TESV: Skyrim powered by Creation Engine

By Robert Purchese Published 18 January, 2011

Bethesda's new invention dissected.

Besthesda has named the new engine underpinning The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It is known as the Creation Engine.

Let's tackle the graphics first.

"The big things for us were to draw a lot of stuff in the distance so we have a really sophisticated level of detail, more so than what we've had in the past for how things stream in and how detail gets added to them as they get closer to the camera," Skyrim's creative director Todd Howard told Game Informer.

Not only will landscapes look more convincing far away, but now shadows will be cast on "everything" to make scenery more believable up close.

The result? A mountainous Nordic landscape promising snow-touched rocky vistas, ice cold brooks, fierce green forests and clear, azure blue skies. There's even a clever snow engine that tries to realistically blanket objects with sporadic fluffy white downpours.

The foliage system used for Oblivion, SpeedTree, has been dumped. Bethesda's own tools mean artists can quickly build and animate any kind of tree they want. Trees in Skyrim even offer clues about the weather conditions; a leaning copse hints at a windy traverse ahead, for instance.

A big component of the Creation Engine is Radiant AI. This hopes to suspend further the illusion that Skyrim is a living, breathing world - with or without you there. In Oblivion, citizens had five or six daily commands to follow; in Skyrim the population is far more complex and goes about daily work such as jobs at mills, farms, mines and more. People gather raw materials, refine them and then deliver them to a bustling trade hub.

We've mentioned before that engaging an NPC in conversation in Skyrim no longer pauses the scene, but we now also know the camera angle will stay as you had it, and it be possible to pan around, observing the scene from afar while prattling merrily on.

AI will develop feelings towards your hero. A friend, for example, won't mind terribly if you barge into their house during the night - they may even offer you a bed. They'll also be more lenient should you sneeze and accidentally swipe your great bastard sword around their apothecary and smash all their stock.

None of that could be managed without the new Havok Behavior middleware tools.

"We looked at a bunch of [animation solutions], and this is about the tippy-top state-of-the-art stuff out there," said Howard. "I think we're the first real big game to use it."

In practice, Havok's snazzy toolset allows the developer to quickly make new animations and then test them out. With the laborious processes removed, the designers have more time to fine-tune their virtual people. The results encompass little touches like heroes struggling to get free of a spider web or other environmental hazards, as well as a more believable transition between walking, jogging and running.

More importantly, it means Bethesda can really nit-pick with combat animations, which in turn makes visual clues about when to swing and when to block easier to judge.

"We definitely have made a significant jump in how it plays [in third person perspective]," promises Howard.

A teaser for Skyrim.

Monsters, too, benefit from the Havok tools, adding another layer of realism to their dynamic, unscripted being. Dragons apparently look brilliant.

Bethesda won't say anything about mounts for the time being.

Radiant Story, as we've alluded to, plays the role of auto-pilot dungeon master and populates Bethesda's vast Skyrim world with interesting things to do. A randomiser considers your character's skills, location, history and present situation before spitting a side-quest at you. And these should, more often than not, cleverly direct you to new, unexplored areas of the world.

Howard offered an example: "Traditionally in an assassination quest, we would pick someone of interest and have you assassinate them. Now there is a template for an assassination mission and the game can conditionalise all the roles: where it happens, under what conditions does it take place, who wants someone assassinated and who they want assassinated.

"All this can be generated based on where the character is, who he's met. They can conditionalise that someone who you've done a quest for before wants someone assassinated, and the target could be someone with whom you've spent a lot of time before."

Moreover, friendships and grudges alike will be watched by the game as they have the potential to spawn quests of their own. And by doing a small favour you may unknowingly unlock a much more significant quest line. Your NPC friends may also accompany you on certain missions.

Even increasing skills can lead to quests: begin to master your one-handed sword skill and citizens may challenge you to a duel or ask for training. They may also beg for a display of your power. Peasants.

Bethesda, however, won't let the randomiser go bananas - you shouldn't ever feel overwhelmed in Skyrim at the amount of missions you have to complete.

