The Witcher 3 Alchemy System

[Treamayne]

Just about to complete the prolog (I replayed TW1 and TW2 before playing this, so I started Witcher 3 late). My thoughts so far:

- Refilling doesn't seem bad, though the use of alcohol to refill everything seems ... odd.
- I don't mind the "uses per potion" but haven't played long enough to discover how much I will need to meditate to "refill" them
- Glad we have potion drinking outside Meditation back; but wish there was an animation, so there was a game impact if you do it in combat or too close to Monsters
- Haven't had a chance to use them, but Decoctions seem like a throwback to the "Striga's Urge" type potions in TW1. I like that there are special potions that will only be available from killing certain monsters so I look forward to testing them out.

- I dislike that some Potions seem to require purchasing ingredients (spent about 6 hours killing drowners; never got a Water Essence, never found any in the chests everyone says have them)
- I really miss the ingredient types (Aether, Vitriol, etc and Albedo, Rubedo, Nigredo - though I don't miss hearing "Hmm... maybe Rubedo" all the time <grin>)
- I dislike the "specific ingredient" for each formula
- I dislike not being able to "store" formulae and diagrams in the storage (really wish I could streamline the crafting/alchemy screens by moving to storage those tings I won't make again, or won't be making soon)
- Really wish the Meditation Screen had a simple "Use alcohol to replenish Potions" selector so it only did that when you want to (and a use "powder to replenish bomb, use Grease to replenish Oils", if they ever move those to not being refilled with liquor)
- In general I am not a fan of the Lego block crafting/alchemy system (Buy/find A, use it to craft B, use that to craft c so I can finally make X which is all I wanted in the first place.I know that affects crafting more than alchemy, but it's still there. Really, why force me to use 2 alcohols to make a third alcohol, to make White Gull to make X. Isn't White Gull supposed to be an alcohol replacement anyway?

- After TW1 had potions last too long and TW2 had them be too short, I really expected this to be more median in the potion length. Sadly disappointed though.
About to finish the prologue, so I may have more thoughts after some more game time.

 

[Richiesname]

Just about to complete the prolog (I replayed TW1 and TW2 before playing this, so I started Witcher 3 late). My thoughts so far:

- Refilling doesn't seem bad, though the use of alcohol to refill everything seems ... odd.
- I don't mind the "uses per potion" but haven't played long enough to discover how much I will need to meditate to "refill" them
- Glad we have potion drinking outside Meditation back; but wish there was an animation, so there was a game impact if you do it in combat or too close to Monsters
- Haven't had a chance to use them, but Decoctions seem like a throwback to the "Striga's Urge" type potions in TW1. I like that there are special potions that will only be available from killing certain monsters so I look forward to testing them out.

- I dislike that some Potions seem to require purchasing ingredients (spent about 6 hours killing drowners; never got a Water Essence, never found any in the chests everyone says have them)
- I really miss the ingredient types (Aether, Vitriol, etc and Albedo, Rubedo, Nigredo - though I don't miss hearing "Hmm... maybe Rubedo" all the time <grin>)
- I dislike the "specific ingredient" for each formula
- I dislike not being able to "store" formulae and diagrams in the storage (really wish I could streamline the crafting/alchemy screens by moving to storage those tings I won't make again, or won't be making soon)
- Really wish the Meditation Screen had a simple "Use alcohol to replenish Potions" selector so it only did that when you want to (and a use "powder to replenish bomb, use Grease to replenish Oils", if they ever move those to not being refilled with liquor)
- In general I am not a fan of the Lego block crafting/alchemy system (Buy/find A, use it to craft B, use that to craft c so I can finally make X which is all I wanted in the first place.I know that affects crafting more than alchemy, but it's still there. Really, why force me to use 2 alcohols to make a third alcohol, to make White Gull to make X. Isn't White Gull supposed to be an alcohol replacement anyway?

- After TW1 had potions last too long and TW2 had them be too short, I really expected this to be more median in the potion length. Sadly disappointed though.
About to finish the prologue, so I may have more thoughts after some more game time.

Pretty succinct and well-thought-out. If you play on PC, I recommend getting a mod to re-balance your alchemy. Makes the game so much better, IMO.

 

[shnabeltasse]

- After TW1 had potions last too long and TW2 had them be too short, I really expected this to be more median in the potion length. Sadly disappointed though.
About to finish the prologue, so I may have more thoughts after some more game time.

