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Calling All Alchemists:

    • 694 posts
    July 27, 2015 3:38 PM EDT

    I'm working on stepping up my alchemy game in my new playthrough. I try to mix on the road and then sell what I don't need, but there are some ingredients I want to stockpile for specific potions. While dumping everything into a single container would probably discourage me from stockpiling too much, I'm also an organizational freak a little meticulous and like things to be orderly. The way I've organized ingredients in the past (into separate containers) is as follows: 

    • Flora-derived
    • Fauna-derived
    • Man/Mer/Beastfolk-derived (human flesh, bone meal, vamp dust, etc.)
    • Mythical creature-derived (spriggan sap, troll fat, various salt kinds, etc.)
    • Man/Mer/Beastfolk-made (Dwarven oil, moon sugar, salt pile-- I also put briar heart here; while it's technically flora, it's purpose is altered and "made" to be something different.)

    These simple categories let me find what I need pretty quickly without scrolling through a huge list. (Hate that.) But it made me wonder about the other ways people had organized their supplies... either by potions used most often, primary effect, color(?!), etc.. So I thought I'd poll our community here and see if/how y'all like to organize your stash.

    So lay it on me, fellow alchemists: do you organize your supplies? If so, what's your favorite way to do it?

    • 394 posts
    July 27, 2015 3:49 PM EDT

    I dump em all in a big box.  I guess I'm not as organised as you!

    • 700 posts
    July 27, 2015 3:51 PM EDT

    My god, that is some serious organization.  I'm sure that alone qualifies you to be diagnosed with something. Anyway, I...don't organize beyond what Skyrim does for me.  If Skyrim had no auto-organization, then I would alphabetize.  I don't mind scrolling through a long list if I know where exactly is it that I want.  I generally know what ingredients make what potions too.  It's also just a pain to have all of my alchemy ingredients spread out.  Having them in one place just makes more sense to me.  They all go in one barrel or the nearest container to the alchemy booth.  

    • 694 posts
    July 27, 2015 3:59 PM EDT

    So I tried the one barrel approach first. Did not care for it. Too much scrolling for me. Plus I would find I would accidentally press "take all" out of habit (I blame burial urns), then have to put everything back. With it spread out, it's a relatively short list either way--putting in or taking out. 

    • 700 posts
    July 27, 2015 4:07 PM EDT

    Fair point about taking all on accident.  I've nearly crashed my games before by taking hundreds of items at once.  If I did organize my ingredients separately, I imagine they would be organized by the potion yielded.  Maybe one box for buffs, another for poison, and another for healing.  Hard to say.  If I get too spread out, I forget what is in what box and then I spend more time looking for the ingredients than I do mixing them.  

    • 694 posts
    July 27, 2015 4:24 PM EDT

    Which is exactly why I can't organize by potion yielded. Plus if you have drastically different potions that use a common ingredient THEN where does it go...? The system I devised seemed to make the most sense to me, and I never wonder where things are.

    Except ectoplasm. Because it comes from... ghosts? Which are (formerly) human? Or should they be mythical? I think I put them in human-derived. That's the only one I get tripped up on.

    • 237 posts
    July 27, 2015 7:11 PM EDT

    I organize them by putting them all in one box.  The game then sorts them all alphabetically for me.

    • 237 posts
    July 27, 2015 7:12 PM EDT

    Oh, sometimes I do separate the Hearthfire plantables from the others, though.

    • 45 posts
    July 27, 2015 7:43 PM EDT

    God, I have spent so much time organizing ingredients. My organizational system is pretty similar to yours, although I usually consolidate man/mer/beastfolk derived and man/mer/beastfolk-made.

    • 700 posts
    July 27, 2015 7:56 PM EDT

    Do you have most of the potion combinations remembered? 

    • 743 posts
    July 28, 2015 2:29 AM EDT

    *Waits for Vazgen to reply*

    • 113 posts
    July 28, 2015 5:24 AM EDT

    Nah, they belong in someone else's inventory. 