But perhaps most important of all: it won't be too clever. There's still potential for "a wide variety of random encounters". Designer Bruce Nesmith talked of the possibility of running across a mammoth beset by a pack of wolves while en route to a quest.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (65) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • dudefella #1 1 year ago

    All sounds good, but I wonder if the random missions can be as rich and interesting as good scripted missions. The Dark Brotherhood quests from Oblivion were so fantastic precisely because of the scripted elements behind them.

  • LowEnergyCycle #2 1 year ago

    The one thing for me that totally shattered the illusion in Oblivion was the honky character animation and acting. Sounds like they're really taking that criticism on board this time around.

    I can't wait.

  • TonyCocaCola #3 1 year ago

    So there's mammoths and giant spiders in the game? Awesome.

  • StolenGlory #4 1 year ago

    Quasi-randomly generated quests make me a lil' nervous.

    :/
    Edited by StolenGlory at 18/01/11 @ 13:10

  • Murton #5 1 year ago

    But it still has level scaling so we'll likely still see two bit thugs and highwaymen with Daedric gear. Also is it confirmed that we have a specific skill for one handed swords? I was under the impression that despite negative feedback about removing/combining of skills in Oblivion that they had done it again this time and ditched a further 3 skills, if they've split blade into one handed and two handed then that means another skill has gone south, but all of the remaining skills in Oblivion are pretty essential so what's going on here?

    As for all of the cool new stuff new stuff that Skyrim will offer, it sounds very ambitious and should prove to be great if it all works. What worries me though is that Bethesda's games are notoriously unstable without all this procedurally generated content stuff in the background. I hope Bethesda have worked on their memory management and aim to release gold level code rather than beta because people are going to notice very early on if this suffers similar memory issues to Fallout 3, especially those of us who will be getting the PS3 version.

  • Augmentation #6 1 year ago

    Well, it looks like I won't be getting any sleep between November 11 and February. I might not even blink, actually.

    @dudefella - I think that the Dark Brotherhood missions sometimes were too scripted (the assassination in Bruma comes to mind). Especially after more than one playthrough. I think that a high level replayability will definitely make Skyrim a game I play again and again (although I dare say that would be the case anyway - I still play Oblivion, for example!).

    EDIT: RE: level scaling - it's been stated that the level scaling in Skyrim will be closer in scope to Fallout 3's system than Oblivion. Thankfully.
    Edited by Augmentation at 18/01/11 @ 12:54

  • Matfink #7 1 year ago

    Sounds like the AI is getting up to Ultima 6 levels!

  • BiscuitBase #8 1 year ago

    I think the idea is that there will be a balance between designer scripted & procedurally generated missions. The main storyline missions will no doubt be fully realised by a designer, leaving incidental missions to be generated.

  • AdamAsunder #9 1 year ago

    I am stupidly psyched for this. In game footage perlease.

  • geeza2020 #10 1 year ago

    I don't think I've wanted a game as much as this since, Oblivion probably. Cant wait! :D

  • StolenGlory #11 1 year ago

    "I think the idea is that there will be a balance between designer scripted & procedurally generated missions. The main storyline missions will no doubt be fully realised by a designer, leaving incidental missions to be generated."

    I hope you're right, since this potentially is the only issue I can find with what will surely be an immensely strong GOTY candidate.

  • glaeken #12 1 year ago

    @Murton The level scalling no longer works in the same way as Oblivion. They have already addressed this. It now works in the same way as Fallout 3 though I never even noticed level scalling in that. Anyway the upshot is you won't be coming across highwaymen with Daedric gear etc.

  • Deckard1 #13 1 year ago

    /stifles nerdgasm

  • Rack #14 1 year ago

    But is it mod friendly? Will modders be able to rescue the hash Bethesda inevitably makes of all this?

  • SeesThroughAll #15 1 year ago

    If the engine is truly capable of randomly generating convincing side-quests, we could be looking at virtually endless replay value! :)

  • OneClassyBloke #16 1 year ago

    But now I wonder, if you were to save that mammoth, would the game engine enable it to become friendly with the player? While I wouldn't expect it to become a companion, if it could still live in the wild and recognise you, that would be incredible.

    You know, something like this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbwoALO53...

  • Batfink #17 1 year ago

    The need for voice recording will foil any attempt at truly random quests. I expect to be underwhelmed by that feature. Also - the only released screenshot shows some lovely art direction, but two buildings with NO WINDOWS. Again :(

  • Porcupine_I #18 1 year ago

    @Matfink: exactly what i was thinking :-D

  • Sonic_D #19 1 year ago

    No level scaling or a better implementation of level scaling is probably the most important change for me.

