== Quick Notes =====================================================================
=== Mini-FAQ
. 1. My game crashes while starting up.
+ Sounds like you're missing a master - Make sure you have the latest "COBL Main.esm" installed and activated.
. 2. I get a CTD when I use a formula and before the formula menu is opened.
+ Make sure you have OBSE v0014a (the .dll files should have a modified date of Feb. 12) and not OBSE v0014 (date of Jan. 18).

=== Beta
* While this is a Work In Progress, I will always make it backwards compatible, and you will never lose a Formula.
* This mod works and has been tested, but I haven't tried every possible recipe, place to make/use the formula, etc.
* The same goes for Pluggy (as of now) - it's had even more testing than this, but we still need people to play it for hours, on different machines, etc. to get it out of the Beta stage.
* If you notice anything that seems odd (can't open a formula, potion doesn't have the right strength, suddenly loses an effect, etc.) please drop by the [[#Discussion | Discussion thread]] or [[http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php | PM me (haama)]] and I'll try to fix it.

=== COBL
Alchemical Formulas actually does very little, while COBL does the major work. In particular, your formuals and the information required to use them are tied to COBL. So, **do not** de-activate COBL or make a clean save when upgrading - if you do, even for a single save, all of your formulas will become useless.

=== Scripted Effects
While everything has been designed to match the Alchemy menu output, scripted effects work a little differently - or, rather, they work the same as other effects . In Vanilla Oblivion, when you combine scripted effects you would only get one of the effects, and they didn't have to be the same scripted effect (i.e., mixing Rat Poison and a Poison Apple could either make a Rat Poison or a Deadly Poison). However, the Formulas treat scripted effects more like other effects - you will need 2 of each effect (i.e., 2 ingredients with Deadly Poison or Rat Poison) and you can have multiple scripted effects (i.e., both Deadly Poison ~~and~~ Rat Poison will be on the poison if you have the necessary ingredients).

==== A few pecularities
* The scripted effect changes won't happen until you open the Formula.
* Potions made in the Alchemy menu will still follow the Vanilla rules. So your first potion will have different scripted effects. After you make a potion from the Formula, the first potion will be updated to follow the new rules and match the potions made by the Formula.
* The hostility (whether you can use the potion as a poison) of the potion effect will be the same as the ingredient's effect.
* The only exception is the vanilla Deadly Poison (Poisoned Apple effect) which will always be hostile.
* There's no real way to check the hostility of the effect beforehand - you'll have to use trial and error!
* There really aren't any (useful) scripted effects in Vanilla Oblivion, so this only applies to modded ingredients.
* As I don't (and can't) know the other modder's original intent this may have unintended consequences or slight incompatibilities. [[#Discussion | Feedback's the only way to change this...]]
* The effects are determined by something you can't really see - there are scripts attached to each effect. These scripts determine the effect, and so you need 2 of each script to make the potion effect (for those itching to know, you only need 1 of each scriptless effect). Common sense would dictate that each effect has a unique name, but as we're spending 100s of hours on a video game to never see a profit, we modders aren't exactly full of "common sense"

== Using the mod ===================================================================
=== Example video
You can find a video "tutorial" on using this mod at the [[#LatestVersion | download sites above]]. It's very easy, so it's more of a trailer than a tutorial, but everything should be clear from the video.

=== Writing the Formula
An Alchemist's Quill will automatically be added to your inventory shortly after you start the game. You'll find it in the Apparatus section of your inventory. Use it as any other apparatus - it will start up your Alchemy menu as normal, you can add ingredients and brew potions as normal, etc.. When you create a potion a menu will pop up asking if you want to create a formula. Select "Yes" to create the Formula, "No" if you don't want a Formula but might like a formula for the next potion, and "No, and no more for this session" if you don't want to write any more Formulas (until you close the Alchemy menu and use the Alchemist's Quill again).

=== Notes on the Formula
You'll find your Formulas in the scroll section of your inventory. They will have the same name as the potion they create. For instance, if a Formula makes a potion called "Mages Bane" the Formula scroll will also be named " Mages Bane" (they have a space before the name so they'll all be at the top). They will also have the same effects and strength of your (last brewed) potion. They also have a price tag that can get pretty high - I can't do anything about it as of now, so ignore at will

The Formula bypasses the Alchemy menu, but essentially works as if you'd used the Alchemy menu. You still need a Mortar and Pestle to brew a potion as well as 1 of each ingredient to create each potion. The potion's effects, strength, price, etc. will match those created through the Alchemy menu.