    • 288 posts
    July 28, 2015 5:35 AM EDT

    This topic needs more Vazgen

    • 268 posts
    July 28, 2015 7:07 AM EDT

    I got a fever... And the only prescription... Is more Vazgen!

    • 694 posts
    July 28, 2015 8:03 AM EDT
    Whew! I was beginning to think I had a problem. :)

    Fair point about condensing. "Made" is far and a way the shortest category. I just like to keep it separate because Dwarven oil man... I don't like even the shadow of the thought of it being "derived" rather than "made."

    I also played around with an animal/mineral/vegetable system, but didn't like it as well because are bone meal and vamp dust still animal...? Or are they at that point mineral? Ditto frost salts.
    • 694 posts
    July 28, 2015 8:12 AM EDT
    Fair enough. Once I built the Alchemy Tower in Hearthfire I knew there was no other way for me. You can stand facing your table and without moving access six different containers: two barrels (flora and fauna), three satchels (both derived categories and made), as well as a strongbox (which is where I put any enchanted alchemy gear).

    Bethesda saw me coming from a mile away. :D
  • July 28, 2015 8:32 AM EDT

    Wow you are organised, I love Alchemy, its just a skill to some but for me its definitely  a craft, I don't remember the last play through where I didnt use it, but as far as organisation goes its more organised chaos for me lol 

    • 694 posts
    July 28, 2015 9:04 AM EDT
    Gods no. I mean I remember a few primary and/or secondary effects of some ingredients, but once you start getting into tertiary and quaternary forget it. Once I figure out the best potions for a char though and brew them a couple times I can remember the ingredients. But that changes with each go 'round usually. I actually use a potion planning app which has saved me so much time and fiddling around. Maybe for a purist it's cheating but personally I love it.
    • 694 posts
    July 28, 2015 9:11 AM EDT
    I'm sort of of two minds about it-- I love having the potions at the end, and I don't mind gathering ingredients, but its the only crafting skill feels like a grind while leveling it. The system makes it somewhat less painful. I like to get in and out with alchemy as fast as possible and organizing it helps me with that.

    I just started Lozhar/ShinJin's Knights of Iron late Friday night and I'm hoping it will make me stop fighting alchemy so much.
    • 700 posts
    July 28, 2015 10:04 AM EDT

    There's an app??  What is the name of this app? 

    • 394 posts
    July 28, 2015 10:16 AM EDT

    Does anyone have a link to Dragon's Alchemy Guide?? I did a search but couldn't find it.

    • 694 posts
    July 28, 2015 10:41 AM EDT

    It's a third party app, but I find it really useful, especially when I want to create potions with multiple effects. It's simply called Alchemy in Skyrim by Alan Cave and it's on iPhone. I'm not sure about availability on Android. It was $1.99, but I'm forever getting iTunes gift cards somehow, so I didn't mind using my credits for it. There were free ones and ones with nicer looking interfaces, but this one had a five star average on 147 reviews, which was by far the most. Maybe there are better ones, but it suits my needs.

    • 694 posts
    July 28, 2015 11:02 AM EDT

    Haha, do you mean to say you give alchemy the boot? Or that you have your follower carry that stuff? I'm envisioning this RP:

    Dovahkiin: "Hey you, pick that plant. While you're at it, eat it and tell me what it does."

    Follower: *falls over dead*

    xD

    Really it's too bad there isn't a follower versed in alchemy that could tell you a property when you harvest something. That would be cool. 

    • 77 posts
    July 28, 2015 12:26 PM EDT
    @Idesto http://tamrielvault.com/group/glitches/forum/topics/dragon-s-alchemy-guide love this guide by the way, it was a huge help when I was researching the Chirurgeon. I usually organize by the type of potion/poison that I want to create i.e. fortify destruction in satchel 1, fortify conjuration in satchel 2, restore health in satchel 3 etc. The one snag is if you use the same ingredient in multiple potions like blue mountain flowers in potions of both restore health and fortify conjuration.
    • 394 posts
    July 28, 2015 12:53 PM EDT

    Thanks Vargr!