant that has that item, that item glows/shimmers or something.

 

[whiplash27]

The whole alcohol thing wasn't implemented all that well. There's so much alcohol in the world. However, to make White Gull, you need Cherry and Mandrake Cordials which you don't end up finding anywhere except for purchase at the taverns. Also, I haven't found one single use for beer yet. I haven't had any reason to just go and drink with people. I was hoping that they would have something similar to TW1 where you could go and have a few drinks with people to get information out of them.

 

[Darkwalker]

I fully agree with this.
I find the system to be completely backwards and illogical.

I have resorted to doing as some people here has suggested, just throw away the potions when they are "empty".
But I dont like that there is a limit to how many I can carry, I would prefer to be able to carry however many I can make.
After all I got an inventory and later get saddlebags where I could carry those potions in.
If I can carry 20 swords, 12 pairs of boots and countless herbs, why can I only carry 3 potions and 2 bombs?
That I can only equip 2 bombs and 3 potions I can accept, but I should be able to carry more in my inventory

If you ask me the whole system needs a revamp.

 

[warbaby2]

If you ask me the whole system needs a revamp.

Indeed... I am ok with the fact that I can only carry a certain number of potions on my body for use in combat (like in TW1), but the fact that we can switch gear mid combat, even that doesn't really have any impact, so, yea... please take a look at the system for EE!

 

[Faltus]

why can I only carry 3 potions and 2 bombs?

Don't quote me on that, but the enhanced and the superior version of a potion or a bomb also increase the amount of uses (enhanced -> 4/4 for potions, 3/3 for bombs, superior -> 5/5 for potions, 4/4 for bombs), I think.

---------- Updated at 03:08 PM ----------

By the way, was it mentioned somewhere (officially or unofficially) why oils are infinite and don't have any X/X uses?