==== Master or Single-Ingredient Potions - Nope
*Jedi mind trick* You don't need a formula for these *Jedi mind trick*

==== Skills above 100
There are several mods that allow you to bypass the Oblivion skill cap of 100. Details of how the 4 current options (see [[Skills above 100 (see below for more information) | above]]) determine the strength of your potions:
. 1. Legandary Mastery - Every few levels you'll be given more powerful equipment. These will allow to create very powerful potions just above 100, but is limited to 160.
. 2. Elys' Skill Uncapper - Your potions will follow the same formula as pre-100, as if the cap was removed Note that you need to use the Formulas to get the more powerful potions (your first, Alchemy-menu creaeted potion will always be limited to the cap).
. The following require Elys' Skill Uncapper, however they use a different formula for skill levels above 100 (in short, they can be much more powerful for most effects, are more affected by your equipment, and are based on Alchemy and Intelligence instead of Alchemy and Luck).
. 3. Nanite's Legandary Alchemy - Your Alchemy strength is automatically increased as your Alchemy and Intelligence level changes.
. 4. Grandmaster of Alchemy - Uses the same formulas as Nanite's, but also includes quests for more powerful equipment and other goodies.

=== Using the Formula
Click on a Formula to use it (you might note that they're enchanted scrolls - while not generally equippable I have ways around that *evil laugh*). A menu will pop up. This menu will let you choose how many potions to make. To help, there will be a list of the required ingredients, as well as how many you have, at the top of the menu. The options are a bit odd at first (especially if you're not looking at the menu), but is easy to figure out and the instructions are provided in the menu. Essentially you'll see a set of numbers and a "Brew xxx potion(s)" option. xxx is the number of potions you're set to create. To change it, select one of the numbers. Each time you select a number, the menu will come back up and xxx will change to the new number. The numbers are a limited range (essentially -10 to +10 from xxx), so you may have to select a number a couple of times to get the desired number of potions. When you have it set, select "Brew xxx potion(s)" to make the potions.

Again, everything has been set to match the vanilla Oblivion equations, so if you have an Alchemy skill of 5 and set it to brew 100 potions you'll get, let's say, 20 potions at skill level 5, 30 at 6, 35 at 7, and 15 at 8.

=== Lost and Found
If you've lost a Formula, you can easily get it back using COBL's Options menu.
. 1. Click on the COBL "+Options" item in your inventory. This will open a container.
. 2. Click on "RUE". This will open a menu.
. 3. Select "Lost and Found". This will open another container.
. 4. Take any Formulas you want from the container. Exit when you're done.

=== Known Oddities and Bugs
. 1. You won't be able to use static alchemy equipment with your Formulas (working on it). The strength of your potions is based on the equipment in your inventory ~~at the moment you open your formula~~ - so it should work with Bound Apparati type spells (most notably TTT's Legandary Mastery apparati).
. 2. The order of effects on the potion and scroll may change after your first use.
. 3. When you select a formula another scroll will seem to be selected. This is to prevent an accidental casting of the formula - placing the effects on yourself and losing it in the process. You don't need to worry about casting - it will be an empty, non-hostile scripted effect that won't do anything and you'll keep your formula.
. 4. You can't make a recipe for Master/Single-Ingredient Potions.
. 5. The formulas are actually stored with COBL. If you uninstall COBL, you will lose them. Upgrading is still fine. Just copy over the new "COBL Main.esm" file and continue playing - no need to make a clean save. And to hammer the point - **Don't make a clean save**.

Installation...

== Versions ===================================================================
=== 0.91 [5/12/2008]
* Can now handle scripted effects (make sure to update COBL and Pluggy).
* Fixed a bug caused by removing SI and using a SI formula afterwards.
* Can now use recipes while on horseback (really a COBL fix, but still...)
=== 0.9 [4/13/2008]
* Major reorganization of the mod - almost brand new!

== Credits
. Many, many thanks to Elys for her hard work making Pluggy - this made the mod much easier to do, and brought it back into the realm of possibility.
. Thanks to the OBSE team for making modder's life easier and slathering on the functions nice and thick
. Thanks to all on the forum who've helped along the way - it's been a year in the making so assume I mean everyone

No offense, but last time I used this mod it showed no signs of working properly. Whenever I used a catalyst it just took all the ''reactants'' and gave me nothing. After that the catalyst item category became unusable and also undisposable (till I got a mod that removed the apparent quest item tag). This happened with the scrolls as well I recall. If these problems have been fixed I'll probably download again because it was a nice mod; I do like the idea of modifying existing potions with the catalysts and recording recipes for convenience. The problem was that it simply didn't work for me. Btw, does all of this work with uncapped alchemy skills?

So, let me guess and add sad smiley faces - since I use OOO and Supreme Magicka, I won;t be able to use this because the vanilla potion strengths will be what show up instead of the ones that match the mods

i use the grandmaster of alchemy mod and i'm really happy this works with it. do the formulas use the better equipment that you can get tho? so would my potions made from a formula be more powerful when I have the most powerful equipment than when I have master equipment?

I wrote this on the PES download page but I think this is a more appropriate place for some comments about this mod.

First let me say that I really, really want this mod to work. The worst thing in the world is having to click the mouse 500 times in order to make the same potion over and over again. It takes away from playing time and causes pain to boot...

Anyway, I've installed the latest version (v9) - a clean install (I never used a previous version). I installed pluggy v56. I already have the latest COBL and OBSE installed.

I can create the recipes w/o any problem. A scroll icon appears in my GUI. However, if I click on the scroll I get an immediate CTD. Here are some other points to ponder:

1. This CTD is amazingly fast. A microsecond and I'm looking at Windows desktop. If I exit Oblivion normally, via the console (qqq) or via Streamline's exit, it usually takes several minutes, the computer often locks up an I get a message from MS asking me if I want to send an error report (yes I know I can turn this option off...).

2. The first time I created a recipe scroll, I got this weird message saying that the .esm file was outdated and I should exit Oblivion, uncheck the .esm file and check the .esp file (or something like those words - I haven't been able to repeat this error message). I exited Oblivion and looked at the mod loading (via WryeBash). Both the .esm and .esp were active. But just for kicks, I unchecked the .esm file and tried again but the game crashed again.

3. If I highlight the .esm file in WryeBash, the text off to the left side of the GUI says that the .esm is v6d. Maybe this a problem? I'm using the .esm file that came with the v9 download and, like I said before, I've never used a previous version of this mod.

It's quite possible that some other factor is causing the crashes (I do have a lot of other mods including many, many associated with FCOM) but it doesn't look like anyone else have given any feedback with respect to the new version so maybe there really is a problem with this .esm file?

You only needed that esm for when you were upgrading from v6b. It was to make sure no existing formulas are lost. So remove the esm and it should work correctly (may need a clean save again).

This new version is great, and I've had no trouble with it, but I was wondering if it is expected behaviour that you can 'cast' the formulas, i.e., if you click on a formula, then cancel out of it and hit the cast button, all the effects of the potion get cast on yourself? Nasty with some of the more potent poisons!

Also, with Expanded Spell Hotkeys I got the impression that choosing a spell from your inventory using an ESH hotkey doesn't clear the formula from your current casting position, though I could be wrong about that - I'll test it later (at work now).

@kyoma: Don't clean save (at least, don't save without COBL)! The process should be....

Yea that's kinda what I ment. Should have formulated it better.

No problem. I had to hammer the point across for anyone else - if you uninstall COBL, you lose the formulas.

Guess I'll try the basics - what Oblivion patch are you using (number and locale)? What type of CPU, Video card?

Other than that, if you're willing I can send you a debug version so I can figure out where it's crashing. Other mods shouldn't affect it at all, so all that's about all I can think of.

[another possibility] - Do you have the SoundCommands plugin installed?

Wait a minute, I'm making this too hard. (I've grown very used to oddball errors)

You don't even get to the menu after opening the recipe? Are you using OBSE v0014 (the OBSE .dll files will have a date of Jan. 18)? If so, upgrade to OBSE v0014a (file date Feb. 12) and that should take care of it.

[ahh, so nice to be able to think clearly as my allergies lift]

Good call. I could've sworn that 14a was installed but sure enough, the dates on the .dlls were from January. I installed the February ones and now everything works as it should. I look forward to testing the mod (there are so few truly "new/original" mods out there but this just might qualify).

Thanks for all the help!