The latest update for Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness announces an extended crafting system.
More information....
Brewing and Drying
We have extended the concepts of the brewing and drying systems based on your feedback, making them much more complex and exciting.
Brewing. We have introduced a heating device slot to the UI, which allows magical items (typically cauldrons) to be equipped. They allow you to regulate the heat of Brewing on a three-tiered scale (Low, Medium, High), opening tons of new options provided you have sufficient ability in the Brewing & Drying skill. While the maximum heat level (High) is rarely used (it usually overheats your mixture, spoiling your ingredients), some extremely rare recipes will succeed only on High heat. In the hands of very experienced alchemists, these recipes allow the creation of the most potent potions in Isilmerald.
Brewing equipment, with heating level set to Low
While Brewing is enabled only once a character has invested a minimum amount of points into the Brewing & Drying skill, characters with zero skill can still use the new "Infuse" feature. Infusions involve combining ingredients in the absence of heat, allowing their essences to blend together without any skillful manipulation. There are fewer options available to a character choosing to Infuse instead of Brew, and ordinary potions created in this way are typically much less potent than their brewed counterparts. However, some plants have traits which react poorly to heat; thus, you will find some unique recipes for powerful potions which require Infusion and strictly prohibit the use of any heat in their preparation.
In-game description of an ingredient
We are currently working on the concept of "additives," which allow you to add certain ingredients (typically powders) after the brewing process has started, in the same fashion that you might add salt or pepper to a soup. Since this is work-in-progress, we can't reveal many details about what additives might do; suffice it to say that they will add interesting complexity to Brewing.
Drying. Here we have also introduced a heating device slot, enabling magical items (typically candles and lanterns) to be equipped in the Drying process. Candles will always provide Low heat, while lanterns allow you to regulate the heating on a three-tiered scale in the same fashion you do it when Brewing. The second tier (Medium heat) will change the chemical makeup of your powders, resulting in some unexpected changes in the powders' effects. Just like with Brewing, the third tier (High heat) normally ruins your ingredients (turning them into ashes), so this heating level is only used by the most competent alchemists.
Candles are readily available as drying devices, but they do not let you regulate the heat level.
One additional note on Brewing and Drying: Always make sure to identify magical cauldrons, lanterns and candles before use (you don't want to imagine what a cursed, evil lantern or a candle enchanted with wild magic will do...) Keep this in mind before deciding to replace your good ol' ordinary candle with a shiny magical lantern that your Lore skill is too low to identify.
Lanterns allow you to set the heat level for each ingredient of the drying process.
Conclusion
With the crafting system more fully in place and the worst of the bugs fixed, we can continue polishing the complex primary quest we have been working on, and can also resume working on content development in general (including the implementation of Kickstarter stretch goals). Stay tuned for the next update. We have a lot in store for the next few months.
We wish you a warm and joyous Booreste!
