Alchemy Records

[Melendil]

Hi fellow alchemists! A discussion that comes up fairly frequently is whether we should keep complete records of all our discoveries so that the guild can collectively progress, or whether that ruins the research gameplay that comes with being an alchemist. So I figured I'd run a poll to get an idea of the broad opinion. I won't expect anyone to start or stop recording their discoveries and I certainly won't be making any rules or anything like that IC. This is just to get an idea of how people feel about recording formulas.

Any other input or viewpoints would also be welcome

[FainWelkin]

I'd like to see the guild break this cycle of periodically losing large parts of its hard-won secret knowledge and falling back into a dark age whenever an old master leaves. I don't know a better way to do this currently than recording our discoveries for posterity, so that's what I'll be doing. And I'd encourage others to do the same.

I understand there is some concern about preserving the gameplay of the research process for future generations. My concern is: is it really worth preserving? Research is such a frustratingly slow, boring, painful process, not to mention a largely blind one without the hints from the guild NPCs. Stumbling upon a meaningful formula without a hint seems as though it would take an excessive amount of luck.

If changes were made to the research process, such as the universal perfect ingredient suggestion Melendil posted about before, perhaps I'd feel differently about leaving some mystery to the system. Another decent change might be buying personal research from the guild staff. Instead of influencing the guild-wide hint, have it be much quicker and be a mail sent to the character within an OOC day or two.