  • Lalaland #20 1 year ago

    "The last Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion, still looks pretty good."

    What!?! Oblivion looked awful when it first came out. I had to replace all of the landscape textures so they wouldn't look like an early 90s FPS after 5 feet and had to do all sorts of odd .ini editing to stop objects vanishing after I walked across the courtyard.And the animations were abominable, really let's not get carried away. Oblivion was far and away better than other console RPGs but for a PC RPG it was along way away from ruling the roost graphically.

  • Widge #21 1 year ago

    You said the Radiant AI was going to do all this in OBLIVION

  • edhe #22 1 year ago

    Sounds like... fable.

    ?

    Sounds awesome.

  • Shinetop #23 1 year ago

    I love how everybody went "They're making their own engine? Guaranteed fail" only a week or two ago, and now everyone is blown away.

  • Murton #24 1 year ago

    I'm not sure whether or not to believe the statement on level scaling as it claims there was level scaling in Fallout 3, which there technically wasn't. Enemies didn't scale in Fallout 3, the environment did. At higher levels you had a higher chance of randomly encountering higher level enemies that didn't spawn at at lower levels. Wander the wastes at level 2 and you won't see a super mutant outside of areas where they're scripted to be, but regardless of whether you're level 2 or level 20 a super mutant was a super mutant. Enemy scaling however, which Oblivion had and Skyrim was reported to have in the previous interview alters the actual enemy level to better match that of the player, so at best there's some confusion as to how Skyrim will work. But if Todd Howard wasn't confused and did mean to say enemy level scaling, then we will be seeing legendary thugs on occasion, and that's a bad thing.

  • tripitaka #25 1 year ago

    I'd forgotten how shonky the jump animation was in Oblivion.

  • NewbieZilla #26 1 year ago

    Ever since the first Fable, there has been people talking about it in comparison to The Elder Scrolls. Molyneux was going for a Morrowind beater with the first Fable. All the Fable games are a poverty stricken, infected wasteland's Elder Scrolls.

  • beatwolf #27 1 year ago

    bla bla.. none of the commentors now shit.. waste of time. stop it.

  • darleysam #28 1 year ago

    Sounds brilliant. What I want, really really want, is the ability to hide from people. I hate when I'm walking through tall, dense grass or woodland areas in Oblivion, and suddenly I'm assailed by a bandit who's somehow spotted me from a mile away, at night, and is able to track me despite how much distance and how many obstructions I put between us. I'm hoping that's the kind of thing that "they won't be too smart" alludes to.

  • dwalker109 #29 1 year ago

    Never played any Elder Scrolls at all, and I can even remember the first one coming out. I am really looking forward to this though, the details above sold it to me.

  • glottis0 #30 1 year ago

    I totally said that they'd come up with some silly name for their tech to shut all the journalists up. Regardless, these few new details are interesting - the addition of havok behaviour is a great call - animation was high on my wish-list of things to fix from Oblivion/Fallout.

    Basically I don't think I could be any more excited!!

  • Darren #31 1 year ago

    Sounds promising but I'll reserve full judgement until I've had a chance to see the game running for myself. I seem to recall big claims being made about Oblivion, particularly in regards to how its NPC reacted, and as we all know they were somewhat neutered for the final release. That said, Oblivion was still awesome even with all its flaws so I have high hopes that Skyrim will be even better, although I'm curious as to whether the six year old console technology is actually holding Bethesda back from doing the game they really want to do.

  • Deckard1 #32 1 year ago

    If its playable in 3rd person this time I'll be a happy camper

  • bobiroka #33 1 year ago

    So long as they sort out the dodgy walking/running/jumping animation in 3rd person I'll be a happy camper. Not that I ever played Oblivion in 3rd person mind :S

  • NewbieZilla #34 1 year ago

    I don't think I'd play Skyrim in third person even if it is better than Oblivion.

  • metalangel #35 1 year ago

    This sounds great, I loved Oblivion and can't wait to play this.

