Devlog 3. Complete Alchemy Overhaul
Greetings!
Based on feedback, the alchemy mini-game was visually appealing, but not in terms of gameplay - essentially there was no real mini-game, it was boring routine without excitement or challenge, plus it was poorly understood what to do at all.
The draft solution suggested several options - auto-brewing, combining all stages into one, or simply adding certain items that would increase the number of potions per brew. But I considered this to look like a placeholder designed to skip a boring element, and I don't want anything to be boring and routine.
It was decided to completely redesign the potion crafting system!
✨Quality mechanic will be added. Quality will affect the number of potions you can get from one mini-game. There will be 5 quality thresholds in total. From "you failed to brew anything and lost the ingredients" to "Wow, you managed to brew 4 potions!". Following the recipe will still be important.
📌Key Points :
🏁At the beginning, if you try really hard, you can create 2 potions.
💵To balance the new system, ingredient prices will be increased.
📚New books will be added - Alchemy for Beginners Volume 1 and Volume 2. They are designed to make it easier to achieve quality thresholds. For now, as purchasable items, but later moved to quests.
⏱️Approximate potion creation time - 50 seconds. However, reaching the highest threshold will reduce this time (but not the number of stages). Books will also affect crafting speed
ℹ️Indication will be added for the current round, which potion the recipe is for, and which ingredients have been placed in the cauldron.
❓A detailed in-game FAQ will be created - so it's clear what's what.
Why I believe this is important - well, first of all, this is one of the core mini-games I have bigger plans for, and while only 4 recipes are available now, over time this number will grow. And if it's already boring by the 4-5th brew, imagine what happens later.
The number of characters, quests, and events where potions can be used will also grow. And sitting there crafting one potion at a time is very boring. With the addition of the new potion crafting system, this process will become more interesting, more challenging, and more rewarding. In the end, this makes character progression more accessible.
Excited to bring you this improved system! More updates coming soon.
And next week? Something juicier 🍓
P.S. What you see in the screenshot isn't final, just an early mockup.