Hi,
I'm an old mo1 player, and one of its first alchemist.
i was the guy who posted a video of a working healing potion, just because i was tired of 'elite pvpers' pissing on starvault for alchemy 'not working for years' ... while it was working ...
there was no alchemist then, because :
1) you could loot small potions from risars
2) the amount of time you need to craft a good amount was atrocious for the gain ... you couldn't sell 10g+ small potions ...
3) there was ZERO market for most multipliers for healing potions, so you had to get everything yourself : remember alchemy is based on secrets, so you can't really ask people to gather huge amount of weird useless/rare stuff like that without revealing it to the clever.
But at one point, small pots weren't droppable anymore, and ingredients were made public.
I stopped playing around mana potion introduction if i remember correctly, just after tapii transmutation release.
there was then direct healing potion and purify potions.
for HoT potions ... just try to get thymus ... and back then values were in form of sliders ... so good luck to catch a 5% increase while multiplier hunting (base values were very small)...
Henrik claims players only found 1% of recipes ... and there was some rumors about stat potions at one point ... but there also was zero in-game clues about special potions (stats, invisibility, underwater etc ...) to get you started in any direction.
there was simply too many combinations to try, blindly, with horrible UI / banking.
all that except if stuff was improved after i left.
there was three major problems:
I] bank space
in alchemy you could use everything, so to check combinations who would trigger a new effect (like underwater breathing), you would have to stock amounts of everything ... every carcass, every meat, every mineral, every metal, every wood, every fruit, every juice, every oil, every seeds, every plant, every flour ... every THING.
-> i was using multiple trial accounts + pets just for storage near the bank, and dual boxing to trade. this was just a logistic nightmare : just to experiment, and search for hidden stuff.
solution: master alchemists could buy special bank spaces (a separate bank), where you would store 1 stack of each usable in alchemy only. You wouldn't be able to store anything else in those, and very few people will make an alchemist anyway, so it wouldn't be a server load at all ... since it wouldn't be available for newbs alchemists and other professions.
(you could however do the same thing for cooks, who have similar issues)
II] blind search for hidden effects
in mo1, before purify potions effect who actually told you a special reaction occurred, i wasn't even sure if i had to time myself at how fast i was drowning, at each blind combo potion i was trying ... to check for 1 sec extension in underwater breathing ...
there was no ingame clue, no nothing ... just henrik saying most stuff hasn't been found yet ...
While henrik is still proud to announce the X billions of combinations for alchemy, he fails to see it is actually its own downfall if there is no HOT/COLD system to steer you in the right direction ... for it is impossible to find new stuff randomly, unless the recipe is ultra simple, like the purify pot was.
the system needs a HOT/COLD system to steer you in the right direction ... and i want a difficult one, not an easy mechanic that spoils everything.
you could have weird messages when you get 'close' to something, like:
- "some sort of feint reaction occurred for a second"
- "the mixture built up some heat at reaction"
- "smoke is emanating for the mixture"
stuff like that, to show you something is near. and you could add different degrees of smoke / heat / etc to show how close or how far you are from it.
Well how to calculate how far you are from it?
@ imagine you would need 33%jadeite + 33%pirus + 33%ironsilk to obtain an underwater breathing effect.
then:
- if you have 2 of the three ingredients, with it representing more than 80% of the mixture (not too much dilution), it could 'smoke at reaction'.
- if you added ingredient who contains the right ingredient, for example you added spiderqueen carcass instead of ironsilk(contained in spider queen carcass), then the mixture could 'heat at reaction'.
- if you have the right ingredient but out of range of proportion, the mixture could do 'X' at reaction.
- if you added something of the same type, like another fruit instead of pirus, the mixture could do 'X' at reaction.
something in that regard.
III] retroactivity
you try 1 million unsuccessful combinations, you are organized, and you cross all it from the realm of possibilities.
then a new expansion comes out ... and there is new type of potions to be found ...
do you have to retry everything all over ... again ... blindly ... at every major patch ? if new secrets potions would be even mentioned in patch notes ...
that's fun.
solution: well new secrets recipes down the road would have ingame clues, in new dungeons / npc discussions / book etc ... that would give away clues about one of the basic ingredient / mechanic.
conclusion :
this can't stay the same as mo1 anyway, or it won't rise above it.
this shouldn't be the nightmare it was in mo1 ...
and yes i searched everywhere in the world for clues, even in weird places, and i tried every combination of plants i saw in special npc garden & stuff, nothing there without an HOT/COLD system.
