Which schematics suck?

Which schematics (learned and found) are not worth bothering with and why?
Which ones would you change?
How would you change them?

Personally I think chemistry is a big waste of time. Charges are somewhat useful but these can be made from the potato and lemon schematic. Animal scent has to be the worst item in the game. Do you really need to avoid ailing wolves which die when you sneeze on them?

 

i've never been fond of items in any game that help you avoid encounters... since the point of the game is to lvl up, why would you avoid these chances for experience?

 

I usually stay away from Chemistry and I never use...uhm...that one on the end...Therapeutics! yeah that one. Never use it.

And the reward for best schematic I could never find goes to the Levered Machine Gun.

 

I think the levered machine gun is just another name for the mechanized gun. No schematic exists for a levered gun.

 

Chemistry is not entirely useless. Poison and charges are quite useful (lemons are easy to find, potato not so easy; plus when you're on a Tesla Gun shooting spree, there's no such thing as too many charges). Paralyzer and Anaesthesizer are not must haves, but can be made use of.

Schematics that suck... Mostly guns. Some of them aren't worth the parts they're made of.

Hushed revolver is easily among the most useless weapons in the game. If it at least retained the firing rate of the Fine Revolver...

Acid gun is obscenely useless. Slow, does less damage than the repeater rifle you make it from, and damages enemy armor, reducing its selling price.

The Pyrotechnic Gun must be either faster or more powerful. You make it out of the Long Range Pistol, and it's still weaker than the Charged Accelerator Gun you make out of the easily made Repeater Rifle? WTF?

High Velocity Pistol must do more serious damage, probably Electrical. It is, after all, supposed to be a cut down Charged Accelerator Gun, right?

Bronwyck's gun- for something so rare and 'spensive to make (a huge sheet of mithril and the gun chassi of which there's only three in the whole game), it sure is quite pathetic as far as it combat worth goes- short range, useless in real time due to slow projectiles, damage roughly equal to the Hand Cannon, spead is slower. On the other hand, if there weren't two Hand Cannons avaliable in the game, it COULD still have some value as "that gun you give to your follower but never use yourself". (On a related note, they sure have overdone the good gun avaliability. Two Hand Cannons, LGR, two Elephant Guns and a Mech Gun- and a follower who can make repeater rifles. Who the hell needs to learn Gunsmithy?)

Flame Thrower- not the most problematic one but still, either give it more range or more power. A point-blank weapon that is weaker than the Hand Cannon? Puh-lease. It's a flame thrower. It's supposed to be DEADLY.

Grenade Launcher- never got around to using it, but the stats are pathetic compared to the Elephant Gun you spend to make it.

All poisoned weapons (Bow, sword, axe, whatever) are useless. The fights just don't last long enough for poison to make a difference.

Traps from the Mechanical- WTF? No, seriously, WTF? I am yet to find a way to use them to any effect.

Clockwork decoy- another one from the WTF department.

Dwarven Gauntlets- worse than your off-the-shelf local blacksmith made gauntlets. And you can't sell them, too.

Smoke grenades- another worthy contender for the title of the Most Useless Item

 

Many of Herbal schematics suck. I need only the 1 and the last schematics

 

Keep the posts coming folks.

I'm working on re-tooling a lot of the tech system so all your comments will help me to decide what needs changed.
I may take out a bunch of chemistry and convert them to found schematics. The empty chemistry learned slots can they be filled with something more useful.

So far I have created a working clockwork physician, explosive decoy, illuminated decoy, clockwork mortician and machined armour with a strength boost that scales properly.

 

I only use a tech character 1 out of 10 times, but I'd go for Quincy's choice. Therapeutics. Or whatever, yeah, the last one.

 

smoke grenades were worthless, but i liked the rest of the home made explosives... for those schematics alone i've never played anything but a demolitions expert with master throwing...

 

I agree with rosen, smokes grenades were horrible (especially when you give them to an NPC), but the rest of explosives was some good shit.

I tried Therapeutics, but I found that as I continued constantly using its schematics and regular skills that I was dependant on them-- if I didn't have a potion chugged I felt powerless on the battlefield.

 

so therapeutics was the meth-lab of arcanum... interesting...

 

Yes, but its the only way to give Franklin Payne enough ST to actually use his Old Mary to good effect.

 

The repeater rifle. Sucks horses ass, I tell you. A fine revolver has the same speed, does more damage (I think), and uses one less bullet than the rifle.

 

After some further investigation I've found that the levered machine gun is a separate weapon from the mechanized gun. Art and a proto exist for it but there is no schematic.
It looks like a splurge gun (from Bugsy Malone) because of its wind up handle on the side. I think I'll make some stats and a schematic for it. I'll give it a high minimum strength requirement since you have to hold it and turn the handle at the same time.