[Solutions] The most complained on features of alchemy

[Hajime Wolf Demon]

chaos butterfly

These are on my list of things to complain about:

1. The crafting fail rate when crafting low and very low chance formulas at level. stressed

2. The continued scarcity of inizio formulas. After more than a year of alchemy you'd think there'd be more available, but still the only reliable method to get one is to make and open your own cases. (sort of, if you're extremely lucky or open a s**t-ton of cases) gonk

3. The level 10 alchemist reward being turned into a punishment as a response to user feedback. Originally only the first 10 alchemists to reach level 10 were to be given the Crown of the Thrice Great as a reward. The formula then only required a few components, including mostly aspiring alchemist items. After a lot of users complained they made the formula available to all level 10 alchemists but changed the formula to make it horrendously difficult and expensive instead. After spending months telling everyone they couldn't make other formulas easier because people were already working on them. stressed

Isn't gaia wonderful at responding to it's users?

[chaos butterfly]

Hajime Wolf Demon

Isn't gaia wonderful at responding to it's users?

True, well, sometimes they're good, but with alchemy not so much.

I just remembered another thing to add to the complaint list:

The lack of logic with past RIG formulas requiring 10 fails from the same rig. (Hello, diminishing returns, anyone?)

[T y l e n o l.]

the idea that some items take 5, 10, 15, or 15 of a single item as ONE PART of the formula. Hell, I think one thing needed like 50 double rainbows which were a ONE TIME FREE GRANT!?

that s**t is ridiculous.

like the pink glittering stockings need about 10 Raging Night Jewels (which aren't really being replenished)

then, the white glittering stockings need one of each color of the other stockings (which also require ten jewels of a different color)

gonk

[Larkadroid]

Crafting speed needs to be fixed or at least fix the false fail message when we go "too fast". I would much rather see the crafting speed increased as it is extremely tedious to craft components when you need a lot of them.

For example Mint Sundae Sweets requires 1,000 orb aggregates. I had enough orbs to craft all 1,000 orb aggregates. It took all afternoon to craft them as I had to wait between crafting each orb aggregate to avoid the false fails.

Why does Gaia care how fast we craft? Why make 1,000 orb aggregates required for a Mint Sundae Sweets then limit how fast we can craft them?

[Flux]

Might as well add one thing that bothers me that hasn't been mentioned yet. Apparently if you craft formulas below your level, the odds are better, which makes sense since I can craft Very Low odd formulas in one try if they are from the early levels. However, it bothers me that the formulas themselves do not reflect the improved odds. Even at my current level ( cool a cache or case has Very Low odds, I wish they would show the new odds in case I decide to craft other formulas whose odds aren't so obvious.

Example: Recently I crafted two Hermes Moon items, one level below mine with Medium odds. The first Hermes Moon took me three attempts to craft, which leads me to think that being one level above the formula doesn't improve the odds that much. Would like to know how good they are, probably High since I am one level above the formula level, but for now is just speculation.

[Zzyli]

Flux

Might as well add one thing that bothers me that hasn't been mentioned yet. Apparently if you craft formulas below your level, the odds are better, which makes sense since I can craft Very Low odd formulas in one try if they are from the early levels. However, it bothers me that the formulas themselves do not reflect the improved odds. Even at my current level ( cool a cache or case has Very Low odds, I wish they would show the new odds in case I decide to craft other formulas whose odds aren't so obvious.

Example: Recently I crafted two Hermes Moon items, one level below mine with Medium odds. The first Hermes Moon took me three attempts to craft, which leads me to think that being one level above the formula doesn't improve the odds that much. Would like to know how good they are, probably High since I am one level above the formula level, but for now is just speculation.

Zzyli - Zzy as in Xylophone, Li as in leaf

I've been collecting a bit of data on that (as you would know), though I haven't had sufficient crafts at medium odds to actually have any reliable data. Average number of crafts required at Very Low one level up is comparable to required crafts at High at level. But Gaia is a massive troll and I too have found that RNGs are not my friend.

Things that I would love to have fixed in the Alchemy system? The massive disparity of crafting costs between users (especially at Low & Very Low odds). 30+ attempts at something which to the best of my knowledge has a model of about 1/10 odds of success is not cool or fun.

Sustainable pathways for Alchemy Exclusive items. I don't really care that much about pre-existing items as I understand that if they made those too easy it could wreak merry havoc with the economy, (though I wonder why on earth they made such absurd formulae in the first place), but I know that irreplaceable components are being used, or the flow of items in isn't sufficiently topping up the flow of items out (Night Jewels for Glittering Stockings anyone?).

I feel like there's more I want to say, but I can't think of it at present, so I'll probably come back & edit this post or add another later on.

Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative...

[Flux]

Zzyli

Flux

Might as well add one thing that bothers me that hasn't been mentioned yet. Apparently if you craft formulas below your level, the odds are better, which makes sense since I can craft Very Low odd formulas in one try if they are from the early levels. However, it bothers me that the formulas themselves do not reflect the improved odds. Even at my current level ( cool a cache or case has Very Low odds, I wish they would show the new odds in case I decide to craft other formulas whose odds aren't so obvious.

Example: Recently I crafted two Hermes Moon items, one level below mine with Medium odds. The first Hermes Moon took me three attempts to craft, which leads me to think that being one level above the formula doesn't improve the odds that much. Would like to know how good they are, probably High since I am one level above the formula level, but for now is just speculation.