I'm an old mo1 player, and one of its first alchemist.
i was the guy who posted a video of a working healing potion, just because i was tired of 'elite pvpers' pissing on starvault for alchemy 'not working for years' ... while it was working ...
there was no alchemist then, because :
1) you could loot small potions from risars
2) the amount of time you need to craft a good amount was atrocious for the gain ... you couldn't sell 10g+ small potions ...
3) there was ZERO market for most multipliers for healing potions, so you had to get everything yourself : remember alchemy is based on secrets, so you can't really ask people to gather huge amount of weird useless/rare stuff like that without revealing it to the clever.
But at one point, small pots weren't droppable anymore, and ingredients were made public.
I stopped playing around mana potion introduction if i remember correctly, just after tapii transmutation release.
there was then direct healing potion and purify potions.
for HoT potions ... just try to get thymus ... and back then values were in form of sliders ... so good luck to catch a 5% increase while multiplier hunting (base values were very small)...
Henrik claims players only found 1% of recipes ... and there was some rumors about stat potions at one point ... but there also was zero in-game clues about special potions (stats, invisibility, underwater etc ...) to get you started in any direction.
there was simply too many combinations to try, blindly, with horrible UI / banking.
all that except if stuff was improved after i left.
there was three major problems:
I] bank space
in alchemy you could use everything, so to check combinations who would trigger a new effect (like underwater breathing), you would have to stock amounts of everything ... every carcass, every meat, every mineral, every metal, every wood, every fruit, every juice, every oil, every seeds, every plant, every flour ... every THING.
-> i was using multiple trial accounts + pets just for storage near the bank, and dual boxing to trade. this was just a logistic nightmare : just to experiment, and search for hidden stuff.
solution: master alchemists could buy special bank spaces (a separate bank), where you would store 1 stack of each usable in alchemy only. You wouldn't be able to store anything else in those, and very few people will make an alchemist anyway, so it wouldn't be a server load at all ... since it wouldn't be available for newbs alchemists and other professions.
(you could however do the same thing for cooks, who have similar issues)
II] blind search for hidden effects
in mo1, before purify potions effect who actually told you a special reaction occurred, i wasn't even sure if i had to time myself at how fast i was drowning, at each blind combo potion i was trying ... to check for 1 sec extension in underwater breathing ...
there was no ingame clue, no nothing ... just henrik saying most stuff hasn't been found yet ...
While henrik is still proud to announce the X billions of combinations for alchemy, he fails to see it is actually its own downfall if there is no HOT/COLD system to steer you in the right direction ... for it is impossible to find new stuff randomly, unless the recipe is ultra simple, like the purify pot was.
the system needs a HOT/COLD system to steer you in the right direction ... and i want a difficult one, not an easy mechanic that spoils everything.
you could have weird messages when you get 'close' to something, like:
- "some sort of feint reaction occurred for a second"
- "the mixture built up some heat at reaction"
- "smoke is emanating for the mixture"
stuff like that, to show you something is near. and you could add different degrees of smoke / heat / etc to show how close or how far you are from it.
Well how to calculate how far you are from it?
@ imagine you would need 33%jadeite + 33%pirus + 33%ironsilk to obtain an underwater breathing effect.
then:
- if you have 2 of the three ingredients, with it representing more than 80% of the mixture (not too much dilution), it could 'smoke at reaction'.
- if you added ingredient who contains the right ingredient, for example you added spiderqueen carcass instead of ironsilk(contained in spider queen carcass), then the mixture could 'heat at reaction'.
- if you have the right ingredient but out of range of proportion, the mixture could do 'X' at reaction.
- if you added something of the same type, like another fruit instead of pirus, the mixture could do 'X' at reaction.
something in that regard.
III] retroactivity
you try 1 million unsuccessful combinations, you are organized, and you cross all it from the realm of possibilities.
then a new expansion comes out ... and there is new type of potions to be found ...
do you have to retry everything all over ... again ... blindly ... at every major patch ? if new secrets potions would be even mentioned in patch notes ...
that's fun.
solution: well new secrets recipes down the road would have ingame clues, in new dungeons / npc discussions / book etc ... that would give away clues about one of the basic ingredient / mechanic.
conclusion :
this can't stay the same as mo1 anyway, or it won't rise above it.
this shouldn't be the nightmare it was in mo1 ...
and yes i searched everywhere in the world for clues, even in weird places, and i tried every combination of plants i saw in special npc garden & stuff, nothing there without an HOT/COLD system.
Last edited: