AiCola: the potion refilling is not casualisation.
It is there to show you that you don't have infinite potions like on other games, where you can just spam them.
Potions would be less rare if you could craft unlimited amounts.

vemin: I agree that poitions should last longer AND Geralt should have some animations when using them. instant use of healing potion when you are jumping or evading monsters is strange.

Avalan: I think The Witcher 3 has curiously come back from that, but then overshot in the other direction. I'm really not sure why it couldn't just be, make the bombs, oils and potions in the amount that we want and then use them when we want to. I don't know. That just seemed really simple and effective. Let the player decide. For me an oil/potion should last for the duration of a fight and upgrades should make them more potent in effect and/or less toxic. Applying an oil mid fight seems wrong to me. I'm not sure why they use this system. I very much dislike it.

Shelledfade: Been playing on the hardest difficulty, so my own experience may vary with others.

Oils: I have a huge personal issue with this mechanic. Oil flask has unlimited usage? That's odd, and I'm not sure if it lasts for 20 hits or 20 swings, either way it seems like I have to apply the oil to the blade every 10 seconds and to do that you have to open the inventory during a fight which breaks the flow of combat. I contemplated this from a design decision point of view but it seems atrocious no matter which way I look at this mechanic. If it was a 5 minute duration it would actually be usable, but instead we have an unlimited oil flask that needs to be used every 10 seconds by opening the inventory during combat. I just don't even bother using this anymore even on the hardest difficulty due to the way this mechanic has been designed. It's just poor design.

Just to give you an example of how fast this oil runs out, on the hardest difficulty a single level 4 drowner takes around 6 or 7 hits to kill at level 4 geralt with a 130dps silver sword.

Potions: I dislike how you can only have up to 3 potions (swallow) in your inventory, but can be carrying 15 weapons. I mean if this is supposed to be so limited for the sake of being realistic, I find it to be annoying rather than immersive. If I have the alcohol I should be able to control how many potions I want to make when I meditate. It doesn't even make sense for the sake of balance either. In the hardest difficulty (not sure if that matters) it takes all 3 swallow potions to regeneration just 1 health bar from low health at level 4. That's too ridiculous especially compared to food. They need a buff and they need to allow us to make more than 3 of them.

I mean I guess you could use the 3 potions you have, stop and rest every 1 hour but ?-_-? that's tedious for the sake of being tedious. I contemplated this decision from a game-balance point of view and I conclude that if food does not have this limitation in combat (you can carry a lot of it and consume it instantly during combat) then I'm not exactly sure why this is so extremely limited for the potions. I find it annoying.

Hopefully someone makes a mod for oils and potions because these current in-game designs are atrocious.

TBreaker20: If we were able to carry 10 swallows at the same time, the game would be really easy.

Glocon: The Witcher 1 system was the best in my opinion.
- collecting all the ingredients and crafting each potion by yourself
- unlimited number of potions (as far as I know)
- intoxication prevents spamming
- there is an animation to drink a potion so you can drink it in presence of ennemies (no need to anticipate like Witcher 2) but you can't drink it instantaneously during a fight.

==> This mechanic were far more immersive, balanced and realistic IMO.

Glocon: Nope. Intoxication prevents that.
In Witcher 1 you could basically drink 3 potions without dying.

AiCola: as far as i remember the toxicity wore off, just like it does in the witcher 3.
So once your swallow has run out what will prevent you from using another one?
You should easily have endless swallow in the witcher 3, because the game is open world you will always be able to collect the ingredients.
I prefer the witcher 3 system in regards to that, but it needs some tweaking before it is good to go.

Avalan: Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, or looking back at the good and forgetting the bad, but the potion system in The Witcher 1 was actually perfect to me. It worked as you described and was just... it even fit into the sort of world, where the potions were toxic. So, for me, it wasn't even an arbitrary rule of "Ummm... no more than... 3 potions." or anything like that. Each had a toxicity and you, Geralt, had a tolerance (can't remember what they called it). And the player could increase that tolerance, so one could soon have 4 potions at the same time. A couple weaker, but still, four potions. Or two normal and one more powerful.

Sorry to go on, but I really like that system. That and the picking, creating and using as well. Perfect. IMHO.

AiCola: as far as i remember the toxicity wore off, just like it does in the witcher 3.
So once your swallow has run out what will prevent you from using another one?
You should easily have endless swallow in the witcher 3, because the game is open world you will always be able to collect the ingredients.
I prefer the witcher 3 system in regards to that, but it needs some tweaking before it is good to go.

Glocon: Again, you were not limited by ingredients but by your tolerance to toxicity. In order to reset toxicity you had to meditate.

rabidchoco: Am I the only one who uses some of those super-high toxicity, super-high duration mutagen decoctions!? That toxicity, iirc, doesn't start fading until the effect's over.

shoveling: Oils sound kinda weak.

Do bombs refill if you break combat and have more? I think I might prefer a bomb cooldown or recharge mechanic, over the current system of limited bomb numbers.