In Morrowind I could choose alchemy as a major and start out with 25 and see the first effect in every ingredient.

In Oblivon I could do this as well.

In Skyrim I could be (theoretically) 100 in Alchemy and not know any effect for any ingredient..

(why oh why did you do this Bethesda?)

I'm having a really hard time with this... I mean.. Why should I even bother with it.. It seems pointless and tedius at best.

I would prefer Morrowind's clunky interface to Skyrim's "system"

Your thoughts?

My thought: why should my character eat a giant's toe in order to know its effect? Or a spider's egg... It's gross. Or you could just RP Bear Grylls.

Eating the ingredient unlocks the first effect, regardless of your skill level. Personally, I enjoy alchemy, I like to make potions with more than one effect. If you find the thought of eating a spider's egg to be repugnant (& who doesn't), keep in mind that you're not REALLY eating anything, just like you're not REALLY killing anyone. It's all make believe.

Many ingredients commonly found next to each other have effects in common, such as tundra cotton and lavender, lavender and blue butterfly, monarch butterfly and blue mountain flower, mora tapanella and red mountain flower, thistle and purple mountain flower, etc.

You can also mix together whatever you find at random and see what happens. Generally thats the best way to do it, since it reveals any effects that would apply, and your character can fill in his knowledge through experimentation rather than going by taste, which only reveals the first effect, and is rather disgusting.

A Nord that dreams of Sovengarde would never want to learn the effects of Human Hearts and Human Flesh.

I did not bother with Alchemy in Skyrim until I played Destruction based Mages, and I mostly use Alchemy as a means to get to level 35 to get the strongest itineration of a Follower possible. Most of My characters hoard Alchemical Items for the grinding at an Achemy Table. I look at Enchanting in the same way.

The counter-argument is that you couldn't previously unlock the second effect until you'd advanced the skill. Now you can find all the effects at any level, if you make the right combinations.

I find it preferable that a given combination of ingredients produces the same result always. In Oblivion,, the player's Alchemy level changed the results, which is unscientific, to say the least. And knowing an ingredient's effects without some experience of it (the ingredient) is unreasonable. I'm not sure that needs to be eating it, but you should have to use it in some way.

I agree on the point of advancing Alchemy by training alone, and not learning any effects that way. That's about the only part that needs fixing, and I'd do that by requiring the player to actually do some mixing before they can train, I think that should also happen with Smithing, and Enchanting.

Alchemy is my primary non-combat skill. I don't wear helmets, so I never get armor perks that require helmets, I don't like decapitations and dismemberments so I never get the higher level weapon perks which are all beyond the points where you have to enhance your dismemberment skills; this means I use a lot of health potions, because I often find myself in situations where my enemies hit harder than I do and have better armor. I never buy potions because I'm cheap and spend most of my money on Hearthfire homes. So alchemy it is. I don't mind eating one of every ingredient I collect to learn one effect, I'm a dragonborn, I can stomach anything. I find a good way to learn effects is to collect 20 or 30 of something, and then test it against every other ingredient in your inventory (to me that's not as tedious as killing 3 wolves every hundred yards when running to the next city). I always carry at least one Paralysis poison in case I run into some nasty surprise when I'm low on health potions. There's definitely room for improvement in Skyrim's system, but I've adapted to it because I like to play the game, and I insist upon playing it my way.

I don't see why you would know any ingredient effects without testing them. It doesn't make much sense that you would know something like that right off the bat.

The real issue that I have is that I have never made an alchemist. It isn't necessary for a warrior, mage, or thief, the ingredient collection process is very tedious, and, unlike enchanting, it takes far, far too long to level up.

Correct. A true Nord dines only on the hearts of mer.

...Which seriously should be an alchemical ingredient.

i don't believe that every single one of my characters should have to be Alchemist, smithy, enchanter.. Why don't the smithy's offer actual weapon construction for a fee? Why people like Farengar (sp) not potion making and enchanting for a fee?

I also don't think that raising these skills should raise my level..

And I rt hate spiders with a purple passion.. Hell will freeze over before I let one of my characters eat one of their disgusting eggs!

They really need to implement this for the next game.

I agree, especially that idiot at the College of Winterhold. "Enchanting is one of the few services that tie us to the people of blah blah blah" "Great! Can you enchant something for me?" "No get out of my face."

But I like Skyrim's experiment-and-unlock mechanic better than the other 2 games. I just wish there were more useful or interesting effects available. Side-effect of getting rid of attributes is alchemy becomes pretty blah. And levelled stock potions means it's basically unnecessary.

Its pretty cool getting mods involved where you can check your weapon in with Eorlund to have it sharpened or order up a set of steel plate for your housecarl from a skilled smith. Hopefully something like that makes it into the next game, since it really adds to RP when playing my favourite character-type (That is, eccentric mage lord) that would put out special orders for equipment for various people in his employ.

I prefer skyrims alcemy honestly. Its way more fun mixing things togheter and making new discoveries myself rather than having the game do it for me.

I also find it very usefull for non magic chars that needs potions to compensate for the lack of utility spells.