Yeah, I agree that the change in themeing is unfortunate. Every change I have made since initially introducing the system has substantially increased the number of people who use it though. Clearly many people see multiple inputs, or recipes that require multiple steps, and just don’t bother. Even though this does mean alchemy turns more into a point-based system than a full on crafting one, that seems to suit the game better.

Fundamentally I want players to think “What consumables do I not care about?” and then “what alchemy produce do I want to make with them?”, and just having a point system largely sit in the middle seems to do the best job of making that process effective. It’s worth noting though that there are still a significant number of 2 item recipes, and a few three item ones. Meat pies in particular are still very popular.

I have already considered the fact that levitation potions turning into spells makes no sense though, especially now without catalysts. it’s not shown here but that actually is being addressed.