I love this! I too want Minecraft to avoid the tired and overused fireball and frostbolt type fare. Alchemy is far subtler (which I consider a good thing) and leaves room for much intricacy. This suggestion really seems to fit in perfectly with the spirit of Minecraft.
I think that being an alchemist should be a difficult path to pursue. The materials needed for powerful recipes (enchantments, advanced transmutation) should be rare enough and/or dangerous enough to acquire that many players only ever dabble with the simplest of recipes (creating gunpowder and such). I would further suggest that in keeping with the idea of alchemy being an arcane art requiring esoteric knowledge, that an alchemy station be bound to and usable only by its creator.
I wouldn't worry about it being too complex. Notch once said on IRC that while he wants to keep the basic systems of the game simple and intuitive, he was all for having more complex advanced mechanics.
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I think that being an alchemist should be a difficult path to pursue. The materials needed for powerful recipes (enchantments, advanced transmutation) should be rare enough and/or dangerous enough to acquire that many players only ever dabble with the simplest of recipes (creating gunpowder and such). I would further suggest that in keeping with the idea of alchemy being an arcane art requiring esoteric knowledge, that an alchemy station be bound to and usable only by its creator.
I wouldn't worry about it being too complex. Notch once said on IRC that while he wants to keep the basic systems of the game simple and intuitive, he was all for having more complex advanced mechanics.
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