Zzyli - Zzy as in Xylophone, Li as in leaf

I've been collecting a bit of data on that (as you would know), though I haven't had sufficient crafts at medium odds to actually have any reliable data. Average number of crafts required at Very Low one level up is comparable to required crafts at High at level. But Gaia is a massive troll and I too have found that RNGs are not my friend.

Things that I would love to have fixed in the Alchemy system? The massive disparity of crafting costs between users (especially at Low & Very Low odds). 30+ attempts at something which to the best of my knowledge has a model of about 1/10 odds of success is not cool or fun.

Sustainable pathways for Alchemy Exclusive items. I don't really care that much about pre-existing items as I understand that if they made those too easy it could wreak merry havoc with the economy, (though I wonder why on earth they made such absurd formulae in the first place), but I know that irreplaceable components are being used, or the flow of items in isn't sufficiently topping up the flow of items out (Night Jewels for Glittering Stockings anyone?).

I feel like there's more I want to say, but I can't think of it at present, so I'll probably come back & edit this post or add another later on.

Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative...

I knew about the lack of information, that's why I am crafting Hermes Moon. So far the first one took three attempts and the second one took only one. Hopefully I will continue crafting more (depends on the supply of Hermes Moon in the market) and help you with this mystery.

[Hajime Wolf Demon]

chaos butterfly

Hajime Wolf Demon

Isn't gaia wonderful at responding to it's users?

True, well, sometimes they're good, but with alchemy not so much.

I just remembered another thing to add to the complaint list:

The lack of logic with past RIG formulas requiring 10 fails from the same rig. (Hello, diminishing returns, anyone?)

I know it doesn't make any sense what so ever.

T y l e n o l.

also has a point, why so many multiples of items.

I am going back to my original statement...I though alchemy was one of their attempts to "help" bring down all the inflation, so why are so many items needed, I can understand common items that you can buy from the shops or find in towns but items that you can only earn from rigs/random events/special grants? Seems kinda cruel to me.

[Sharacia]

I see quite a few interesting points being raised. Also updated my original post a little.

[Ysavvryl]

I'd have to go with the depletion of component items leading to potential extinction and the added cost of excessive failures at Low and Very Low fail rates. It's fine when the component items get continually regenerated at a good rate, such as items from the gift boxes. It's not fine when it's a RIG item that doesn't come out often enough to match the rate it's being consumed at. As for the excessive failures, it doesn't seem right when someone goes through their entire fortune to get one item when another person after the same item only pays a fraction of that cost.

Oh, and maybe the rarity of rare bugs, especially when a formula calls for a lot of them, but I don't know if that's as big of a complaint. But that's on my mind since I plan on using dozens of purple flies and I've only caught one in a year of using Towns.

[Zzyli]

Zzyli - Zzy as in Xylophone, Li as in leaf

Hmm... now that I'm not half-asleep & trying to frame a response, I'd probably like to add that creating backwings seems to have an unwarranted level of difficulty. As the wings are so hard to make, even if they actually turned each Sacred Key into some kind of Inizio Box where you could pick one quest of your own free will, backwings would still be exceptionally hard to make (possibly harder as there may be more demand for some of the components).

And it's not a huge issue, but whilst on the topic of backwings, I'd love to know why the finished product doesn't unlock all 5 possible poses. There's no extra artist time required to do this & I feel the added incentive to make the larger wings will actually result in more gold being taken out of the system via the Alchemy goldsink. Everyone's a winner!

Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative...

[Misfortuned Checkmate]

My biggest peeves with alchemy would have to be....

• The final wings not having all previous wings
• need of hard to get items..
• crafting rate problems.. @___@
• numbers of items needed in some formulas.
• Unequal cache drop rate
• Inizio formula being too scarce. emo

[Zero Tenshi]

Some formulas are ridiculously... well ridiculous.

I think the problem lies within the formulas recipes.
Ex: 5 Pale dolls to make a Pale Marionette?

Sacrificing EI's to craft something... better if the must common items are used instead of some other items that are valuable.

Gaia makes poor choices to come up a formula recipe.

I'm sort of concern with this new "update", alchemy can get worse for that matter.

[Yourlocalhobo]

As much as the system is flawed, it's really insulting how many of these complaint threads are being made.

Some of you may not like it, but you "experienced alchemists" complaining in your own forum about a feature which you have all spent a countless amount of time and gold on is a main reason why so many people aren't getting into alchemy.

You go through the whole process of leveling up and then all you do is complain about it instead of helping other people realize that even though there are many flaws, a great deal of fun can be had and a great deal of gold can be made through alchemy.

People always seem to find the bad points in everything and you're all no better :/
The developers who work for gaia put a lot of time and thought into this feature and are still constantly trying to make it as good as it can be for YOU, and all you do is criticize them and put them down.

I have no problem with a constructive criticism thread giving ideas of how to improve (maybe post one in the site feedback) but a complaint and bitching thread is no way to go about getting your thoughts put into action.

If a thread like this is made then the least that could be done is to make a second thread stating what you love about alchemy and thanking the developers for all the hard work they put into this feature for the very people who have nothing but complaints.

[White Spell]

Most of the alchemy exclusive items are single pose items... xd