    Can they hire some better character designers? I want beautiful character models like in Final Fantasy, not the lumpen faced goons of Oblivion or the identical looking gurners (complete with angry eyebrows if they were a villain) of Fallout.

  • Bradach #36 1 year ago

    That's all well and good but if I commit a crime and kill all of the witnesses will I still be immediately be arrested in the next town. That was a pain in the arse in oblivion

  • orangpelupa #37 1 year ago

    TES series always have "world" that amaze me. But i keep disliking the art design :(
    same with TESV from seeing the screenshot i dislike the art. But reading the article, again the "world" amaze me.

  • WinterSnowblind #38 1 year ago

    I was in the crowd who was incredibly disappointed with Oblivion, but so far this seems to be going in the right direction. Leveling/scaling system sounds better, story is already more appealing, we have a more interesting location and the areas themselves seem more detailed and unique as opposed to the pre-generated hills..

    Now they just need to hire better animators, more than two voice actors and get rid of that darned compass :)

  • dadrester #39 1 year ago

    I thought 'havok behaviour' was an AI driven animation solution, a bit like natural motion's euphoria. anyone?

  • Shinetop #40 1 year ago

    as opposed to the pre-generated hills..

    What made you think these hills aren't pre-generated?

  • Blackmoor #41 1 year ago

    When Peter Molyneux tries to talk game mechanics and features of some new game I usually go: "meh, whatever buddy..."
    But when Todd Howard opens his mouth you know it's gonna be good :).
    Kneel before Todd!

  • SeesThroughAll #42 1 year ago

    So long as they sort out the dodgy walking/running/jumping animation in 3rd person I'll be a happy camper. Not that I ever played Oblivion in 3rd person mind :S

    The problem with it was not the animation, but the "tank control" (in the console versions, of course). The controls should be swapped when we change to third person. Bethesda could allow the camera to be fixed unless moved with the right stick, and the left stick should be used to move the character in whatever direction is desired, always highlighting the closest object for interaction. Like a traditional third person control scheme. This would make me happy, and I think it would immediately enrich the experience.

  • gmmonkey #43 1 year ago

    Sounds good. If the 'levelling' is like fallout, I'am fine with that. However, if it's like oblivions that'll be annoying. I don't think that will be the case, as they wouldn't have changed it for fallout 3 if they still thought it was the way forward. Hopefully the new engine will be capable of linking indoors with outdoors. The loading screens for walking into someone's house is a bit annoying, though not a deal breaker. Also, I hope the engine has more 'verticallity'. Ever noticed you can't climb up ladders in fallout etc.? Apparently, because of the AI, it was difficult to implement (1).

    (1) http://www.oxm.co.uk/article.php?id=21684

  • Harmonica #44 1 year ago

    There wasn't much wrong with Oblivion but the leveled loot and enemies was the biggest flaw that let the side down. They sort-of fixed that in Fallout, so I have relatively high hopes. Dynamic quest generation sounds great, but I hope it doesn't degenerate into creating quests that are totally illogical and immersion breaking.

  • uknortherner2000 #45 1 year ago

    What I would love to see are... Clouds. Real, fluffy, swirling clouds brushing against the mountains, or swirling mists amongst the treetops.

    With the rapid increase in graphical quality over the last few years, why has nobody ever done this?

  • Mnia786 #46 1 year ago

    In-game footage please!!!
    I just hope they fix the load times between the countryside and towns/interiors.
    Screeshot no. 2 looks like the Niben Basin and reminds of good time :)

  • Matfink #47 1 year ago

    If only someone would mix the graphics of Skyrim + the combat & horse system of Mount & Blade + atmosphere of Daggerfall + stealth of Thief:TDP + buildings with windows + ability to climb anything... Not too much to ask is it?

  • PixelPirate #48 1 year ago

    Sounds great

    lots less bugs crashes and lock-ups with plenty of testing before you release it this time though please, or no sale. After Oblivion, Fallout and Fallout:NV all being buggy as hell, my good will has gone, regardless if this turns out to be a 10/10 game. I am not prepared to slog through another bug filled game, it isnt fun.
    Edited by PixelPirate at 18/01/11 @ 16:41

  • monkfishjoe #49 1 year ago

    the AI 'friendship' development sounds similar to what Lionhead have been promising us for years. It will be interesting to see how close they get to it and what impact that has on the game.