I think the game does well regarding the duration of potions. The alchemy tree improves the duration by 5% on each skill per point spent, iirc. I skilled only 2 features there and the potion duration was sufficent for the eintire time.

I totally forgot about refilling mechanic of witcher potions. Alkohest is the default refill option, although regualr dwarven schnaps willsuffice. I wished there was a toggle option to choose which kind of refill ingredient is used by default or as you mentioned, indiviual toggles.

I ended up with ~200 dwarven schnaps catching dust in my inventory, since alkohest was used all the time. Maybe link it to meditation time, like regualr alcohol needs more time to refill your potuions, while alkohest will do it at once.There is one sidequest I encountered which, once started, needs you to complete it within a certain time. I wanted to do it and meditated for 1 ingame hour as I was lvl. 5 and intended to engage a pack of lvl 10 wild dogs. The quest failed.

 

[wolfheart14]

And now you plan to change every aspect of the devs vision for the witcher 3 Wild Hunt ....So in fact nothing is good in this game cause you wanna change everything ....So it isn't more important matters? I understand you want some things different...But this poll is ridiculous.No offence.
I want this reffill system.
Nobody wanted Arena , A lot of noise for NG+ , but no.....you want alchemy sistem like the witcher 2 , you want combat from witcher 2 , you want to keep gwent cards in ng+ , you want larger variety of monsters , you want harder difficulty . Have you noticed that it isn't monster finisher or sign finisher? Instead you are preocupied of the refilling potions . I think you must realize that they won't change every shit only they will nerf or boost something .
But common you have a problem with autoreffiling of potions?????
You are used to ask every shit from CDPR.At least it should be more decency on this forum and in your request .

 

[shnabeltasse]

No, they won't change every shit, but you can make suggestions. Which one they want to choose or not, is their headache. Providing a ton of feedback gives them the option on using some improvements. They don't have to do it but suggestions don't hurt.

p.s.: inventory mechanic seems functional, but not visionary and could use some improvements.

 

[wolfheart14]

No, they won't change every shit, but you can make suggestions. Which one they want to choose or not, is their headache. Providing a ton of feedback gives them the option on using some improvements. They don't have to do it but suggestions don't hurt.

As a sugestion is decent .My post is to enlarge your view in some matters ...do not take it hard.

 

[shnabeltasse]

As a sugestion is decent .

As I did even on other topics along with many other users. Just so you know, I actually find this community far more decent than other game's communities. And because of the quality product, which is this game, I actually can't think of any change which really destroyed it, only improves on a higher scale. If you addressed my posts specifically then I have to say I had no intentions to sound demanding. I only want to do what everybody does on a forum. Exchanging thoughts and ideas.

 

[wolfheart14]

Exchanging thoughts and ideas.

Understood...fair enough but if you dig the whole forum you will read some ridiculous things . The reason of my post was to remind all of a bigger point of view /picture ....do not take it that hard.
To the matters ....maybe the game difficulty will increase so the automatic refill is verry good , do not think that all ppl want to chang it and beeing like in witcher 1 or 2 .I like it how it is now.

 

[LionOfVenice]

I like the auto refill sistem. There is already a boatload of things to do in the game, so it's one less thing to be worried about.

 

[Stotin]

One of the reasons behind this is that with the open world it quickly became a pain to go really far to grab that one plant you need for a potion. If it’s a potion you use often there is no challenge in that, it’s just annoying. So instead the challenge shifts to when you first make it, the ingredients are not easy to find, but once you have learned to make it you’re good and you can refill it. This doesn’t get rid of the challenge at all; like I said we’ve just shifted it to the initial crafting phase of the potion rather than have pointless repetitiveness. It’s much better and fits our world.

Why wouldn't they make the ingredients interchangeable, just like in The Witcher 1? :question:

 

[jj284b]

It would be much better to rework potion recipies so they require alchemy ingredients only (quebirth, vermilion, rubedo etc...), while plants would be needed to create those ingrediences. then, you wouldnt need replenishing system at all, and player would just make potions he wants... all he would need is alcohol, which needs to be much rarer than it is right now... seriously, if alcohol was laying around like it is in Witcher 3, whole population of that world would be completely drunk... alcohol for free everywhere... who needs taverns?

