We actually have not seen the alchemy screen yet, so we don't know how exactly the ingredients work, is it more like W2 or like W1. This could have significant effect on the system and add depth to it.
Not reallly..... I mean what are you imagining it will be? Even if the system is like the one in TW1 it still is fact that you only have to brew each potion type 1 time.
So..... I don't see what serious difference this would make.
From what we've seen so far, drinking a potion increases toxicity that slowly goes down as the potion expires, but I'm not sure if mutagens also add to the toxicity. You could turn out to have used several mutagens that could increase your base toxicity to a level that allows you to use only some potions, thus making you decide which is more important, a mutagen or a potion that could save your life..
According to several statements of the developers you can only take 1 mutagenic potion at a time and it will increase your toxicity A LOT and will last until you cancel the effect in the meditation screen.
Also creating the mutagens will also require resources, every time you change the mutagen I believe, but I might be wrong on this one. So there will go some of your resources, you might find yourself in a situation when you have found some rare ingredient, but both a mutagen and a potion need it, so which way do you go, especially when you don't know when or if you will find more from it.
Yeah, maybe about 2 or 3 times in the entire game. That is a rare situation considering you only need to brew a potion once and then you have it unlocked and also considering you can only take 1 mutagen at a time and that you will use your mutagens with care and also that mutagens need most probably some additional rare ingredients to do.
Look, I like the whole mutagenic potion thing, I really do. But if all that is really "tactical" about alchemy is only about which mutagens you use when and that you have to brew mutagens (which do not auto-refill) than that is just not enough for me, especially if mutagen effects hold until I cancel it in meditation.
Also you'll be able to experiment with the potions recipes, which to me is way more interesting way to engage the player. You can play around experimenting/wasting resources hoping for a better version of a known potion, I hope that there might be some secret recipes that you can't just buy the recipe from, but only achievable through experiments or just being lucky, you know, a pinch of this, a pinch of that, voila.
That might be true and if it is that way I appreciate it and would find it a great addition. Still, it doesn't make up from the other changes and the general complexity of alchemy we had previously.
Having a limited potion uses also adds to the tactical aspect in my opinion, during battle you have a limited resource set that you need to use in the best way possible. I don't see auto refill taking away from that, what it does is removing the manual task of brewing again the potions you use.
It doesn't take away from that specifically, but for example the "no drinking animation" does take away. Even if you ignore this what auto-refill takes away is a huge part of the resource management and clever decision making when you prepare potions. Sure, you still have to choose which potions to take into your potion-quick-usage pouch but the actual resource and asset management of which potions to make when and how many of them is falling flat. You just have ALL the potions you ever made in your inventory and always at your disposal as long as you have enough alcohol to refill them.
At first I was against the refill, because I didn't know how the potions would be, but after seeing them in action, significant effect with a short duration, I changed my mind a bit. If there is no refill, you'll need to constantly gather resources to have sufficient potions. This could turn of players from using potions, they won't bother to gather resources or just hesitate to use them, especially if it is one that needs something rare, which would be bad.
You find this very rare ingredient and make a potion, that you can use once, so when do you use it? DO you wait for a boss? But which boss? You start to wait for the best moment to use it and end up not using it all, not fun, right?
Okay first that's your problem, if you do that you are clearly an individual which has problems making decisions which is bad for playing a game like The Witcher anyway. But aside from that the decision to not take said potion often comes from the fact that you do not really NEED potions to succeed, which might or might not change with TW3 based on how they make monsters and based on how the player himself plays the game (does he face off against higher-level monsters or not? etc.).
That problem will not be solved by auto-refill. All auto-refill does is giving you an unlimited supply of this "powerful" potion which means you become Overpowered. Additionally, most of the time you KNOW when a boss comes. You don't know how hard he is sure, but in my experience at least in TW games if you take a powerful potion before a boss you will not feel like you have wasted the potion even if you might have gotten through without it, that goes double for facing enemies above your current level. You have to use the potions at one time, no need storing them up. The toxicity system already shows you you can only save up so many potions since you can only take a said number at a time anyway. That is a mere player-problem and auto-refill will NOT solve this.
Making more powerful potions being unlimited in supply tones down difficulty significantly and is just in itself a contradiction to any balancing, it's working AGAINST the balancing of any game.
If you hesitate to use a potion that is solely YOUR problem. Part of the game is to learn to properly evaluate situations and enemies in order to get yourself through the game. The game is teaching you to analyze and familiarize yourself with the world you are playing in. Auto-Refill just destroys that by making you OP and giving you TOO MANY options to deal with a situation.
Another unknown are the potions themselves. What they are, what they do, what they need, how useful they are or are they just there for the count.
I hope the potions to provide variety and choice, so that you are not stuck with only 2-3 potions for the whole game.
Me too, because that is were TW2 was a little bit bad. TW1 properly supported a (small) variety of playsyles with different potion types while TW2 had only 3 or 4 really usable potions that you would take regularly.
There are 4 possibilities:
1. The variety is good and potions are reasonably weak so that good combinations have to be used to lead to significant combat improvements
2. The variety is low and potions are strong which means that auto-refill will overpower you beyond measure
3. The variety is good and potions are strong which means you will be overpowered on a lot of different levels based on which potions you choose
4. Variety is low and potions are weak which would mean that the potion system will probably not be used much
As for me, I'm hoping for Nr. 1, because anything else would break the game. But even with that you have to be careful, because as far as we know so far all potions refill automatically which means once you "unlocked" upgraded potions they serve like a buff rather than consumables and you can use them anytime which means you will get too OP at one point. Add to that the fact that the skill tree will probably also boost your power, even if a majority of the skills might be not stats-related and you might end up having a game that might be too hard for a casual gamer on high difficulty levels, but way too easy for someone like me.
I think you are being way too pessimistic. What you say is true for the most part, but while some things may sound good in theory, but balancing the game and the fun factor can be very hard and in practice could turn out to be boring/tedious.
You have your mind set and it seems the only thing that could change that is just playing the game and experiencing the new system for yourself.
I don't even think that could change my opinion if the game does not surprise me BIG time with some hidden fact or feature that completely changes the nature of the system we know of.
I wouldn't even say I am pessimistic. 3 months ago or so I still saw hope, thought maybe I understood it wrong, or don't know a special detail that changes things or maybe they still add to the system. But the game is as good as finished now, no gameplay changes are made anymore and they explained the system thoroughly multiple times (at least enough to make yourself a picture of it and count in all (positive and negative) possibilities of the effects it could have in the final game on immersion and other gameplay elements and systems).
What I see here is a simplified system for the sake of bringing fun to newcomers and casual gamers, to reduce the annoyance of some people to have to gather herbs all the time (although that was never anything that you had to SET OUT to do since you did it along the way anyway), to stop people from hoarding potions or herbs (which they do anyway) for the price of potentially making the player overpowered and eliminating all tactical resource management and asset decision elements which have previously been part of the games alchemy/potion system.
It might be entertaining to a degree, what I am saying is I am disappointed since some of the core ideas (mutagenic potions, upgradable versions for potions, multiple uses of one potion vial, etc) seem very good but they managed to dump down a game system that I really liked in the complexity it was in TW1 for example, although there could have been a lot alternative middle-ground solutions that might have achieved (almost) the same thing while keeping the complexity and entertainment factor of the alchemy system that some of us like so much (and without having to use auto-refill)
EDIT: Not to mention that Bombs are also auto-refilled which is ridiculous...... It's like making crafting automatic.
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