  • WinterSnowblind #50 1 year ago

    @Shinetop
    I'm sure some of the environments will still be pregenerated but the locations we've seen thus far don't look it. The town inside the mountain range with the waterfalls or the snowy mountain with loose rocks are already far more interesting and unique looking than anything in the whole of Oblivion.

  • immateriaux #51 1 year ago

    Sound fucking yummy.

  • Murton #52 1 year ago

    PIxelPirate - it's still Bethesda unfortunately, expect major bugs and memory leaks.

    Just noticed that Todd Howard is now creditted as "Creative Director" rather than exec producer, hopefully his replacement in the old role will take it a little more seriously and put things like build quality onto the list of priorities. The two games made during Howards time at the reins were shocking in terms of build quality, especially Fallout 3 which was barely beta at time of release or even now two years later.

  • oerhoert #53 1 year ago

    The screenshot looks just like Tomb Raider: Underworld.

  • man.the.king #54 1 year ago

    @StolenGlory

    "Quasi-randomly generated quests make me a lil' nervous. "

    Indeed. The thought that this kind of thing could lead to even more severe bugs and glitches than before cross your mind?

  • smurphs #55 1 year ago

    I was so hyped for this game. Then I played Demons Souls, and Now I can only think about From's next game for my fantasy fix.

  • hiddenranbir #56 1 year ago

    They can be as radiant as they want, they just better not be stuck discussing the same old talking point that just totally exposed the game's 'radiant living' as stuck in a time lock and not a real-time progressive environment. "Aah, the Oblivion Gates, invasion is imminent!"

    Meanwhile, I spent several in-game months doing nothing to trigger said world ending invasion. If all this created on the fly stuff is just stuck to small minor stuff that ultimately have no impact on the way the world is shaped in context of the 'greater story' then it is still a bit snore.

    If on the other hand the main story is also integrated into this radiance, then FINALLY, it may, just may have something over on Spaaaace Rangers 2. :p

  • IamTheElderScrolls #57 1 year ago

    I'm crying with happiness, I cant wait for this game I must have spent 500 hours on oblivion, Skyrim looks amazing, WOOP :)

  • immateriaux #58 1 year ago

    @hiddenranbir
    Just how many RPG games have you ever played where you get told "the King is about to be killed, go save him immediately" and you wander down the shops, buy that big sword+2 you hoped they would have in stock, decide to go back again and get that leather studded armour after all too, pick up some ingredients and then, just outside the castle, a knight tells you to stop playing, the game is over, the King is dead?

    Have some sense, it's a game, there's conventions that won't be broken no matter what tech is employed. The fact that you had the choice to ignore the main quest completely and just enjoy the environment was one of it's strongest RPG elements
    Edited by immateriaux at 18/01/11 @ 21:10

  • Lusterpurge #59 1 year ago

    I don't care about the useless stuff like quests or fighting or AI. I just want to know if they will finally let you bang the women in the game. That was the only thing that ruined the immersion in Oblivion. Or maybe it was that it reminded me too much of real life. Nevertheless, I just want to bang virtual Nords in this game.

  • hiddenranbir #60 1 year ago

    @immateriax

    No, we can't just sit down and accept it. The medium has changed and certain technologies which allow different story presentations make keeping certain conventions very damaging to that story telling experience and the sense of disbelief which it requires from it. You said it yourself, -ignore- the main story to enjoy exploring a sandbox world. Either pretend it doesn't exist or finish it asap to focus on the world functioning in its real time glory.

    Some conventions make sense given the way the game had to be built. In Darklands, graphics were difficult to do, so you had textual descriptions of a town and the writing was able to spur your imagination to make you believe you were in a populated city street. Now look at Dragon Age, it has the technology to -show- you a city street and what is the result, a static scenery set with about six people to populate the capital city. Something which ends up less believable and authentic than what Darklands managed to do. The expectation is still the same, I'm supposed to believe from both games I'm in an important city where the majority of people live. One succeeds, the other fails. It is like going from a book to a movie, you can't use habits that books depend on to get away with things on on a screen. It is a different kind of interaction between the content and its reader/viewer.