 

[moonknightgog]

Why wouldn't they make the ingredients interchangeable, just like in The Witcher 1? :question:

That's the key. In The Witcher 1 there wasn't any kind of grinding.
Take a look at this.

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/552/?

 

[Triss.Hasengold]

I use this Alchemy mod and it is fine and nicely done!
The only problem is that there is autorefill only when "Strong Alcohol" is brewed and in the items, and this strong alcohol must always be brewed again from other very special alcohols you always have to buy again and again.
But that is not the problem - the problem is that Geralt just don`t get any money from nowhere (when not cheating or not using some exploits), selling stuff is extremely cheap and almost worthless now, and it is not easy buy this special Alraune Liqueur which is the new basic stuff for almost everything with this mod (White Gull, Strong Alcohol and many more) for 170 crones again and again and again when there just isn`t any money nowhere.

Otherwise really nice mod, but you should cheat maybe 1000 crownes and add 10 Alraune Liqueurs otherwise you just can`t refill the potions.

 

[Yeiiow]

That's the key. In The Witcher 1 there wasn't any kind of grinding.
Take a look of this.

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/552/?

That sounds like a dream come true!

 

[bloodraven72]

Alchemy in TW1 was amazing, after TW2 became almost useless and in 3 pointless since the effects just last 30 seconds and blade coatings only 10%

 

[e6chan]

i'm really not a fan of the alchemy/oil/bomb system in W3. right now it's overly complex for little benefit-- hard to find the materials, other than through collecting everything you can possibly get your hands on and hoping that you'll get something out of it.

that's even more true for oils-- benefit is ridiculously low.

i can see it getting more useful if more ability slots were opened up, but i'm really loathe to put points/ability slots into it when there's huge benefits to adding the fast attack/adrenaline lines instead.

also on a somewhat unrelated note, runemaster is very weak for the exorbitant price.

 

[moonknightgog]

i'm really not a fan of the alchemy/oil/bomb system in W3. right now it's overly complex for little benefit-- hard to find the materials, other than through collecting everything you can possibly get your hands on and hoping that you'll get something out of it.

that's even more true for oils-- benefit is ridiculously low.

i can see it getting more useful if more ability slots were opened up, but i'm really loathe to put points/ability slots into it when there's huge benefits to adding the fast attack/adrenaline lines instead.

also on a somewhat unrelated note, runemaster is very weak for the exorbitant price.

Overly complex? It's just find the materials (which you find everywhere or you can buy) and then press E to create your potion. After that, you have nothing left to do.

It's over simplified, and it's bad.

 

[Mohasz]

Now that we've all played the game (some might've even forget about it by now), I really have to say I do like the auto-refilling mechanic. I mean for me personally, it would be an absolute pain in the arse having to gather the ingredients for the potions/bombs each time I'd like to use them. I'd probably end up using none, or just a very few essential ones. Being able to upgrade each of them multiple times for more resources is more than enough to scratch my 'grinding itch'. I think it was a great design choice by CDPR, especially since the game doesn't have a 'botanical guide' (too bad) on where to look for specific ingredients.

 

[StormKorp]

I also prefer auto-refilling. To search for the exact plants EVERY TIME would be a pain the neck. I like it how it is now. You have to brew potions once and you are set.

 

[moonknightgog]

Now that we've all played the game (some might've even forget about it by now), I really have to say I do like the auto-refilling mechanic. I mean for me personally, it would be an absolute pain in the arse having to gather the ingredients for the potions/bombs each time I'd like to use them. I'd probably end up using none, or just a very few essential ones. Being able to upgrade each of them multiple times for more resources is more than enough to scratch my 'grinding itch'. I think it was a great design choice by CDPR, especially since the game doesn't have a 'botanical guide' (too bad) on where to look for specific ingredients.

Yeah, because now every potion requires specific ingredients.
It wasn't like this in The Witcher 1 or 2. You could use different ingredients for the same potion. The auto-refill in The Witcher 3 is meant to solve a problem which has been introduced in...The Witcher 3. Makes no sense.

---------- Updated at 01:56 PM ----------

To search for the exact plants EVERY TIME would be a pain the neck.

I agree. But it wansn't like this in the previous games.

I like it how it is now. You have to brew potions once and you are set.

Isn't this boring?