What I am seeing here is people trying to get out of questing. You know, I'm not much of a quest oriented player either. I like enchanting, rping, and being a recall junkie. I always have. Questing is just a ends that I reach when I indulge in my favorite 4D hobby of all, mapping. There isn't a maze I can't crack, and a zone I can't map, no matter how badly structured it is.
Crafting cannot, and I repeat cannot become this brand new pathway that people can take instead of using their noggin' once in a while. You're trying to make it "worthy" of producing good eq by...questing? I don't get it. Just friggin quest. 4D has a billion and one zones, and quests to match. And then trying to follow up with "give them shops" to make tokens from players...
So let me get this straight. A player spends 3 weeks in Midlands, gets everything done honky dory and then is expected to pay you tokens for an item you spent far less time in making? Crafting in no way is going to ever equal time for time, minute for minute what players spend when they quest. Never. No way around it. There is zero reason why a crafter should be able to do LESS work than a quester, and be expected to come out practically on top.
4D is a quest mud. Don't like it? Get over it. yeah they're hard. some of them even harder. But if I had to do it, so should you. And I am far from the best quester. I am no Jason. I am no Exodus. I am a Tocharaeh who gets by on what he can. You can too.
Crafting should be made purely for alterations, and slight enhancements. However, I am willing to meet you have way. I think that crafters should be able to make an "ultimate creation". These ultimate items are very rare, and it requires the person to reach such a point where they are completely in touch with their muse, and can bring to the world a highly unique item. So there would be a possibility of the following event to occure: ( know you guys love these)
Muse places a guardian long sword in the fire.
Muse places a couple bricks of steel alloy in the fire.
Muse stokes the fires.
Muse presses down on the billows, to feed the fire.
The tang of the guardian longsword glows a bright red.
Muse presses down on the billows to feed the fire.
The cubes of alloy glow a bright red.
Muse carefully removes the guardian longsword from the fire.
Muse begins to refold the steel tang.
Muse cools down the tang in the bucket of water.
Muse places the guardian longsword back in the fire.
Muse presses down on the billows.
The guardian longsword begins to glow a bright red.
Muse removes the guardian longsword from the fire.
Muse places the sword on the anvil.
Muse removed the steely alloy from the fire.
Muse places the alloy on the the anvil.
Muse through a series of careful folding, melds the tang with the new alloy.
Muse is working really hard.
Muse continues to hammer down on the guardian longsword.
Muse looks as if he has a new idea.
Possibility A)Muse changes his mind.
This could happen now and then through the process, and ultimately end with him reforging the guardian longsword based upon choices within the crafting system
Possibility B)]Muse feels a strong inner instinct pour from his soul.
This would lead into the making of a brand new item, that would be special and akin to quest gear.
What is the catch? There can only be one such item in existence at any point in time. Or maybe two. Point is is that there is a limit, and until they maxload is back at 0, that person wont make any more of those because that person has given every ounce of creative instinct that they had.
That's it on my crafting rant. I'm sticking to my earlier post on how I think the systems should work. This post is just to elaborate on the earlier one further.
OH, and I'd say only let them make one gem slot. Two is just way too close to the qeq. People will think "Who needs three if I have two already. I'm fine with two.". Yeah, no. We need to keep these systems as far away from questing as possible so that questing does not lose it's life.