Alchemy

[Aveline]

Alchemy is a fantabulous way for wizards to get some hard to find and expensive components. However, does it really have to be such a pain? I don't want it to be super super easy, but at the moment if a wizard wants to create a jacinth gem they will need six positive shards, and six fire shards. Now, IF you know where all the formations are, you MIGHT be able to get them all in just one day. So, you set off to travel, and some of the places are quite dangerous. Once you get there, you have to pick at the durned things, and you have to have a ridiculous amount of dexterity to get even one from the formation without breaking it.

I don't want you to be able to just pick five shards off of a formation, but I do find it a little ridiculous that with Gesine, I rarely can get more than one, even as completely beefed up on slinkiness and luck that I can get her. And most characters will not be able to get that beefed up if they can even get to the formations to try to pick at them. I'd like to see it take slightly less than the amount of dexterity it takes right now. Maybe there is more at work than just dexterity.. I don't know. Or perhaps just raise the number of times you can attempt at each formation.

Knowing where every formation is, it happens a lot that I can visit them all and not have enough shards to make anything at all. That wouldn't be so bad, but it takes FOREVER to visit them all (well over an hour). Even if you have help and are taking turns with the picking. Because it also takes a ridiculous amount of stamina to mine these suckers (The main characters that will use these things are not muscle heads, and you cannot pay young impressionable characters enough to make them do it for you, I've tried). We aren't mining.. it should take some stamina, but not as much as it would take someone slamming a pick at a rock wall over and over. And now with the changes to fly, unless the formations are right next to each other (I can only think of one case off hand where this happens) you can only pick at one formation at a time without having to rest.

I would like to see a few things, not all would have to be done, but it just seems like it takes an extreme amount of effort to go through and as it stands right now when you are done you might not even be able to make one component. I do not like everything being changed to make things easier in the game, I like for things to be challenging, but even I think that if you spend over an hour, you should have at least worked hard enough to get one stinking gem out of it. And if you were wanting to put an enchantment on something... oi boy, it could take even longer.


1. Reduce (by a small amount) the dexterity it takes to pick a shard (Or raise the number of possible attempts at each location)

2. Reduce the amount of stamina it uses to pick at the formations!! You have to spend a ton of stamina picking and then a ton of stamina traveling.

3. Add new formations (Or reduce the amount of time it takes for the formations to refill themselves). Or do both!!

4. Add a quest to learn alchemy. (I would be more than happy to write this if someone would be willing to code it). Players would still be able to teach it to other players, but at the moment it can be a pickle to get a board and to find someone willing to spend the time to teach you.

5. Add other combinations to the board (Shining pink gems, black onyx gems.. um.. I'm sure there are others that would be appropriate)

[Anguin]

I'm not sure why people are having a hard time with shards. I have a pretty average dexterity (12) and I almost always get good shards. My success rate so far is 90%. Of course, I just started harvesting (18 of twenty total attempts successful). Maybe I'm just lucky?

[Nysan]

I agree that the difficulty of using Alchemy makes it less than desirable. Shards are rather annoying to attain in any decent amount. One formation, I can get all 5 shards and the next 3 formations I get maybe 1 shard per formation. The Dex check is a harsh lady, especially for anyone that does not have easy access to stat spells. Heck, someone asked Gilain to make 10 of each alchemy gem the other day... I fell out of my chair laughing at the time that would take to complete.

Stamina... no real opinion. I see it comparable to the amount used during mining, which makes sense to me.

New formations, can't argue against that.

Gilain tries to teach, time permitting, but there is only so many hours in the day and there is so much for him to do while he is online that it can be hard to set up. A quest wouldn't be so bad. Boards, didn't we address this before and now it is sold in an easy to find shop?

Top three picks for new recipes: Black onyx gems, lodestones, shiny pink gems (not so much on pinkies, since mined gems are coded substitutes, except for the ruby bug).

[Aveline]

Stamina... no real opinion. I see it comparable to the amount used during mining, which makes sense to me.

Stamina would not be so bad for me if I was sitting in one spot the whole time picking at a single formation. But if you pick 5 times at a formation, then that takes up about half of Gesine's stamina (remember wizard) and then she must travel a great distance most of the time to the next formation, most of the time in unpleasant terrain. And now even flying doesn't save on stamina, so if you do have any stamina by the time you get to the next formation you certainly don't have enough stamina to get shards.

[Nysan]

Stamina... no real opinion. I see it comparable to the amount used during mining, which makes sense to me.

Stamina would not be so bad for me if I was sitting in one spot the whole time picking at a single formation. But if you pick 5 times at a formation, then that takes up about half of Gesine's stamina (remember wizard) and then she must travel a great distance most of the time to the next formation, most of the time in unpleasant terrain. And now even flying doesn't save on stamina, so if you do have any stamina by the time you get to the next formation you certainly don't have enough stamina to get shards.

As I said, not for or against it. It is comparable to mining's drain, which allows me to accept the values. Remember, Gilain walks to formations, so you won't see me complain if they lower the cost a bit.

[Algon]

Going to kind of re-open this thread with another suggestion. I completely agree that the Dex check is harsh, especially with the limited number of formations that are available at this time. Also, the max of five attempts seems to be a little on the low side to me. I would not mind seeing someone who knows the mining skill, get extra attempts according to their level of mining. Say inept can try 7 times while an expert could try 12 times and so on.

It would be nice to see a few more formation made available as well, especially in places that you do not need a group of people to even access them. I understand they are supposed to be harder to come by components, but adding a few extra places would not really offset this I think.

Thanks for reading!