    In respect to waiting for some triggered boss element. This convention you're happily to just allow is something that can contradict the -content- of the story itself. In Mass Effect 1, the story was a thrilling science fiction thriller, it was a -chase- movie with you following the steps of Saren. The presentation was you always ended up "on step behind" him because you were playing catch up. Time was a very important element in the -story- but had no recognition from the game itself except for one small 60 second segment. For me, it was, why did time all of a sudden become important in -that- sequence when it was just as important in every other? I'd like some consistency.

    If I want to be made to accept that games are developing into powerful mediums of storytelling, they can't just allow certain conventions ruin that story telling. Bethesda's idea of radiance is to make a believable world, in that case, if a King dies, why should that make the game end? The world is supposed to be persistent, adaptive storytelling isn't anything new. And particularly in the case of a sandbox rpg where you are expected to explore and do whatever, how is it this world must still be tied down to a singular outcome?

    Now in regards to Space Rangers 2; even that didn't have it where you could 'lose' the main story (outside of death); but the way it presented the urgency of you needing to win it was that the enemies didn't hang around waiting for you, they take actions to make your life more difficult, you see them threaten the galaxy and the desperation of everyone that try to keep fighting back. It was a story fit for purpose (sandbox), so even though it was relatively simple, it felt sensible and authentic.


    Skyrim will be awesome, no doubt. I won't do it by ignoring the main quest; As I did with Oblivion and Fallout GOTY, I'll get them out of the way and then enjoy the true sand boxing experience. Wha tI hope though, is no stuck in time settlements. Like Kvatch from Oblivion. It just had to stayed ruined...forever... If they add dynamic changes to -stuff- as well as just an npc animating himself over a vegetable patch, I will wet myself.

  • Shinetop #61 1 year ago

    I'm sure some of the environments will still be pregenerated but the locations we've seen thus far don't look it. The town inside the mountain range with the waterfalls or the snowy mountain with loose rocks are already far more interesting and unique looking

    Yeah.. and you think those are procedurally generated? "interesting and unique" is not the opposite of "pregenerated". I'm thinking you just threw a buzzword in there without understanding exactly what it means.

  • peppergomez #62 1 year ago

    So it'll be released around November but not truly playable until say February of 2012, after a few direly-needed patches and some choice community mods. This is a Bethesda game, after all.

  • Raptaur #63 1 year ago

    The Radiant Story idea I though was explained quiet well.

    From my own guessing and what was said I’d see that the game is going to keep track of all (important?) NPCs in the game.
    This table could include things like, met player (true, false), number of times spoken to player, attitude towards player, number of quest complete by player.

    The random generator is then ‘randomly’ selecting of these templates.
    The template is then used (and assassination for this example) and populated from the table described above.
    The game with its assassination template looks at the players location, finds from the table an NPC the player has spoken to often or completed several quests for in that location. Finds a target that the player has had lots of conversations with and maybe a low deposition towards the player.
    Finally looks at the list of location in game and finds one that…. Location known to player = ‘false’ …and send the player there to do the deed.

    The real test is going to be how many templates they put in the Radiant Story module and the variety of templates.

    We really want someone working full time on this populating tons of templates in so we don’t feel like the same template is popping up again and again.
    Edited by Raptaur at 19/01/11 @ 18:08

  • hiddenranbir #64 1 year ago

    Yeah, nothing that Space Rangers 2 doesn't have. Of course in SR2 it feels more impressive because they all play an active part in the main story: galactic waaar!


    Ok, I'll stop with the SR2. :D

    Woo SKYRIM! YEAH!

    I better upgrade my PC before then.

  • ReonSarpati #65 1 year ago

    @redbarony

    You always had the option in Oblivion to 'roleplay' by not using fast travel or resting, not saving all the time so you really feared death etc.
    I would love to see an option to remove fast travel, radically reduce the ammount you can carry and require you to rest and eat. For me playing it this way would be much more enriching. Some would find it tedious agreed - if it was an option for those of us who wanted it though that would be really awesome for me. Making decisions about what food to carry, hunting along the way, how much water to carry when wilderness exploring etc would actually be fun I think.

    Do I use the Mortar & Pestal I carry with me to make potions and poisons in my camp, or do I carry the ingredients back home to use my full Alchemy set to make better stuff ? Maybe the outcome of my exploring will dictate these and more decisions.