So there have obviously been changes made to alchemy, some may be good changes and some not so good.

The Alchemy tables scattered through out the world are... not necessarily a bad thing but I did find in previous elderscrolls, that searching for that hard to find master alchemy set was quite rewarding. It added a layer of complexity to the whole skill: not only is your skill level in alchemy important but the quality of your equipment is also a factor.

I get an incredible amount of satisfaction out of picking the various herbs throughout the world to make potions. Its a very involved aspect of the game as you must know what location or region of the province is home to a certain type of plant. I love plant life and am a gardener myself so it is a much loved aspect of this series for me.

The simplification of the plants themselves is somewhat disappointing. Picking mushrooms is a simple 1 click to harvest the group and there are left over mushrooms. Multiple flower plants like the deathbell are the same, etc etc. Oblivion had it right and its just too bad they changed it. The process of picking the individual flowers or seeds of plants was what made alchemy what it was.

Ive noticed that in traversing the province of skyrim the sides of the road are populated with a great number of the local plants, but as soon as you get off the road there is a lack of plants to harvest. Some areas are not like this, such as swamp areas, where plants are spread out realisticly, but regions where there are mountain flowers along the road for example are seemingly devoid once you venture off the road. It would be nice to see more scattered throughout the forests..

The one major thing that has gotten to me is the exclusion of potion effects, such as night eye, detect life, water walking and being able to name your potions. Some people may argue that such effects are useless, but thats only because they never used them. And since when is less better?

There are so many ingredients but the only useful potions to make are health, magica, stamina, and feather(strength? why the name change?) The poisons are very helpful obviously but thats really it. Being an alchemist doesnt hold the same feeling as the previous elderscrolls.

I dont know.... The people who are reading this, do you feel the same way? Do you Love how alchemy is presented in skyrim? Do you wish it was a bit different?

So apparently alchemy doesnt have alot of enthusiasts. I hope there are some modders out there that feel the same way I do...

THAT was the empty hole that I couldn't put my finger on, Nighteye! Ugh that was a wonderful spell, stupid magelight

I just wish the potion name would give an overview of all effects and let me choose whether it's a potion or poison myself, so I'd stop paralyzing myself whenver I quickly try to boost a skill from one of my Frankensteinian experiments to learn more ingredient effects (Ooh! Potion of Restore health! Better drink it! ... has "Paralyze", "Ravage Stamina" and "Fortify Speech" riders...)

Or, the number of times I've tried to make a "potion", but it decides that the "Damage Magicka Regen" effect outweighs the "Restore Health" and "Fortify Two-handed" benefits. Can I please poison my sword then fall on it?

Also, the "Fortify Enchanting" and "Fortify Smithing" effects will cheese your character.

I actually am fairly entertained by the alchemy system, partially because there are some effects that are actually difficult to find. It seemed like in oblivion whenever you wanted to make a certain potion you just went to a certain part of the map and there were thousands of them. Roaming potion ingredients like bugs, and harder to find ones like stumps, make this a bit more interest at least to collect them. It DOES bug me that there are mushrooms left over, It makes me feel like my character is super lazy. Maybe they're just no good, but I wish there were visual cues to indicate that.

Missing effects are a problem in general; I think the trouble with having some of those like detect life as an option is that those are expert level spells, or dragon shouts. Would be a bit odd if you could just pick them up in a forest somewhere. That doesn't mean they should have been excluded entirely, though.

It does feel like there are less potion ingredients in general in Skyrim.

I quite like the alchemy system in this game. Love to make paralysis+lingering damage health poisons!